Chapter 4

“What did you say?”

I stared straight into Stella’s eyes, my gaze cold. “I said we’re breaking up.”

Stella’s eyes widened slightly, as if she couldn’t believe that someone like me, who had always been gentle and accommodating, would be so firm in my decision.

Beside her, Eric instantly panicked and apologized nervously. “I’m so sorry, Daniel. It’s all my fault. I was being ignorant. Please don’t be angry. I’ll leave right now.”

He crouched on the floor in a flurry to tie his soaked shoelaces. His fingers trembled so hard that he couldn’t manage the knot even after several tries, and that was all it took to make Stella lose her patience.

“Daniel! Haven’t you had enough of throwing fits? It’s pouring outside. Where is he supposed to go? Do you really have to embarrass everyone just to feel satisfied?

“Every time, you threaten to break up with me. Isn’t that just your way of forcing me to back down? All these baseless suspicions and picking on others… You genuinely disgust me.”

Stella flew into a rage, yet she didn’t forget to reach down and pull Eric up. She grabbed his bag, helped him put on his shoes, and draped a coat over his shoulders.

Yet whenever the two of us argued, she would leave without a second thought, abandoning me alone in the empty house, staring blankly out the window.

“But I’ve resigned… and my ticket home is booked for two days from now…”

Before I could finish speaking, Stella had taken the umbrella and vanished from the house with Eric. I stood frozen by the window, gazing out through the fogged, rain-streaked glass.

That umbrella was one we had picked out together five years ago. Back then, whenever we walked together in the rain, she would tilt the umbrella toward me, leaving half of her shoulder soaked.

Out of concern, I had pushed the umbrella back toward her, saying, “The umbrella is too small!”

She had simply smiled and replied, “It doesn’t matter if it’s small. What matters is that I don’t want you getting wet.”

I didn’t want her getting wet either. So, I pulled the umbrella shut in one swift motion and dragged her right into the heavy rain with me.

Back then, all we cared about was shielding each other, concerned that the rain might drench the person we loved. Yet in the end, we still drifted apart.

Over the next two days, I packed my luggage.

Everything that I used to cherish and care for so tenderly as my most precious memories—the ties and suits Stella had gifted me, the maple leaf stone she had personally picked up and placed in a little wooden box when we went into the mountains together years ago, and the plants we had spent days and nights traversing mountains and rivers to gather—I threw straight into the bin.

On my final night before leaving my job, Stella rushed into the supermarket where I worked to buy a few things. I stood at the corner of the aisle, but because she was in such a hurry, she didn’t notice me in the shadow.

After she checked out and left, I sorted through the register receipts and spotted a pack of condoms listed at the bottom of her receipt. For some reason, the obsession I had held onto for many years suddenly disappeared.

Before boarding the flight, Eric sent me a message on Instagram.

[Don’t mind it, Daniel. Dr. Sloan had too much to drink last night. Nothing happened between us.]

Yet, attached were explicit photos, each one more intimate than the last.

As my fingers swiped across the screen, I felt no sadness at all. We were never meant to be together to begin with. Dragging things out and forcing ourselves together was bound to end in separation eventually.

Eric thought he had played his cards perfectly, using an explanation as a cover to show off in front of me. What he didn’t know was that Stella and I shared an Instagram account, and every message and photo he sent me was being synced to Stella’s side in real time.