Emotional love: Forget-Me-Not
She and he were not the same type of people, merely assigned to work in a small office that easily fostered an ambiguous atmosphere.
A Heart Filled with Cotton
Returning from a business trip, Tang Lin heard the news that Shen Fang was resigning.
Holding a bouquet of fresh eustoma, she paused for a moment, taking deep breaths outside the door before entering. Shen Fang was sitting at his desk, as usual, smiling at her as she came in.
That smile was the most ordinary kind shared between colleagues, but Tang Lin sensed something special in its ordinariness. She changed the water in the vase, placed the eustoma inside, and returned to her seat.
Tang Lin had been sharing an office with Shen Fang since she joined the company. The office was originally a storage room, just big enough for a single desk, which they shared, each occupying one side, with a ceramic vase in the middle.
When she first started, the vase was empty, and whenever she looked up, she would see Shen Fang’s face. So, she began buying flowers, one bouquet per week, making it more justifiable to look at him through the gaps between the flowers.
Shen Fang was the company’s accountant, and she assisted him as a cashier. Tang Lin often thought their initial reticence was due to the awkwardness of their first meeting. On her first day, while asking him some questions, her phone, lying beside her, suddenly buzzed. Both of them instinctively glanced at it.
On the Hello Kitty lock screen was a push notification from a women’s app: “Period countdown: 1 day.” Her face turned as red as the evening sky outside when she grabbed her phone. She tried to act nonchalant, but Shen Fang took note.
The next day, before she came to work, he prepared a large cup of warm water for her. Tang Lin’s thank-you was swallowed back down. After all, a woman’s menstrual cycle is somewhat private for a newly graduated young woman.
Since then, whenever her period approached, Shen Fang would prepare warm water. Tang Lin accepted it without a word. Although they shared an office, Shen Fang was a man of few words, and Tang Lin was not one to chatter incessantly. After a few attempts to initiate conversation met with his monosyllabic responses, she gave up trying to talk.
At first, there was some awkwardness, but by the third month, she became comfortable. Every time her eyes brushed past the flowers and landed on his face, she felt a strange thrill. She thought there was something special between them, but now he was leaving without even telling her in advance. Her heart felt like it was stuffed with cotton and then drenched with water, heavy and disappointed.
They Are Not the Same Type of People
Shen Fang’s resignation had been approved, and he had only sixteen days left. Tang Lin, in silent protest, stopped mentioning his resignation, refused to have meals with him, avoided taking the elevator together, and even ignored the warm water on her special day.
Shen Fang, with the warmth of a 27-year-old man but the reticence of an accountant, didn’t understand Tang Lin’s change in behavior. A few days later, the eustoma withered, and for the first time, Tang Lin didn’t buy new flowers.
After lunch, Shen Fang returned with a bouquet of pink gerbera daisies. Tang Lin didn’t get up to help him change the water, instead furiously typing on her keyboard, stealing glances at him. Shen Fang was not particularly handsome, but he was pleasant to look at, like a tree on a high hill, gently swaying with the wind.
Once, when Shen Fang wasn’t around, Tang Lin had an issue and had to find him, discovering that he had just undergone surgery in the hospital. She brought a basket of fruit to visit him. The nurse said it was an appendectomy, and he had come alone, with no visitors for two days.
Tang Lin learned from colleagues that Shen Fang had grown up in this city, with both parents and siblings alive. If no one visited him, it must be because he hadn’t told anyone. Tang Lin felt a pang of pity and stayed with him until he was discharged. During this time, Shen Fang only said thank you twice, and back at the office, he still didn’t talk much to her.
Since then, Tang Lin knew they were not the same type of people, just coincidentally placed in a small office that could easily foster an ambiguous atmosphere.
Not Daring to Reveal Her Love
Tang Lin no longer expected Shen Fang to tell her anything in advance, just waiting for the day she would come to work and find herself alone. She wouldn’t need to buy flowers to ease the awkwardness of their glances anymore, nor complain to other colleagues about his silence. But thinking of these things made her feel sad.
She suddenly regretted refusing to move to a spot in the main hall that Miss Huang from HR had offered her last month. Miss Huang had teased her about being used to Shen Fang, making her blush. Tang Lin had long been aware of her affection for Shen Fang but didn’t dare reveal her feelings, knowing they were not the same type of people.
Near the end of the workday, Shen Fang’s typing suddenly stopped. He looked over the gerbera daisies and asked, “Xiao Tang, do you have plans on the 30th? If not, let’s have a meal together.”
“Okay.” The conversation ended there, and his gentle typing resumed. Tang Lin, however, became restless, the numbers on the bills blurring and dancing before her eyes until she finally made it to the end of the day.
