Beep… Beep…
The school bus honked in front of the house.
Hao grabbed his bag without breakfast and ran out. He jumped on the bus, found an empty seat near the window, and sat down.
The bus rolled slowly through the neighborhood, picking up kids one by one. Hao's eyes wandered outside. Everything felt both new and very old.
At the fifth stop, the bus stopped in front of a small house.A boy came running out.Hao's heart skipped — Weihao.
It had been almost twenty years since Hao last saw him… at least in his old life.Weihao got on the bus, saw Hao and smiled, then sat down next to him.
Weihao was always the smart one, good at sports, the kind of kid every parent liked. He could be rebellious but was never truly bad.Hao remembered how they met — a playground, a football, a simple question: "Do you want to play?"Since then they had been close, together with another friend, Kanghui.
"Oi, what are you staring at?" Weihao poked him. "Where's Kanghui?"
"I don't know," Hao muttered.
"You look weird today."
"Am I?"
"Yeah. Weirder than me."
Hao just smiled faintly. Outside the window, the rain started to fall.Kanghui… it's been so long.
Boom. Thunder rolled. The sky went gray.
The bus arrived at school. Kids rushed out, heading for the hall.Hao and Weihao walked side by side.
Then someone bumped into them.
It was Kanghui.
"You guys know what class you're going to?" Kanghui asked, grinning.
Weihao said, "No need to guess mine. A or B, always."
"That's for sure," Hao added. "What about you?"
"They said the class list is on the board."
Hao's heart moved. In his memory, he and Kanghui would be in the same class this year.
"Let's go," Hao said.
He stared at Kanghui for a moment, the ache in his chest rising again.If not for what happened later… they could still be best friends.