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Autumn was Chen An's favorite season. It was the season when everything turned gold; even the leaves and the grass could appear to be spun from the finest metal. It was also the season of returning to school, marking another year closer to her once distant dream. Now a senior, she was only one exam away from Zhejiang University, the college her mother had attended but never completed.

Chen An was always reminded of her mother at this time of year. She wondered if her mother had also been eager to go to school. Everyone who spoke of her mother had said she had a brilliant mind that could make poetry out of an ordinary day. Chen An wanted too to write like her mother, but her grandmother had forbid her from even thinking about those romantic things that took her mother's life.

Autumn was also Chen An's favorite concerto, and the peaceful violin music streamed through her headphones like a lullaby as she rest her head on her desk before class began. She always arrived to school long before the other students, basking in the temporary peace of the quiet classroom that would soon be filled with noisy chatter. The golden sunlight glowed behind her closed eyelids, and she pictured the morning breeze tinting everything with its amber beauty.

But, when Chen An opened her eyes, she was met with the sleeping face of Li Jun Jie. The saccharine daylight kissed his cheek, bleeding warmth into his alabaster skin. Even then, he looked cold, as if he was glaring at someone in his dream. Chen An stuck a tongue out at his dozing figure; even asleep, he could ruin her picturesque fantasy.

"Are you done making faces, An An?" Li Jun Jie asked, his eyes still closed.

Chen An rolled her eyes at the nickname. Only two people called her by that name: her grandmother and Mrs. Li, Li Jun Jie's mother. And, of course, Li Jun Jie. He knew she hated how it made her sound like a kid, and he used to tease her with that nickname in front of her friends until she threatened to sneak into his bedroom at night and cut off all of his hair.

At her lack of response, Li Jun Jie cracked open a single eye, peering sideways at her disgruntled face. The corner of his lips curled slightly as if to laugh at her, but the classroom door burst open, causing his face to return to its normal stone-like expression and him to turn away to face the window.

"Chen An, Chen An!" her friend called, greeting her with a hug from behind. "I missed you so much."

Chen An laughed, her annoyance melting away with her friend's cheerfulness. "I missed you too, Xi Xi."

Lu Xi Xi had been Chen An's friend since the two were in diapers. Her father was Chen An's mother's college senior and more like a father to her than her real one wandering somewhere out there.

She pressed her cheek against Chen An's, and when she pulled away, a pink mark was left on her face, making her look as if she was blushing. Chen An laughed, though she knew she probably had a matching one of her own. If Chen An was autumn, Lu Xi Xi was spring, and she seemed to always be in bloom.

Lu Xi Xi glanced at Li Jun Jie's sleeping — or rather pretend-sleeping — figure. Her lips formed his name as if to call him but seemed to drop the idea, instead placing herself with a dramatic huff in the seat beside Chen An.

Soon, the rest of the students filtered in, and the teacher arrived. Class began with the opening bell, and the restless summer quickly shook off the students, replaced with the concentration brought about by the beginning of the school year. This was how it has always been. It was familiar, just as Chen An liked.