Chapter 11 — Contract of the Heart

Three days after that fateful call, Việt Anh texted Thảo Nguyên in the evening: "I found the photo. My dad agreed to lend me one, saying it was for a family history project. Can I see you tomorrow?"

Thảo Nguyên read the message and her hands shook with nervousness. She immediately typed a reply: "Okay, tomorrow after school, same place."

The next afternoon, at the small tea shop at the end of the alley - where they signed the contract not long ago - Việt Anh arrived earlier than usual, holding an old, carefully preserved paper envelope in his hand.

"Here," he said, his voice shaking a little as he pulled out a small black and white photo and carefully placed it on the table. "My grandfather's photo was taken when he was twenty years old, before moving to the South."

Thảo Nguyên picked up her phone, opened the photo she had taken from Ms. Xuân's album on the anniversary of her death, and placed it next to the original photo Việt Anh had just given. They both lowered their heads, comparing every little detail on the faces in the two photos — straight noses, deep eyes, smiles slightly tilted to one side.

"It's the same person," Thảo Nguyên whispered, her voice choked with emotion. "It's unmistakable, it's the same face, just different angles."

Việt Anh was silent, his finger gently touching the edge of the old photo, his eyes showing a shock that was rarely seen in a person who always remained calm like him. "So it's true. My grandfather and Uncle Xuân, they really used to..."

"Once loved each other," Thảo Nguyên finished her sentence, feeling a stream of complex emotions welling up in her heart - both moved by the unfinished love story of the previous generation, and stunned when she realized that she and Việt Anh were standing at the strange intersection of a cycle of fate.

"Do you think," Việt Anh asked, his voice slow, as if he were carefully choosing each word, "that this is a meaningful coincidence? Or is it simply a low probability that could still happen in a not-so-big city?"

"I don't know," Thảo Nguyên answered honestly, not taking her eyes off the two photos placed side by side. "But I think, whether it's coincidence or fate, this truth is making things between us much more complicated than a simple contract."

Việt Anh nodded and carefully put the photo back in the envelope. "I've been thinking for the past few days. If Uncle Xuân knew this truth, his reaction could be in two directions — either he would be very moved, seeing this as a beautiful connection between the two families, or he would feel hurt when thinking about his own unfinished past."

"There's one more problem," Thảo Nguyên said, her voice low. "If you knew this truth now, you would definitely trust our relationship even more, seeing it as an arrangement of fate. That would make... ending the contract later even more difficult."

Her words caused the atmosphere between the two to suddenly calm down. Việt Anh looked at her with something unpredictable in his eyes, as if he was considering something important but wasn't ready to say it yet.

"So how long do you think we should keep this a secret?" He asked, his voice careful.

"Maybe... until we're really sure about what we want to do with it," Thảo Nguyên replied, although she herself wasn't sure what her answer was referring to — just the family secret, or the emotions that were becoming increasingly difficult to control between the two of them.

They sat quietly together for a long time, the cup of tea in front of them had gone cold without realizing it, each person immersed in their own thoughts. Outside, the sunset dyed the sky a brilliant red-orange color, reflecting through the glass window of the tea shop, covering both their faces with an unusually warm color.

"Hey," Việt Anh suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence, his voice a bit unusually hesitant. "I have a question; it might be a bit sudden."

"You just ask," Thảo Nguyên replied, a bit curious about his unusual attitude.

"If it weren't for this contract," he said, looking straight at her, not avoiding it like usual. "If we were simply two classmates, no lies, no newly discovered family secrets... what do you think we could become to each other?"

The question made Thảo Nguyên's heart skip a beat, her cheeks heated up in an instant. She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could utter a word, her phone suddenly rang, interrupting that sweet tense moment.

"It's my grandmother," she said, her voice a bit regretful as she looked at the phone screen, then quickly picked up the phone. "Hello ma'am, I'm listening."

"Dear," Mrs. Xuân's voice rang out excitedly over the phone, "I have just decided that for my birthday party this year, in addition to relatives, I want to invite Việt Anh's family as well. Please help me ask if his parents are free that night, I want to officially meet before..."

She left the sentence unfinished, but Thảo Nguyên immediately understood what she meant - a meeting to introduce the two families, a step much further than what she and Việt Anh had imagined when signing the contract just a few weeks ago.

She hung up the phone, turned to look at Việt Anh with a worried expression, and narrated the entire content of the call. He listened, his face gradually becoming serious.

“So things are escalating faster than expected,” he said, his voice thoughtful. "If my family really comes to the party, and if my dad accidentally mentions my grandfather's name in front of Uncle Xuân..."

"The secret will be revealed immediately, in a way none of us can control," Thảo Nguyên finished her sentence, a feeling of anxiety rising in her heart.

The two looked at each other, clearly realizing that Việt Anh's unanswered question a few minutes ago, and the larger question of how to handle family secrets, were now caught up in the same vortex of time that was tightening as the date of Mrs. Xuân's birthday party drew closer each day.

"I'll tell my dad that the family hasn't been able to arrange a schedule yet, please beg," Việt Anh said after a moment of thought, his voice regaining some of its familiar calmness. "At least until we decide how to handle this."

"But my grandmother will ask again, and maybe even call your parents directly if she waits too long and doesn't get a response," Thảo Nguyên said worriedly. "She is the type of person who, once determined to do something, rarely gives up halfway."

"Then we need enough time to think clearly, not to avoid forever," Việt Anh said, his eyes serious. "I think, before deciding whether to tell the truth or not, we should learn more about our grandparents' story. We can ask Aunt Hạnh more, because on the anniversary of his death, he said she seemed to know a little."

"Good idea," Thảo Nguyên nodded, feeling relieved to have a specific direction to stick to amidst the chaos of emotions surrounding her. "I'll find a way to ask my aunt this weekend, when she comes over to visit."

Việt Anh nodded in agreement, then the two were silent for a moment, the atmosphere between them still lingering with a bit of awkwardness from the earlier left-over question that Ms. Xuân's call had interrupted at the wrong time. Thảo Nguyên glanced at Việt Anh and saw that he was also looking at her. They both quickly turned away at the same time, making the atmosphere even more confused.

"Ah, well," she spoke first, trying to break the awkward silence, "the question you asked earlier, about if there was no contract..."

"No need to answer now," Việt Anh quickly interrupted, his ears were slightly red, a rare expression that surprised Thảo Nguyên. "I just asked suddenly, you don't need to take it too seriously."

"Okay," she replied, even though that question still lingered in her heart, it wasn't easy to dismiss with just a vague statement like that. She looked out the shop window, where the sunset gradually turned dark purple, the street lights began to light up along the small alley, and suddenly she realized that she had been asking herself the same question, she didn't know how long it had been.

When the two stood up to prepare to leave, Việt Anh carefully put the envelope containing the old photo in his briefcase, moving gently as if he was preserving something more precious than a piece of paper that had become yellow over the years. Thảo Nguyên looked at that gesture, suddenly thinking about how this small photo was silently connecting two love stories half a century apart, one story unfinished due to circumstances, one story starting from a lie - and she wondered if the second story was repeating part of the fate of the first story, only this time, perhaps there was still time to change the outcome.

"Thank you for trusting me to bring this photo out of the house," she said as the two walked out of the shop, the streetlights falling down, creating long streaks of light on the street. "I know this is an important keepsake for your family."

"I believe you," Việt Anh replied simply, but his eyes when he said that sentence carried a sincerity that made Thảo Nguyên's chest tighten in a completely different way from any feeling she had during the time of maintaining this fake contract.