TangShi-3

There was an inkling of memory once again as she gazed at the perfectly straight and white dazzling teeth that had seen thousands of dollars’ worth of dentistry. Those dark brows, that clear gaze that enhanced his youthful charm, yet also brought out a mature manly quality to the shape of his face. She was rendered speechless for a second and her mind wandered backwards in time, trying to place him with the image that was fast fading in her own mind as the years went by.

Clawing at a memory she had forbade herself to recall for so long, she hesitated. She tried to stop herself before the old pain of a wounded heart resurfaced to bruise her, but she couldn't hold back the glimmers breaking in. She was piecing together uneven pieces of a puzzle and trying so hard to make them fit. Still almost a decade on looking for answers to the mystery of a boy she had never been able to truly forget.

How silly she was to think that it might be him, and even if it was, she would be stupid to place any emphasis on that night. Stupid to try and figure out if YuZhi Leng was even him. The boy in her mind, eight years ago, was a fleeting fancy and nothing more than a cruel heartbreaker. Who lifted her up and made her feel cherished for just one perfect night. Right before abandoning her and casting her aside like everyone else did, the very next day.

One night of companionship, warmth, and being kissed for the very first time was enough to have made her hope for something more in life, raising her spirit and giving her heart wings. They had talked all night, danced, connected on a level that made her feel alive and seen. She had been moved to believe in insta-love for the first time in her life and thought what she felt could be exactly that. A stupid young girl pulled in by an older boy with fake promises and too much charm.

They had been inseparable even long after the bells chimed midnight. They had walked the streets, hand in hand. Giggled and ate street food before he snuck her home and helped her into the window of the hotel she was staying at with her class that night. It had been a school trip, a chance encounter in another city, a masked ball, and yet he had placed a scar on her heart that bled still.

Who knew he would then just forget her as quickly and leave her to weep her sorrows away in solitude when he never showed up at the bridge they arranged to reunite at the next day at noon. He had promised to meet her there and yet never showed.

They had stayed masked, finding it exciting, mysterious, and promised to unveil one another when the bells chimed twelve again. He had all but proclaimed his love to her, and she had confessed how unhappy and empty her life was with her family, laid her secrets bare, and told him how she planned to escape her life. The first time she had ever unburdened her truths to someone she didn’t know. And yet, he hadn't made her feel gross, or unwanted, but kissed away her pain and called her his destiny. He had sworn to be her knight in shining armor and to help her escape the step dragon and the cruel gatekeeper of her personal prison. He had given her hope and made her feel seen for the first time. Worth something to another human.

She had waited for four hours for him to never show face the next day, until rain soaked her through, and tears got muddled up with the water running down her face. He taught her a great lesson in believing anything a man would say to get what he wanted. Weeping in agony before she was forced to leave, abandoning that stupid white lace mask on the that damned walkway and never looking back to allow herself to relive that humiliation until this moment. She could only be glad that she had never let intimacy happen between them and kissing was the only part he got to take.

With the heartache and pain fresh in her chest and mind's eye, she blinked at his image one more time, evaluating those familiar misty green eyes and that smile.... unsure if he could be the same person but yet, not convinced he wasn't. There weren’t many Chinese men who had green eyes, and they didn’t look like he wore contacts on any of the pictures online. They seemed real and natural, much like those of the boy that night who told her his name was Yoonie.

It just added again to the heaviness of her body, and she shook herself to bring her senses back to the present. A bitterness rising up once more that she had held down for so many years, and the tears dried on her cheeks as her skin burned instead. Him or not, he was a player and not worth her residual pain of a nothing night. Maybe Yoonie was a nickname, or maybe it was a coincidence and green eyes on handsome men were more common than she thought. Not that it mattered as either way, she was now going to be tied to this man whether she agreed to it or not.

She knew she had no choice but to return home now, and if this was the same boy, then she wouldn't fall for his games or his coldness for a second time. She had learned her lesson when he ripped out her soul way back then and as she flicked her phone one more time, she fixated on the woman at his side. The same girl in every image, even when taken months apart and she clicked on one article from only a week ago with shocked wide-eyed disbelief. Curious that a playboy would frequent a single date.

"YuZhi Leng and long-term girlfriend Rhea Cheng"

TangShi read it twice more before clicking on another, and another, her irritation rising as she was faced with the same result. No matter what the girl’s hair was like, her clothes, her make up, it was definitely the same woman in all of them and was still apparently current. It seemed she had been by his side for many years, and this was no news to the comments under the articles, praising them for being China’s dream couple.