chaps1&2
1679 Words
Unraveling Stars (******)
Chapter 1: The Rain and the First Encounter
The autumn downpour had turned the concrete roads outside Mingde High School into dark, reflective mirrors. Streetlights bled long streaks of amber across the wet asphalt, and the rhythmic sweep of windshield wipers did little to clear the blur of rain.
Inside the sleek black interior of the sports car, the silence was suffocating.
Lu Chen sat in the rear passenger seat, his eyes fixed on the rain-streaked window. Across from him, his three teammates—Xiao Bai, Zhou Yuan, and Lin Feng—sat motionless. On the dashboard, a tablet screen still displayed the defeat banner from earlier that evening: MATCH OVER – TEAM TITAN WINS.
For Team Eclipse, Mingde High School’s top esports squad, losing the regional qualifier was unthinkable. In the halls of Mingde, they weren't treated as ordinary students; they were idols, backed by sponsors, followed by fan pages, and expected to bring home every trophy. Tonight, that aura of invincibility had been shattered.
"We shouldn't have overextended in the third dragon contest," Xiao Bai muttered, pulling his varsity jacket tighter around his shoulders. "If I had pulled back—"
"It doesn't matter now," Lu Chen interrupted smoothly. His voice was quiet, cool, and completely lacking in warmth. "The mistake was tactical. We rewatch the footage tomorrow at six."
Before Xiao Bai could answer, the driver slammed his foot onto the brake pedal.
Screeech!
The car lurched violently forward. Tires skidded across the slick pavement, and the sharp glare of the headlights illuminated a lone figure stumbling right in front of the front bumper.
The front fender clipped a heavy canvas backpack, sending notebooks, loose papers, and stationery flying into the air before splashing onto the wet asphalt. The person tumbled onto her knees on the roadside.
Lu Chen pushed the car door open immediately and stepped out into the cold rain.
The girl was sitting on the wet pavement, gasping for air. Her hair was soaked, clinging to her forehead, and her thick wire-rimmed glasses hung askew on the bridge of her nose. In the bright white beam of the headlights, she looked small and terribly vulnerable, frantically reaching out to save her soaked school papers.
Lu Chen approached her, his umbrella held low, his long black coat casting a heavy shadow over her.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his tone flat, guarded, and analytical.
The girl—Yu Xin—froze. She looked up, pushing her glasses into place. Her wide, dark eyes reflected the glare of the car lights. She checked her hands and knees quickly; her uniform was drenched and dirty, but there was no blood, no torn skin, no serious injury.
"I'm... I'm so sorry!" Xin stammered, her voice shaking from the sudden shock. "I was looking down at my study notes, I wasn't paying attention to the signal—I'm fine, really! No harm done!"
Lu Chen looked down at her. He scanned her neat school uniform emblem—Class 2-B—and then looked at the sleek sports car behind him. Over the past two years, as Team Eclipse gained fame, he had seen every trick in the book. Girls had staged accidental meetings in hallways, dropped coffee at his feet, and faked injuries near the training grounds just to get his phone number or earn a glance.
Seeing that she was completely uninjured yet trembling under his gaze, Lu Chen’s expression hardened. He assumed this was just another calculated attempt by an overly eager student trying to extract a reaction—or a financial settlement—from a wealthy athlete.
"If you're not hurt, gather your belongings and get off the street," Lu Chen said coldly. "Walking into traffic with your eyes glued to paper is foolish."
Without extending a hand to help her up, he turned on his heel, climbed back into the warmth of the car, and closed the door. The car accelerated smoothly away, leaving Xin alone on the curb, clutching her ruined papers while the red taillights faded into the foggy night.
Chapter 2: The Unraveling Thread
A week passed. The memory of the cold boy in the rain faded into the background as Xin immersed herself in her academic responsibilities. Aside from her rigorous second-year coursework, she served as the secretary for the student administrative committee, which had been tasked with coordinating the upcoming inter-school cultural showcase.
It was 7:45 AM on a Tuesday morning, and the administrative tower was buzzing with activity.
"Yu Xin! The principal needs these roster printouts in the main auditorium before morning assembly!" the committee head called out, handing her a thick stack of blue folders. "That's five minutes from now!"
"On it!" Xin shouted back.
