Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Chandler Extra
Yasmine was missing.
On our anniversary, I had planned to propose.
We’ve been together four years, but lately I’ve felt distant from her.
Fearing I might lose her, I desperately wanted to solidify our commitment.
But Lily ruined everything.
When she ran out of the restaurant, she was struck by a car and broke her wrist – a devastating blow for a pianist.
Depressed with a tendency towards self–harm, she wouldn’t let anyone near except
- me.
I had to stay and care for her. In a domineering manner, she snatched my phone.
It took five days until her emotions stabilized.
And I finally got my phone back. I couldn’t wait to call Yasmine.
I to apologize and ask her out. I missed her terribly, even dreaming about her.
But the mobile number I knew so well and had called countless times was no longer in
service.
Panicked, I raced home. The house was clean but devoid of any trace of Yasmine.
There were two envelopes on the table, but I hesitated and didn’t dare to open it up.
I finally plucked up the courage to open
them.
One contained a single sheet of white paper with “Happy Breakup!” scrawled across it. A smiley face was drawn on the back, silently mocking me.
The other envelope contained a few items that hit me like a ton of bricks.
One was a blackened, ring–shaped object.
Another was a pregnancy check–up form, and the third an abortion surgery form.
The dates – one before May Day, the other the day of Yasmine’s accident.
My heart tightened painfully.
I recalled Yasmine’s cryptic words before May Day about going to watch the sunrise together for a surprise.
I remembered when Lily rummaged through snacks in the car and found a red velvet ring box.
“Who bought this? It’s so ugly!”
What did I say at that time?
“Yeah, really ugly, not presentable,” I had echoed dismissively.
18-16
Chapter 13
After that, Yasmine fell silent in the backseat, no longer joining our conversation.
Did she already know she was pregnant then and wanted to propose starting a family?
Damn it!
But when Lily’s accident happened, I abandoned her and the baby she carried. She had said if it were a few minutes later, the car would have exploded. How panicked and desperate she must have felt!
I was a scumbag.
I was frantic to find Yasmine, to hug her, confess my mistakes, and beg her forgiveness.
But she was gone.
I ran to her office but couldn’t get in.
All I could do was ask anyone coming out if they knew her.
Without exception, they shook their heads never heard of her.
She had vanished, even her frequently used WhatsApp account canceled and blank. Flipping through photos on my phone, I realized there wasn’t a single one of her.
Dazed, I locked myself in my room and drank uncountable amounts of alcohol.
Lily came to me, confessing her love and wanting to be together.
I admit I once liked Lily’s beauty and quirks.
After I confessed feelings for her in our youth, she rejected me and went abroad.
It was Yasmine who saved me from that low point, accompanying me out of the trough.
Back then, she was a warm, sunny girl who dreamed of the stars and sea since growing up in an orphanage. Her eyes sparkled when she spoke of it.
But I was selfish, wanting to prove if I was more important than her dreams.
She eventually compromised, changing jobs to be home on time daily to stay near me.
The light in her eyes dimmed over time.
Later, when Lily returned, my boyhood desire made me repeatedly abandon Yasmine. for Lily’s sake.
Until the May Day car accident this year.
I rejected Lily then, leaving/her deeply saddened.
She went abroad again, vowing never to return.
Later, my agent told me if I wanted to find Yasmine, I needed to stand on a higher platform.
I cheered myself up and wrote many songs, the most famous being “Love“.
Chapter 13
That was written for my Yasmine in hopes she would hear it.
On every tour, at the opening and closing of shows before thousands of fans, I never tired of telling her story.
There once was a girl who loved me dearly. Her dream was the sea and stars. She had the most beautiful smile.
see ho
But I lost her by accident. If you please tell me.
Seven years passed by in the blink of an eye.
Yasmine having seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth.
Until I was invited to perform at the national celebration banquet.
Scanning the Wall of Merit listing important contributors to the country,
one name immediately caught my eye amidst the crowded list.
“Yasmine!”
My heart raced with a strange mix of excitement and panic.
At the award ceremony, that familiar yet unfamiliar figure appeared, real yet distant. It turned out sho
had spent all those years in the desert, cutting off contact with the
outside world.
In the end, she chose her dreams of the sea and stars.
After the award ceremony, I quietly guarded the exit.
I had imagined countless reunion scenarios, but nothing prepared me for this. She had cut her hair short, nodding at me with a polite smile and starry eyes.
“Chandler, how are you? Are you and Liz doing well?”
She always called Lily by her full name, never the diminutive Liz.
In that moment, I knew I had truly lost her.
She would never come back to me!
[end]
