He fell in love with her at first sight.
He and she were classmates in the same year and department but in different classes at university. On the day freshmen registration took place in their first year, thousands of new students were lined up waiting to register. He was wearing a blue plaid shirt and happened to be standing right behind her in line. From that day, he fell in love with her at first sight.
For four years, he never dared to express his admiration for her; he could only show his love through his silence and companionship, becoming her closest friend.
She was in the soprano section of the choir, while he was the piano accompanist. She dated several people at school, and he became a loyal listener. After she graduated and went abroad for further studies, he wrote letter after letter to the United States encouraging her while he served in the military. A few years after she returned to China, she got married—but unfortunately, the groom was not him.
It wasn't that she thought he wasn't good enough or didn't realize how well he treated her; it was because they were too familiar with each other. She couldn't imagine what it would be like if one day they switched from friends to lovers. So she and he always oscillated in the blurred territory between friendship and love.
She always insisted that they were just good friends, unwilling to face the truth while still relying on his care. And he, due to a lack of courage and his naturally mellow personality, missed the chance for them to be together.
At her wedding, he went on stage to give a speech and wish her happiness.
A month later, he quietly lost five kilograms.
From then on, she lost all contact with him.
Her marriage was not as happy as she had imagined.
Because she had a strong personality and a strong career ambition, she didn't put much thought into managing her marriage.
Moreover, she had been used to his attentiveness, care, and companionship, making her feel that her husband's way of treating her did not compare favorably to his. She began to wonder how she had ever chosen her current husband. She became angry, feeling that her husband did not understand, care for, or love her as well as a good friend would.
A year later, she proactively requested a divorce.
After becoming single, she was more energetic at work and more attractive in the workplace. After years of effort, she finally carved out a place for herself in the advertising industry and gained a foothold.
After achieving success and fame, she began to feel life was empty and lonely, and she started to miss how well he treated her. However, she didn't have the courage to go back to look for him.
Because she didn't know how he had been all these years.Because she was no longer the innocent young version of herself. Because she received the wedding invitation he sent her. One weekend, a month before his wedding, he asked her out for dinner. She was puzzled—why would he, who was about to get married, want to meet her for dinner? The dinner itself turned out to be very pleasant. It was as if they had returned to their student days, with her singing soprano and him playing the piano. Club classmates, teachers they had in common, events they had participated in… Many past meetings flowed vividly through their memories, and many old stories came back to life in their conversation. Both of them felt as if they had gone back to that pure and innocent student time.
"Next week, I'm getting married." He put down his knife and fork and suddenly said this.
"Mm, congratulations. Your partner must be really great for you to be willing to marry her."
"There's something I want to tell you." His expression suddenly became serious.
He said, "A long, long time ago, a boy had just been admitted to college. On the day of registration, when he rushed to the school in a fluster, he saw a long line of new students waiting to register. Feeling anxious and at a loss, a girl kindly approached him and asked if he was there to register. He realized that the girl was actually in the same department but a different class, and he was so happy. He thought the girl was kind and a good person.
He noticed that she had bright eyes, a pair of cute little tiger teeth, and dimples when she smiled. From that day on, he fell in love with her at first sight.
However, he never knew how to express his love for her. She was so pure, so kind, so intelligent, so likable, and his personality was always slow-moving and inarticulate. All he could do was quietly stay by her side as her good friend.
In this way, four years of college passed, and he planned to tell her he loved her on graduation day.
But the day before graduation, she told him over the phone that she was going abroad to study.
The courage he had just gathered vanished in an instant. She thought that after graduation, he would serve in the military while she studied abroad. She really couldn't bear to confess her love at that time and ask him to wait for two years, so she decided to wait until she had finished her studies and returned to the country to say it.The days when she went abroad to study and he was serving in the army were the hardest for him to endure. It wasn't just because he wasn't by her side, but because she met a Taiwanese exchange student in the United States. He knew that being alone for long periods was very lonely, and she was someone who feared loneliness, so he wrote letters every week to the U.S. to greet her, encourage her, and cheer her on. But in her replies, besides complaining about various inconveniences of living in the U.S., a large portion of the letters was about the Taiwanese exchange student she had met there, and she told him in her letters that she had fallen in love again.
