Friday

On Friday, Mei and Danial meet at their usual table in the school canteen. Each of them has a small box.

"You first," Danial says. He looks curious, wanting very much to know what is inside her box.

He opens it. Inside is the leather strap. For a moment he says nothing. His face goes red.

"Don't you like it?" Mei asks.

"I love it," he says, and he is honest. She can see it in his eyes. "But..." He takes out his phone and shows her a photo. It is his grandfather's watch, in a shop window. "I sold it on Saturday."

Mei is puzzled. She does not understand. "Why?"

"Open your box."

Inside her box is a set of new guitar strings and a small card: For the best guitar player I know.

Mei laughs and cries at the same time. She catches a glimpse of the two of them in the canteen window, just for a second: two friends with presents they cannot use.

"I sold my guitar," she says.

Now Danial is embarrassed, and his face goes even redder. "We are so silly," he says.

"No," says Mei. "We are not silly." She is proud of him, and of herself. Each of them gave away the most precious thing they had.

The next week, the music shop owner hears the story. He is generous again: he lets Mei play the guitar in his shop every Saturday. And Danial wears the new strap on his arm every day, with no watch in it. He is delighted with it.