Yoyo watched him smile like a poisonous apple, inviting the audience to take a sinful bite. As enigmatic as he seemed to their young and easily impressed minds, one thing was sure: Xu Jinli was someone who had a lot of stories to tell, but unfortunately, not many cared to listen. Human nature was greedy, and so far, all of his suitors were only interested in possessing a beautiful object, without stopping to understand him fully.

And perhaps, that was why Xu Jinli never blushed when hearing the most absurd of compliments, taking everything as a joke.

"Ugh..." with a crestfallen sigh, Yoyo peeled her eyes from their radiant teacher, thinking they didn't deserve him anyway. However, as her eyes moved towards the door of the studio, her heart skipped a beat as a sense of dread washed over her entire being.

From who knew when, a tall man blocked the entrance, staring at Xu Jinli like he was looking at a ghost.

"Oh no..." Trembling in her little leather shoes, Yoyo struggled to remain calm as excitement pushed her to hug the nearest student. "You..." she mumbled. "Go and call Teacher Shen. No, wait... go and call the police! Call the police, god damn it!"

"What?! What's wrong?!" The girl whose arm Yoyo was painfully squeezing asked back, completely terrified by her reaction. "What's wrong with you?!"

"There! That man!" Her finger pointed towards the door as Yoyo's voice turned an octave higher, alerting the nearby students.

"Well, he's handsome, alright, but since when is that a crime worthy of calling the police?!" Her friend turned from scared to confused, raising a hand to touch Yoyo's quivering head. "Are you okay?!"

"That's not the point, ah..."

She didn't know how to explain it.

That was Young Master Li! Li Zhen, in flesh and bones...

...Probably coming to the surface of the earth to drag Xu Jinli back to hell, ah! 

But not many knew about the history they shared so many years ago, and Yoyo herself only knew thanks to her, ahem... slightly improper means... but that was a story for another time, nee~

So now, she was feeling truly desperate, both wanting to warn someone and not knowing how! In the end, an avalanche of words travelled all the way to her throat only to get stuck there like a fishbone, making Yoyo's face flush beet red as she started wheezing in panic. However, her chaotic performance still ended up having the desired effect, as Xu Jinli also turned towards the door.

And with that, he froze in place. 

For a moment, no other words were said.

“...Teacher Xu?” Yoyo finally recovered, caution evident in her voice. But Xu Jinli continued to look like a static character in a badly written book, the type who was blissfully unaware of the surrounding world. And then, he smiled...

...The kind of tight-lipped, oh-so-polished smile you'd give to someone you once knew far too intimately.

Lifting one slender leg, he walked towards Li Zhen like it was nothing. Like that wasn't the first time they'd seen each other in five years. 

“Ah Zhen,” he said smoothly. “So the prodigal son finally came back...”

Maybe out of reflex, Li Zhen bowed slightly in front of him as his grave voice let out the words: "Senior Xu. I didn’t expect to find you here."

Wait... What?! Yoyo's brain rebooted. How come this is not going as I expected?!

Where is the promised angst, the drama, and the sweet tears?! 

Watching the two men who were lovingly (at least according to her eyes, anyway) staring at each other, while warm sunlight painted their intertwined shadows in a golden halo, Yoyo felt it looked less and less like a scene from a Greek tragedy and more like...

An idol romance drama?!

How come she even heard accompanying background music coming from outside the corridor, sounding like angels blessing their reunion?!

The hell?! 

Completely unaware of his student's distress, Xu Jinli continued to study the man in front of him, commenting after a while: "You look older. But I guess, we both do now."

"Indeed. You changed, Senior." Li Zhen also gave his verdict.

"What do you mean? Do I look like someone's forgotten grandma now?" Xu Jinli asked while tilting his head, feigning a hurt expression on his face.

"No. Just... quieter." 

Hearing Li Zhen's words, a brief trace of surprise flashed in Xu Jinli's dark eyes. However, no one knew if it was genuine or just another one of his pretenses.

In fact, when Li Zhen first entered the classroom, he barely recognised him. The man was indeed beautiful, but there was a strange disconnect in all of his movements, like part role, part stranger, and part... the person he once knew.

The tilt of his shoulders is wrong. A little too sloped... Li Zhen first noticed as soon as realization hit him. 

Back in university, he used to carry himself like a phoenix strutting through fire, with his neck high and chin arrogant... Like the world only existed to give him contrast...

Little by little, more and more details entered his eyes, as irritating as big grains of sand. Xu Jinli's neck was too curved, his head a bit too lowered. The make-up at the corners of his eyes was too smudged, a stark contrast from the sharp lines he proudly paraded before. Even the smell of his pheromones was duller than before, like incense left out to burn for too long. 

If he were to put a name on it, the current Xu Jinli looked like a work of art forgotten in some museum. Beautiful, radiant even, but dimmer.

Sadder.

Like a marble statue covered in dust, begging someone, anyone really, to come and wipe it clean. 

As soon as that thought sprouted in his mind, Li Zhen's entire body twitched in pain, just like he was getting gutted. He didn't know why, but watching Xu Jinli now bothered him immensely, bringing forward a terrible wave of confusion.

But when those deep, dark eyes stared back at him, memories he thought were long forgotten came crashing down like a landslide.

"Puppies, go reflect on your lack of rhythm," Xu Jinli sent the children away early, with a dramatic flick of his wrist.

"Class dismissed."

..............

The last time they saw each other was during Li Zhen's graduation exhibition. Despite the fact that Xu Jinli graduated years before, they still somehow kept in contact for a while, even when he became a famous actor. But on that day, Xu Jinli forgot about everything... About his career, about the hoards of paparazzi that followed his every move, even about the upcoming scandal that would become the final nail in the coffin of his reputation. All just to appear there on that day, for one last time.

But the exhibition hall was too bright, too crowded, and smelled of freshly mixed plaster and stale pheromones. The centerpiece was Li Zhen's final project, a towering installation that resembled countless bleeding hearts, standing untouched in the center of the room like a wound no one dared look at directly.

And then Xu Jinli entered...

...In full mourning attire. 

A black silk cheongsam clung to him like a second skin, with a veil across his face and elbow-length gloves dyed the color of funeral ink. Dressed like that, he stood in the back as silent as a shadow, only clapping briefly at the end. However, it looked less like praise and more like he was applauding a eulogy.

“Congratulations,” he had said, his lips curling upward while his eyes stayed glassy and dark. “It’s rare to see love buried alive in such a pretty coffin.”

His words lodged somewhere behind Li Zhen’s sternum and never left, especially since they hadn’t spoken since.

Back then, Xu Jinli had been visibly disappointed in him. For what, exactly, Li Zhen hadn’t understood. For choosing someone else? For pretending that nothing between them had ever been something? For not defending Xu Jinli when people whispered that his talent was not good enough?

Or perhaps it was simply because Li Zhen didn’t reply to his last message. A three-sentence text that read like a final plea:

“Tell me you'll remain the same. 

Tell me he’s not worth it. 

Tell me you’ll come back.”

But he never answered. 

And behind Xu Jinli, what remained was a single white flower left on the plinth of his sculpture, pinned with a note that simply read: “Traitor.”