The girl in the Louvre

Noticing the slight pout in his friend's voice, Julian could not stop himself from smiling.

"Actually I knew a long time ago. When he first started to go into debt I helped him out a little but then pulled back when I found out what he was spending the money on. If he just lived a stable life he would probably have tens of millions by now."

Shaking his head, Sebastian disagreed. "Knowing his personality, even if he managed to save up some money, he could never make it to the millions. He would find something to blow the money on."

"Hmm maybe."

After a short pause, Julian finished his coffee and stood up.

"I have to go, I have class. What about you?"

"You? Classes?"

Shocked, Sebastian could not help but laugh.

"When was the last time that you actually went to school and had a teacher? I think it was the poor old English tutor, right? Are you sure you are up to making someone else have a mental breakdown?"

Hearing his ugly past from his friend's mouth, Julian could not help but grimace.

"That old man was an old fashioned dotard. This is a different kind of class anyway, it is for cooking."

"Cooking? Sure, it is a good life skill to have but you already good enough. Your food tastes amazing, why would you need to go to school?"

Facing Julian's newfound hobby, Sebastian could not help but be confused.

Hanging his jacket over his shoulder, Julian walked off while replying to Julian behind his back.

"It is to feed my little pig."

Leaving behind a dumbfounded Sebastion wondering what kind of pig it was to make him make food for it personally, Julian continued to his class.

In the beginning, he wanted to have a class every weekend, but due to his busy schedule, it did not seem like it would work out.

With that in mind, he decided to work on it whenever he had time.

From his experience in reading romance novels, the three keys to a woman's heart were sweet talk, romantic gifts, and food.

Armed with the first two, he only needed to conquer the third so that he could conquer her!

From French cuisine to Japanese deserts, he was trying to learn how to make foods that could make Zhi Rou happy.

It was like a hole had appeared in the spot in his heart that, for a brief moment, had held the love that he had received from Zhi Rou.

Her love that had squeezed its way into his warm chest had disappeared as fast as it came, leaving behind an emptiness that could not be filled.

It could not be filled, but by deluding himself, Julian could ease its pain for a little while.

By fighting poison with a stronger poison, he could forget his pain for a while. Only for it to come back stronger than before.

The only thing that bound him together was a dream that he kept deep inside. A dream with only him and her.

Pushing himself forward, Julian strode toward his car. The shining dream that dispersed the fog around him was not something that he could lose.

For someone whose life was filled with uncertainty, he needed something to grab onto. An anchor to stopped him from drifting out toward the wild sea.

If he stopped believing that she would wait for him, that illusionary pillar that nailed him to this world would disappear.

***

Beijing, June 20th.

'Fifteen days. It has been fifteen days since we met and he still has not called me. Not even once.'

Sitting in a quaint tea shop, Zhi Rou reclined elegantly on a mango wood couch while staring at her phone.

For the last week, she had been trying to ignore the growing anxiety inside her. With each day it slowly built up until she could not help but face the truth, Julian was not going to call.

Looking out the window, Zhi Rou remained calm. To everyone else in the store, she was just taking her enjoying the tea.

'I do not understand. If he does not like me, why not just tell me?'

Thinking of the couple sweet hours that she spent with him, Zhi Rou did not know what to feel.

It had been half a month already. Even if he was delayed, it would not take him this long to call her.

'Should I be angry that he did not call? Even though we had only met for a couple of hours? Disappointed that he wouldn't even send me a text?'

The more she thought about it, the more she denied feeling anything at all.

Putting on a small smile, she unconsciously squeezed her glass. Tighter and tighter until it shattered with a sharp crack.

The sound broke the tranquil atmosphere and everyone turned to look to see what had happened.

For Zhi Rou though, it was as if they were separated by a soundproof bubble.

The sounds of a waiter running over while asking if she was okay were muffled, joining the other droning background noises.

She did not even feel the deep cut that the glass had made in her palm, nor the warm blood running down her fingertips.

As the waiter reached over to help clean her cut, she quickly pulled back.

Flashing her small smile at the waiter, Zhi Rou thanked him for the tea before walking out the door.

As if it was not her that had blood running down her arm, but instead a total stranger.

Followed by the worried waiter who was trying the persuade her to stay and get her arm cleaned and bandaged, Zhi Rou's world slowly became overcome with white spots.

With the same small smile on her face, she suddenly fell to the side.

It happened so fast that even the waiter that was closest to her could only watch as her delicate body fell down onto the solid pavement.

Without even raising her arms to protect her head, Zhi Rou's small body smashed into the ground.

With a dull thud, her weak head struck against the pavement, slightly unravelling the cute french side braid that she had put in this morning.

As several people quickly pulled out their phones to call an ambulance, Zhi Rou's eyes blinked slowly, before closing in a deep, dream-filled sleep.