School

For a brief moment, the classroom filled with the melody of a short harmonic chime, followed by the scraping of chairs and the rustling of papers.

“All right, time’s up. Please put your pens down and hand in your exam papers…”

The teacher’s voice was calm and monotonous.

After a moment, he added without looking up: “…that includes you as well, Lin Yi-yun.”

Nervously, Yi-yun scribbled down one last thing before letting her pen fall with a sigh.

Slowly, she shuffled up to the teacher’s desk, among the last to hand in her paper, before returning to her seat and packing her schoolbag.

“That bad?” her seatmate asked, a teasing note in her voice.

Yi-yun’s mouth twisted downward and she let out an annoyed groan.

“What am I supposed to do, Ya-ting (雅婷)? Math is completely killing me. And it used to be one of my best subjects back in elementary school…”

“Junior high is a whole different level,” Ya-ting replied. “Studying a bit in the evening just isn’t enough anymore…”

There was a faintly reproachful tone in her words.

“How am I even supposed to find time to study,” she added, “when I always have to stay late because of my club rehearsals?”

Ya-ting frowned as they walked down the hallway.

“And why did you pick the Culture and Traditional Arts Club out of all the clubs…” she muttered.

Yi-yun let out another frustrated sigh.

“I thought they’d actually do tea stuff,” she said. “But it’s barely part of it. It’s mostly theater rehearsals and calligraphy and stuff…”

Ya-ting shot her a sideways glance.

“Right,” she said. “Wasn’t your family kinda famous for tea?”

Yi-yun nodded as they stepped outside.

“Yeah,” she said. “And now that school’s over, I can finally stay with my grandma for the summer. She said she’d tell me more about it.”

Ya-ting raised her eyebrows.

“Wait… you’re really going to stay with your grandma for the whole summer break?”

Yi-yun frowned.

“What do you mean?”

Ya-ting shrugged.

“I don’t know. Everyone finally has time now. The others wanted to go to the arcade, or to the cinema or something. Just hanging around, you know.”

Yi-yun hesitated.

“But I promised my grandma,” she said at last. “I told her I’d come…”

Her friend shrugged again as they passed through the large gate of Chang-li Junior High.

“Up to you. I just wouldn’t want people to think I’m weird or something if I keep staying away all the time.”

She waved her good bye.

“Anyway, if you do have time after all, just call me at home. You have the number! Bài-bài!”

“Bài-bài…” Yi-yun replied barely audibly, while Ya-ting was already heading off in the other direction.

She continued walking home slowly along the street.

The first night market stalls were just beginning to prepare and soon the air was filled with the smell of soy sauce, stinky tofu and five-spice powder.

It was familiar, a part of Taipei, and a sense of home.

At the same time, it stood in clear contrast to Pinglin: the cooler air there, the tea fields, the clean scent of the place where her grandmother lived.

Yi-yun had only come to know that place a year ago, and yet she already missed it.

She had visited Shu-fen since then, on weekends, during holidays.

But there was never enough time to really talk, like they had last summer.

And her story always had to wait.

The summer heat had her sweating by the time she reached a nearby 24-Eleven.

Moments later, she stood in front of the fogged-up refrigerator, wondering what she should buy with the remaining twenty dollars of her allowance.

“Hm… milk tea? No, maybe iced tea…”

“You’re really going to get that one?”

Yi-yun spun around.

“Chen Zhi-hao (陳志豪)…,” she said, more startled than pleased.

He stood a few steps behind her, his hands casually stuffed into the pockets of his shorts, his school shirt half unbuttoned, his hair damp as if he had just come from practice.

“I mean...” he added quickly, “the green one’s kinda gross.”

“It’s none of your business what I drink.”

He blinked.

“Wow,” he said after a second. “Tough day?”

She grabbed the bottle and shut the refrigerator door a little harder than necessary.

“Find someone else to bother,” she snapped. “I’m not in the mood.”

“I wasn’t trying to bother you”, he said more quietly.

She froze for a fraction of a second, then walked toward the register.

“Math exam?” he asked.

She stopped.

“…How do you know?”

“Everyone was talking about it. And after tests you always look like... that.”

“Like what?”

“Like… uhm, kinda mad I guess.”

He shifted his weight, uncomfortable under her gaze.

“Nevermind,” he muttered.

At the register, she paid quickly, her fingers trembling slightly as she shoved the bottle into her bag.

When she passed him on the way out, he spoke again.

“Hey,” he said, not teasing this time. “If you want… I’m not terrible at math.”

She stopped.

“You?”

“People are usually wrong about me,” he said lightly. “Just saying.”

She huffed, pushed the door open and stepped outside.

“Such an idiot…” she muttered.

But her heart was beating a little faster than before.

Even back in elementary school, he had been one of the most popular boys, not just because he was good at sports.

Yi-yun had never known what to make of him.

Loud-mouthed. Reckless. Always with a comment for everything.

Yi-yun hesitated.

Somehow, that didn’t seem to be the whole picture anymore.

When she got home, she kicked her shoes off in the hallway and tossed her schoolbag into a corner.

“I’m home,” she called irritably.

In the kitchen, her mother stood at the stove.

Mei-ling glanced at her and seemed to understand at once how the day had gone.

“I told you this year would be harder,” she said quietly. “Especially math.”

Yi-yun didn’t reply.

Her mother wiped her hands on a dish towel.

“Sit down for a moment,” she said. “I need to talk to you.”

Yi-yun hesitated, then sat down reluctantly.

“It’s about the summer break,” Mei-ling began carefully.

Something tightened in Yi-yun’s chest.

“What about it?”

“I spoke to your school today,” her mother said.

Yi-yun’s shoulders tensed.

“About… the exam?”

“That,” Mei-ling replied, “and about your club.”

Yi-yun frowned.

“The Culture and Traditional Arts Club is organizing a summer workshop,” her mother continued. “Rehearsals, preparation, a few performances. It won’t be every day, but the students who are part of the club are expected to attend.”

Yi-yun hesitated.

“Expected… to attend?”

Mei-ling held her gaze.

“After this year,” she said calmly, “you need structure. Especially with math.”

She paused before continuing.

“I’ve already been thinking about extra tutoring over the summer. And when you’re struggling in a subject, consistency matters.”

Yi-yun’s fingers curled against her knees.

“But it’s summer vacation,” she said quietly. “I promised Grandma I’d come stay with her!”

Her mother folded the dish towel neatly and set it aside.

“Right now, school has to come first. The workshop, the tutoring, they’re part of that.”

Yi-yun swallowed.

“It’s just a club,” she said softly.

“It’s still a commitment,” Mei-ling replied. “And commitments matter when you’re trying to get back on track.”

Yi-yun clenched her fists.

“You’ll attend this workshop,” her mother continued. “We can visit Grandma on weekends. And if you want to know how her story continued, I can also...”

Yi-yun shook her head.

“No...”

Then it burst out of her, sharp and uncontrolled.

“I don’t want to hear it from you!” Yi-yun shouted. “I want to hear it from her! I learned things from her that actually mattered, not this stupid math nonsense!”

“Yi-yun!”

But she was already running down the hallway.

She slammed her bedroom door shut and slid down against it, pulling her knees to her chest, tears streaming down her cheeks.

With trembling hands, she grabbed her CD player, shoved the headphones into her ears, and turned the volume all the way up.

Yi-yun wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve and stared at the wall.

Summer hadn’t even really begun yet.

And still, it already felt over.