6
After that day, I never saw Leo again.
I dropped the elective we were taking together, quit the club he was in, and even avoided the library corner where I used to study.
It was as if I had completely evaporated from his world.
And he, in turn, started looking for me like a madman.
One evening, a commotion broke out below my dorm.
Someone screamed, “Leo’s lost his mind! He’s plastered an entire wall with handwritten letters!”
I stepped out onto the balcony and saw that the lampposts below were covered with rows of photos and pages, like some bizarre
ritual.
Every photo was a shot of our backs, or even a candid picture he’d taken of my profile while I was studying.
The pages were covered in his messy handwriting.
“I never took a photo with you, but my phone is full of you.”
“You thought I didn’t remember your birthday, but I secretly wrote it down in my notes. I was just too scared to wish you well.”
1219
Chapter 2
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
In that moment, the comments blanketed my vision:
[HE’S GONE CRAZY! HE’S REALLY GONE CRAZY!!]
[How could he love her this much? I’m sobbing!]
[Mia, come back and see him! He’s on his knees!]
I didn’t go back.
I just silently drew the curtains and started packing my things.
I was leaving.
I had already filed for a leave of absence last week.
My advisor knew my situation and helped me get into an exchange program in another country. I’d be gone for at least a year.
As I signed my name on the final page of the documents, my entire hand was shaking.
But it wasn’t a tremor of fear. It was the shudder of a survivor who had finally escaped.
1 had finally walked out of his emotional cage.
The day I left campus, the sky was clear and bright.
I was wearing a beige trench coat, puiling my suitcase toward the south gate to call a cab.
Just as the car window was rolling up, I saw someone on the other side of the street, running frantically through traffic.
It was Leo.
He wasn’t wearing a jacket, his hair was a mess, and his face was twisted with a panic I had never seen before.
“MIA-!”
He pounded on the car window, his eyes bloodshot, his voice raw. “Don’t go! What do you want me to do?!”
i didn’t speak.
The car began to move, pulling away from his crumbling face.
The comments flashed before my eyes:
[Leo’s crying, he’s really crying!]
[He called your name so many times, did you hear how hoarse his voice is?]
[He finally regrets it, but you won’t even look back?]
I closed my eyes and whispered,
“You couldn’t say you liked me, could you?”
“Then never say it.”
As the car pulled out of the school gates, Leo fell to his knees on the pavement, clutching a piece of paper that was fluttering in the wind
It was the first, and the last, written apology I ever wrote for him.
1219
Chapter 2
The wind whipped the page, blurring the comments before my eyes:
[If you don’t go back, he’s really going to lose his mind.]
[He hasn’t been back to his dorm in seven days. He’s been called in by his advisor three times. He’s cried, he’s gotten drunk and thrown up…]
[He regrets it. He really regrets it. Do you still love him or not?]
I just tightened my grip on my phone, deleted that familiar profile picture, and completely cleared our chat history.
Whether he loved me or not had nothing to do with me anymore.
