KTV chorus
In the KTV box, the neon lights shone with colorful spots, and singing and laughter mixed together. Lin Weixi sat on the leather sofa in the corner, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the velvet on the microphone cover. The coffee table was filled with fruit plates and beer bottles, and the atmosphere of the class reunion was in full swing.
"Let's sing a duet!" someone shouted, and a few drunken classmates started to cheer. Zhou Xu drunkenly approached the song request booth, his fingers swishing across the screen: "Wei Xi and Chen Wang, let's sing 'Dimples'!"
Lin Weixi's heart skipped a beat. In her peripheral vision, Chen Wang was lowering his head to adjust his cuffs. As the neon lights passed over his profile, his eyelashes cast fine shadows under his eyes. He was wearing a dark grey sweater today, with half of his white shirt collar showing through the collar. He looked even thinner than she remembered.
Chen Siyu had already stuffed the other microphone into Chen Wang's hand: "Don't just sit there, college bully!"
When the prelude sounded, Lin Weixi felt her palms sweating. She was very familiar with this song - after evening study in her senior year of high school, she always wore headphones and played it on repeat, imagining that one day she would sing a duet with him. But when that day really came, the lyrics seemed to be stuck in her throat, and she couldn't sing a single word.
"I...I'm not very good at singing this song." She whispered, her voice drowned out by the accompaniment.
Chen Wang took the phone, his fingertips carelessly brushing against the back of her hand. The warmth of that instant contact reminded her of his touch on her graduation day, when he helped her put on her bachelor's cap.
"I hear the raindrops falling on the green grass..." He began, his voice deeper than he remembered, yet surprisingly steady. As the light flickered, the outline of his face was silhouetted on the screen.
Lin Weixi tried hard to keep up with the rhythm, but she was out of tune during the chorus. Amidst the good-natured laughter of her classmates, her ears burned with embarrassment. At this time, Chen Wang naturally took over the singing, skillfully bringing her out of tune back on track.
When he sang "dimples and long eyelashes", he suddenly turned his head and glanced at her. At that moment, the colorful lights just passed over his cheek, and the familiar dimple on one side was looming. Lin Weixi's heart skipped a beat, and she almost sang the wrong lyrics again.
During the second verse, she finally relaxed a little. Chen Wang's harmony gently supported her voice, with the same patience he had used when he tutored her. For a moment, she imagined herself back in her senior year classroom, sunlight streaming through the window as he bent over to help her correct her physics homework.
During the interlude, Shen Siyu urged them to get closer. Chen Wang politely took a half step toward her, the cuff of his sweater brushing against her arm. They were so close that she could smell the faint scent of laundry detergent on him, the same scent she remembered.
During the last chorus, their voices miraculously matched. When the applause rang out, Lin Weixi hurriedly put down the microphone and pretended to get a drink. The cold beer can was condensed with water droplets, forming a sharp contrast with the temperature of her palm.
As the prelude to the next song began, Chen Wang had already handed the microphone to another student. He returned to his seat and continued discussing something with Zhou Xu, as if the chorus just now was just an ordinary interlude in the party.
Lin Weixi sipped her beer, her eyes following his figure inadvertently. He habitually tapped his knees with his fingertips when he spoke, a gesture exactly the same as in high school. When a girl came to toast him, he politely raised his teacup, keeping a proper distance.
It was already late at night when the party ended. The classmates said goodbye to each other and agreed to get together again next time. Lin Weixi put on her coat and saw Chen Wang standing at the end of the corridor, talking on the phone. The light outlined his thin back, and the white breath he exhaled as he spoke dissipated in the cold air.
She turned and walked towards the elevator. At the last moment before the metal door closed, she seemed to see him look back. But that glance was too brief, as fleeting as the fleeting lights in a KTV, disappearing into the night before she could confirm it.
In the taxi on the way home, she turned on her phone's recording device. The chorus she had secretly recorded echoed throughout the car. His voice was steady, hers trembling slightly. Just like their relationship: one was always calm, the other always flustered.
Outside the window, the city's neon lights flickered. She gently pressed the delete key, and the song abruptly stopped. Some moments are perhaps meant only to be preserved in that specific time and space, like the singing in a KTV box, which ends and then disperses.
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