Waiting For You To "Look At Me"

Shu Yao has always loved Bai Qi.



Silently. Secretly. With the kind of devotion that doesn’t ask to be returned.



But Bai Qi has never looked his way—not like that. His eyes have always been on Shu Yao’s younger sister, Qing Yue. Bright, soft-spoken, radiant in the ways Shu Yao was told boys should never be.



So Shu Yao stays quiet.

He smiles when he must.

He bleeds where no one can see.



When a high fever forces him to break his routine and drop his mask, everything begins to shift. Bai Qi offers help—clumsy, well-meaning, but blind to the damage it causes. Shu Yao, too used to locking his doors and swallowing his ache, can’t bring himself to let it in. Not when every kindness feels like pity. Not when his dreams are haunted by things he can’t say aloud.