Facing calamity with an end

The roses he planted for her only bloomed after she left.

The umbrella he held up for her couldn’t shield her from the rain in her heart.

The soup he made for her, who’s going to finish it now…?

How many people are moved by these other people’s stories, yet how many people have a past that resembles these stories?

I was awakened by the sound of the train rolling into the platform. I opened my eyes and looked out the window. The platform was old and quiet in the early morning, with dim lights. Further away were the suburbs of the city, with the lights of the houses still awake, like blooming epiphyllum flowers, just like the scenes in Eileen Chang’s novels.

I’ve woken up from dreams many times, just because your face appears in them. The song “Longing” is still playing in my headphones, and one of the lyrics is so much like our story.

Our story, our unfinished love, is a fate I cannot escape.

Gradually, I realized the pain, so I just endured it myself. Because even if I spoke of it, there was no point in trying. I just wanted to ask that person, just how much did they truly love me?

Why do people who have been in love for many years end up living like strangers? Perhaps the reason for the breakup isn’t that they no longer love each other, but rather that they can’t provide the life each other desires.

Wanting to love but being powerless to do so—that’s life.

The person you ultimately grow old with may not be the one who made vows of eternal love, promised to grow old together, or secretly swore to love only her for the rest of their life.

Ultimately, time will take everything away. Perhaps we’ll keep saying it’s nothing, then remain silent as we listen to others’ stories, while the turmoil within remains unknown. Only we ourselves know who the person we love is, and who has hurt us.

So in the end, when we’ve both found our own paths, you’ll only remain a blurry silhouette in my memory.

The idea of ​​love at first sight is just an excuse to make things more interesting when you first get together; time is the true master of everything.

When I first met you in the boundless wilderness of time, it wasn’t love, but just a coincidence, my destiny.

When we look back on the past and recall that love that flashed across our lives like a shooting star, we often attribute each other’s mistakes to fate.

In reality, fate is just a vague and abstract concept that carries the blame. What truly influences us is often the timing of our encounters.

Interactions between men and women are often fraught with hesitation, uncertainty, and unspoken restraint. A small change can completely alter the course of a choice.

If you had appeared earlier, perhaps she wouldn’t be holding hands with someone else. Or if you had met later, after you had both learned to understand, treat each other kindly, and be tolerant through your own romantic experiences, perhaps you could have gone further together.

Whom did you meet when you were at your most beautiful? Who was by your side when you loved someone deeply? Who walked hand in hand with you when your heart was fragile and needed comfort?

Love only gives us a short time to meet, separate, choose, and regret. We set a circle for ourselves, going around and around, but we can never really get out of it.

How long will you love me? If we are separated by distance and can only gaze at the moon in a foreign land, will you still love me next year?

Love makes us anxious and insecure, and time makes us lose things in that anxiety. Even if we don’t see each other, don’t talk, and don’t text each other, there will always be a place in our hearts where someone is safely and securely placed.

I never touch anything that I’m addicted to, and I hate the feeling of keeping someone in my heart, but you are the exception!

The most beautiful thing isn’t a rainy day, but the eaves where we sheltered from the rain together. The most precious thing isn’t being together, but the memories we have of being together.

You are the unattainable love in my life, the destined calamity in my fate. Therefore, I am willing to face this calamity with an end!