The next day, the morning light spilled through the window mullions. I lazily woke up at the sound of the alarm clock. I rubbed my eyes, lifted the covers off the bed, and picked up the hair tie from the bedside table. With a gentle pull, snap, it broke. I looked at the black hair tie that had been used for a long time, sighed lightly, lifted the pillow and looked, leaned on the ground and glanced under the bed, and then opened the drawer to search. I searched every nook and cranny, but the hair tie, which had been used for less than a week, was gone on the second day after I got drunk.
Unable to find a hair tie, I entered the bathroom with my hair disheveled. The morning sun shone into the balcony, warm and cozy. The washing machine was silently agitating, and the floor cleaning machine was slowly gliding in the living room.
I walked out, wearing a light apricot long–sleeved shirt, black pants, and my long, smooth black hair flowing down. I carried a backpack. My gaze swept over the living room sofa, and I saw Kaleb sitting upright at the boundary between light and shadow cast by the morning sun, a hint of darkness flickering between his slender fingertips. He got up unusually early today.
I walked past the sofa. Upon hearing the sound, Kaleb suddenly closed his palm, the dull pain of the metal weight piercing his flesh causing his eyebrows to furrow. He turned his head to look at me. In normal times, if Kaleb ignored me, I would not greet him proactively. But Kaleb’s gaze had already turned towards me, and I didn’t deliberately avoid it; my voice was hoarse with just waking up, “You got up a bit early today.”
Kaleb cleared his throat, “Hmm, I slept early last night.”
I put down my backpack and crouched near the coffee table, bending over to peek under the sofa and the coffee table. My long hair fell down, blocking half of my vision. I hooked my hair behind my ear.
“What are you looking for?” Kaleb bent down and moved closer to me.
“I lost the hair tie I used to tie my hair,” I sighed, sitting back on the couch.“It was black with a delicate metal panda on it.”
< Chapter 196
