Chapter 10 — Gardenias After the Rain

I never want to see her sad. Fortunately, I finally understand my own heart. I still love her deeply. Whether she was the Song Tinh Nhien of ten years ago or the one of ten years today, she remains the gentlest, most endearing girl in the entire world to me.

After our little girl, Tinh Tinh, came into this world, Chu Chi paid us a visit. He beamed widely and chuckled, "I knew it! My intuition was never wrong. Ever since middle school, I could tell by the way you looked at Song Tinh Nhien that there was something special there, only you were too stubborn to ever admit it back then."

That very evening, curiosity getting the better of me, I turned to Luong Hao Chi and asked, "Since when did you and Chu Chi become so close? I don't ever recall seeing the two of you exchange more than a few words."

He stared at me as if I had just descended from an alien planet, his expression a mix of disbelief and amusement. "My love, has pregnancy brain really lingered for three whole years? Chu Chi was my second desk-mate in school."

I froze in utter astonishment, my jaw dropping. "What?! Are you serious? I thought your second desk-mate was some high-spirited, energetic girl!"

Luong Hao Chi rolled his eyes dramatically, pulling me into his arms while looking left and right as if trying to inspect my mental state. "You seemed completely normal to me..." Then, as if a sudden realization struck him, his eyes widened. "Could it be... were you so consumed by jealousy back then that your subconscious mind actually transformed him into a girl to serve as my rival?"

Well... listening to his reasoning, it did sound somewhat plausible. Back in those days, I really had viewed Chu Chi as a formidable romantic threat.

Just as we were settling in for the night, Tinh Tinh suddenly wailed from her crib, crying at the top of her lungs. No matter how much we tried to soothe her, she refused to quiet down. Luong Hao Chi suggested she must be hungry and urged me to feed her once more. Out of pure instinct, I reached to adjust my shirt, but a movement caught the corner of my eye—Luong Hao Chi was standing right there, staring fixedly. A burning flush rushed up to my face, dyeing my cheeks crimson.

"Turn around and get out of here, stop looking!" I hissed.

"What's wrong? You're my wife... is there any part of you I haven't seen before?" he teased, a mischievous glint in his eye.

Utterly exasperated, I grabbed the nearest pillow and hurled it straight at him. "Get lost!"

Perhaps because our conversations that evening had drifted so heavily into the past, I drifted off to sleep and fell into a wonderfully strange dream. In the dream, I was transported back to the very first day we became desk-mates. He offered a shy, hesitant smile and asked, "Song Tinh Nhien, would you like to be friends with me?"

I happily agreed without a second thought. Together, we studied hard and successfully passed the entrance exams for the same high school. Upon graduation, he confessed his feelings under the blooming trees, and I gladly accepted. Within the realm of that dream, we were practically childhood sweethearts. We grew up side by side, striving endlessly for a shared future. There were no painful separations, no agonizing ten-year chasms of longing and missed chances. We even had an adorable little boy named Tinh Tinh—our very own tiny, precious white star.

The following morning, the moment my eyes fluttered open, I was greeted by the familiar, infinitely tender gaze of Luong Hao Chi watching over me.

"Good morning, hubby," I murmured softly.

"Good morning, wifey. Do you know, I had the most extraordinary dream last night," he replied, his voice laced with lingering wonder.

My heart skipped a beat, performing a joyful little somersault in my chest. The very next second, his words confirmed the sudden, uncanny intuition pulsing through my mind:

"I dreamed that... we were high school sweethearts, attending the same school from the very beginning, and right after the college entrance exams, I confessed my love to you—and you said yes."

A radiant smile bloomed across my face as I answered, "I had that exact same dream."

"Who knows... perhaps it wasn't just a dream at all. Perhaps, in some distant realm, it was a parallel universe where we truly lived out those years?"

No matter which world we inhabit, Song Tinh Nhien and Luong Hao Chi will always, without fail, love each other fiercely and completely. [The End]