Due to a thunderstorm, the flight was delayed.

I waited for Gideon Dupont at the airport for three hours, but he never picked me up as he promised.

When I called him, he hung up.

I comforted myself that he was very busy at his laboratory.

But I saw his schoolmate, Mary Dahl, updating her Instagram, and the photo showed his silhouette driving.

She said: [Instagram knows I'm afraid of thunder, so he kindly sent me home.]

In the past, I would have called him repeatedly to question him.

But now, I just moved my finger and liked her Instagram.

I packed my bags and left without saying goodbye, and he searched everywhere for me.

He begged me to come back with tears.

As soon as I landed in the early morning, I received a notification of a rainstorm warning for Aramore.

Before boarding the plane, I received a message from Gideon: [I'm here to pick you up. ]

I knew he was asking for peace.

Last time, he promised to accompany me home to meet my parents during the summer vacation, but he broke the promise.

I waited until the plane took off, but he didn't show up.

I saw a post from Mary on Instagram. In the photo, he was changing the door lock.

She said: [There are bad guys around! Thanks to Gideon for his bravery.]

I called him immediately to question him.

He answered the phone when the ringing was almost over.

He was calm. "A little girl is alone with no one to take care of her. If something happens to her, it will delay the progress of the work of the laboratory."

He downplayed it, making me seem particularly unreasonable.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "What do you want?"

He forgot our agreement.

I hung up the phone, went home alone, and started the cold war with him.

It had been a month today.

In the past, I was the one who tried to make up with him, and I'd be flattered if he would talk to me.

Now that he was coming to pick me up at the airport, I showed no emotion at all and just replied: [Okay.]

He knew my flight time.

I got to the parking lot and called him, but he didn't answer it.

The wind and rain quickly soaked my clothes, making me look messy and dispirited.

The only taxi that passed by with great difficulty was rejected by me just because I still had some hope in my heart and wanted to wait for him.

However, as a self-torture, I took a look at Mary's Instagram account.

The post said: [Gideon knows I'm afraid of thunder, so he kindly sent me home.]

The photo showed Gideon's profile, with his fingers resting on the steering wheel and my black hairband on his wrist.

I liked it.

Gideon probably wouldn't come.

The taxi app indicated that there were more than a hundred people in the queue, and there were no buses due to delays.

I walked to the airport alone in a miserable state.

Gideon and I studied for our postgraduate degree at the same university and lived together during our first year.

When I got home early in the morning, Gideon woke up and remembered that I hadn't come back.

As I opened the door, my cell phone rang.

He pushed the door open and hung up the phone. We looked at each other.

"Hi."

I nodded, not really in the mood to chat.

I opened the TV cabinet and looked for cold medicine in the medical box.

Then, I made a cup of cold medicine, but I still felt dizzy.

I sat on the sofa to relax for a while, then got up and quickly made breakfast.

He just came out of the bathroom while I was eating.

Seeing that there was only my breakfast on the table, he stood there for a moment. I felt his eyes on me, but I didn't look up.

He said nothing, looked at his watch, opened the door, and went out.

There was an essential academic meeting today, and I came back for it.

I had a fever and felt very bad.

When I received Gideon's message, I was still a little confused.

[Are you angry?]

I didn't understand.

There was silence for a while.

[There is no food for me today. ]

He often stayed in the lab and forgot to eat. I majored in liberal arts, so I usually had more time than him.

Since we started living together, I cooked for him every day, and if he were too busy, I would send the food to his laboratory.

Even when we were in a cold war, I never stopped that. However, he always complained that I disturbed his experimental progress and would throw the food into the trash can.

I was in a hurry this morning and forgot to make his meal. Now it was noon and I hadn't brought him any food.

But didn't he care?

I replied briefly: [I Forgot it. You can just eat something by yourself. ]

I didn't look at my phone after that.

It wasn't until the meeting was over that I saw the message he sent. [I'll pick you up and take you home.]

I was dizzy and didn't bother to be pretentious, so I agreed.

I waited for half an hour outside the lobby, but didn't see his car.

My phone rang. It was Gideon.

"Are you out yet?"

I looked around and said, "I came out a long time ago. I didn't see you."

He sighed.

I could imagine him frowning and pursing his lips at this moment, which was a sign of his displeasure.

Every time he made this expression, I became very cautious, for fear of making him unhappy.

He probably thought I was angry, so he softened his tone and said, "I parked at the usual place, in front of the coffee shop."

I was silent for a moment.

"I'm not there."

He was utterly impatient. "What? I especially ended the experiment early so I could go home with you. Where were you going? Why didn't you tell me where you were going?"

He hung up the phone out of anger.

I scrolled through the chat history with him.

Before I returned to Aramore, I sent him the address and told him that I had come back just to attend this meeting.

It had only been two days. Had he forgotten? He might just not care about me at all.

I took a taxi back home.

He arrived before me.

This was rare. Usually, I went home first, prepared dinner, and waited for him to come back.

But the food often got cold before he even got there.

At that time, when he came back, I would go up to him and hug him, complaining coquettishly, "Why didn't you tell me in advance? I waited for a long time."

He pushed me away coldly. "Don't hug me. You can eat by yourself."

"But I want to wait for you..."

"Just eat by yourself. Don't fight with me over such a small matter."

I kept quiet because I didn't want to annoy him, but from then on, I would save food for him in the incubator.

Then I finished my meal, sat on the sofa, and waited for him, keeping a light on for him.

Seeing me come back, he rarely came forward and took my bag.

He had a rare look of guilt.

"Ethel, I was so busy these past two days that I didn't notice you were at an academic conference today. I went to the wrong place."

He realized it was his mistake.

"Never mind."

