BEYOND THE HEADLINES || LINGORM

CHAPTER 4

FLASHBACK

The moon hung low in the sky, its silver light shimmering across the waves, casting a haunting glow on the beach. The sound of the ocean's gentle rhythm seemed to echo the hollow ache in Lingling's chest. She had always thought this place-their place-would be where their love would last forever. The same beach, the same time of year. Their fourth anniversary.

But tonight was different. The air was charged, heavy with something unsaid, something broken.

Lingling stood a few feet from Orm, back to the sea but her eyes fixed on her, though she didn't wish to look at her for even a moment. Orm's figure was laced with the dim light of the moon and her silhouette almost ghostly in the stillness. Lingling always loved the way Orm looked under the stars: beautiful and timeless. Tonight, she barely could even look at this woman whom she loved. Instead of the face, she saw the gap that, for the past months, had appeared between them.

This wasn't meant to happen.

Their relationship, born out of years of friendship, had been built upon mutual trust and understanding, a bond that was forged over childhood secrets and shared dreams. They managed to cross that line from friends to lovers with ease, as if this was what was always supposed to be. But now standing on this same stretch of beach, Lingling realized the extent of which they had changed, the extent of which she had changed.

"Four years," Lingling whispered softly, her words blown away by the wind. Those words seemed unnatural on her lips, as if she wasn't speaking them right, and like they said something that she didn't want it said of.

Orm didn't say anything at once. Her eyes still lingered at the dark horizon where the sea met the sky. There was a distance about her, a coldness that was new. She could not recall when she had arrived, but now it was as though a canyon separated them, one they could no longer cross. Orm was always full of life, her laugh infectious, her spirit unbreakable. Yet, now, she was quiet, distant, like she was somewhere far away, not standing right beside Lingling.

Lingling's chest was tight with the weight of the silence between them. It was suffocating.

Orm's voice came out of the darkness. "Yeah. Four years." The words were so silent that one might think she spoke to herself. She angled her head. Her eyes collided with Lingling's briefly before she looked down again.

There it was. That look. The one Lingling knew so well but had been avoiding for months. The one that told her everything had changed, yet neither of them wanted to admit it out loud. The unspoken truth hung in the air like a storm cloud, threatening to pour, but neither would step into the downpour.

Lingling took a step forward toward Orm, but her heart was pounding in her chest. "Orm," she started, but the words would not come out of her mouth. How could she ever ask that question that had been burning in her mind for such a long time? Why were they here? Why were they on this beach, so far apart from each other after everything they have been through together?

Orm's head jerked up, the dark of her eyes unreadable. "Lingling, stop." Her voice was too firm, but beneath it there trembled a fragile something-something that tore at Lingling's heart even more.

"I'm not..." Lingling whispered, her voice little above a breath. She took another step forward until she was standing right in front of Orm, yet there was still a distance between them that seemed impossible to bridge.

In the background, the ocean roared with such urgency and stingy vigor that the rest of the world could hardly be heard. Lingling could feel as though she were drowning in the tension of it all, weighed down by everything that remained unsaid. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words were lost before they had even formed.

Orm took a step back, her shoulders set in tension. "You don't have to say anything, Lingling. I don't... I don't know how to do this anymore." Her voice cracked on the last word, a tremor running through it that made Lingling's heart clench in her chest.

It was as if a knife had been plunged into her, and still Lingling was incapable of movement. She was not breathing. The woman she loved was fading away, and she was powerless to stop this final act.

There was just the sound of Lingling's voice, a whisper by itself. "I do not want this to end. Like this."

Orm's face softened for a fraction of a second, but the mask returned almost immediately. "I don't know if I can keep pretending that everything is okay, Lingling. I don't know if I can keep pretending that we're okay."

Lingling's chest tightened, the pain unbearable. "But we were fine. We are fine."

Orm's head shook slowly, her eyes avoiding Lingling's gaze. "No, we're not. We haven't been for a while."

The words cut deep, deeper than anything Lingling could have imagined. She wants to reach out, pull Orm close, tell her that they can fix this. They can talk, find a way through this, just as they always did. Only something in Orm's posture told her this wasn't just a fight to solve with a few words. Something had snapped: something promises and apologies couldn't mend.

Lingling's throat felt like fire, the pent-up tears threatening to spill over. She held them back, knowing once the dam burst she might never stop crying.

"I don't understand," she whispered, her voice shaking. "I don't understand, Orm."

Orm was giving another step back, her eyes were full of something Lingling had an aversion to looking at. "You don't have to," she answered softly, whispering barely louder than the wind's whistle. "You don't have to understand. We just.... we just can't do this any longer."

She sat there, not moving a muscle. The space between them was like the end of the world, and she felt the whole ocean had opened its mouth to swallow her in. Her legs were going to give in any second, and her heart was racing in her chest. She wanted to scream, shout, demand they talk, that they make it right, but words just could not come out. It had already become too vast, the distance between them.

And then Orm turned and went away, the print of her foot quiet on the sand. Lingling stood there watching, every step an echo inside, until Orm was swallowed up by shadows, lost into night.

Lingling stood on the beach alone, thought once more drowned by waves of crashing surf; her lungs were drinking in the emptiness that wrapped around her like a shroud, suffocating her with every breath she took.

No goodbyes. No last words. Just slow, agonizing realization of everything they had - everything they were - slipping away from them without their ever knowing it.

And she was left solitary in darkness, surrounded by nothing but moon and waves.

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A/N: why am i tearing up while writing this? 😭😭