Chapter 13

Half a month passed, and the new semester began.

Thor reported to the university and immediately started asking around, trying to find out which class I was in. But everyone—professors and students alike—told him there was no one by my name enrolled.

Startled, he rushed to the registrar's office and asked the staff to look me up. The staff flipped through every freshman file but found nothing.

"Are you sure you've got the name right?" the staff asked. "There's no record of anyone named Aisha Taylor here."

Thor froze. Refusing to believe it, he checked the list himself. But my name wasn't there.

"Impossible," he muttered, his confusion deepening as a wave of unease washed over him. Some part of him already sensed the truth, though he didn't dare face it.

He pulled out his phone and called me. No answer.

He tried again—and again—but all he heard was the cold, mechanical ring echoing into emptiness.

The anxiety in his chest tightened, like invisible hands had seized his heart. Each beat grew faster, heavier, more erratic.

He sent a text—undelivered. He tried messaging me on social media—nothing went through. Every attempt failed.

The more unreachable I became, the more panicked he grew.

Suddenly, memories of all the times I'd said I wanted to break up came flooding back—my distant tone, my cold detachment over the past month. Only then did it hit him: I hadn't been joking.

While he stood there dazed, Lina walked up and slipped her arm through his.

"Thor, why are you spacing out? Come out with me tonight, okay?"

Her voice was soft and sweet, but he didn't respond. His nerves were stretched taut, his mind elsewhere.

Seeing his silence, Lina frowned and was about to say more when he suddenly jerked away as if burned.

"Don't touch me!"

She stumbled backward, nearly losing her balance. She caught herself against the wall, staring at him in shock and fear.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, voice trembling.

Thor himself was startled by his outburst, but agitation consumed him—he had no patience left to explain.

He turned and stormed off, ignoring Lina's tearful confusion, and began frantically trying to reach me again.

But no matter how many times he called, there was nothing—no answer, no trace.

In desperation, he dropped out of school and returned home to look for me. Yet when he arrived, he found my house empty.

The moment he learned my parents had already moved away, his entire body went rigid, trembling as though struck by lightning. His face drained of color; despair hollowed his eyes.

No one could tell him where I'd gone.

He called every friend, every relative—anyone who might know. But I had changed all my contact information after leaving and told no one where I was going. Even those who might have known couldn't reach me.

He made dozens of calls, desperate for a lead, but each ended the same way—with silence.

Some people were even surprised he was looking for me.

"I thought you two broke up," one friend said curiously. "Why are you still looking for her?"

Thor said nothing. His throat tightened, words dying on his tongue.

Hearing his silence, the friend continued, "You're with Lina now, aren't you? She's good for you. Let it go—there's no need to—"

"Shut up!" Thor snapped, voice breaking with fury. "Just shut up!"

He slammed the call off, teetering on the edge of rage and madness.

He couldn't comprehend how I—someone who had grown up with him, someone who had once been part of every piece of his world—could vanish so completely. No trace. No goodbye. Nothing left behind.

Our connection, once so entwined, had been severed.

Then, as he searched in desperation, Thor's mother quietly handed him an envelope.

It was a letter my mother had left behind when she and Dad moved away.