Light Touch, Foresight (Part 1)

I have a secret. A secret that, if revealed, would undoubtedly make people look at me as a total freak.

I can see the future. However, this superpower doesn't just run on its own; it is triggered under one sole condition: when I touch a girl. Just a light brush against their skin, and scenes of their future—or my future intertwined with theirs—will instantly and uncontrollably bombard my brain.

Because of this troublesome ability, I always keep my distance from every girl at school. I deliberately crafted a brooding, aloof "cool guy" persona to ensure no one would dare approach me or accidentally bump into me.

Until I met Nguyen Vu Khanh Linh, the clumsy girl from class 12D4 in the building across the courtyard.

In truth, three "incidents" had already occurred between us where Linh had no idea I used my ability to help her.

The first time was during a sudden downpour last month. As I brushed past the crowd in the hallway, my shoulder accidentally grazed hers. Instantly, a vision flashed: she was shivering under the bike shed because she forgot her umbrella, followed by a scene of her burning up with a high fever, delirious right before the standardized exam. Looking at her small face back then, I didn't have the heart to ignore it. So, when I walked past the bike shed, without a word, I shoved my umbrella straight into her hands and bolted into the rain. I knew she thought I was a psycho, but at least that fever vision never came to pass.

The second time was at the school cafeteria. I was standing in line right behind her. Just as I was about to step forward, my hand lightly brushed her sleeve. A scene flashed in my mind—Linh being jostled by some underclassmen, spilling a tray of hot soup all over herself and suffering severe burns. Without a second of hesitation, right as those kids lunged forward, I quickly grabbed the strap of her backpack and yanked her backward with force. The tray of soup crashed onto the ground right in front of Linh's shoes. Having saved her from a memorable burn, I merely grumbled, "Watch where you're going," and walked away to hide my awkwardness.

The third time was just last week, at the sports court. I was walking when a female student accidentally ran into me. The vision unfolded: Linh was standing there dazed when a stray basketball flew straight at her face, causing a bloody nose and sending her crashing onto the court. I immediately sprinted like mad toward her, thrusting my hand out to block the ball right before it could make contact with her face. Everyone said I had the reflexes of a genius, but only I knew it was just the cheating mechanism of the future.

And today, the fifth period had just begun with a lazy bell. The third-floor hallway was completely deserted, save for the pale streaks of late afternoon sunlight filtering through the window frames. I was ambling along, one strap of my backpack slung loosely over my shoulder, eyes glued to my phone to kill time when suddenly...

Thud.

From the hallway corner leading to the library, a figure lost her balance and lunged toward me. Papers and documents went flying everywhere. My sharp reflexes allowed me to stand firm, but she wasn't so lucky. She slammed right into my chest. To claw back her balance, her hands desperately clamped onto the sleeves of my uniform, her small fingers pressing through the thin fabric and making direct contact with the warm skin of my wrists.

A jolt of electricity surged up my spine. My mind was bombarded by an incredibly vivid vision of the future: In just about ten minutes, at the back of the school, an underclassman girl would suddenly block my path and confess her love to me with a pink letter.

I froze. Linh froze too.

Time seemed to stand still for three seconds. My face must have turned deathly pale, my pupils shrinking in sheer shock at the vision I had just witnessed.

"Are... are you okay?" Linh asked in a small voice, her heart racing, her hands still gripping me tightly.

Looking at her flushed face and her adorably dazed expression, I breathed a sigh of relief, trying to drag my soul back to reality. I let out a helpless smile.

"You... it's you? Still as clumsy as ever, huh."

Linh startled, quickly pulling her hands away from my wrists as if she had just touched fire. Deprived of her support, she wobbled slightly, then hurriedly squatted down to gather the scattered papers on the floor to hide her bright red face.

"Huh? You... you know me?"

"Who... who is clumsy? It's just that this step is designed so poorly..."

Hearing her mumble excuses, I couldn't help but chuckle. I decided to tease her a bit.

"Of course I remember a clumsy girl who forgot her umbrella and almost got drenched in hot soup. What's your name, and what class are you in?"

Linh widened her eyes at me, completely taken aback. She ducked her head slightly to hide a smile, her fingers tightening around the folder pressed against her chest.

