Touching story of lost love: We Once Walked Through Together
To avoid the older boys chasing after her, she decided to find a shield within her class.
After scanning the room, she settled on a quiet, gentle, and pale boy sitting in the front row. She noticed that he never initiated conversations with girls, so in a moment of desperation, she took the initiative herself.
But she couldn’t immediately think of a good approach. Coincidentally, that afternoon, the counselor came to collect student information, and when the roster reached her, she memorized the boy’s phone number in just a few seconds.
When she went home for the monthly break, she deliberately wandered around the clothing street for a long time, until she figured he had likely reached home. Then, she used a public phone at the street corner to dial that number. Her anxious heart rose and fell with each ring in the receiver, and the waiting felt like it lasted an eternity.
Suddenly, she heard a “Hello” from the other end. Startled as if awakened from a dream, she hastily hung up the phone, turned around, and ran out of the phone booth, blushing like a thief as she hid in the crowd.
But she wasn’t discouraged. Since she didn’t dare to tell him in person, she decided to write down what she wanted to say on a card and give it to him. But how could she have the nerve to deliver it herself? What if he rejected her outright? How embarrassing that would be.
Thanks to her cleverness, she bought a card for every classmate, including the girls, secretly emptying her piggy bank. Of course, all the cards contained the same generic greetings, except for his. She painstakingly filled his card with sweet, cheesy love notes.
Sure enough, once she began her approach, he quickly surrendered. Unexpectedly, she also won the favor of all her classmates. When upperclassmen came to the class to cause trouble, everyone would stand up to protect her. She became the proud princess admired throughout the campus.
She usually liked to wear a black long-sleeved shirt paired with a bright red floral skirt. She always walked ahead of him, occasionally turning back to smile at him. At those moments, they didn’t need to say a word; the wind around them became lighter, and it carried a dark, lingering floral scent.
What truly made her see him in a new light and develop deep feelings for him was a harrowing car accident.
She had hosted the school’s New Year’s Eve party that year, and by the time it ended, it was already late. He had waited for her the whole time and accompanied her on the last bus home. At an unremarkable T-junction, a truck roared toward them. The driver was drunk and had forgotten to turn on the headlights.
She quickly turned to see a massive truck bearing down on them like a mountain. In the split second before the collision, countless thoughts flashed through her mind—parting, disability, death…
He used all his strength to pull her behind him. Then she heard a tremendous crash, and the windows shattered into a million pieces, scattering like a shower of stars. She shut her eyes tightly, feeling warmth on her face and hearing something dripping from her chin.
Despite his injured leg, he desperately called for help, pleading with passersby to take her to the hospital first. The doctor said that if they hadn’t arrived in time, her beautiful face would have been scarred. He smiled at her proudly.
A steel plate was implanted in his left leg, and he walked with a slight limp. He didn’t want her to know, so he deliberately walked slowly when they were together. But pain is hard to hide. On rainy, cloudy days, a dull ache would set in, like an old, sensitive tooth.
He began to think he wasn’t good enough for her and tried to distance himself. But she continued to cheerfully drag him out to enjoy spring, go hiking, and eat ice cream. Sometimes, he found excuses to refuse, but when he couldn’t avoid it, he’d reluctantly go out with her.
She liked to walk on his right, slipping her hand into his right pocket. Even through the pocket, he could feel her warmth. He liked having her hand there; just that simple touch made the world feel warm.
When it was time to graduate and look for jobs, he promised to go to Beijing with her. But when the job offers arrived, she got her wish, while he could only go to Shanghai.
She didn’t know that he never even applied to his favorite company. He thought that only by living in different cities could she forget him and start a new relationship.
At the platform where they parted that summer, with just a window between them, he smiled and said, “It won’t be easy for you alone in Beijing. If you find someone more suitable, don’t hold back because of me.”
She pretended not to hear him clearly, but she heard every word, and it hurt more than the crash from the car accident. For two years, she had deliberately ignored his injury and his distancing behavior, thinking time would smooth everything out.
She invited him to enjoy spring, hike, and eat ice cream, and she put her hand in his pocket, all to show him that they were still together, always together. But with those parting words, she finally realized he had already decided to let go. As the train left the city where they had spent so much time together, her tears began to fall.
And so, their relationship gradually faded. At first, she would receive a holiday card from him now and then, but eventually, even that stopped. In the bustling city, she found a boyfriend, graduated, job-hunted, bought a house, had a child, divorced, changed jobs, and worked endless overtime, leaving her less and less time to think of him.
She didn’t remember when it was, but in a friend’s phone call, his name came up. She learned that he had married an American girl and now lived across the ocean. Looking back, that phone call felt like a dream, vague and uncertain.
One sleepless night, she got up from bed and turned on the TV out of boredom. A movie called A Little Thing Called Love was on. The scene where Nam called Shone and heard him say “Hello” over the phone made her jump up in excitement, covering her mouth as she danced and shouted around the room.
Seeing this, she suddenly burst into tears in the darkness.
So many years had passed. He probably no longer remembered that a girl had once called him like that. But to her, his soft “Hello” could still, even across the ocean and through the depths of time, awaken the innocent emotions of a girl in a phone booth and the purest affection in the world.
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
