The Seven Dates

The Seventh Date: Separate Ways?

Young Jenny, her cheeks wet with tears, walked into her room. She wiped away her tears and picked up her notebook. Her small hands gripped the pen tightly as she settled into her chair, her eyes welling up again. Despite her sadness, she summoned a faint smile and began to write a letter.

"Dear Yohan," she penned with a steady hand, her words carrying the weight of her emotions, her innocence, and her unwavering friendship.

Fast forward to the present, years later. Jenny stirred awake from her bed, her eyes blinking against the morning light. As her gaze roamed her room, memories of their last night together flooded her mind, she noticed a piece of folded paper resting on her study table. Her curiosity piqued, she reached out and unfolded the letter, and her heart sank as she read the heartfelt words that Yohan had left behind.

"Dearest Jenny,

I am sorry, but I have been hiding a fact from you for a very long time. My health is failing, and my days are numbered. I came here to meet you one last time before my surgery. Even this surgery, would only give me few more years to live. I am madly in love with you, but I can't bear the thought of you enduring the suffering that lies ahead if you choose a life with me.

These past six days have provided me with an enchanting glimpse into the life we could have shared together. For ten long years, I've been adrift, a lost soul seeking purpose, but you breathed life back into my weary soul.

These moments with you have been nothing short of a dream. Our laughter, our conversations, those crazy moments – they've all filled my heart with warmth and hope. With you, I've tasted life again, and it's all because of you.

I know I was selfish to reenter your life for just a few days, knowing that I would soon have to leave you again. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

Last night, when we kissed, I crossed an unspoken boundary that I had set for myself. It's for the best that the seventh date never happens because if I were to spend even a second more with you, it would make leaving a hundred times more difficult, probably for both of us.

I have preponed my flight back to United States. By leaving now, I hope to spare you the pain that looms on my horizon and offer you the opportunity to find a love that can promise you the future you deserve. Please hold onto the fond memories of us and know that you will forever occupy a special place in my heart.

Yours, 
Yohan"

Tears welled up in Jenny's eyes as she read the letter, but there was a strange sense of inevitability in her heart, as though she had anticipated this bittersweet ending all along. With a brave smile, she blinked away the tears, her emotions a mix of sadness and understanding. There was no anger toward Yohan for his sudden departure; it was as if she had come to terms with her destiny long before his farewell letter arrived.

Yohan sat in the bustling airport, surrounded by the soft hum of chatter and the distant drone of announcements, waiting for his boarding call. His fingers found their way to his handbag, where he intended to retrieve his boarding ticket for the flight that he booked in the last-minute. But as he reached in, his touch brushed against something unexpected. He pulled it out, a surprise in his grasp – it was the gift Jenny had given him, the one he had pledged to open only after their final date.

A tender smile graced the corners of his lips as he began to unwrap the gift slowly, revealing a scrapbook adorned with a cartoonish image of two young kids, a boy and a girl, cycling toward the horizon. The image filled him with warmth and nostalgia, instantly transporting him back to those carefree days when he and Jenny would ride their bicycles home from school.