"Turns out... you have a really long memory," she murmured, her voice dropping significantly from embarrassment, but then she gathered her courage and looked up to meet my eyes. "My name is Linh. Nguyen Vu Khanh Linh, from class 12D4 in the building right across."

She turned and pointed toward the opposite corridor, where the flamboyant trees were beginning to bloom bright red under the late afternoon sun. Then she turned back to look at me, tilting her head slightly with her eyes curving into crescent moons.

"And you are... Hoang, from 12A2, right? There's probably no one in this school who doesn't know you. But I know you in a... slightly different way. Like, a savior who always appears at the right moment, perhaps?"

Linh took a cautious step backward, maintaining a safe distance, but her eyes remained locked onto my face. I lightly scratched my head, dodging her gaze with a bit of awkwardness.

"The whole school knows me? No way, I'm not that famous."

Linh let out a soft laugh, a crisp sound that echoed through the quiet hallway. She took a small step closer to me, her hands still clutching her folder, tilting her head up to look at me playfully.

"You're being modest again. Don't you know that the title of 'Cool Boy' of the Science track is actually quite famous? My classmates gossip about you all the time. Like how smart you are, how your reflexes are as fast as if you have superpowers, and that you're super handsome but always look dead serious and refuse to talk to anyone. Junior girls don't even dare to breathe heavily when they see you walking past the hallway."

At this point, she suddenly narrowed her eyes mysteriously and lowered her voice a bit.

"Before, I thought you were really unapproachable too. Who would've thought... you'd remember the clumsy moments of a girl from the Arts track like me so clearly. By the way, what happened to you earlier? Your face suddenly went completely pale, as if you had just seen a... ghost?"

I caught myself. How could I possibly tell her that I had just seen a future where I would be confessed to in ten minutes? I had to smooth it over with a curt piece of advice.

"Ah, it's nothing. Just make sure to watch your step next time."

Linh narrowed her eyes skeptically at my flustered cover-up, as if to say, "You're clearly hiding something from me. And now you're using that old-man tone to lecture me."

But seeing that I still looked a bit dazed, she didn't tease me any further. Linh checked her wristwatch, then glanced out at the schoolyard, which was gradually emptying of students. The fifth period was almost halfway over.

"Alright, I get it. I'll watch the road next time, okay?" She lightly swayed the folder in her hand, taking a step back as she prepared to head toward the Youth Union office to submit the stack of papers. "You should get to class too. If you stand here any longer, the hall monitor will catch you and you'll end up in the council room drinking tea."

She turned and took two steps, but then, as if remembering something, Linh whipped around, took a few steps backward, and waved at me with a bright smile.

"Hoang! Today... knowing your name officially, I'm really happy. Are you heading toward the back gate after school? If it's on your way... shall we walk home together?"

Watching Linh's figure vanish around the corner, a strange sensation welled up in my heart. But immediately after, I remembered the confession vision from earlier. To avoid trouble and evade that junior girl, I decided to take a detour.

However, as I reached the hallway turn leading to the back gate, I suddenly heard that girl's voice. Ironically, the path to the back gate was blocked, and Linh was standing near the staircase leading to the back gate waiting for me, her hands twisting the straps of her backpack.

The moment I appeared at the far end of the hallway, my steps somewhat hurried, my eyes occasionally darting toward the window to check the backyard below to avoid the confession trap—

"Oh, Hoang! There you are..."

Linh was just about to raise her hand to wave at me when suddenly, from the hallway turn right behind me, a clear, somewhat timid but deeply determined voice rang out, exactly like in the vision:

"Senior Hoang! Could... could you stop for a moment, please?"

I froze on the spot like a log. The future script had played out, without a single millimeter of error. A junior girl with blushing cheeks stepped quickly to block my path, her hands hiding a pastel pink envelope behind her back.

I glanced at Linh. She had frozen a few paces away, the "rescue" smile on her lips instantly locking up. I saw her grip the straps of her backpack tightly, her eyes betraying confusion, disappointment, and a tiny spark of jealousy as the junior girl took a deep breath, extended the envelope, and loudly confessed.

"I've liked you since the basketball tournament at the beginning of the school year! I know you are very busy with your studies, but I still wanted to express my feelings. Please accept this!"

I didn't want Linh to feel awkward, and I also needed to resolve this matter decisively. Turning toward Linh, I said softly:

"Wait for me at the gate. I'll meet you after I take care of this."

