Lena sat beside her teacher, one hand tangled in her thick, short burgundy hair. He sat close to her, trying to help her learn the language he'd grown up speaking. Lena had excellent comprehension, she just refused to believe it, no matter how often Qin Laoshi told her. The pair sat close together, neither speaking of it nor minding the warmth of each other's bodies. They were alone in the class, and were among few still in the school, no doubt.

"Let's finish for today. You have more homework in other classes, I bet," Qin Laoshi said to her. While she put her things away, he wrote out a paragraph in Chinese.

"What's this?" Lena asked when he handed it to her, staring at the jibberish before her.

"A message," he said, smiling nervously at his pupil.

"Okay.. See you tomorrow," Lena said, waving to her teacher and walking to the door.

"Zai Jian," he said, watching her leave.

Later on, Lena started up her laptop. She found a translation site, typing up the note her teacher had given her. Color rose to her cheeks as she read the translation:

"I don't know how you feel, Miss Lena, but I have strong feelings for you. I know it is illegal, but I can't keep this a secret any longer. No one knows, and no one has to. But Lena, I have no reason to believe I do not love you more than I have loved anyone else in my life. I'll never go back to China, if it means I can stay here with you.

Qin Delun"

Lena stared down at the note, a love letter written by her language teacher. In the morning, she typed up her response, translated it to Chinese, and folded it to slip in her pocket. She had Chinese second, and Delun wouldn't look directly at her. He saw the corner of her response sticking out from beneath her binders. At the end of the class, she dropped it on her desk.

Delun was glad his next block was an empty one. He could nearly cry for joy when he read her response:

"I'm only a teenager, you know. I wouldn't know love if it bit me in the you-know-what. But, I feel something toward you too, Qin Laoshi. I'd love to see it blossom into love. How would it work though? How could we be together? Can we talk after school today? I'll see you then anyway.

Lena"

She felt something for him too! After school. He'd see her in a few hours. They'd be alone in the class and then, after an hour, almost alone in the school. They would talk then. Talk about each other, how they're going to make this work. Maybe they could meet outside of town, where no one would know who they were. Maybe they could come up with some rendezvous, somewhere they could meet in secret and not have to worry about being caught. Delun could only hope it would work out like that. He felt something so strongly for her, no doubt it could only be love. What else on earth could it be? When he saw her, her heart skipped a beat. When he looked at her, he wished it was only them, and he could scoop her in his arms and carry her off into the sunset. He shut his eyes and smiled, imagining how many ways the afternoon could go. At best, they'd figure out an amazing plan as to how the could be together. At worst, they'd figure nothing out and choose to carry on like t here isn't anything between them.. But that would be the worst thing of his life…