Chapter 5 — Farewell Message Deleted

"Oh, this color is out of date, isn't it? She likes bright colors now." He folded the towel, stuffed it into the paper bag and pushed it back: "Senior, accept it in your heart, bring it home." The next day, when Tham Chu came, he brought a thermos, inside was ginger tea with red sugar. "Your period is coming." I still remember this story. Before, every month, he only sent one sentence: "Drink lots of warm water." Giang Tri took it, sniffed it, frowned: "It's too sweet, she doesn't like sweet drinks like this." He conveniently placed the thermos on the window sill and then turned to ask me: "Sister, what do you want to eat tonight? I'll order it for you." On the third day, Tham Chu arrived earlier than usual. In his hand he only held a photo. He walked to the bed, hesitated for a few seconds, then brought the photo in front of me. That's a photo of me and him together in high school. We haven't changed our uniforms yet, behind is an old ginkgo tree next to the back door of the classroom. I stood on tiptoe to reach for the leaf on his head, and he bent down to coordinate with me. The corners of the photo are worn from being flipped through too much. On the back there is also the words he wrote that year: "For Manh Gia. When you graduate, I will take you to all the culinary streets." My eyes stopped on the photo, my throat suddenly choked. In high school, he brought me breakfast every day. When I did not do well on the monthly test, he skipped physical education class to sit with me on the stadium, saying over and over again: "It's okay, I'll teach you next time." He remembered what kind of milk tea I liked to drink, and when eating noodles, I had to add two servings of bean sprouts. He also knew that I was afraid of the cold, so in the winter he always took off his scarf for me. I looked at his smiling eyes in the photo, and my nose suddenly stung. Vision blurred for a moment. Tham Chu's voice gently transmitted: "Manh Gia, I lost you that day." I grabbed the corner of the photo, my fingertips gently stroked the faded text, without saying anything. Giang Tri looked at me, opened his mouth but in the end still swallowed what he was about to say. The day I was discharged from the hospital, Tham Chu stood in front of the school gate waiting for me. At first Giang Tri wanted to go with me but I stopped him. I smiled: "There are some things I have to finish myself." Tham Chu took two steps forward and suddenly said: "I heard you were accepted directly into the graduate program." I paused and nodded. His throat moved. There were emotions in my eyes that I didn't understand. There was surprise, there was bewilderment, and in the end it gradually subsided into a mixture of relief and bitterness. He smiled slightly, his voice very light: "You must have endured a lot of hardships." The bridge of my nose suddenly stung. Yes, I endured a lot of hardships. Since my freshman year of college, I was in the library every day until closing time. I flipped through three specialized books until they were torn, and the English exam was retaken twice. On weekends, other people went out to play, and I curled up in the dormitory to practice. I set his school screenshot as my phone wallpaper. Look at it once a day and force yourself to learn twenty more vocabulary words. I think that as long as we get there, we won't need a long-distance relationship anymore. I can eat, walk, and go around the stadium with him every day. I used to think that at the other end, he was waiting for me. So I sent him messages, sending him my study progress, sending test scores, sending him a photo of the subway station nameplate in his city every time I passed by. Every photo is saying: I'm moving towards you. But his answer was always just: "Yes." "Okay." "Do your best." I raised my head to look at him. Tears rolled around in his eye sockets and finally couldn't help but fall. I stared at him, my voice trembling: "Tham Chu, I've been trying for three years. I want to come to your city, want to be closer to you, want you to not have to lower your goals."

spend to please me. But when I risked my life to run towards you, there was already someone else next to you." His lips moved but no sound came out. "When it comes to me saying goodbye, you have to know through someone else." I sniffed my nose and wiped my tears: "Let's not prolong it any longer. Let's break up." He stood in place, his eyes fixed on my face. The wind blew the leaves down, spun around and landed on his shoulder. From beginning to end, he did not open his mouth. I turned to leave. This time, I did not turn my head. 9 A few days later, the phone screen lit up. An Du sent a very long text message. "Sister Manh Gia, there are some things I have thought about carefully, I still feel like I should tell you." I was about to brush it off, but my fingertips stopped. again. “I secretly took Tham Chu's phone while he was taking a shower. The sentence 'Let's break up' you sent, I deleted it. I also deleted all the messages you sent during that time. He didn't know at all." "On the day of the basketball match, the ball was actually kicked by me on purpose with my foot. I have calculated the direction, I want Tham Chu to protect me. But I didn't expect it to hit you."