The morning sun spilled golden light across the streets of Hangzhou, casting a warm glow over the tops of low-hanging sycamore trees and ancient stone walls. Shimmered west lake and a breeze curled around the city's edge, carrying the faint scent of osmanthus flowers and damp earth.
Sienna li didn't notice any of it. She was late. Again.
She gripped the handlebars of her battered electric scooter, weaving through traffic like her life depended on it. A long silk scarf—yellow and obnoxiously bright—flapped behind her, drawing glances from pedestrians and delivery riders alike.
"Get out of the way, grandpa," she muttered under her breath as she veered past a tricycle cart loaded with bamboo shoots.
Her phone buzzed inside her tote bag. Camila, probably. Her younger sister had been blowing up her phone all morning about a photoshoot that Sienna had no interest in attending. All she knew was something about a rooftop, "You owe me one, remember?!"
Sienna sighed, thinking of her overdue invoices, her growing pile of laundry, and the fact that she hadn't had coffee yet, which was the worst thing ever for her. That was when she saw him.
A man—tall, dark-clothed, unreadable—stepped right off the sidewalk without looking. Head down, fully immersed in his phone. She yelped.
"Watch out!"
Thud.
The scooter skidded. Tires screeched. Sienna swerved too late, colliding straight into him. They tumbled in a messy blur of limbs, canvas bags, and cracked pride.
Silence.
Birds chirped overhead.
Sienna winced, sitting up with a hiss. A scrape bloomed red on her knee. Her scarf was tangled around her elbow.
The man sat up too, pulling his sunglasses down his nose, clearly annoyed. His black hair was tousled from the fall, and there was a faint coffee stain spreading across his chest.
"Seriously?" he snapped, voice low and cutting. "Do you drive like this on purpose, or is it just a talent?"
"Excuse me?" Sienna shot back, rising to her feet. "You walked right into the road like a moody ghost! Who checks their phone while jaywalking?"
"I assumed basic traffic rules applied here." He dusted off his pants coolly. "Like not turning sidewalks into racetracks."
Sienna scoffed, picking up her bag. "You're lucky I didn't run you over properly. Would've done the universe a favor."
"Charming," the girls whisper while eyeing him. Sienna glared at them.
They stood there, glaring, framed by the sleepy elegance of morning Hangzhou and the chaos they left behind. A fruit seller peeked from behind his cart with mild curiosity. A little kid laughed nearby.
"Try walking with your eyes open next time," she snapped."Try not wearing a traffic-stopping banana scarf," he muttered.
Sienna narrowed her eyes. He gave a half-smirk—cool, aloof, irritatingly unaffected—then turned and walked away, hands in his pockets.
Sienna stood fuming. Her scooter handle was bent. But her phone was buzzing non-stop. she walked away while
"Asshole," she mumbled.