I closed my eyes, and a strange unease settled over me. When I opened them, I met a pair of shining eyes staring back at me.
"Goodbye," the person beside me whispered.
Tears welled up in my eyes. She was beautiful, her loving smile still plastered on her face.
Confusion clouded my mind. Where am I? Why did she say those heartbreaking words? Who is she?
Her smile changed. I can't quite explain it—her eyes turned into crescents, glistening with unshed tears. I forced out a single question.
"What do you mean by goodbye?"
Her smile widened... and then, just like that, she vanished into thin air.
I searched for her, but reality hit my moments later—she was my sister, a friend I once called Twinnie.
But...
Tears flowed freely down my face as I woke up, the dream still lingering in my mind. It felt so real.
My best friend's name is Han Yao. People always said we looked alike, but I never really saw it that way. Still, I was always drawn to her. We used to be inseparable. Until we weren't.
I suppose I can only blame myself for the distance between us. When she came back from boarding school, something felt different. I thought she had changed. But looking back now, maybe I was the one who changed.
We attended the same school, the same class, and yet, when YaoYao passed her entrance exam for high school, things shifted.
Even though I knew deep down it wasn't her fault, I began treating her differently, withdrawing without explanation. I wish I had told her how I felt instead of pushing her away.
~ FLASHBACK ~
"Hello, beautiful," YaoYao greeted me with a smile.
"Hi, how are you, butterfly?" I responded.
"Good. And you?"
"Fine."
We chatted casually, but then I said something I now regret. I told her that when we met again at boarding school, I would walk past her as if we were strangers.
She frowned. "Where is all this coming from?"
Instead of answering, I gave her attitude.
She simply sighed. "Hmm."
I asked for a break from our friendship. It wasn't that I didn't care—I was just lost in my own emotions, unable to express them properly.
Afterward, a single thought haunted me: Don't judge a book by its cover. Look before you leap.
If only I had been honest with her, maybe things wouldn't have turned out this way.
~ PRESENT ~
I sat up in bed, the dream replaying in my mind.
A familiar question echoed in my thoughts—the one that always surfaced when I felt lost:
"Why do I always lose the people I love the most?"
Had my twinnie, YaoYao, really left me for good? The fear of losing her had always lingered in my heart, and now, it felt like I had lost my dearest friend.
A dull ache settled in my chest, heavier than any physical pain I had ever known. Even the small wound on my hand, which I absentmindedly traced with my fingers, couldn't compare to this emptiness.
I forced myself out of bed and went downstairs. I didn't have the strength to cook, so I settled for leftover broth. My appetite had disappeared along with my happiness, but I knew I had to eat.
"If my sister were here, she would have forced me to eat properly," I whispered to myself.
It was my fault she was gone. Maybe it was always meant to be. In love, everything is fair.
I took a small spoonful of broth, but no amount of food could suppress the pain twisting inside me. Tears slipped down my face once again.
"Once again, I wake up to a miserable world, huh?" I muttered under my breath.