Chapter 6 — The Call from Another Me

Finally, I hope that next year, everyone will be able to achieve great success and build a bright future for themselves. Thank you.

I placed the microphone back into its stand and walked off the stage with a steady, composed gait. Immediately, the entire school courtyard erupted into a chaotic buzz of whispers and murmurs. Chu Chen and Trinh Oanh looked as if they were desperate to flee, scurrying away in a state of sheer panic. Watching their retreating forms, I finally let out a genuine, relieved laugh. Just one day before I had been set to depart for university, Chu Chen had stood beneath my balcony one last time. Now, both he and Trinh Oanh had become the focal point of the town’s disdain, treated like vermin scurrying across a busy street, loathed by everyone who knew them. Trinh Oanh had been dragged by her parents before my grandfather, where she was met with a brutal reckoning. Her parents, flush with embarrassment and shame, had stammered out endless apologies. They had even forced her to kneel in the dirt to beg for my forgiveness before whisking her out of town in the dead of night. Chu Chen was faring little better; his face was gaunt, and dark, heavy circles hung beneath his eyes.

Tham Thanh, I…

The words died in his throat, heavy and stagnant. He reached out, his hand trembling as he pleaded to grasp mine, but in the end, only a fractured sentence escaped him:

I am sorry. It was a momentary lapse in judgment; I only…

I do not wish to hear your justifications.

Chu Chen, both you and I know the truth deep down. If my dream had truly been to attend that vocational college, you would have treated me with nothing but cold indifference.

I will not accept your apology. I will never forgive you.

I hope that from this day forward, you never cross my path again.

I wrenched my hand from his grip and walked away with absolute finality. I did not falter, and I did not look back, not even once. Four years later, on the day of my university graduation, I received that mysterious, transcendent phone call once more. This time, there were no frantic screams or desperate pleas; only a calm, composed voice resonated through the line:

Congratulations to you, and congratulations to the thousands upon thousands of others just like us.