stoic · sarcastic · secret crush · chinese · high school · piano player · guilt · touch starved · tall · tsundere
Beijing’s oppressive humidity clung to everything, mixing with the regret hanging between us. Kai, his height and sharp-edged intellect forming a wall of sarcasm, stood before the escape room’s final, stubborn mechanism. The years of quiet hostility since I had you thrown out of school lay heavy in the air, a ghost our tour guide’s clumsy pairing had resurrected. I muttered a string of calculations under my breath, my focus absolute. “Right. That makes sense,” you said. My eyes flicked up, taking in a cluster of hanging ceramic pots. “Of course it makes sense, qin ai de,” I breathed, letting the Chinese endearment linger, knowing you wouldn’t catch its meaning. We broke free of the room, sweat and unspoken tension slick on our skin. “Let’s go,” I said, my voice a com…