Then I turned back to face the girl. Linh murmured a small, "Ah... um. Sure, I'll wait for you at the gate," and turned to walk quickly down the stairs.

Once Linh was out of sight, I turned down the junior girl's confession politely but firmly. I didn't accept the pink envelope; to be honest, I didn't even know who she was. With that finished, I walked slowly toward the school gate. Seeing Linh leaning against the old brick wall next to the guard's room, I spoke up to break the atmosphere.

"Yo, sorry to keep you waiting."

Linh startled, quickly straightening her back, pretending she was busy admiring some wild flowers on the wall rather than anxiously keeping an eye out for me. She crossed her arms, pouting slightly as I approached.

"Yo what do you mean yo? Do you know I've counted exactly 484 seconds? I thought you were kidnapped by that cute girl! So, you rejected her, right?"

Looking at her darting, probing expression, I found it amusing but wanted to tease her a bit more.

"What makes you guess I rejected her? What if I accepted?"

Linh froze, her finger which had been about to poke the sleeve of my shirt quickly retracting behind her back. Her ears turned bright red.

"Well... if you really accepted, that's probably why you were afraid I'd stand there and be a third wheel, right? She is cute after all, and so brave. Don't you Science track boys all like that type of girl?"

With that, she huffed and marched ahead, deliberately walking half a pace faster than me so I couldn't see her pouting face. She lightly kicked a dry leaf on the road, her voice a tiny mumble: "And if you really accepted... then why on earth did you make me come out here and wait. Just to make me look ridiculous..."

Watching that childish, sulking gait, an indescribable warmth welled up inside me. I quickened my pace slightly, walking side-by-side with her, and asked:

"By the way, why do you care so much about whether I accepted or not?"

My question caused Linh to halt violently mid-stride. She stood with her back to me for three seconds, then suddenly whipped around. The late afternoon sun painted a corner of the schoolyard a fiery red, casting its glow directly onto her face, which was trying hard to look stubborn. Linh put her hands on her hips, stammering, but her volume didn't back down.

"You... how can you even ask that? I do care! So what? She's a girl, and she gathered all her courage to stand in front of everyone to give you a letter. As for me... I..."

Linh's voice choked up at the second half of the sentence. The bravery she had just shown suddenly took a nosedive. She hung her head, staring at the tips of her doll shoes, her fingers unconsciously gripping the straps of her backpack, her voice dropping to a tiny murmur.

"...As for me, I'm not even sure if I qualify as a normal friend of yours. I'm just afraid... what if you actually accepted, then from tomorrow on, when you walk past my classroom hallway, I won't even have the right to look at you..."

Having blurted that out, Linh's face flushed crimson. She was so embarrassed that she made a move to brush past me and run away. I spoke up, deliberately drawing out my words.

"Sigh. Actually, I rejected her. To be honest, I don't even know who she is."

Linh instantly froze.

"Huh? You... rejected her?"

"Ahem..."

She pretended to cough, quickly pulling her hand back, taking two steps away from me, her hands tucked securely behind her back, fingers tightly interlaced to hide her fluster. Then she raised her head, looking at me with eyes sparkling with amusement, her tone returning to its usual playful self.

"Turns out our cold idol here can be so 'heartless'? Someone has liked you since the basketball tournament at the beginning of the year and you don't even know who she is. How cruel~"

Linh suddenly took a small step forward, tilting her head to look straight into my eyes, her voice abruptly dropping lower, carrying a hint of seriousness hidden beneath her mischievousness.

"But... you really rejected her, right? You're not just lying to save me from embarrassment, are you? By the way... if you don't like cute, brave girls like that, then... what kind of person do you like?"

I turned my face away slightly.

"What kind of girl do I like? Hmm, I don't really know either. Gentle, I guess, haha."

I looked at her as she lowered her head slightly, then looked at her current state: hands on her hips, speaking rashly, naturally clumsy, tripping twice every three steps.

"Gentle..." Linh repeated under her breath, her voice noticeably deflating, her fingers aimlessly twisting the hem of her uniform shirt. "Turns out the standard of a Science track idol is quite traditional." Then she lightly raised her face to look at me.

"Then that's too bad, because I don't think I have a single trait that connects to the word 'gentle'," she tilted her head, her smile a bit playful but her eyes overflowing with sincerity. "But Hoang, if a girl isn't gentle at all, and even constantly causes trouble for you... would you... hate her?"

