The Unspeakable Secret

"I'm going down first, the teacher is calling us to assemble." Xia Mo paused for a moment, then broke the silence first, her footsteps slightly hurried.

"What was that guy's name?" After hesitating for a moment, Asuka asked in a low voice, so low that she could hardly hear herself.

Less than two minutes after the dismissal whistle blew, the assembly call rang out from the playground, short and powerful, like a fine needle piercing the quiet of the entire afternoon.

Xia Mo listened intently for a moment, then frowned slightly.

"I have to go," he said, his voice tinged with a hint of reluctance and urgency. "The teacher is going to take attendance."

He turned around, took a step forward, but then suddenly stopped, as if he was hesitating about something.

In the end, he didn't turn around, but simply raised his hand and waved gently behind him as a farewell.

The figure walked three or four steps to the other end of the corridor.

"etc--"

Xia Mo stopped. He turned his head, and the afternoon light slanted in from the window, falling directly on half of his face, illuminating his puzzled expression clearly.

Asuka didn't know why she shouted it out. The words were already out, and there was no taking them back. She only felt her ears starting to burn again, and her fingers unconsciously twisted together.

"That...that piece of music from earlier," her voice was so soft it was almost inaudible to herself, "what's its name?"

Xia Mo turned around. He looked at Fei Niao, a hint of surprise in his eyes, which slowly faded into a very faint smile.

"You want to know?"

Asuka nodded. She was actually very nervous, but she really wanted to know.

Those musical notes that had been lingering in her heart for so long, each one seemed to have a name, and she wanted to know what they were called when put together.

Summer was quiet for a moment, as if making a very, very small decision.

"I wrote it myself," he said, "'Secret'."

Secret.

Asuka paused for a moment. Her English wasn't very good, but she recognized the word.

secret.

She suddenly felt something gently poke the spot in her chest that had just started to heal; it felt a little sore and a little tight.

"If you don't want to tell me, then forget it." She lowered her head, her voice muffled.

Xia Mo was clearly not prepared for this reaction. He blinked and looked at her with a puzzled expression: "I didn't mean to refuse."

"You already said it's called Secret, so you're just saying you don't want to tell me, aren't you?" Asuka looked up, her face showing a hint of offended seriousness. "Why didn't you just say you didn't want to tell me? Why use this kind of..."

"Wait, wait, wait—" Xia Mo interrupted her, raising one hand high as if asking to speak in class.

His expression changed from confusion to a mixture of amusement and exasperation, and the corners of his mouth widened as he genuinely burst into laughter.

"Saito-kun," he took a breath and spoke slowly and clearly, word by word, "that piece of music, its name is 'Secret.' Secret. The literal meaning of 'secret' in Chinese. I'm not playing riddles with you, nor am I hiding anything from you—the piece I wrote is called 'Secret.'"

The bird opened its beak, then closed it again.

Her face turned red from her ears all the way down to her neck.

"Oh," she said finally.

The corridor was silent for two seconds.

The bugle call to assemble sounded again in the distance, this time for the third time.

Xia Mo looked at her, seemingly wanting to say something more, but in the end just smiled gently.

The smile was very light, as if afraid of disturbing something—just like the first note he played when he played "Secret".

"I really have to go now," he said. "Next time... if you'd like to hear it again, I'll play the whole thing for you. Besides the piano, I actually know a little bit about the cello and stuff too..."

After saying that, he turned around and didn't look back this time.

His footsteps quickly disappeared around the corner at the end of the corridor, drowned out by the noise of the crowd surging into the stairwell.

Feiniao stood there, holding the basketball, the heat still lingering on his face.

She looked down at her dirty white sneakers and suddenly remembered what he had just said—"The song I wrote is called 'Secret'."

secret.

She read it aloud, very softly, so softly that only she could hear it.

The sounds from the playground, the footsteps in the corridors, and the intermittent whistles of the PE teacher all seemed distant, as if separated by a layer of something.

