White hair

Ngọc Anh sat in the very last row beside the girl in the conical hat. From where they sat, rows of schoolgirls filled the courtyard, leaving Ngọc Anh with little more than a sea of backs to look at. The principal was giving his speech thirty or forty meters away. His voice was deep and commanding, like an old magistrate pronouncing judgment on a criminal. Blasted through the loudspeakers, his voice seemed to rumble through Ngọc Anh's whole body.

She ignored him and focused on the girl beside her. Up close, the girl looked even more unusual. Silvery-white hair fell to her shoulders. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were pale too, making the reddish-pink eyes beneath them stand out all the more.

Ngọc Anh vaguely remembered learning about albinism in middle school. People with the condition often had very pale hair and skin, and their eyes could be especially sensitive to sunlight. So the conical hat was probably there to shield her from the sun.

Ngọc Anh nodded to herself. Just as she was studying the girl a little too closely, the girl turned toward her. A bright smile spread across her face, open and cheerful like a sunflower turning toward the sun.

Ngọc Anh stared for a second before realizing the smile was meant for her. She blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Uh, about earlier... Thank you so much. I would've been screwed without you…”

The girl giggled. “It was nothing. You looked like a lost little chick, so I figured I'd help, haha.”

Ngọc Anh laughed along, though her face was getting warm. So that was this girl's first impression of her? A lost little chicken?

Better change the subject.

“Oh, what's your name? I'm Ngọc Anh. Nice to meet you.”

“Hi, Ngọc Anh! I'm Mê Linh. You're new here, right?”

“That's right. Is today your first day too?”

Mê Linh. Ngọc Anh repeated the name once in her head, making sure she wouldn't forget the face of her very first friend here. Mê Linh rocked back and forth on her chair.

“I've been here for ages. I could tell you were new the second I saw you.”

So she was an upperclassman.

“Oh, sorry. I thought you were a tenth-grader like me, hehe.”

Mê Linh scratched her head.

“Huh? But I am in tenth grade too?”

Wait. Had she repeated a year? Better not ask or she might embarrass the friendly girl she'd only just met.

Ngọc Anh laughed.

“Oh! So we're in the same grade, haha... I'm in Class 10A4. What about you?”

Mê Linh didn't answer. She only smiled mysteriously. There was no way it could be that much of a coincidence, but Ngọc Anh asked anyway.

“Don't tell me... 10A4 too?”

“Exactly! It's been a long time since our class got a new one! Let's help each other out!”

Without asking, Mê Linh grabbed Ngọc Anh's hand and shook it enthusiastically. The sudden contact made Ngọc Anh's brain freeze for a moment. Mê Linh's hand was pale and soft, holding hers as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Ngọc Anh broke into a grin.

“Let's help each other out.”

She really was lucky to end up in the same class as Mê Linh. Mê Linh was friendly and had helped her the very first time they met. Being very pretty did not hurt either. Long white eyelashes framed a pair of mesmerizing red eyes. And that smile was easily one of the warmest Ngọc Anh had ever seen.

Mê Linh let go of her hand and turned back toward the principal, probably so whoever was supervising the assembly wouldn't catch the two of them chatting in the back row. She hummed a wordless tune. Her conical hat bobbed with the rhythm.

Ngọc Anh watched the short silvery-white hair sway beneath it. Every so often, a few strands settled against the slender nape of Mê Linh's neck, as though some god had forgotten a piece of moonlight there.

The compliment came out before Ngọc Anh could stop it.

"Your hair is really beautiful..."

Mê Linh froze. She grabbed the brim of her conical hat with both hands and tugged it down until her hair disappeared beneath it. The cheerfulness vanished from her voice.

“Don't talk about it…”

Ngọc Anh wanted to smack herself. Of course Mê Linh would be sensitive about her appearance.

She waved both hands at once.

“No, that's not what I meant! I mean... it really is beautiful. I couldn't stop looking at it!”

Mê Linh loosened her grip on the hat.

“Really...?”

“Heaven and earth as my witnesses! If I'm lying, may the Thunder God strike me down and King Yama add my name to his ledger!”

Mê Linh fell silent. Then her body began to tremble. The hat hid her eyes, but Ngọc Anh could already imagine them filling with tears. Oh no.

Maybe stealing a line from one of those eight-o'clock dramas she watched with Grandpa hadn't been her brightest idea. That sounded way cooler on TV. Coming from her, it was just stupid.

Ngọc Anh was one second away from dropping to her knees and apologizing when a snort escaped from beneath the hat. Mê Linh tried to hold it in, but it didn't really work.

“Hey, don't joke about that! You have no idea how scary the King of Hell is, hahaha.”