I removed my makeup first and then found some medicine.

He stood aside and observed my expression.

Then she said, "I'm sorry not to pick you up yesterday. It was raining too hard, and Mary's home was too far away... The light in her house was broken. She was scared, so I helped fix it. Then my phone ran out of battery. And I thought you were home, so I came back first."

I thought he was impatient and left first, but it turned out that he didn't even come to pick me up.

Did he think Mary was a girl and I was old?

I nodded to show that I understood.

He took my hand and asked me to face him. "Are you angry?"

I was confused. "No."

He confirmed it. His expression turned from cautious to somber.

"You're angry. I've explained everything to you. What are you dissatisfied with? You didn't even cook for me, and now you're pretending not to care about me!"

I just realized that if yesterday's events had happened in the past, I would have started to argue with him hysterically.

Whenever this happened, he would frown and watch me in silence, like watching a clown.

Now that I thought about it, I must have looked hideous, which was why he didn't like to go home.

But now, I just watched him blame me quietly, but I couldn't get angry at all.

I was tired after being busy while I was sick.

"I'm going to take a shower first."

He was surprised.

"I want to go with you."

He was attempting to ease our relationship through intimate contact.

I pushed him away calmly. "No, I don't want to have sex today."

I went into the bathroom and heard the living room door slam shut.

Gideon might go out again.

Gideon was having the cold war with me again.

In the past, every time we had a quarrel or a cold war, I would worry and feel that I couldn't keep him.

I would start to wonder whether he really loved me.

I frequently opened my chat history with him and pretended to have sent him the wrong message, but he ignored me.

He wasn't interested in what I sent him.

I pretended to touch the phone and called him accidentally, but he didn't answer.

Every time this happened, I would become restless, not want to listen to the class, and only want to find him.

But now, I felt physically and mentally relaxed.

Because I was sick, I just wanted to have a good sleep. Gideon moved to the guest room, which was exactly what I wanted.

I cooked and ate by myself and no longer cared whether he had eaten or not.

Anyway, he wouldn't eat it even if I cooked dinner, and he would even think I was annoying.

I brought breakfast and lunch to the university and ate dinner in the cafeteria.

I spent the whole day in the library working on my paper.

I invested time in myself and felt fulfilled every day.

After living together, I always concentrated on Gideon.

I matched clothes for him, prepared nutritious meals for him, shared my daily life with him, and reminded him to drink water and eat.

He rarely replied to me, but I never got tired of it.

I went home on time every day and prepared dinner for him, but he was always busy.

He was either doing academic research, doing experiments, or having dinner with his supervisor. He only came back on time for meals a few times.

When the paper was almost finished, I felt much more relaxed.

When I had some free time, I opened Instagram and looked for Mary as usual.

Sure enough, during the days when Gideon and I were in a cold war, they were always together.

They went to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise together, attended friends' parties together, and drank together.

I enlarged the picture and saw that they went to Hidden Mountain.

That was where I always wanted to go, but Gideon always refused me with no time.

He was not too busy. He just didn't have time for me.

In Mary's picture, Gideon still had a familiar silhouette.

But he was like a completely different person from when he was with me. He was very patient and happy.

If it were in the past, I would have started to quarrel with him again.

At first, he would explain patiently, but then he would cross his arms and look at me coldly as I went crazy.

He would become impatient, slam the door, and leave.

Then, I would calm down and coax him back.

But now, when I look at the photos of these demonstrations, I feel nothing, and I even liked them.

My tutor read my thesis and asked me, "Do you really want to study for a doctorate at this university and not study abroad?"

This time, I didn't refuse like I had done the previous time.

I hesitated.

When I came out of university, I happened to meet Gideon.

"The experiment ended early today."

I opened the passenger door as usual, and the "Ethel Special Seat" I had put on the passenger seat was gone.

Mary was sitting in the passenger seat, smiling sweetly, "Ethel, what a coincidence. Gideon is dropping me off on the way home. You don't mind, right?"

I smiled, "I don't mind."

Then I opened the back seat and sat in.

Gideon realized something was wrong and explained, "She won't get carsick if she sits in the front."

I nodded and leaned back in my seat to chat with my tutor.

He glanced at me and saw that I didn't care, so he didn't say anything.

He might find it unusual because I had to sit in the passenger seat before.

There was even a sign for my special seat.

He pinched his brows and said, "Are you a dog? Do you need to mark your territory? My tutor usually rides in my car. How embarrassing would it be to be seen?"

I was embarrassed and said, "Can I put on a small one? If you don't look carefully, you can't see it."

He did not try to stop me and said angrily, "It's just a seat. How childish."

Did I want a position?

What I wanted was something special from him.

Mary got along very well with him. They mostly chatted about the laboratory.

I couldn't get a word in.

Suddenly, she turned her head and said, "Ethel, why didn't you go to Gideon's sister's birthday party a few days ago?"

I had dinner with his sister a few times, and she was very nice to me.

But she didn't invite me to her birthday party, and Gideon didn't take me there.

Instead, he took Mary with him.

I looked out the window. "I don't know his sister's birthday."

"Why? Didn't Gideon introduce you to each other yet?"

I smiled and said nothing.

Before the summer vacation, his sister contacted me.

She asked me if I still liked pink diamonds.

I didn't understand.

She said Gideon was busy and asked her to buy the diamond.

I thought he remembered our anniversary and was waiting for it happily.

However, on the anniversary day, I waited until dark but still didn't see him.

Finally, I saw the pink diamond necklace on Mary's Instagram.

I was crying and making a fuss at the time, and he thought I was being unreasonable.

"I was invited to her birthday party. I should buy her a gift. She only has one birthday a year. You're even going to make a fuss about it?"