Chapter 10
After that day. Daxon never contacted me again.
I just heard that he deleted everything from his social media and deleted his photography account that had quite a few followers.
After school started, I got a call from Aría.
She said she’d moved out of Daxon’s house and cut contact with him.
“Skylar, I’ve always been jealous of you. We both lost family, but Daxon treasured and protected you, while he never really cared about me.”
“I used to be so scared of being alone. When I met Daxon and his parents, I wanted to hold on tight and never let go.”
2
“I don’t know what I did wrong, but I still lost. Even after you let go, I still lost.”
Her laugh was mixed with tears.
She didn’t understand that there’s no winning or losing in love. In the end, everyone leaves wounded and broken.
After Kieran came to Palo Alto, we were always together.
We’d study together at school, go hiking on weekends.
Sometimes I worried I was being too clingy, so I’d deliberately not reach out to him. But within half a day, he’d text me.
[Puppy peeking: Do you have another puppy? Why haven’t you missed your little puppy!]
I couldn’t help laughing as I texted back.
[I was afraid I was being too clingy and you wouldn’t have any freedom.]
He immediately replied: [Puppies don’t need freedom! Puppies only need their owner!]
I could totally picture his smug expression.
There was a street photographer exhibition over the weekend, including some of Daido Moriyama’s work.
Kieran and I went to see it together, but my mood was completely different this time.
“You know what? Last time we went to an exhibition together, I wasn’t really looking at the art. I was secretly watching you the whole time.” Kieran smiled
shyly.
“Really? I was surprised you suddenly asked me for that ticket.”
“I worked up so-much courage to send you that message!”
“Oh?” I stared at Kieran’s face, confused. “I thought you really liked Daido Moriyama. You told me so much about his creative process at the exhibition-I was totally into it.”
Kieran smiled sheepishly and scratched his head.
“Of course! So I wouldn’t blow my cover the next day, I did homework until midnight the night before.”
My heart suddenly skipped a beat.
So Kieran didn’t go to the exhibition for Daido Moriyama.
Could it have been… all because of me?
“Here, this is for you.”
He suddenly pulled out a custom postcard.
Chapter 18
I held it in my hands and examined it carefully, feeling like the person in the postcard looked somewhat familiar.
“In this… me?”
He nodded.
“This is you as a freshman when the ginkgo trees were turning. It was a beautiful autumn day, and you were standing in the sunset, glowing.”
“Sorry, I took this silhouette of you without permission back then. I accidentally won my first photography award with it, and the photo got made into a postcard.”
“I knew you had a boyfriend, so I never dared tell you how I felt. I secretly added you on Instagram but never talked to you.”
“Anyway, I’m really grateful to Daido Moriyama. He gave me the chance to say-”
“Skylar, I love you.”
I stood there stunned for a long time, tears slowly welling up in my eyes.
I hugged Kieran.
Looking at the postcard in my hands, I suddenly felt like everything was meant to be.
