Encouragement Under the Spotlight Chapter 1

The first New Year's Eve I spent with him, the second New Year's Day I spent with him, and the fourth time I spent the night with him under the same roof.

She will probably never forget the New Year's Eve of 2017 in her life.

The moment she heard the knock on the door, the moment she saw him, the moment she hugged him, it was a feeling she had never experienced before.

I felt so clearly that I was being held in someone's palm and carefully cared for, like an irreplaceable treasure.

She turned over and lay on her side, and after a while she turned over again. The various messy thoughts in her mind could not calm down and were in a tangled mess.

On the first day of the Year of the Rooster, she...seemed to be suffering from insomnia again.

Again? When was the last time you suffered from insomnia?

It seemed like...it was the night when I was accidentally injured at the book signing event. I was at home thinking about all sorts of things the whole night.

She lay on the bed with her eyes closed, cursing herself for being too brave, but secretly thanking herself for being the first to rush forward. She was so strong and had learned Taekwondo, but she was injured. If it was the other four girls, the consequences would be unimaginable.

After tossing and turning in bed for a long time, Ava finally couldn't help but sit up, turned his head to look at the alarm clock on the bedside table, and the hour hand on the dial had passed 4.

She waited for the Spring Festival Gala to end, and then played with Caleb on the sofa for a while before going to bed. South Korea's time is one hour ahead of China's. Calculating the time, it was almost 3 a.m. when she lay down to sleep.

She lay down for a long time and it was already past four in the morning. This should have been the time when she was most sleepy, but she still didn't feel sleepy at all.

At this time normally, she would have gotten up two hours later to go for a morning run, but today she hadn't slept at all.

His eyes were drawn to the alarm clock and the photo frame next to it. Ava reached out and took the photo frame standing on the bedside table, placed it on the bed and looked down at it.

The photo was taken when she took Caleb to her mother's house for the first time. After dinner, the three of them sat on the sofa, and the aunt at home helped them take the photo with a camera.

She sat between the two of them, holding the arm of Professor Kim, who was just an older sister at the time, and leaning tightly on her shoulders. Her mouth and eyes, as she looked at the camera, were full of smiles.

Professor Jin, who was sitting on her left with his arm around her, looked down at her, as if somewhat surprised that she would take the initiative to make such an intimate gesture, with a hint of surprise and unexpected joy in his eyes.

Caleb sat on her right, his hands on his knees, sitting upright somewhat stiffly, his whole body and head slightly tilted to the middle, with an inexplicable tenderness in his eyes.

The curvature of the three people's mouths is different, but their smiles are genuine.

The neon lights from the nearby building peeked in through the window, shining obliquely onto the light grey bed sheets, as if giving her the only space to think and see herself clearly in the darkness.

Ava sat cross-legged on the bed, with the quilt behind her covering her head and her body. She lowered her head and stared blankly at the photo placed in the middle of the light.

She reached out and touched the corner of the photo frame, and a smile suddenly appeared on the corner of her mouth.

Only now did she realize that among the three people in the photo, she was the only one in the middle looking at the camera; the eyes of the people on both sides were all on her.

After putting the photo frame back in place, Ava got out of bed, opened the door and walked out, then closed the door and tiptoed towards the stairs.

She walked through the quiet living room and went up the stairs. When she passed by the puzzle that had just been hung up last night, she stopped unconsciously and leaned against the railing to look at it carefully.

She always felt that the puzzle was like some kind of magic. No matter how many times or when she looked at it, she would always feel warm in her heart and smile unconsciously.

She remembered her nagging on the phone before the recording, the hundred "Oppa"s she got from him in the cycling race (she hasn't even finished calling them that yet), the not-so-delicious Chinese restaurant he took her to, and the two of them sitting on rattan chairs together after dinner, making an agreement to travel together when they had time.

Photos are probably really magical things.

Or perhaps, Caleb himself is a magical existence to her.

He always allowed her to recall a large series of images of him through just a little bit of information.

Going up to the attic, Ava turned on the Eiffel Tower lamp that her fans had given her in the corner, and the warm yellow light immediately surrounded her. Next to the lamp, there were several large and small Eiffel Tower models, which were all gifts that fans later gave her.

Taking a cushion and putting it down, Ava sat down in front of the photo wall, facing the photos on the wall and looking at them carefully.

Remember the day she asked him where he printed the photos? He seemed to not understand why she would ask such a stupid question, and replied as a matter of course: "Of course I bought a machine and printed them myself in the dormitory! How dare I show these photos to others."

Given the current situation of the two people and the two groups, if these photos and their relationship were to be exposed, it would really be a big deal.

In fact, it has been less than a month since the photo wall was "born", but in addition to the heart-shaped one he made by hand, several new photos have been added.

She didn't even know when these photos were added.

Ava thought about it carefully and felt that the photos should have been brought by him last night, and then he came up alone to post them after she returned to the room. Anyway, there were only two of them at home, so if it wasn't her, it would have to be him.