In her letters, she told him how good that Taiwanese exchange student was to her, how much he loved her, and eventually she wrote that when she returned to the country, she planned to marry him. He was so sad—how did things turn out like this? Even though he had never confessed to her in words, he had always shown care, taken care of her, and loved her through his actions. Was it really possible that she didn't see any of his efforts and didn't know he loved her? Or had it all been his own wishful thinking from the beginning?
When he received her wedding invitation, he felt his heart 'crash'—shattered. Love is colder than death.
He summoned his last bit of courage to attend her wedding. Seeing her in a wedding dress with a face full of happiness and sweetness, he also saw that Taiwanese exchange student—now the groom. He had originally planned to see her briefly and leave, but she, sharp-eyed, noticed his presence and coaxed him to the stage to say a few words of blessing.
Standing on the stage, looking down at the bride and groom sitting beneath him, he suddenly felt that the distance between him and her had grown immense, so vast that she was no longer the girl who had stood in front of him during the freshman registration in her first year. He couldn't even remember how he had clumsily fled the venue; all he knew was that he later lay in bed for a whole week and lost five kilograms in a month.
He decided to forget her. He applied for a leave of absence without pay from his company and hid alone in Tokyo, Japan, to study.
There, he met a girl who was also from Taiwan and studying in Tokyo.That girl encouraged him to get back on his feet when he was at his lowest. That girl accompanied him gently and meticulously, took care of him, and accepted his past. That girl helped him regain confidence and believe in love again. That girl later became the woman he is now about to marry. Although he loves his current wife very much, she still holds a place in his heart.
That's why he asked her to meet him today, to tell her this story—on one hand, to put an end to the past between them, and on the other hand, to free his heart from old memories. Now, he can finally let go of his attachment to her and love his newlywed wife wholeheartedly.
After hearing the story, she remained silent and could only politely congratulate him on finding his happiness.
After toasting and giving each other some reminders, she excused herself, saying she had something to do and had to leave. He wanted to take her home, but she refused; she told him to hurry home and spend more time with his wife.
On the way home, she couldn't help but cry bitterly, completely ignoring the smudged makeup on her face and the strange looks from the taxi driver.
All her strength and confidence crumbled in that moment. She had always told herself that he was her best friend, someone she could say anything to.
Sometimes she felt that their relationship was like that of lovers who had been in love for a long time, sharing perfect unspoken understanding.
Deep down, she had always been waiting for the day he would say to her those three words: 'I love you.'
In her heart, she could never forgive him for not pursuing her actively like other men would.
She had always believed, with great restraint, that a girl should wait for a boy to chase her and should not take the initiative to pursue the boy she liked.
But it was too late; everything had been missed.
Fate had allowed them to brush past each other. No matter how unwilling, reluctant, or dissatisfied they were, everything had ended.
It was she who gave up pursuing him, who didn't understand how to listen to his silences, who didn't trust her own heart, who overlooked the many ways of loving someone, who insisted in her heart on asking why he hadn't said he loved her—because deep down, she had already fallen deeply in love with him.
Once missed, there is no turning back; it's impossible to go back to the past and start over.Everything was the result of her own actions; no matter how much regret, sadness, or resentment she felt, it was already too late. Scenes of their shared past and memories surfaced in her heart. At the wedding ceremony, he was moved to tears as he wished her happiness. When she first returned to the country, he accompanied her all over Taipei to find a house and buy furniture. When she was in the U.S. dating her ex-husband, he was her best listener and advisor. When she went to the U.S. alone to study, he gave her a book of snapshots from all her performances in the choir. When she sang soprano in the choir, he was always the best piano accompanist. When she registered as a freshman, she noticed a boy wearing a blue plaid shirt standing nervously among the crowd. That boy was a bit awkward, a bit naive, a bit cute, and a bit handsome—the type of handsome guy she liked—and at that moment, she fell in love with him at first sight. The greatest distance in the world is not life and death, but that I stand right in front of you, yet you do not know that I love you.
