Chapter 9 — Easy Goodbye, New Meeting Again?

The day he returned from the hotel, Tran Van Tu was drunk and called Luong Kieu. When she came to pick her up, the first sentence he threw at her was: "If it weren't for you, Niem Niem wouldn't have left." Luong Kieu immediately burst out laughing bitterly. She said: "Tran Van Tu, don't let go of your responsibility like that. Every criticism is yours to say, every choice is yours to make. I just happen to be the one standing next to you." They argued extremely unsightly. Friends for many years, in the end, only criticism and tearing each other down remain. After hearing the story, I just felt meaningless. Whether they quarrel or make up, it has nothing to do with me anymore. 11 My life began to have a new trajectory. I passed the company's internal recruitment exam and was transferred to the Marketing department. In the past, Tran Van Tu always criticized me for not being suitable for working with customers: "You're too gentle, the moment people show a bit of toughness, you get flustered." But when I successfully negotiated my first contract myself, my boss patted my shoulder and praised me: "Khuong Niem, you're much calmer than I thought." Turns out I'm not an emotionally unstable person. I just accidentally entered a relationship that made me feel anxious. After that, I took my parents on a backpacking trip around the area. During the trip, I held the wheel with one hand. My father sat in the passenger seat, saying he was not nervous, but his hand kept holding the seat belt tightly. My mother sat in the back seat and teased him: "Don't affect Niem Niem." At the top of the mountain, I backed the car into a narrow parking lot. My father got out and walked around the car twice, seriously complimenting: "You parked better than me." I'm very happy. Because I finally took steps to save myself from the assessments and judgments that Tran Van Tu once imposed on me. Half a year later, the company held a year-end party. I had just finished taking photos with my colleagues when I saw Tran Van Tu at the end of the hallway. He lost a lot of weight. A person who was once bright and enthusiastic like him, now has a tired look in the corners of his eyes. The moment he saw me, his eyes lit up, then quickly turned gloomy.

“Nim Niem.”

I stopped walking. "Long time no see." He looked at me, “You've changed so much now.”

“Yes, everyone is different.”

He smiled bitterly:

"Before, I always thought you couldn't leave me."

I didn't reply. He bent down, his voice sad.

“Later I discovered that the person who cannot live without the other person is me.”

“I don't know how to record expenses, don't know how to handle household chores, don't know what gift to buy for my mother's birthday, and don't know what medicine to take for a stomachache.”

"In the past, I remembered these things for you."

“After you left, I realized it wasn't you who needed me to take care of you.”

"It's that you always take care of me, yet you take that sacrifice for granted."

I calmly listened. The hallway light shined on his face, illuminating the red corners of his eyes. I'm very calm.

“Tran Van Tu, now you understand those things, very good.”

He looked up. In his eyes, there was a ray of hope that was almost cowardly.

“So we…”

“But it has nothing to do with me anymore.”

That bit of light completely extinguished.

“Do you really… have no chance left?”

“No more.”

I replied very fast. So fast that he felt like he was stabbed deeply by something.

“Nim Niem, I thought about it many times later.”

His voice trembled.

“Sorry.”

This apology comes too late. I nodded.

“I heard it.”

"But I don't forgive you, nor do I hate you."

“I just don't need you anymore.”

He seemed to be nailed to the spot by that sentence, not moving for a long time. In the hall, the sound of my colleagues calling my name could be heard.