Four years later

“Ye Xin,” Amy whispered, giving him a little nudge. “The physics teacher is checking our homework today. I didn’t do mine. Let me copy yours.”

Ye Xin sighed and handed it over. “You didn’t do his homework? Of all people? You know he’ll take points off your final grade if he gets mad.”

Amy pouted and shot him a look.

But just then, the physics teacher walked into the classroom. He was the kind of man who was always frowning and stroking his little goatee.

“All right. I’m calling names. When I call yours, bring your homework up. This will count toward your final grade.”

Amy’s face went pale. She clasped her hands and silently prayed.

Of course, it was her name.

“Amy!”

Amy stood up. Ye Xin noticed that her hand was trembling slightly. Without thinking, he slipped the bag of potato chips he had hidden in his desk into her hand.

She was so nervous that she didn’t even notice what she was holding.

“Sir!” Ye Xin suddenly stood up. “Amy is eating snacks!”

Amy instinctively raised her hand. There was, of course, a bag of chips in it.

The teacher’s goatee twitched. “Take those snacks outside. Eat them in the hallway. You can stay there for the whole class!”

The whole class burst out laughing.

Amy walked toward the door with a red face, but not before turning around to glare at Ye Xin.

He was trying very hard not to laugh.

After class, as luck would have it, Ye Xin and Amy were assigned to clean the schoolyard. So their classmates watched a girl chase a laughing boy across the yard with a huge broom.

When they finally got tired, the other students had already left. Ye Xin dropped onto the grass.

“Amy, give it a rest. I was helping you! Some gratitude would be nice.”

“Fine. I’ll let you off.”

Amy sat down beside him, close enough that their shoulders almost touched.

“Amy, what are you doing next year? Which university are you going to?”

“I think I’ll stay here.” Amy looked into the distance. “My parents are getting older. I want to be with them.”

“Oh.”

Ye Xin said nothing more.

Amy turned to him. “What about you?”

“I want to study abroad.”He lowered his voice.

“Abroad?” Amy looked at him in surprise. “That’s so far away. So… I guess I won’t see you anymore?”

Ye Xin smiled, but didn’t answer.

After a while, he said, “Remember when I won that prize in the international physics competition? I got a scholarship to study in France. I finally have a chance to see what’s out there.”

“That’s great. Congratulations.”

Amy smiled, but the sadness in her eyes was hard to hide.

“You owe me dinner.”

“Sure.” Ye Xin looked at her. “Tomorrow after school. How about that café outside campus? The trees are beautiful this time of year. The whole street is covered in golden leaves.”

Amy nodded.

Ye Xin smiled too.

But as he looked at her, he couldn’t bring himself to say what he really wanted to say.

He wanted to ask her to wait for him for four years. But he couldn’t bring himself to ask her to put her life on hold for him.

Amy walked home with tears slowly filling her eyes.

After a few steps, she turned around. Ye Xin was still standing where she’d left him, alone in the middle of the schoolyard. They looked at each other across the empty yard. Amy lowered her head and hurried away.

She didn’t know why she was running. She only knew that she couldn’t face him at that café.

His classmate?

His friend?

Or just a girl who happened to like him?

She had no answer. And she didn’t know what right she had to ask him to stay.

France was so far away. 

Maybe that was where he was really meant to go.

The coffee at the café went cold. Ye Xin still waited, but Amy never showed up.

He stared at the coaster on the table. A golden ginkgo leaf was printed on it, shaped almost like a heart.

～～～

Four years went by. 

Ye Xin graduated from university, and so did Amy.

They had not spoken since that day at the café. Yet he could never quite get her out of his mind.

At last, he decided to call her.

He picked up his phone, then put it down again. He was afraid she would reject him a second time.

Instead, he went to the post office and bought a postcard with a picture of the Seine.

He thought for a long time before writing just one line:

‘Congratulations on your graduation.’

He wasn’t sure if it would reach her. He wasn’t even sure if her old address was still valid.

For the next week, he could hardly sleep. Every day, he checked his mailbox, hoping for a reply.

There was nothing.

After his graduation ceremony, he finally returned to the hometown city and visited their old school. The campus was almost empty, covered with fallen leaves.

He slowly walked through the places that still held their old memories, until the old security guard finally chased him out. So he went back to the café near the corner outside the school.

Just like in a movie, he thought. What would he say if he happened to run into Amy?

“You know, I really missed you…”

Or maybe something more romantic:

“You came into my life at exactly the right time, like coffee that’s still warm when you need it.”

No. Too much.

Maybe he would simply smile and say,

“Hello. Nice to see you again.”

The café was quieter than he remembered.

He sat at their old table, beneath the same golden ginkgo trees. He ordered two coffees.

One for himself.

One for the empty seat across from him.

He sipped his coffee slowly, wishing time would move a little more slowly too. He thought about calling her again, but the recorded message always said, “The number you have dialed is not in service.”

Maybe Amy had left the city.

Maybe she had a boyfriend now and changed her number.

Ye Xin gave a small, bitter smile.

Without thinking, he picked up the coaster under his cup. It was old now, but the words on it were still clear:

“There is no going back now…”

His coffee was gone.

The owner came over and asked if he wanted another cup.

“No,” Ye Xin said. “The one across from me is still untouched.”

Then he pointed at the words on the coaster.

“Who wrote this?”

“I don’t know,” the owner said. “There was a girl who used to sit there. She cried for a long time. I had to replace her coffee three times.”

~~~

He had no idea how happy she was when she received his postcard.

It was Amy’s last day at school when the old man in the mailroom called her over and handed it to her.

Amy looked down at the familiar name and smiled.

The old man grinned. “Your boyfriend? Then you’d better go find him. You two make a lovely couple.”

After graduation, she went straight to the city written on the postcard.

She walked the streets where he had once lived.

She called him.

No answer.

By the Seine, Amy walked slowly in a white dress, a bouquet of flowers in her hands, all alone.