Ngọc Anh breathed out in relief. Thank goodness. The stupid joke had worked somehow. Mê Linh was even teasing her right back.

Maybe next time she should think before letting her mouth run wild.

She pressed her palms together.

“Sorry! Sometimes my mouth moves faster than my brain…”

“It's okay... It's just that no one's ever said that about my hair before. People usually call it a bad omen instead.”

Mê Linh sighed and looked away. Ngọc Anh's brows pulled together.

Seriously? People still shunned someone over a medical condition in this day and age? How unbelievably backward.

Her hand curled into a fist.

“Don't pay attention to those backward idiots. How could this pretty hair possibly be a bad omen?”

Mê Linh smiled. The uneasiness in her voice had softened.

“Thank you.”

Phew. Crisis averted. Hair was clearly a sensitive subject, so Ngọc Anh decided to leave it alone for now.

“Hey, Mê Linh... What do you do for fun?”

Mê Linh rubbed her chin and thought for a while.

“Hmm... I like climbing up somewhere high and watching chickens or ducks until I spot one I can catch!”

The answer was weird enough that Ngọc Anh almost thought she was joking. But Mê Linh sounded completely serious.

Well, everyone had their weird side, right? Besides, she wasn't exactly in a position to judge, considering how much she liked staring at pretty girls in school uniforms.

Ngọc Anh folded her arms and nodded thoughtfully.

“That actually sounds fun. Take me with you sometime.”

“Of course! No one's ever gone with me before. It's really fun!”

Mê Linh grinned so widely that her teeth showed. Ngọc Anh smiled back, even though she couldn't imagine what was so fun about catching chickens or ducks. Still, if Mê Linh liked it that much, Ngọc Anh could at least give it a try. If she wanted to be friends with someone, she ought to learn what they enjoyed too.

Ngọc Anh moved on to her own, much more ordinary hobby.

“I usually watch movies with Grandpa every night after I finish my homework. There's a lot you can learn from movies.”

“Huh? What are movies?”

Mê Linh tilted her head.

Had she seriously never watched television? Maybe her family was extremely strict and didn't let her watch TV so she would focus on studying. After all, she'd already repeated a year.

“Uh... do you know what a TV is? It's like a box, except it can show moving pictures inside.”

“Something that amazing exists? Tell me more!”

So Ngọc Anh began telling her about the shows she watched with Grandpa. She told Mê Linh about the stern black-faced magistrate who judged criminals and the stone monkey who traveled far away in search of Buddhist scriptures. Next, she rambled into stories about a great war between immortals and yaoguai, with Taoist priests getting dragged into the mess along the way.

Mê Linh listened with complete attention even though Ngọc Anh was only giving rough summaries. She hadn't even reached the parts she liked best yet.

Mê Linh had missed shows that had been part of almost every kid's childhood. The stone monkey fascinated her most, and questions came one after another.

“What kinds of demons and yaoguai are in it? Does the monkey get the scriptures in the end? Does any yaoguai ever get to eat the monk's flesh?”

Ngọc Anh only gave vague answers. She didn't want to ruin Mê Linh's experience if the girl ever watched it herself. Somehow, that only seemed to make Mê Linh more excited.

Watching Mê Linh's curiosity, Ngọc Anh suddenly remembered how she used to bombard Grandpa with questions whenever they watched movies together. Even though he had already seen them all, he would still sit beside her and patiently explain every little detail of what was happening.

Ngọc Anh used to wonder what was so fun about watching something again when you already knew everything that was going to happen. Now, maybe she understood Grandpa a little better. Having someone to talk to while watching could be pretty fun in its own way.

Maybe one day she could invite Mê Linh to watch with her too, after she helped her stop repeating tenth grade, of course.

The two of them were so absorbed in their conversation that they only noticed the assembly had ended when the girls ahead began putting their chairs away. Ngọc Anh and Mê Linh did the same.

Ngọc Anh had just picked up her suitcase when the microphone crackled again. That same commanding voice returned.

“Oh, right, right. Almost forgot one last thing. Same as always: follow the school rules, try to keep your human forms, and finally, I hope you demons can learn to live alongside humans.”

Ngọc Anh stopped dead.

She turned and stared at the principal on the distant stage. He wore a black suit and sunglasses, baring his teeth in a grin that somehow managed to annoy her from thirty meters away. He didn't look like a principal at all.

More importantly, what exactly had he just said?

Demons?

Learn to live alongside humans?

Ngọc Anh slowly turned toward the cute white-haired girl she'd just met.

A bead of cold sweat slid down her cheek.

Wasn't this supposed to be a normal school?