Only those two words fell to the ground, blending quietly with the afternoon sunlight.

The bird raised its head, and the corridor was empty again.

But she knew that there was a person, a piano, and a piece of music called "Secret," which, on this ordinary Tuesday afternoon, became a little secret that belonged only to her, a secret that could not be told.

Will I be able to make a friend this time, even just one?

Saito Asuka thought to herself wistfully...

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By the third time the assembly call had sounded, the entire playground was already lined up in a crooked queue. The PE teacher stood at the front, holding the attendance list, his brow furrowed.

As Xia Mo ran out of the side door of the teaching building, she happened to run into that stern gaze.

"Hey you over there! You're half a minute late! Everyone else is here and we're just waiting for you!" The PE teacher's voice wasn't loud, but the suppressed dissatisfaction was more unpleasant than if he had yelled it out.

Some people in the group chuckled, and a few boys shoved each other and looked in his direction, their eyes carrying that familiar, amused look.

Xia Mo paused for a moment, then jogged back to the group, bent down, and said in a low but clear voice, "I'm sorry, teacher, I won't do it again next time."

The PE teacher glanced at him, said nothing more, and drew some symbol on the attendance sheet.

Xia Mo stood at the very back of the line, her chest heaving slightly.

The afternoon sun shone on the rubber track, releasing a hot, rubbery smell. His heart was still pounding, not from running too fast, but from what had happened in the past half hour—the piano, the stairwell, and that very special girl.

The group started walking back.

In twos and threes, they filed into the teaching building through the iron gate beside the playground. Xia Mo walked at the very back, head down, watching the heels of the students in front of her rise and fall.

As he went up the stairs, he peeked down through the gap in the stairwell.

Then he saw Saito Asuka.

She walked in another line, joining her classmates as they entered the corridor from the other side of the stairwell. The crowd was dense, but Xia Mo spotted her immediately—

Because she was walking at the very back of everyone, about two steps behind the person in front of her, like a small boat tossed about by the waves.

The bird probably sensed that gaze and looked up.

With so many people in the corridor, the sounds of footsteps, voices, and bodies bumping into each other created a buzzing noise.

But the moment their eyes met, the sounds suddenly receded into the distance, as if someone had gently turned the volume knob down a little.

Xia Mo looked at her.

He didn't speak, because they were too far apart, and because there were people all around. He just winked at her, once, very lightly and quickly, like a decorative note on a piano that would be easily missed if you weren't listening carefully.

Then his lips moved.

He did it slowly, one word at a time, lip-syncing as wide as possible to make sure she could understand.

Next Tuesday, SERECT

After he finished speaking, he seemed a little embarrassed. He quickly turned his face away, pretending to look at the back of the classmate in front of him, quickened his pace, and soon blended into the crowd.

The bird stood there, stunned for two seconds.

As classmates walked past her, someone accidentally bumped her shoulder without turning around to apologize. But she didn't mind. She quickly rewound the scene she had just witnessed in her mind, slowing it down and piecing it together word by word.

Next Tuesday, in secret.

Her lips twitched, but she didn't actually smile. However, something in her eyes lit up, like the afternoon sun falling on the water, fragmented yet incredibly warm.

She lowered her head, hugged her hands, and quickened her pace to catch up with the group.

At the end of the corridor, the door to Class 1, Grade 3, was open.

When Xia Mo walked in, the classroom was noisy, and no one noticed the very faint, yet undeniable, curve at the corner of his mouth.

He sat down, took out the textbook for the next class from his bag, and unconsciously tapped the table a few times with his fingers—the first three notes of "Secret".

At the other end of the corridor, Feiniao returned to her seat. The leaves of the old beech tree outside the window rustled in the wind. She stared at the green leaves for a while, then took a pencil from her pencil case and wrote a line in the blank space of her textbook.

Tuesday is a secret that can't be told.

She stared at those words for a long time, then gently, very gently, closed the textbook.