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. From that day on, he fell in love with her at first sight. For four years, he never dared to express his admiration for her. He could only express his love through his silence and companionship, becoming her closest friend. She sang in the soprano section of the choir, while he was the piano accompanist. She had a few relationships 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 while serving in the military to encourage her. 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 excellent or didn't know how good he had been to her. It was just that they were too familiar with each other, and she couldn't imagine what it would be like if one day they changed from friends to lovers. So the relationship between them lingered in a blurred zone between friendship and love. She always insisted that they were just good friends, unwilling to face it yet relying on his kindness. However, because of his lack of courage combined with his naturally slow and gentle character, he missed the chance with her. At her wedding, he went on stage to give a speech wishing her happiness. A month later, he quietly lost five kilograms. From then on, she lost 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 the way her husband treated her couldn't compare to how he used to. 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 made a name for herself in the advertising industry and gained a foothold. After achieving success and fame, she began to feel that life was empty and lonely, and she started to miss how good he had been to her. However, she didn't have the courage to go back to find him. Because she didn't know how he had been doing all these years.Because she was no longer the pure young her she used to be. Because she received the wedding invitation he sent her. One weekend, a month before his wedding, he invited her out for dinner. She wondered why he would want to meet her for dinner when he was about to get married. The dinner was actually very pleasant. It felt as if he and she had returned to their student days, with her singing soprano and him playing the piano. Classmates from the club, their teachers, activities they had participated in... many past meetings flowed vigorously through their memories, and many old anecdotes resurfaced in their conversation. Both of them felt as if they had returned to that innocent student age. ‘Next week, I'm getting married.' He put down his knife and fork and suddenly said this. ‘Hmm, congratulations. Your partner must be really nice, otherwise you wouldn't be willing to marry her.' ‘There is something I want to tell you.' His expression suddenly became serious. He said: ‘A long, long time ago, there was a boy who had just been admitted to university. On the registration day, he hurriedly ran to the school and saw the new students lined up for registration. Feeling both anxious and flustered, unsure what to do, a girl kindly approached him and asked if he was there to register. He realized that the girl was actually a classmate from the same department but a different class, and he was very happy, thinking that this girl was truly kind and a good person. He noticed that the girl had bright eyes, a pair of cute little tiger teeth and dimples when she smiled. From that day on, he fell in love at first sight with her. However, he never knew how to express his love for her. She was so pure, so kind, so intelligent and virtuous, so likable. His personality was always sluggish and inarticulate, so he could only quietly be by her side as a good friend. Thus, four years of university passed, and he planned to tell her he loved her on the day of graduation. But the day before graduation, she told him over the phone in a calm manner that she was going abroad to study. The courage he had just started to gather vanished instantly. She thought, after graduation he would serve in the military and she would study abroad. She really couldn't bear to confess her feelings to him at that time, so she decided to wait until she finished her studies and returned to the country.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 tried to write to her every week, sending greetings, encouragement, and cheering her on. But in her replies, besides complaining about the inconveniences of life in the U.S., she spent a lot of time talking about the Taiwanese exchange student she had met there. In her letters, she told him that she had fallen in love again.
She told him in her letters how kind that Taiwanese exchange student was to her, how much he loved her, and finally, she wrote that after returning to her country, she planned to marry that Taiwanese exchange student. He was heartbroken; how could things turn out this way?
Even though he hadn't confessed his love to her in words, he had always shown his care, concern, and love through his actions. Could it be that she didn't see any of his efforts and didn't realize 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 shatter with a 'bang.' Love can be colder than death.
He summoned his last bit of courage to attend her wedding. Seeing her in a wedding dress, radiant and happy, he also saw the Taiwanese exchange student, now her groom. He originally planned to just glance at her and leave, but she spotted him in the audience and insisted that he come up on stage to offer a few words of blessing.
Standing on the stage and looking at the bride and groom seated below, he suddenly felt an immense distance between them, so vast that she was no longer the girl who had stood in line before him on freshman registration day. He couldn't even remember how he had awkwardly fled the venue, only that he had later lain in bed for an entire week and lost five kilograms in a month.
He decided to forget her. He applied to take a leave of absence without pay from his company and went alone to Tokyo, Japan, to study. There, he met a girl who was also from Taiwan going to study in Tokyo.That girl encouraged him to get back on his feet when he was at his lowest. That girl accompanied him with gentle care, looked after him, and accepted his past. That girl helped him regain confidence and believe in love once 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 arranged to meet her today—to tell her this story, partly to put an end to the past between them, and partly to free his heart from those memories. Now, he can finally let go of his attachment to her and love his new wife wholeheartedly.
After hearing this story, she remained silent, only able to politely congratulate him on finally finding his happiness. After they toasted and wished each other well, she claimed she had something to attend to and needed to leave first. 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 curious eyes of the taxi driver.
All her strength and confidence collapsed in that instant. She always told herself that he was her best friend and that she could tell him anything. Sometimes she felt that their relationship was like that of a long-term lover, with perfect tacit understanding between them.
Deep down, she had been waiting for the day he would tell her those three words: 'I love you.'
In her heart, she could never forgive him for not pursuing her proactively like other men would. She always believed that a girl should wait for a boy to pursue her, not take the initiative to pursue the boy she liked.
She missed her chance, and everything was gone. Fate simply brushed past them. No matter how unwilling, reluctant, or unwilling to let go, it was all over.
She had given up on pursuing him, failed to understand his silence, did not trust her own heart, overlooked the fact that there are many ways to love someone, and demanded in her heart why he did not say he loved her—all the while, she had already deeply fallen in love with him.
Once missed, there's no turning back; she could never return to the past to start over.It was all the result of her own actions, and no matter how much regret, sadness, or resentment she felt, it was already too late. Scenes of their shared past and memories together surfaced in her heart. At the wedding ceremony, he was tearfully wishing her happiness. When she first returned to the country, he accompanied her around Taipei City, looking for a house and buying furniture. When she was dating her ex-husband in the U.S., he was her best listener and advisor. When she went to the U.S. to study alone, he gave her a scrapbook of all the performances she participated in with the choir. When she sang soprano in the choir, he was always the best piano accompanist. When she was registering as a freshman, she noticed a boy in a blue plaid shirt standing nervously in the crowd. That boy was a little awkward, a little innocent, a little cute, a little handsome — the type of handsome guy she liked. She fell in love with him at first sight.
