Raise Love

Men were all roughnecks, especially a bunch of straight men from the science and engineering majors. They couldn't tell the delicate and complicated little thoughts of girls. They just thought that she had simply gone to the bathroom, so they continued to spin the bottle and play.

After about ten minutes, Aria still hadn't come back.

Ryder was biting the candy, tilted his head and took a look at the empty seat diagonally opposite. The private room was so lively that it was a bit noisy. The impatience and irritability in his heart were suddenly magnified a bit as time passed.

He pressed his eyebrows, dropped a sentence that he was going out to get some fresh air, and then got up and went out.

The door was closed tightly.

The noisy sound was instantly cut off.

Ryder crunched the candy in his mouth, took out his phone and looked at it. He leaned lazily against the wall, casually glancing in the direction of the bathroom.

The lighter in his fingertips was spinning around and around.

With a "click", the faint blue flame swayed in the dim environment.

He lowered his head and put the cigarette in his mouth.

The white mist blurred his sharp and handsome outline. The scarlet at his fingertips flickered on and off. He hung his head, half of his face was in the shadow, and he was lazily puffing out smoke.

He lowered his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.

**

As soon as Aria walked out of the door, she couldn't hold it back anymore.

Without having to control herself deliberately anymore, her eyes turned red all of a sudden.

She looked rather pitiful.

She sobbed once and then quickly swallowed the sound back, locked herself in the bathroom, squatted down against the wall, and hugged her knees helplessly.

The girl buried her pale little face in her knees, her shoulders were shaking from time to time, and occasionally an almost inaudible whimper leaked from her lips. Memories about Ryder kept replaying in her mind.

There was no story between them.

All of it was just her one-sided sadness.

She remembered the girl he was said to have a crush on in junior high school.

She remembered the girl who suddenly got closer to him in the second semester of senior two.

During the physical education classes when the two classes happened to coincide, his classmates in the experimental class were laughing and jeering. He was the monitor, and that girl was the deputy monitor.

Even their positions matched.

He didn't refute at all, just smiled casually, with his usual joking tone, suppressing a bit of a faint smile: "Enough."

That was the first time she had the thought of giving up.

Later, this thought failed repeatedly and kept popping up again and again. She had somehow gotten used to it, used to being sad, used to secretly crying while lying on the desk.

Sometimes she would even console herself—

Look, you're so sad because you like him.

But he doesn't know anything.

Thinking of those little things, Aria suddenly felt a bit self-abandoned.

What should I do?

When on earth did she start liking him so much...

Obviously, at the very beginning, it was just a hazy liking, just a little curiosity about him. It wasn't like this at all.

She had really tried hard.

Outside the bathroom, the man was leaning against the wall.

He tilted his head slightly upward. The cigarette in his fingertips was almost burned out. He was knocking his heel against the wall from time to time. The light, fragile whimpering sound...

It was very fine and uncontrollably reached his ears.

For some reason, the image of the little girl with red eyes and a red nose on the graduation day suddenly popped into his mind and appeared in front of him.

She looked so pitiful.

He had never seen a girl cry like that.

Every time Maya Brooks cried, she would be crying with snot and tears all over her face, wailing loudly and making people restless.

Unlike her, who would only choke back her sobs.

She also cried like this when he took her home back then.

Ryder didn't understand why he had come here either. He just felt a bit strange in his heart.

Before he knew it, he had walked here.

Crying like this just because of a stupid game.

How much did she like that unknown person who had good grades, a good looks, was gentle and gentlemanly, and had all kinds of advantages?

Damn it. There were so many nice words to describe that person.

Was there really such a person?

He lowered his head and took a look at the message he had sent to Maya Brooks.

[Ryder Kensington: Your little sister seems to be in a bad mood and has locked herself in the bathroom.]

The time was nine minutes ago.

But there was no reply.

He lowered his eyes and sneered softly, pressing his eyebrows with a bit of a headache.

What a troublesome little girl.

Inside the bathroom, after an unknown amount of time, Aria finally stood up from the ground, pressed her calves that were numb from squatting, covered her face, wiped away the tears, and walked to the washbasin to wash her face. Almost all of her makeup was gone.

She quietly looked at the girl with red eyes in the mirror. She looked even more embarrassed than when she climbed the sixth floor several times at noon.

...How spineless.

Aria felt extremely discouraged.

She took out a tissue from her bag to dry her face, took out her lipstick to color her pale lips into a peach-pink color, sighed, and slowly put it back in the bag.

Just when she was thinking about whether to go back or not, suddenly a voice came from behind her.

The voice wasn't loud.

It was low, very nice to listen to, with a faint smile.

Aria's heart skipped a sudden shock. Her hand subconsciously loosened, and her bag fell to the ground at once.

She turned around blankly.

Ryder was lazily leaning against the wall, didn't move. There was an aisle between them. He lowered his eyes to look at her, as if afraid that she couldn't hear clearly, and slowly repeated it again.

"Done crying?"

Aria: "..."

At this moment, her thoughts were flying.

The clearest one was actually—

Should she go to the forum and ask:

After crying loudly in the bathroom, when you go out to touch up your makeup and find that the person you have a crush on is leaning against the door smoking and casually asks you "Done crying?", what should you do?

Is there still a chance to save your image?

Ryder saw the constantly changing and even somewhat solemn and complicated expression on the girl's face after she saw him, and raised his eyebrows with interest.

Aria froze, her head hanging down tightly.

In an instant, she seemed to have lost all her energy, like a quail.

He just looked down at her for a few seconds, sighed softly, walked over, bent down to pick up the bag on the ground, stuffed the things that had fallen out back one by one, and handed it to her.

She felt cramped and uneasy.

He was so tall that when he stood in front of her, the shadow he cast almost covered her.

"Hmm?"

Ryder lowered his eyes and chuckled softly, saying faintly, "Don't want it?"

Aria closed her eyes, took a light breath, and finally raised her head. She took her bag stiffly but quickly, forced a smile: "Thank you."

Ryder clicked his tongue softly, remembered something and took another look at her, lowered his head to put out the cigarette and threw it into the trash can beside him, with a casual tone, "Crying like this just because of a game. How impressive."

Aria: "..."

She wanted to say that you don't understand.

But after being caught crying secretly in this embarrassing scene, that sad emotion had actually almost disappeared completely by now.

She never knew how to behave in front of him.

And yet, many times when she was in rather undignified situations, she was encountered by him.

Aria was silent for a while. After her messy emotions calmed down, she finally regained her calm and gentle appearance and asked him, "Why did you come out too?"

"It was a bit stuffy inside. I came out to have a cigarette." Ryder took a look in the direction of the bathroom and then looked at her.

"Oh."

Aria replied in a dull voice.

She just saw that he had put out the cigarette, and there was still more than half of it left.

Realizing belatedly that it was probably her appearance that had disturbed him, Aria pursed her lower lip slightly and said in a low voice, "Then you smoke. I'll go back first."