I Still Remain (Completed)

XI - A Moment

When the sun was finally up, Shen Yue woke up alone in the room, no trace of Didi or Zheyi in sight. She glanced at her wrist watch and saw that it was already half past 10 in the morning. She quickly got up on her feet, fixed herself and gathered her belongings, only stopping when she saw something on Didi's backpack.

It was the key chain with the 'peace' and 'thumbs-up' symbols that she had given him when they we're still together.

They used to have this thing with symbols. Well, it wasn't supposed to be a thing, but it became so as their way of comforting each other. A lot of times they would go on days not being able to talk to each other because of their hectic schedules and so they decided to formulate a way in which they would be able to remind each other that they were still very much in love. Petty, yes, but cute, too.

She kneeled and gently reached for the key chain, before reminiscing how their 'thing' with symbols was born.

"I thought of a thing," Didi said to an audibly sleep-deprived Yue.

"Yeah? Is that a cure for intense sleepiness? 'Cause I really need that right now," Yue said, yawning afterwards.

"Look, I hate this. I don't want us sneaking in late night conversations like this when we both obviously need to just rest."

"Hey," she said with her soft voice. "It's fine. I want to talk to you too, I want to hear your voice."

"I know, and I feel the same. But I want what's best for you and clearly us talking like this just doesn't help—"

He caught ruffling of sheets from the other line before hearing her yell, "WANG HE DI IS THIS YOUR INTELLIGENT PLAN OF SUBTLY BREAKING UP WITH ME?!"

"No!" he shouted back after momentarily pulling the phone away from his ear. "Jeez calm down Shen Yue and listen to me."

"Oh, okay."

"This is really petty and almost childish, but I propose... symbols."

He heard her sigh from the other end before replying, "Okay I'm listening."

"So, each of us will choose a symbol that we'll use to update each other about us when we can't physically, virtually, or emotionally be there for each other because of work, or just, I don't know, life in general. We just let the other see that symbol, either through a message, a photo, a video, anything. And so even if we can't talk because something gets in the way, we'll know that we have each other and that we're still very much in love," he explained.

"Ugh," she groaned.

"Fine, what's your idea?"

"I love it."

"Wait, really?" he said, surprised.

"Yeah. I mean, it's practical, and it'll be our thing. I love that."

"Wait, are you just agreeing this easily because of your lack of sleep?" he pressed.

"No, but if you keep on insisting I might just change my mind."

"Okay so we have to choose a symbol," he paused, as if in deep thought. "I think mine would be the thumbs-up sign."

"Makes sense," she agreed. "Mine would be the peace sign, because I'm a pacifist."

"Of course you are."

What followed this decision was a series of 'peace' and 'thumbs-up' sign sightings from the both of them, which in due time caught the attention (and ire) of people. So, in order to avoid igniting any kind of speculation, they decided to own both symbols, using any of the two, whichever suits a situation best.