George watched her tears fall, wanting so badly to reach out and wipe them away. But he couldn’t anymore.
He took a deep breath. “I don’t want you to see me at my worst. Go ahead.”
His voice trembled, almost pleading.
It was a man’s final pride.
At least, don’t let him die in such a humiliating way.
He didn’t want her to see him buried completely by the sand.
Melissa bit her lip. “George, can I tell you a story?”
He didn’t look at her.
Her voice still carried a sob, but she slowly began to speak.
“The first time I saw you was at my 10th birthday party.”
“Back then, I was chubby and round, and I had a broken front tooth. When I smiled, air would escape through my teeth, and everyone secretly laughed at me. They called me Little Chubby.”
“No one invited me to dance. Only you, in your white suit, came over to invite me.”
“I knew your name back then, George. Every year, only during Christmas, when I went with my parents to visit your family, could I see you. I’d wear my prettiest little dress, and if I saw you, I’d hide behind my parents and watch you secretly, but you’d already forgotten who I was.”
“Back then, you seemed so unreachable, the only son of the Thomas Family Group. So many girls loved you, so many. They’d secretly make fun of me, saying I looked like a red apple, a total ball.”
“After I went home, I’d refuse to eat, and my dad would spank me. When I couldn’t lose weight, I started running and focused on improving my grades, hoping my dad would transfer me to your school.”
“I finally managed to get into your school’s junior high, but by then, you were already a legend in high school. You were smart, capable, and your smile brought glory. I heard your drawer was filled with love letters, thicker than books.”
“Every day, I’d be content just seeing you walk past the stairs from the opposite floor.”
Melissa had never told him these things.
George listened, stunned and silent.
She felt a mix of bitterness and heartache. “Lillian didn’t even know about these things.”
“Back then, my biggest joy was during the ten-minute break, when I could pretend to go to the convenience store and stand in line with the people from the high school section to buy snacks.”
“I bought cases of your favorite drink, and I secretly bought women’s shoes that were the same as the ones you wore, thinking that somehow, it would make me more like you.”
“My eyes were always searching for you in the crowd. The happiest moments were when your gaze would meet mine.”
“My heart would race, wanting you to remember me, yet afraid that you would.”
“Back then, I wasn’t good enough, not pretty enough.”
“You didn’t know, but every Monday during flag-raising, when you stood at the front, it was the motivation for me to get first in class, so I could stand at the front of the line and be as close to you as possible.”
Melissa spoke about that period, which she had intentionally forgotten but now dug up-her girlhood.
“Every time we had physical education, it was my favorite. I could watch you run freely on the field, cheering for you like those other girls when you scored.”
“I didn’t know…” George mumbled.
He looked at her, slightly stunned.
He had only heard from some people after the wedding that Melissa had loved him before they got married. As for how long she had loved him, he never really had a clear picture.
In fact, even if he had known back then, he wouldn’t have cared.
Melissa gave a bitter smile. “Of course, you didn’t know. Not many people knew about it back then.”
“During military training, you even carried me to the infirmary. You probably don’t remember.”
Back in middle and high school, they would have military training together, though the field was divided into two halves, so they wouldn’t disturb each other.
Sometimes they would even be chosen separately for face-to-face training.
Just thinking about him watching her made her nervous, and she could never keep up with the pace of the group.
As a result, she was singled out by the instructor, scolded, and made to do jumping jacks in place.
She wasn’t athletic, and she ended up bumping her forehead against the rubber track, right in front of George, bowing to him awkwardly.
She was so embarrassed, her heart shattered, and she cried so much she could barely breathe.
George, shocked, carried her to the infirmary, and the instructor even came to check on her.
She cried alone in the infirmary all afternoon, but the next time he saw her, he had no memory of it. It was as if she was just an NPC in his life.
He never paid much attention to her, and even if they crossed paths, he wouldn’t remember who she was.
Unrequited love was always bittersweet and filled with ups and downs.
You loved him, loved the fantasy of him, loved the fantasy of yourself and him.
No matter how much you let your imagination run wild to fill in the gaps in the relationship, in the end, it was always just your own thing.
She chased after him.
She got into the same university as him.
She worked hard to learn makeup and dress up, trying to shine brighter.
She had planned to stand in front of him on a special occasion and tell him, “My name is Melissa, and I love you. I’ve loved you for a long time.”
But during Christmas when she was asked if she wanted to get engaged to George, it felt like a blessing from the heavens.
“Back then, you blamed me for agreeing to the engagement, thinking I had ulterior motives. I didn’t admit it at first, but now I’m telling you, I did have ulterior motives.”
“I knew that the Thomas family was in a critical situation and needed to use George’s marriage to shift the media’s attention, and you also needed a stable marriage to cover up the scandal with your family.”
“But I was willing. I knew this was a rare opportunity, and I knew that the next time you had an alliance, the partner would be someone else. As long as I could be with you, I didn’t care at all.”
George looked at her, and Melissa had already choked up. “Even with the humiliation you put me through on our wedding night, I never gave up on loving you.”
“I thought, as long as I could do a little better, you’d notice me. I waited for you to come home every day. Being able to marry the man I’d loved for so many years was an enormous surprise to me. I didn’t care about my parents’ opposition. I just wanted to be the one you loved.”
When George thought of the things he’d done and said after the wedding, a thousand words turned into just one, “I’m sorry.”
“Actually, you don’t owe me an apology, because, from your perspective, I was just a complete stranger who suddenly became your wife at the Thomas family’s most critical moment.”
Melissa added, “And you were just tricked into coming back by your parents, forced to marry me. You thought we all fooled you. George, I don’t blame you anymore. I’m just… I’m just afraid of making the same mistake again.”
Melissa’s tears fell onto the hot sand, and George wanted to wipe them away, but he couldn’t.
He suppressed the overwhelming bitterness in his heart. “Look at me now, I can’t even crawl over to you.”
As he spoke, his body sank a little further.
“Thank you for loving me so passionately, once. Melissa, I know you’re saying all this to make me hold on. But I don’t think a miracle is going to happen.”
After George spoke, more sand began to sink around him.
Melissa suddenly widened her eyes and crawled toward him, calling out uncontrollably, “George! George!”
Her palm dug into the sand as she tried to grab him, but she came up empty.
“George!”
Her voice cracked, and she helplessly watched as George disappeared from her sight. She crawled forward, her waist caught by the rope, and her body began to sink as well.
She clutched the corner of his shirt, her fingers aching, her skin bruising, but she wouldn’t let go.
“George!”
She called out, her heart breaking as she repeated his name.
“I’m not angry with you anymore, I don’t want to lose you…”
“Come back! Please come back!”
The emptiness in her chest, the unbearable pain of reality, made Melissa feel like she was in the darkest moment of her life.