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

21: Side story - Cao Vien Thanh

I am Cao Vien Thanh.

I was also the coward who had loved Quach Phuong for sixteen years, and perhaps, for the rest of my life. I beg the Heavens and the Earth to testify that I had loved Quach Phuong more than anyone else in this world, including Tan Duat.

I despised his belated love a thousand times over. But I was also extremely jealous of Tan Duat, because in the end, the person Quach Phuong loved was him, not me.

I was the one who came first, the one who was present throughout her childhood, yet I couldn't overcome the twists of fate, and couldn't overcome the emotions of the heart.

When I was ten years old, I met her. A weak, and stubborn little girl who wouldn't fight back even when she was bullied by others. She said it wasn't because she didn't want to fight back, but because she was afraid that her foster mother would be upset.

This little kid was indeed foolish.

That was fine. I, Cao Vien Thanh, would fight for you; just let me do the bad things in your place.

In truth, I was someone who didn't like to meddle in other people's business. But in a moment of unexpected chance, God allowed me to glimpse at those dove-like eyes. I thought, how could there be such beautiful eyes in this world?

If I had a cute little girl to keep me company, it wasn't so bad. Who would have thought that this innocent little girl, who I had helped out unintentionally, would quietly steal my heart away, and even after she left, she refused to give it back to me.

Quach Phuong, has anyone ever told you how cruel you are?

When we were young, Quach Phuong was quite afraid of me, probably because I had a foul mouth. Yet, time and again, she would do foolish things that made me happy. For instance, when eating, she would save her favorite dish, and put it on my plate. Or if she found something interesting, she would tell me about it first.

"Vien Thanh, today I saw a butterfly this big, bigger than my hand."

"Idiot, I heard that those monarch butterflies are actually spirits of the dead. Little kid, you're definitely destined to be unlucky for life."

Quach Phuong looked at me in astonishment, tears began to appear in her dove-like eyes. I swear to the heavens, at that moment, I had really wanted to slap myself. Seeing those beautiful eyes well up with tears made my heart shatter as well, the pain was so unbearable.

"Really? I was planning to catch it and show it to you. But luckily, I didn't, otherwise Vien Thanh would have had bad luck."

This time, it was my turn to be astonished. The other girls in the orphanage would avoid me every time they saw me. Only Quach Phuong wanted to play with someone as difficult as me. Quach Phuong was the only one who cared about me.

You were too good, so good that the heavens didn't want you to stay in this world for too long.

Quach Phuong was a very strange girl. Many people found her adorable, and wanted to adopt her, but she always shook her head firmly. Upon asking, I found out that she was still waiting for her biological parents to come pick her up. She had always believed that they had their own reasons for leaving her at the orphanage, and that they would come back for her someday. If she left, what would happen when they returned to take her home?

It was the first time I, Cao Vien Thanh, realized that there were such naive people in the world. So naive that it made my heart ache.

Later, when we grew older, the psychological and physiological gap between boys and girls made our relationship less close than before. But I always kept an eye on her, and every time I came home from school, I would secretly follow her for a while, careful not to let her find out.