The room erupted in cheers. Everyone raised their glasses.
"Congratulations in advance to Kevin and the future Mrs. James!"
Inside, the celebration roared on—laughter, clinking glasses, warmth.
I felt like I'd been plunged into ice water.
I don't know how long I stood there before the world came back into focus. My vision had blurred. Tears, I realized.
My fingers were numb from the cold. I typed out the words, one character at a time.
[Let's break up.]
Inside the room, a WeChat notification chimed.
Kevin picked up his phone, glanced at the screen, and tapped out a voice message.
"Mom, Dad—I've got an overseas project I need to handle. I really can't make it back today."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll let you know as soon as I've locked in a return date."
He set down the phone. That was it. No other response.
I waited.
And then it hit me.
I wasn't just missing from his pinned contacts—he'd muted me entirely.
A thousand miles apart, and he'd routinely take a full day to reply to my messages. I'd told myself he was busy with work. I'd made excuses for him.
Turns out, he simply couldn't be bothered.
Tears splashed onto my screen, one drop at a time.
Desperate, I called him.
This time, Kevin looked at his phone.
Then he silenced it and tossed it back onto the table.
He pretended he hadn't seen. Pulled out a deck of cards and started dealing to the others.
"Who's that?" someone asked.
"Millicent." He didn't even look up. "She calls me every damn day. It's exhausting."
Someone sounded confused. "So why not just reject the call?"
Kevin kept dealing, his tone utterly indifferent. "If I reject it, she'll just blow up my texts. I'll let it ring, then tell her later I was too busy to notice."
"Haha! Classic Kevin. You've got her wrapped around your finger."
I couldn't listen anymore.
I stumbled away, my legs barely holding me.
Spring Festival was days away. The streets buzzed with life—clusters of people, couples arm in arm, families laden with shopping bags.
I dragged my suitcase through the crowd with no destination in mind. A ghost among the living.
A young couple passed me, carrying bulging bags of groceries. A long scarf wound around both their necks, binding them together.
The girl looked worried. "It's just the two of us tonight. Think we can actually pull off a New Year's Eve dinner?"
The boy ruffled her hair. "If we can't, we'll order takeout. As long as we're together, who cares what we eat?"
That was exactly the scene I'd imagined for myself. For us.
I still couldn't understand.
Why was Kevin doing this to me?
We used to be so good together. So good.
I'm twenty-eight years old this year. We've known each other for twenty-eight years.
At four, on the first day of kindergarten, he grabbed my hand.
"Millie, when we play house, you're the only one I want as my wife."
At twelve, too young to understand love, he'd rush to my desk the second class ended. At that age, when reputation meant everything, he ignored the teasing and the jeers.
At fifteen, in the thick of adolescence, his face erupted in acne. His grades hit rock bottom. His parents were disappointed. He doubted everything about himself.
"Millie, what do I do? Do I even have a future?"
I held his hand and, trying to sound casual, told him something I'd never told anyone.
"I almost gave up once. For real."
"But I got through it. And after, I realized it wasn't such a big deal. You'll get through this too."
The shock in his eyes. The way his face crumpled when he understood. How he pulled me into his arms and sobbed—I can still see it like it was yesterday.
On my eighteenth birthday, the moment the clock struck midnight, he confessed.
"Millie, I'm going to spend my whole life being good to you."
Later, we both got into universities in Capital City.
He was on the south side. I was on the north.
Four hours by bus, round trip. Every single week, without fail, he made that journey—just to see me.
