The air was so cold it felt like frost was about to form.
It wasn’t until the metallic taste of blood spread across his tongue that Ian realized he had bitten through his lip.
For this reunion, he had spent twelve months scouring nearly every corner of the city, completely neglecting his studies.
It was only because Edward couldn’t bear to see the once top student wasting away in despair that he finally told Ian where Selena was.
The moment Ian got the information, he booked the next flight to get to her.
He had rushed over without pause, barely stopping for a sip of water.
His only thought was to see the person who had haunted his dreams.
But when he finally found Selena, he was forced to face a cruel truth.
She was no longer the girl in his memories, the one who had once tolerated everything and treated him with endless kindness.
No matter how hard he searched, there was nothing left in her cold, dark eyes.
There wasn’t a single trace of warmth.
They were like the mountains and the moon, forever separated by an unbridgeable distance, fated to gaze at each other but never touch.
He would rather she hate him and scream at him than face someone who treated him as nothing more than a stranger.
Meanwhile, after returning, Selena couldn’t calm herself either.
She had been certain there was nothing left in her heart for Ian.
Yet, after seeing him again and hearing his desperate cries, she still felt something stirring within her.
Despite appearing utterly ruthless on the surface, she couldn’t force herself to be emotionless like a machine.
When she lost her mother as a child, it was Ian who had held her hand and led her out of that dark place.
Tan had once been the light in her life. He was also the blade that had cut her the deepest.
How could it be so easy to let go? The fluorescent screen in the lab glowed bright as daylight, the boiling liquid in the beaker reflecting her pursed lips.
With a sharp crack, the glassware shattered in her palm.
Shards flew everywhere.
A fresh wound tore open over an.
old scar.
The boy who had once pulled her from the depths of despair was now the one tearing open wounds she had struggled so hard to heal.
The next day, the security guard informed her that Ian was still waiting outside the gate.
He had refused to eat or leave no matter how much they tried to persuade him.
It was as if, without seeing Selena, he was prepared to wait at the gate until he died. On the third night, the rain poured relentlessly.
The security guard pushed open her dorm room door.
