Waking Up From A Dream, The Person Beside My Pillow Was No Longer There|✔️

12: I like you, I've liked you for 10 years

Life brought people together and separated them, how many times could we really meet?

...

That evening, Quach Phuong and Tan Duat still enjoyed dinner together. At the dining table, she suddenly started talking endlessly, covering topics from the neighbor's recently deceased dog, to the rising trend in fuel prices. From nature to society, she talked so much that Tan Duat got a headache.

"You're afraid that tomorrow you'll die unexpectedly, so you're trying to tell me everything today, right?" Tan Duat asked helplessly.

Quach Phuong was taken aback, and in a way, he was right.

She awkwardly lowered her head to eat, stammering out: "I won't talk, I won't talk anymore."

After that time in the kitchen, Quach Phuong never asked Tan Duat to help her cook again. She only reminded him to come home early to have dinner with her.

Tan Duat was originally a workaholic, but recently, he had become more like a family man, immediately returning home after work. Even he found it laughable.

Having said that, Quach Phuong no longer asked him to do anything for her. The two of them lived like a normal married couple, so normal that it felt unreal.

But Tan Duat didn't know that the number of times Quach Phuong got sick had become more frequent. If it used to be once every two days, now it was twice a day. Painkillers gradually lost their effectiveness. She was afraid that Tan Duat would suspect something, so she limited the time she spent with him, and they only spoke a few words in the evening.

Tan Duat discovered that Quach Phuong really liked watching TV. Every night after dinner, she would watch TV for a long time. One time, after taking a shower, Tan Duat felt a bit peckish and went to the kitchen for some fruit. As he walked past the living room, he saw Quach Phuong crying until her shoulders were shaking while watching TV. However, the screen was showing a variety show, which wasn't something to be so emotional about.

Confused, he asked: "What's wrong?"

Quach Phuong was startled, and wiped her tears with her hand. Her eyes were red, and her small nose was flushed: "Dust got into my eyes."

It turned out that some people looked more beautiful when they cried than when they laughed. When he confessed to Nhan Tinh, she had cried beautifully too, but now he felt that Quach Phuong's tears were even more moving. Her fragile, flickering presence was like a candle in the wind, stirring a deep protective instinct in him.

Tan Duat brushed off these strange thoughts, turned away, and said: "It's late. Don't watch anymore, and go to bed." He knew full well that Quach Phuong was lying. She cleaned the house so many times a day that there couldn't possibly be any dust to get into her eyes. But if she didn't want to talk, he wouldn't press her.

"Tan Duat, please sit with me for a while," Quach Phuong looked at his back, her eyes pleading. It was a pity that he couldn't see the deep love and torment in her eyes.

He sighed, not saying anything, and slowly walked over to the sofa and sat down. The space between them was about an arm's length. Quach Phuong bravely scooted closer until Tan Duat's scent was faintly present around her nose, before sitting still.

The variety show on the TV continued, and the audience's laughter filled the room. But Quach Phuong and Tan Duat were strangely expressionless, the artificial light flickering over their faces. It seemed that in both of their hearts, there was a feeling that couldn't be expressed.

After a while, Quach Phuong initiated a conversation: "Tan Duat, do you still remember what happened in 12th grade? Nhan Tinh said that she craved red bean buns from a shop five streets away from the school. You immediately spent half a day going there, and even waited in line for a long time to buy the buns for her. As a result, you got sick from standing in the sun for too long. For several days, when you didn't come to class, I would intentionally ride my bike past your house. There were many times when I wanted to ring the doorbell, but in the end, I only dared to place the food I made at your gate. The next day, when I continued to ride my bike past your house, I noticed that the bag of food had been thrown in the trash."