Thinking about how he was mad at her in the dormitory years ago while printing out these photos mumblingly, just imagining it makes me feel that Caleb is so adorable!

Among the newly added photos, there are the ones where she stood with the members holding the trophy on the day of the "Golden Disc", the ones where she crossed the finish line in the relay race on the day of the "Idol Sports Festival" recording, the ones where she shot, and the ones where she took a photo with him in the lounge.

Caleb must have "stole" the fangirl's photos online. She didn't remember that he brought a camera on the day of the sports meet.

Ava shook his head and smiled, moving the mini flashlight in his hand, and then looked at the photo below.

In that photo, she was sleeping soundly on Caleb's shoulder, and he was also sleeping with his eyes closed and his head against hers. Judging from the bus in the background of the photo, the photo should have been taken on the day when the two of them went bungee jumping together.

Both people in the photo are asleep, so who took this photo which is obviously taken from a selfie angle?

She seemed to suddenly discover his little thoughts in the photo. Maybe, at that time, he no longer regarded her as a simple friend. He even took a sneak shot of her while she was sleeping when they went out to play! And it was such an intimate posture.

Her gaze moved down from his face to her own hand, which was hanging between the two of them, holding the corner of Caleb's coat.

The corners of Ava's mouth curved up. He had a habit of grabbing something before sleeping to feel at ease. It turned out that he couldn't change it no matter where he was.

The photo right next to it was also taken on the day when the two of them went bungee jumping together. In the restaurant where they were having lunch, he fiddled with the camera she gave him as a birthday gift and took the first photo with that camera.

In the photo, she was holding a water cup and looking out the window. In fact, she didn't know he took the photo at that time, she just thought he was familiar with the gift he just received. Now when I look at the photo, I remember that she was wearing a dark green sweater that day, which was actually a bit like a couple's outfit with the one he wore that day.

The next photo shows a dark red palace wall as the background. They both have the same straight hair style and wear two similar black hats. They are only a few centimeters apart in height and wear the same white T-shirt and black pants. Even their shoes happened to be the same black that day.

The slightly taller one smiled brightly and made a scissors hand gesture, while the other one looked more like an elder than the other friends who were hanging out together. He tilted his head and looked at the boy next to him in a 'loving' way with a smile.

They had only known each other for a short time at that time, and Caleb was about the same height as her. The photo was taken in the Forbidden City with the help of a tourist using his mobile phone. Unexpectedly, the clarity of the photo was quite good after it was developed.

At that time it was a very ordinary tourist photo, but no matter how you look at it now, you can feel that there is a kind of doting in her eyes when she looks at Caleb that comes from nowhere.

The flashlight moved a little, and she shifted her gaze to the next photo. The background was the gate of Seoul University. She was looking for something in her backpack with her head down. Only her profile was visible.

Ava frowned slightly. When was this photo taken? How come she had no recollection of it at all? Was it taken before her debut, after her debut, or before? As for the clothes... forget it, she really had no recollection of it at all.

The flashlight turned and the light moved to the next photo, a natural wood guitar and a white bar chair.

Standing in the middle of the stage under the spotlight, she looked clean in a white shirt, with a sea of Diamond's cold white glow sticks as the background.

That was Diamond’s one-year anniversary concert. For the first time, she stood in front of tens of thousands of audiences and used her voice to tell those who liked her that she knew why they liked her.

As I looked at the photos one by one, the memories were extracted from my mind and recalled again. The small details that I didn't notice at the time were discovered again in each photo.

On the Great Wall, Caleb put one hand on her shoulder and the other on the wall. The scarf she had tied around him before going out was a little deformed by his pulling due to the heat and hung loosely outside her down jacket.

The photo was taken by an elderly couple. Although they are old, they are in very good health. They climbed to such a high place hand in hand, and their breathing was only slightly heavy.

Page 3

I still remember that after taking the photo, Caleb looked at their backs as they walked away together and said, "I'm so envious~"

At that time, she thought Caleb envied his grandparents' good health, so she just reached out and patted his shoulder, saying casually: "Be careful not to get hurt, and exercise regularly, and you will definitely be able to be like this when you are old!"

She only remembered that Caleb gave her a very awkward expression at that time. Thinking about it now, he must have been very speechless at that time, and he couldn't show his true thoughts for her to find out. He must have been depressed to death.

It would have been great if I had taken a picture of his expression at that time, and shared the photo with my friends on his birthday.

This can be considered as her girlfriend's way of "adapting to local customs". BTS routinely posts ugly photos on birthdays, so she might as well join in the fun!

The author has something to say:

Yu Qi Miao finally came back to keep the promise he made a few years ago to everyone who liked Ava.

The story may be bland, it may be dragged out, it may be messy. After a few years, Yu Qi Miao's writing style and control may still be as bad as usual, but the love for this story is even more passionate than before.

These are certainly not excuses for not working hard. All storytellers must be doing their best to tell the story in a wonderful way.

In the next few months, please take care of me.

Oh, by the way, happy holidays, my dears~