Once the drama on stage ends, the high school life of these senior 3s will end with it. Students are bustling under the stage, looking forward to the incoming future in college and waxing nostalgic about all the great memories they had for each other during the past 4 years. Although without a lot of loyal audiences, the boy and the girl on stage are still acting seriously.

“Would you like to be my girlfriend?” The boy’s voice trembles, selling his nervousness out.

“YES!!!” The girl replies immediately with a voice an octave higher. Then, the two hug each other tightly.

Yes, they are playing a couple, but none of the audience knows that despite the show being fake, the love is real.

She stares at him and strokes his face gently. There is glitter glowing in her eyes, shimmering with expectation and a bit of shyness. Only she knows how long she has been waiting for this moment. 

“Would you like to be my boyfriend?” Before this semester started, she once asked him the same question that he just asked her but didn’t get the same answer.

“Umm… I’m sorry… I mean, maybe we should wait until the end of our application. You know, there’s gonna be so much that we need to work on… So… I’ll reply to you after that… Is that OK?” A blush mounted his cheek but fleeted fast. He pulled his reason back with great effort and replied as soft as possible, trying not to upset her.

“All right~ All right I’ll wait for ya~” 

“Because I know you love me~” She said in her heart. “Your transient blush can’t escape my eyes!”

“I know you love me.” On stage, her eyes are telling him that. She does not need to ask the “would you like to be my boyfriend” question again. The answer goes without saying when she feels his shaking hand that gently hugs her waist with great care — their love is about to begin officially.

However, the boy doesn’t even dare to meet her eager eyes, because he knows he is about to leave, and there is only a full stop waiting for their relationship. A few days ago, he was informed that his father has just gone bankrupt. Then, he just watched people coming to empty his house little by little until the house was not even his — his father sold off everything their family once owned. And his future in college? It would never come. Soon he will move out of the town and also her life. 

“How? How could I be with her after all these messes? How could I be responsible for our future when I don’t even have a future of my own? God, please… Please tell me…” He closes his eyes dolefully, asking the god humbly.

He knows soberly that the track of their future would probably not intersect anymore, and his unspoken "yes" can only be kept as a secret in his heart. But no matter how hard his reason tries to tell him that he should think of a soft way to turn her down without breaking her heart, at this moment — she is so close to him, forehead against forehead, breaths intertwining — he only wants the time to be frozen.

“Or just let time pass slower, slow enough that the show will never end. Only at this moment, only on the stage, could I ask you to be my girlfriend through the mouth of the character and hold you fair and square…”

It’s bustling under the stage, but quiet on stage, or between the loving two. The boy enjoys the show to the last second with all his strength, shouting out his love silently through his arms that are holding her so tight.

Fake show, real love, one is expecting the beginning, while another is planning for the end. Love is nipped in bud at the moment when it was about to blossom with infinite regret… Fortunately, they have seen the best of love.