Chapter 4

Over the next few days, Summer did not come home. Instead, she sent Jude a message claiming that she was on a business trip.

However, Finn had exposed her whereabouts.

Jude did not respond to any of the text messages. Instead, he printed them out again and stored them in the drawer.

Whenever he was free, he cleared items on his bucket list.

When he reached item ten, he saw that he had written that he wanted to look at some beautiful flowers. After searching online, he decided to go to a popular park to view some freshly bloomed plum blossoms.

It was a weekday, so there were not many people in the park. He wheeled himself slowly on the pavement.

At around three in the afternoon, there were a lot of buskers showing up in the park. They were playing the piano and singing some ballads.

Jude looked over and saw Summer and Finn.

They were sharing a snack while they chatted.

Finn fed a piece to Summer, and she ate it naturally.

Jude was stunned when he saw the smile on her face.

He had not expected to bump into them at the park.

He watched silently for a while before seeing Summer suddenly stood up and walked toward a singer. Then, she bent down and whispered to him. The singer let Summer take his seat.

She adjusted the microphone and started playing the guitar under the crowd’s curious gaze.

“I’m dedicating this song to Finn, the man I love the most.”

After saying that, she started singing as she played the guitar.

Everyone became quiet as they listened quietly to this love song.

A few guys were admiring Summer as they praised softly, “She’s so cool. I’m so jealous of her boyfriend. My girlfriend has never done something this romantic before.”

“It’s such a touching love song. I’ve never heard it before, is this an original?”

“Yes.”

Jude subconsciously answered, as if he was answering their questions or reminiscing about the past.

He had heard that song when he was sixteen. Summer had played it during one of the school performances.

She wrote the song and was the last to perform. In front of the entire school, she had said the same thing.

However, back then, she had mentioned his name.

The entire gymnasium had erupted in cheers as the high school students whistled and screamed in support.

A few days later, she even joined the school’s radio club.

From that day onward, Jude would hear that song every day during recess.

Everything had been perfect back then.

However, things had changed. That song no longer belonged to him.

He was no longer the person she loved either.

The few guys looked down after hearing Jude’s response. They looked surprised as they quickly passed him a few pieces of tissue paper. “Hey, dude, why are you crying? Is this song really touching?”

At that moment, Jude finally realized that tears had snuck down his face.

He took the tissue paper and wiped his tears away. Then, he slowly shook his head and wheeled himself away.

The 19th item on his list was to visit his alma mater.

Jude held his alumni pass and walked into the familiar campus.

There was the field he ran half a mile with Summer, the library where they did their revisions together, and the block where she had carried him on her back when he sprained his ankle despite her petite size.

There were memories of them in every corner of that school. However, he could no longer stand, so he could only stare at them from afar.

Finally, he wheeled himself to the corner of the school garden and fell into a daze as he looked at that willow tree that was around his height.

Back then, Summer was the one who planted that tree for a sustainability event.

Everyone else’s seedling had died, so that tree stood alone.

It was not because it was extremely strong. Instead, Summer was the one who came by every day and took care of it.

She did that for a full year.

He had asked why she cared so much about a tree.

She had grabbed his hand and walked toward the tree. As she pried the weed away, he spotted words carved on the exposed roots.

Eight years had passed, and the tree had grown to be as tall as he was on the wheelchair.

He took out a knife and slowly peeled the carved words away.

[Summer will love Jude forever.]

Jude smiled at the exposed bark as tears welled up.

Summer had not kept her promise or her love for him.

If that was the case, why did she carve such lies on the tree?

After a while, he wheeled himself out of the campus and hailed a cab to the city hall.

He requested for his social security account to be terminated. The staff member frowned, “We only do that when someone dies.”

Jude took out his euthanasia application and his medical record indicating that he had depression. Then, he spoke extremely calmly as if he was talking about the weather.

“Everyone in my family has passed away, and I’m getting a divorce soon. Once I pass, no one will be able to settle all these administrative tasks for me, so I thought of doing it first.

“This way, I won’t have to trouble anyone else.”

After hearing that, the staff member flipped through the reports and asked for his supervisor’s advice.

Finally, they made an exception for him, and requested a copy of his death certificate to be sent to them after it happened.

He took note of that request and thanked them before leaving.

After he came out, he prepared to hail a cab when he heard a familiar voice.

Summer came out of a car in shock.

“Jude, what are you doing here?”