Chapter 3

After a moment of silence, I could feel my soul being forcibly torn away.

The white light became a vortex that swallowed my soul whole. When I came to, the first thing I saw was the asphalt road in front of the school gates.

It was early summer then. The cicadas were buzzing loudly. The shadows of the evergreen trees dappled our bodies. Everything seemed too beautiful to be real.

Gabriel was a year ahead of me. At this time we were in high school.

"Gabriel, how are your studies going lately?" he asked.

That day, my voice suddenly became halting and stumbling as I answered his question. I forgot what I said in the middle, but I ended with "I like you."

That day I confessed to Gabriel. But after hearing it, Gabriel only responded with an expressionless "Mm" and said nothing else.

He was known for being a cold, aloof top student at school. So when I heard that "Mm", I was overjoyed.

He usually wouldn't even acknowledge me, so maybe I had a chance? That's what I thought.

But now I heard Gabriel say in an impatient tone:

"Can you stop following me around all the time? You're like a fly."

I didn't understand. I had only asked him one question. How had it turned into this?

Although I couldn't feel any physical pain, the place where my heart should be still ached. But the young woman before me was still immersed in her supposed happiness, coyly asking Gabriel:

"So how have you been lately?" We rarely saw each other since Gabriel had moved.

The young man paused in his steps. A gust of hot wind blew past him. I caught a glimpse of a blush on his face.

"Fine," he said.

But I heard another cold voice in my ear saying: "It would be even better without you."

The young woman also stopped walking. Just as she was about to pull out the chocolate hidden behind her back, she was interrupted by a male voice. The owner of the voice slung his arm around Gabriel's shoulder and said:

"Come on, let's go study."

Gabriel's eyes lit up at that moment. Without responding to the girl behind him, he was about to link arms with his friend and leave.

The girl's beautiful confession had been abruptly cut off. Still unwilling to give up, she timidly asked:

"Can I come find you during summer break after exams are over?"

"Sure," Gabriel's retreating figure replied.

The world froze again. At the same time, that cold voice appeared again: "This should get rid of her, right?"

I was stunned for a long time. I never imagined that the man I had loved for nearly 70 years actually hated me so much.

Thinking back on everything I had done, I still couldn't find a reason for Gabriel to hate me.