Jenny had thought that time would heal all wounds. That with enough distance, enough effort on her part, she could bury the past beneath the weight of her own success, her own determination. But despite her best efforts, the ache remained. It was not a sharp, raw pain anymore, but a quiet hum in the background of her life—a constant reminder of what she had lost.

  She had focused on her studies, her competitions, her family, everything but him. She had convinced herself that the decision to let go of Li Wei had been for the best. That the distance, the silence, was necessary for both of them to move forward.

  But fate had a way of making things complicated. It was impossible to ignore someone who had once been such an integral part of your life. Especially when their presence lingered in pces you couldn’t escape.

  One evening, after another exhausting day of practice, Jenny found herself walking toward her apartment, her body heavy with fatigue. The streetlights cast long shadows on the pavement, and her mind was drifting back to the moment she had promised herself she would never revisit.

  She didn’t expect to see him there, not today, not like this.

  Li Wei was standing near the entrance of her building, his hands stuffed into his jacket pockets, looking as casual and indifferent as ever. But there was something in the way he stood there, his gaze fixed on the ground, that made her heart drop. He was waiting for her, and the fact that she knew that made her blood run cold.

  The st time they had spoken, it had ended with her walking away, closing the door on any possibility of a future between them. But he hadn’t left her alone. He hadn’t let go. And now, here he was again, like some kind of haunting reminder of everything they used to be.

  She stopped in her tracks, her heart hammering in her chest. She should turn around. She should walk away and pretend that this moment didn’t matter. But something in her couldn't let it go. The questions, the hurt, the confusion—it had been eating away at her, and she needed to understand why. She needed to know what he had to say, even if it meant facing the pain all over again.

  "Li Wei," she called out, her voice steady but trembling just beneath the surface.

  He looked up at her, and for a moment, their eyes locked. The air between them was thick, charged with the weight of everything unsaid.

  "Jenny," he replied quietly, but there was no warmth in his voice. Just a dull acknowledgment. His face was unreadable, his expression distant.

  "I... we need to talk," Jenny said, taking a step closer. Her heart ached at the sight of him, but she forced herself to keep her composure. She couldn't let him see how badly he still affected her.

  Li Wei remained still, his eyes flickering briefly with something—regret, maybe—but then his gaze hardened. "There's nothing to talk about."

  Jenny felt a pang of surprise, followed by a wave of frustration. She had expected this. Part of her had prepared for this, but that didn’t make it any easier. "What do you mean, there's nothing to talk about? We can't just keep pretending like everything's fine when it's not!"

  He sighed, running a hand through his hair, as though the very mention of their past was a burden he didn’t want to carry anymore. "No, Jenny. We can't. I don't think we ever could. Not after everything that happened."

  Her breath caught in her throat. She had heard him say things like this before. But now, there was something final in his words. Cold. Dismissive.

  "You're just going to walk away, again?" she asked, her voice rising in disbelief. "After everything we went through? After all the times I was there for you?"

  Li Wei's expression didn’t change. His jaw clenched as he stared at her, his emotions clearly locked behind a wall he refused to let down. "I didn’t ask for any of that, Jenny. I didn’t ask you to be there for me. I didn’t ask you to care this much. I was never the right person for you."

  Her heart twisted at his words. The bitterness in his tone stung more than she could have imagined. "You really think that? After everything? You think I just did all of this because I wanted to? Because I had nothing else to do with my life?"

  He shook his head slowly, but there was no softness in his eyes. "Jenny, you need to move on. You need to stop looking for closure from me. I don’t owe you anything anymore."

  The words hit her like a physical blow. It was as if the ground beneath her had crumbled, and she was falling, tumbling into an abyss she couldn't escape. The rejection was sharper this time. It was as if he had closed the door once and for all, locking it behind him and throwing away the key.

  "How can you say that?" Jenny whispered, her voice breaking. She took another step forward, her body trembling with the force of the emotions she could no longer contain. "How can you say you don't owe me anything? We had something, Li Wei. You don't just walk away from that. You don't just forget it."

  He didn’t flinch. His gaze didn’t waver. "I’m not asking you to forget it. But you need to stop holding on to something that’s over. It’s been over for a long time, Jenny."

  The finality in his voice was like a knife to her chest. She felt every word, every sylble, as it dug into her heart, ripping it apart.

  "I’ve moved on," he continued, his voice firm and resolute. "I don’t want this to drag on anymore. I don’t want us to keep coming back to this. It’s not healthy for either of us."

  Jenny stood there, frozen, her chest tightening as the tears she had been holding back threatened to spill over. "So, that's it?" she choked out. "You just walk away, and that’s the end of it?"

  He didn’t respond right away. For a brief moment, there was a flicker of hesitation in his eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. "Yes," he said quietly. "That’s it."

  She felt like the world had shattered around her. All the effort, all the work she had put into moving forward, into building her life without him—it felt meaningless in that moment. He had refused her. Again.

  "Goodbye, Jenny," Li Wei said, his voice low and devoid of any emotion. He turned and began walking away, leaving her standing there in the street, her heart shattered in pieces.

  She stood there for a long time, not moving, not knowing what to do. Every part of her wanted to chase after him, to make him see how wrong he was, to make him understand that it wasn’t that simple. But she didn’t. She couldn’t.

  Because she knew, deep down, that it had to be over.

  As Jenny walked back to her apartment, her body felt heavier with each step. The rejection, the finality of it all—it was suffocating. But she would survive it, just like she had survived everything else.

  Her future was still waiting for her. And this time, she was going to move forward without looking back.