Shen Fang left first, and Tang Lin sighed deeply, the scent of his detergent still lingering in the air. She stayed at the office until she was the last to leave, then placed the gerbera daisies on the windowsill.
Only three days were left, two of which were the weekend. That meant she had only one more day with Shen Fang. She didn’t want to hide behind the flowers to look at him anymore; she wanted to look at him openly for one day.
The Wine Turns to Tears
The 30th arrived as scheduled, and for once, Tang Lin arrived earlier than Shen Fang. The gerbera daisies had withered, and she placed a bouquet of purple forget-me-nots in the vase, which Shen Fang noticed but didn’t comment on.
By noon, Shen Fang had finished his handover documents. Miss Huang mentioned that the new accountant would start on the 1st and take Shen Fang’s place.
“Xiao Tang, are you done?” Shen Fang suddenly asked. Tang Lin nodded, hearing him say, “Today is my last day at the company. It’s been a pleasure working with you these past six months.” Tang Lin’s heart skipped a beat; he remembered they had worked together for six months. Shen Fang then said a lot, like a farewell, making Tang Lin feel uncomfortable.
That evening, they left work together and went to a pre-booked restaurant. It was a high-end place with large floor-to-ceiling windows and light purple curtains drawn up with hooks. Tang Lin ordered the meal and a bottle of red wine. She recalled four months ago when she came to work hungover, and he was surprised that she drank, then made her a strong tea to sober up.
By the end of the meal, Tang Lin had successfully gotten drunk, feeling awkward facing him. She wanted to confess her feelings under the influence, even if she knew she might be rejected, but in front of Shen Fang, the alcohol didn’t help. In his silent presence, she lost all her courage.
Shen Fang walked her back to her apartment. They stood outside for a while until her intoxication faded. Shen Fang gently said goodbye, and Tang Lin watched his back as he left, the wine turning to silent tears.
No More Warm Water at 30 Degrees
A new accountant, a married man in his forties, joined the office. Happy to share an office with a young, attractive female colleague, he always had a smug smile. Tang Lin placed the flower vase back on her desk, blocking his leering gaze.
The new accountant had a receding hairline but always looked at Tang Lin with a lascivious glint. Tang Lin avoided talking to him, only nodding to answer his questions. She felt like she had become another Shen Fang. She wondered if Shen Fang’s silence had been due to his dislike for her. This thought made her feel like a heartbroken sponge, dripping salty tears in unseen places.
The forget-me-nots dried up but remained beautiful, and Tang Lin decided not to buy more flowers. The new accountant once suggested moving the flowers to the windowsill, but Tang Lin didn’t respond. The next day, she put them back on her desk. He never mentioned it again.
When her period came, there was no more warm water waiting for her. Sometimes, after a night of drinking, the new accountant’s eyes would light up at her loosened neckline. Tang Lin glared at him, enduring the pain in her lower abdomen, but the longing in her heart spread to every nerve ending. After Shen Fang left, she realized she didn’t have any of his contact details.
In autumn, Miss Huang, seeing Tang Lin being harassed by the new accountant, cleared a desk for her in the main hall. Tang Lin moved there, placing the forget-me-nots on the windowsill. Through them, she seemed to see Shen Fang.
Every Push Notification Is Meaningful
Tang Lin ran into Shen Fang on Xinghu Road in October. They sat in a small coffee shop, marking their reunion. She noticed he had changed his gold-rimmed glasses to wooden frames, his hair ruffled by the wind, looking less rigid but still sparing with words.
Without the confines of their small office, Tang Lin felt more at
ease, venting about the new accountant and mentioning her move to the main hall. When she asked Shen Fang how he was, he simply said, “Pretty good.” As they parted in the evening, she realized she had forgotten to ask for his number again.
During the Spring Festival, a women’s app suddenly became popular, and Miss Huang recommended it to every girl in the office. When she got to Tang Lin, she remembered Miss Huang’s app was the one she had been using for a long time.
One day in March, Miss Huang ran to Tang Lin’s desk, shocked, telling her that the developer of the women’s app was Shen Fang and a friend, which was why he resigned.
Tang Lin recalled canceling the app’s notifications after the embarrassing incident. She hurriedly opened the pink app, and over a hundred unread notifications popped up, each one different from the others. Shen Fang had specially programmed these notifications for her, each with a hidden message.
Shen Fang had written everything he didn’t dare to say in person in those notifications. Tang Lin read every message without missing a single one, moved to tears. Looking at the forget-me-nots, she decided to be the brave one.
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
