Cai Xukun Imagines

45. Lover Series pt 2

Growing up, people told Ash that you could die from a broken heart—that the stress on your heartstrings could weaken, and all that’s left is the pain in your chest.

Ash thought her heart would fail her, rupture all that’s left of her and leave her body to decompose. She believed that, if her broken heart wasn’t going to kill her, loneliness and lack of sleep would push her towards her end.

Moving on—something that seemed so simple yet so impossible for Ash to do.

When the hurt in her chest and the hallucinations from exhaustion started to become too much for her to handle, she was willing to do anything to help herself. She started taking up yoga sessions, started writing music, even started cooking in an attempt to bring herself back from whatever hell she was in.

She even considered moving on—meeting a man at a bar and getting to know more about him rather than his drink order. But something seemed so wrong about that—something was unsettled inside of her at the thought of being with someone who wasn’t Xukun.

The image of Lami in Xukun and Ash’s t-shirt was enough to haunt her nearly every hour of the day. She started going mental, constantly wondering what they were doing together in the moments she was most vulnerable. She wondered about their love life, their future, their interests. She thought about everything.

It wasn’t until Xinyi was determined to mend the broken girl raiding her house, finding any possible excuse to give her a sense of life again, that Ash found the slightest bit of hope.

Ash was losing it entirely, and  Xinyi refused to continue being a bystander.

Xinyi had set Ash up on a blind date only a couple weeks back, practically begging her to seize every opportunity she possibly can to get over Xukun. It was all Xinyi could do to help her, considering nothing quite helped Ash’s well-being since the breakup.

“Oh, he’s just so perfect!” Xinyi squealed, clapping her hands before gripping tightly around Ash’s wrists in excitement. “He’s gorgeous! Amazing brown eyes—breathtaking, really! And he’s so sweet, Ash! I haven’t met a single person who’s disliked him and he’s such an amazing Rapper! And his teeth! His teeth are marvelous! Do you know how hard it is nowadays to find a man with nice teeth? I mean—“

By then, Ash had dozed off, and it wasn’t for any personal reason against Xinyi; she’s appreciated every bit of hard work to help her through the heartbreak Ash’s been dealing with nearly half of a year now. It’s just that she wasn’t ready to move on, not that she didn’t want to.

It had been nearly five months, which may seem like such an abundance of time to rid feelings for somebody, but did time really help moving on from someone she’d planned to spend the rest of her life with? It seemed nearly impossible. She could barely see herself looking at other men in a romantic sense, how could she see herself going on a date with somebody? Especially when she was still in love with somebody else?

She was biting the bullet with letting time heal her, but she felt that was the only way. Nothing more could help her. If anything, she believed dating would make it worse, if she were being honest.

But the look of excitement Xinyi had at the mere thought of Ash being happy again was something Ash found nearly impossible to resist. Besides, she had definitely been overstaying her welcome at Xinyi’s house no matter how much Xinyi’s tried to deny it and has put so much stress onto her that maybe, just maybe, doing this one favor for all that she’s done for her.

“So, what do you say?”

Ash blinked harshly when Xinyi's voice drowned out all the scrambled thoughts in her head, shaking her head slightly to regain her understanding of reality.