Lin Xiao opened his eyes again and stared at the ground. The memories of the other timelines were still there, nagging at him like whispers in the back of his mind.
He wondered if Chen Manyao had felt something too when she saw him—some small echo of the bond they had shared in that other world. Or maybe she had just been startled to see him, someone she barely knew, sitting in her usual spot.
Lin Xiao picked at the grass absently, feeling the cool blades between his fingers. The quiet around him felt heavier now, more oppressive. His thoughts kept circling back to the same question: Why did everything feel so different, yet so much the same?
He had returned to the prime timeline, the real one, but there was a sense of dissonance, a feeling that he wasn't entirely grounded here. It was as if a part of him was still stuck in those other timelines, unable to fully let go.
He shook his head and took another bite of his food, trying to distract himself. Maybe it would just take time to adjust, to get used to being back in this timeline where things were supposed to be normal.
But deep down, Lin Xiao knew that "normal" was a relative term now. After everything he had experienced, nothing would ever truly feel normal again.
As the lunch break continued, Lin Xiao stayed under the tree, keeping to himself. No one else approached him, and that was fine with him. He needed the quiet, the space to think.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop wondering about Chen Manyao, about why she had walked away, and whether or not she had felt the same strange pull between the timelines.
One thing was clear, though: things were different now. And Lin Xiao wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
As the lunch break came to an end, Lin Xiao reluctantly stood up from his spot beneath the tree, brushing the crumbs of his lunch from his lap.
He gazed out at the school grounds for a moment longer, feeling an odd sense of detachment, like a stranger in a place that was once familiar.
The encounter with Chen Manyao lingered in his mind, a strange mix of confusion and curiosity. Her reaction had been unexpected, and the way she walked away without a word left him feeling unsettled.
With a sigh, he slung his bag over his shoulder and made his way back inside the school. The hallways were bustling with students, their voices blending into a low hum of chatter.
Lin Xiao weaved through the crowd, keeping his head down, trying to avoid any unnecessary interactions. He wasn't in the mood for small talk, not with the way his mind was spiraling between timelines and memories.
As he entered the classroom, he immediately noticed Chen Manyao sitting at her desk. She was hunched over her notebook, scribbling something with intense focus.
Lin Xiao couldn't help but glance in her direction, but just as quickly as his eyes landed on her, she looked up and met his gaze.
For a split second, their eyes locked, and Lin Xiao saw a flash of something in her expression—surprise, maybe? Confusion? He couldn't quite place it.
But then, just as quickly, Chen Manyao broke eye contact and turned her attention back to her notebook, as if nothing had happened.
It was so subtle, so quick, that anyone else might not have noticed, but Lin Xiao did. His heart gave a small, inexplicable lurch in his chest. What was that about? He wondered, trying to shake off the strange feeling that washed over him.
He walked to his seat, feeling her presence more than he liked to admit, and settled in as the teacher came in to start the lesson.
The class began, but Lin Xiao found it hard to focus. His mind kept wandering back to that brief moment of eye contact, the way Chen Manyao had looked at him and then looked away so quickly.
It wasn't just that, though. There was something off about the way she had been acting all day—ignoring him, avoiding him, and now this.
Every once in a while, Lin Xiao could feel her eyes on him, but the second he turned to check, she would immediately avert her gaze, pretending to be absorbed in her work.
The strangeness of it all gnawed at him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind, reminding himself that in this timeline, they were essentially strangers. There was no reason for her to act any differently.
Class dragged on, and Lin Xiao kept his head down, barely paying attention to the lessons.
His mind was elsewhere, bouncing between the odd interactions of the day and the strange sense of dissonance that had followed him ever since he had woken up in this "prime" timeline.
Everything was almost the same, but not quite. It was enough to make him feel like he was constantly teetering on the edge of some unseen precipice.
Finally, the last bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Lin Xiao gathered his things and was among the first to stand up.
He felt a sense of urgency to leave, to get out of the suffocating atmosphere of the classroom. He needed time to clear his head, to sort through his thoughts without the weight of so many eyes on him.
Without saying a word to anyone, Lin Xiao slung his bag over his shoulder and headed for the door. As he walked down the aisle between the desks, he couldn't help but feel Chen Manyao's gaze on him again.
This time, he didn't look back. He didn't want to make things even more awkward than they already were. Instead, he kept walking, his footsteps quickening as he made his way out of the classroom and down the hallway.
He stepped outside into the fresh air, breathing in deeply as if to cleanse himself of the strange tension that had been building all day. The sun was still high in the sky, casting long shadows across the school grounds.
Lin Xiao didn't linger—he made a beeline for the school gate, eager to get home and escape the odd sense of unease that had followed him throughout the day.
As he walked, he didn't notice the figure standing at the classroom window, watching him leave.
Chen Manyao stood there, her hands resting on the windowsill as she stared at Lin Xiao's retreating figure. Her brows were furrowed, and her lips pressed into a thin line.
She didn't understand why she kept feeling this way—why every time she looked at him, there was this nagging sensation in the back of her mind, like she had seen him somewhere before.
And then there were the dreams.
Every night for the past week, Lin Xiao had been there, in her dreams. Sometimes they were vague, flashes of unfamiliar places and strange events.
Other times, they were clearer—conversations, shared moments that felt too real to be just figments of her imagination.
But every morning when she woke up, the details would slip away, leaving only a lingering sense of familiarity, a sense that she should know him, even though she didn't.
She watched as Lin Xiao disappeared through the school gate, her heart pounding in her chest.
"Why does this guy keep coming to my dreams?" she whispered to herself, her voice barely audible. The words hung in the air, a quiet question that she didn't have an answer for.