The boy saved her father.
She doesn't remember his last name or anything else, but she only remembers him planting a hand on her shoulder, squeezing to provide comfort, causing the young girl to look up at him. His eyes were dark brown and filled with raging and melancholic battles, but sparkled a glimmer of hope when a smile plastered across his face.
"Hey, little girl. You have a heart of a warrior. You're so brave that you want to protect me too now?" He tells her and crouches down, looking up at her with fondness, and strokes her hair. "I'm three years older than you and you're so small that you need to protect yourself first and grow up. Then you can protect me, don't you think so?"
"Then, I will grow up and when I'm twenty-two, I promise I will not leave your side."
"Promises are dangerous," he lets out a chuckle, draping a scarf around her neck.
"That's because promises are something special between two souls."
The boy smiles a tight but warm smile.
"My life has been quite frankly chaotic the minute our paths collided. First, it was at the basketball. Who knew we had to meet each other again in a car accident?"
"Can't you come over for Christmas break or New Year?"
"I'm afraid I can't," he says in a soft voice, feeling hot droplets of tears escape his eyes, and lets out a chuckle as the brunette reaches out to dry his tears. "I have someone to visit on Christmas. It's busy back home the days following New Year."
Xing grasps his arms and pushes him into a hug.
She just holds him tight. "I will protect you, too, Yichen," she whispers brokenly.
"Don't call my name like that. It sounds heartbreaking," he says, drawing back, wiping away the girls' tears with his sweater's sleeves. "You deserve to be happy and safe. And smile more, it looks gorgeous on you."
"You accidentally hurt me but this time you saved me. Why can't you just stay?"
"I can't. I have someone to visit tomorrow."
Tomorrow is Christmas.
— fall for me, chapter one