She clutched the heavy stack against her chest and sprinted down the third-floor corridor. Her white canvas shoes squeaked rhythmically against the polished marble floor.
"Wait! Hold the elevator!" she called out, seeing the metal doors of the central glass elevator begin to close.
A hand reached out from inside, triggering the door sensors. The doors slid back open.
Xin tumbled inside, her lungs burning as she adjusted her heavy glasses. "Thank you so much, I thought I was—"
Her voice trailed off.
Standing inside the elevator were the four members of Team Eclipse, clad in their signature black-and-silver varsity jackets. In the center stood Lu Chen, leaning casually against the chrome handrail, a single wireless earbud resting in his ear. Up close, he smelled faintly of peppermint and cedarwood.
Lu Chen’s eyes flicked over to her for a fraction of a second. There was no warmth of recognition in his dark gaze—only the same cool, unbothered indifference he had shown her in the rain. He looked back down at his phone without saying a word.
Right, Xin thought, stepping back into the corner and looking down at her shoes. He probably doesn't even remember my face.
Ding.
The elevator reached the ground floor. The doors glided open to reveal the main atrium, where hundreds of students were milling about near the glass entrance doors.
"We need to meet Coach Zhao at the tech wing before eight," Xiao Bai said, leading the way out of the car.
Xin waited politely for the team to exit before stepping out behind them, eager to reach the auditorium doors across the hall.
What she didn't realize was that as she squeezed past the narrow elevator threshold, a jagged metal latch near the bottom track snagged the delicate knitted border of her custom pleated school skirt.
As Xin hurried down the sunlit hallway, the thread caught.
Pull. Unravel. Separate.
With every fast step she took toward the middle of the crowded atrium, the side seam of her navy skirt unspooled like a pulled ribbon. Loop after loop unravelled rapidly, splitting the fabric higher and higher along her left hip. Xin was completely unaware, her focus locked entirely on the digital clock ticking above the double doors ahead.
Behind her, the four members of Team Eclipse walked at a leisurely pace.
"Wait a second..." Zhou Yuan stopped, staring ahead in disbelief. "Is her... is her skirt unspooling?"
Xiao Bai gasped softly. "Oh man, in five more steps, that seam is going to split completely!"
Lu Chen, who had been completely disengaged from his surroundings, raised his head. His eyes tracked the trailing red thread stretched across the marble floor.
In another ten feet, she would step directly under the bright morning sunlight streaming through the atrium glass, right in front of two hundred waiting students.
Without a moment's hesitation, Lu Chen’s relaxed posture vanished.
He dropped his leather gear bag onto the floor. In one fluid motion, he unzipped his heavy black-and-silver Team Eclipse varsity jacket, pulled it off his shoulders, and lunged forward with long, rapid strides.
Xin felt a sudden rush of cool air, followed immediately by the solid, warm weight of a jacket wrapped firmly around her hips.
"Hey—!" she gasped, startling violently as a tall shadow eclipsed her sight line.
Strong, precise hands gathered the thick leather sleeves of the jacket around her waist, looping them into a secure, tight double-knot over her left hip.
Xin spun around, her cheeks burning, ready to voice her shock..only to look straight into Lu Chen’s eyes.
He was standing inches away, his breath light against her forehead. Without his heavy varsity jacket, he wore only a fitted white uniform shirt. His long fingers rested briefly over the knot at her waist, ensuring it held, before he pulled his hands back smoothly.
"Your side seam unravelled," Lu Chen said, his voice low, steady, and devoid of drama. "Keep walking. Don't untie it until you get to the locker room."
Xin blinked, completely frozen. She looked down. The massive jacket reached almost to her knees, completely shielding her side from view. Snagged on the floor behind them was a long coil of red thread.
A deep, burning crimson flooded her face from her neck to her forehead.
"I... I..." she stammered, her fingers clutching the sleeves tied around her waist.
"Bring it back clean," Lu Chen added nonchalantly. He turned on his heel and walked back to his teammates without waiting for a reply.
Xiao Bai threw an arm around Lu Chen's neck, laughing loudly as they turned the corner toward the computer lab.
Xin stood alone in the middle of the sunlit atrium, her hand resting over the crisp, cool fabric of his jacket. It smelled of peppermint and fresh laundry. In that exact moment, watching his tall figure disappear down the hall, something inside her shifted permanently.
- Writer