I suddenly put on an innocent face.

"Not gentle, constantly causing trouble, and thick-skinned? How could I possibly like someone like that?"

The smile on her lips vanished, and she stood there rooted to the spot, her hands hidden behind her back.

"You... you don't have to be so brutally blunt!"

Turning her face away, she tried to regain her usual stubborn tone but couldn't hide a soft sob.

"If you don't like me, fine! Who cares if you do. I'm... I'm going home first. You can just stay there and wait for your perfect, gentle girl!"

Linh turned and walked resolutely toward the school gate.

However, this time, because she was walking on an uneven stretch of road tangled with the roots of an old flamboyant tree and was in too much of a hurry to notice, she completely lost her balance.

"Ah!"

Linh pitched forward. Out of pure survival instinct, she whipped her body around, her hands flailing in mid-air to find something to grab onto, and...

Thud!

She dragged me down right along with her. I couldn't react to the sudden weight, and we both tumbled onto the soft grass beside the path. I only managed to catch myself with both hands on the ground to avoid crashing my full weight onto her.

But ironically, in her panic, both of Linh's hands had pressed tightly against both sides of my cheeks, while my fingers were firmly gripping her wrists to break the fall. The sensation of softness or warmth from a petite girl didn't even have time to register before a bone-chilling cold wave struck my brain directly.

A full, skin-to-skin contact.

The surrounding space fell entirely dead silent. My eyes widened, staring blankly at Linh's face, which was less than five centimeters away from mine. I could clearly feel her rapid breaths brushing against my face, and the frantic, wild beating of her heart.

But in that exact moment, my body went completely rigid, as if turned to stone.

My ability was forced to run at maximum capacity. A brief but utterly shocking scene of the future slammed straight into my brain.

A horrific vision unfolded: The clock pointed to exactly 18:00 today. At the intersection right in front of the school, Linh was ambling along the road, her shoulders trembling as she sobbed. On the other side of the slope, a truck that had lost its brakes plunged wildly down the incline. The blaring horn screeched in my ears, the headlights flashed blindingly, the sickening sound of brakes skidding along the asphalt... and then, the giant mass of iron crashed mercilessly into her small back.

The gruesome realism of that scene slammed into my mind, leaving me completely paralyzed. My expression shifted from astonishment to terror, and then to absolute horror. I shuddered violently, my pupils dilating as I stared deep into Linh's eyes without blinking even once.

This prolonged touch... had shown me the most terrifying future I had ever witnessed in my entire life.

Suddenly, Linh shoved me away hard. The abrupt push made me lose my balance, sending me reeling back slightly until I landed flat on the grass. Linh also scrambled up in a panic, backing away to a distance, her hands tightly clutching her heaving chest, her face as red as a ripe tomato.

"What... what is wrong with you again? You don't mean that the annoying, clingy, thick-skinned girl you were talking about... is me, do you?"

I swallowed hard, trying to drag my soul out of the bloody accident scenes I had just seen. The sheer shock and terror for her life at the upcoming 18:00 left me with absolutely no state of mind to joke around. Looking at the girl in front of me, I managed a strained response to mask the immense turmoil in my heart.

But Linh had completely lost her composure. She took another step closer to me, stomping her foot in a mix of embarrassment and anger.

"Hoang! You... you are doing this on purpose to tease me, aren't you?! Fine! I am talking about myself! The clumsy one who forgot her umbrella, the one who almost got hot soup spilled on her, the thick-skinned one who wants to walk home with you every day... it's all me! I'm just that annoying, what are you going to do about it?"

Linh spoke while catching her breath, letting out every single repressed emotion all at once. But seeing my dazed expression and how my eyes still hadn't regained focus after that cheek touch, she suddenly paused. Linh squatted down in front of me, tilting her head slightly, looking straight into my eyes with a mix of curiosity and a hint of fear.

"But... Hoang. Why is it that every time I touch you, you make such a terrifying face?"

There were less than ten minutes left until 18:00. I had to sprint to the intersection ahead to ambush and change that horrific outcome. I couldn't stand here explaining or wasting another single second.

I bolted upright, hurriedly evading her clear gaze. Turning my face away, I left behind a cold sentence and walked rapidly toward the school gate:

"Forget it. I'm going home."