Chapter 6 — Leave Your Game

He stood in front of me, only a tired look on his face. He looked at me, his voice carrying self-pity:

“Duong Duong, today is your birthday.”

That's right. Today is Lam Duc Sam's birthday. In previous years, I always waited for the right moment to send him birthday wishes, then handed the carefully prepared gift into his hands and sweetly said happy birthday. But this year I forgot. Absolutely don't remember. I calmly said:

“Oh, then happy birthday.”

After saying that, I conveniently threw the trash bag, which just happened to fall into the bin. I clapped my hands in satisfaction, turned around and prepared to return.

“Is that all?”

Lam Duc Sam raised his hand to stop me:

“Duong Duong, where is my gift?”

I shook my head:

“I think there's no need to prepare a birthday gift for your ex-boyfriend.”

Lam Duc Sam was speechless. After a while, he nodded sympathetically:

"I understand. My Tang Duong is still angry. So I don't need a birthday present this year."

“Come to my house to eat tonight. My mother has prepared a sumptuous dinner to celebrate my birthday.”

I looked at him. He smiled bitterly, looking both expectant and worried. Seeing that I didn't answer, he panicked and quickly said:

"Tu Duyet will also come. As soon as you know, you can take this opportunity to apologize to her. She is very generous, the two of you will definitely reconcile like before. Then you will no longer have no friends."

His sincere eyes and earnest voice seemed like it was all for me. If it was before, I might have been tricked into going there. I politely smiled:

"No need. I won't be with you for my birthday this year."

7

The next morning, I dragged my suitcase into a taxi. As soon as I arrived at the airport, I saw a familiar figure. Lam Duc Sam very naturally reached out to help me carry my luggage, but I avoided it.

“What are you doing?”

I'm a bit impatient:

“Why are you here?”

"I asked my aunt what day your flight was. I was afraid of missing out, so I came here to wait very early. Traveling is supposed to be fun, I came to see you off."

I frowned:

“If you don't come, I'll be in a better mood.”

Lam Duc Sam opened his mouth, but in the end he still did not refute. He just gently probed:

“So can you remove me from the blacklist?”

I looked at his expectant eyes but did not answer. I pulled my suitcase and walked past him, walking straight into the airport. Behind, Lam Duc Sam's voice carried through the wind:

"Duong Duong, safe journey. I'm waiting for you to come back!"

8

The flight lasted more than ten hours and made my back ache. But as soon as I stepped out of the airport, all my fatigue immediately disappeared. The land I had never set foot on was holding a large-scale activity. People sing and dance, the streets are extremely bustling, with a completely different atmosphere than in the country. The more I move forward, the luckier I feel for my decision without hesitation at that moment. What's interesting about revolving around other people all day? Only when I stepped out of the strange circle of three people myself did I realize there are many good people in the world. Even the classmates I just met were extremely enthusiastic. After half a month as an exchange student at the school, I became close to my classmates. Just after school, the phone rang. I didn't look but instead picked up the phone. On the other end of the line, a man's voice sounded a little angry. I immediately recognized who it was.

"Duong Duong, why aren't you back yet? Even when traveling, it's very dangerous for a girl to run to such a far place for a long time."

“I didn't come here to travel.”

I ate the last bite of rice:

“I came here to study.”

“Study?”

Lam Duc Sam is difficult to understand:

“What did you go there to learn?”

I answer briefly:

“I signed up for the school's exchange student program.”

The other end of the line immediately went silent.