Hey guys! Before you read this, please read this.

Seriously, though. You need to read that to understand why I’m choosing to drop A Broken Doll and change its ending. I wouldn’t feel right if I just left you guys hanging without an explanation. So brace yourselves.

Lu Han took Ke Xin’s words to heart and reconciled with his family before he would leave with Yi Xing for Korea. He sends his parents a letter, while paying a visit to Lu Hee, making her promise not to speak of his plans to Ke Xin. He leaves with Yi Xing with hesitation but eventually goes.

Ke Xin is getting hit with all kinds of changes. The twins are relocating with their father to open up another dance branch in Taiwan and to make matters worse, Lu Hee keeps Ke Xin behind after class to tell her that Lu Hee had accepted a position at a renowned dance school in France. Lu Han’s visit had inspired Lu Hee to chase after her dreams too. But Ke Xin is completely unaware of Lu Han’s leave. And Ke Xin even asks Lu Hee if there’s something wrong with Lu Han because he hasn’t contacted her for over two weeks. Lu Hee keeps her brother’s promise and only gives Ke Xin’s this one piece of advice, “Whatever you’re going through, just know that it will pass.”

The story progresses into the late spring. Ke Xin is a mess. She had quit dance, and spent most of her time refusing to get out of bed. Ke Xin doesn’t know why Lu Han’s phone keeps going to voicemail or why he’s not calling her back. While the whole household is worried about her and suggests for Mr. Cai to step in, he lets Ke Xin handle her own life crisis. “I’m not going to be there all her life.” But what everyone doesn’t know is that Lu Han had visited Mr. Cai before he left. Lu Han has told Ke Xin’s dad what he was going to do and to urged him to provide a way for Ke Xin to get back on her feet if she became a train wreck. Although it was hard, Mr. Cai didn’t say a word to Ke Xin and even started working on an application for her admission to NYU.

At the beginning of summer, Ke Xin is fed up. She goes to Lu Han’s apartment to demand why he stopped contacting her only to be shocked that there were new tenants. According to the landlady, the two boys had packed up and left months ago. She is stunned and when she walks back to the car, she rejects Austin’s concern and told him to drive back to the house without telling anyone where they had been.

There is a sharp change in Ke Xin over the summer. She drove herself into her studies and became more and more indifferent to everyone around her. One day, she caught a reflection of herself in the window and instantly hated how she looked because it reminded her of Lu Han, cute apparel and long, silky hair. The next day, she finally put those forgotten credit cards to use. Justin and Austin went along with her as she bought armfuls of more sophisticated clothing, shoes, and jewelry. And then for a major haircut. At the hair salon, the lady held a lock of Ke Xin’s hair and asked once more how much she wanted to cut. The twins looked just as pained as the lady when Ke Xin replied, “All of it. Make it chin-length.”

One night, her father presents her with an acceptance package to NYU. He’s told her that when he was going through a tough time, he left. He always thought that he was running away from his fears but Mr. Cai said that in reality, he just needed a change of scenery to heal. “Not every relationship has to work out. I just got lucky that your mother was my first love. According to her, I wasn’t her first love. She told me that one day she wanted to tell her future daughter that when your heart breaks, it seems like nothing will ever be right again. But that’s not how we humans are made, we were made to adapt and heal. At a pace, slowly or quickly. Take one day at a time and before you know it, you’ll love again.”

“You really believe that?” Ke Xin asks.

Her dad laughs, “Yes. Your mother’s advice helped me through her death.”

Later that night, Ke Xin decides. She’s going to NYU. In the early autumn she begins to pack and put most of her belonging into boxes to be shipped to her loft in Soho. She stops and notices the porcelain doll that Lu Han had given her almost two years ago lying in a box in a corner of her closet. After much debate over whether she should smash the doll or bring it along, she decides to leave it here. Just like how she is leaving the memories of her and Lu Han back here in Beijing.  

Her birthday passes happily, and all thoughts of Lu Han are rare. On the day she is leaving, she says good-bye to everyone and her father personally drives her to the airport. She asks him to stop by the spot where Lu Han had taken her for her birthday last year. When she gets to the spot, everything looks like last year, the beautiful leaves and the wonderful shade. But of course, Lu Han’s not there. She speaks to no one in particular, but hopes that her words are carried by the wind to wherever in the world he could be. “I forgive you. Wherever, you went, if you’re happy, then that’s what matters. Hating you would only destroy me, so I’m letting you go, Lu Han. Good-bye.”

Our story closes with a note that Ke Xin mindlessly writes on a napkin as she gazes out of the plane window, watching it pull away from Beijing.

“I’ve always worried about my adolescent years. Was I ruining the important feature of being a teenage, of learning from mistakes and hardships, by being born into a comfortable life? But in time, I found that everything was like a circle as teenagers. It’s this cycle of wanting, hurting, fixing, and trying. No matter the circumstance you were in. But one day we’ll have a new set of problems to face as adults. And then we’ll miss this game we had going on as teens. So being “broken” was just another stage that I should just appreciate. And appreciate this whole process because I maybe wishing for it one day.”

EPILOGUE:

The Wang twins loved Taiwan and their family business had grown so successfully that they began a partnership with SM Entertainment, recruiting some of their students as trainees and in turn SM promoted their school branches all over Asia. That is how Jia Li and Yi Xing ran into each other again and began dating for several years. When Lu Han had asked the twins if they were still in contact with Ke Xin, he was told that the last time they heard about her, she had gone to study abroad in New York.

As for MiMi, she loved London and never looked back. She took up dance teaching and always told her students about this one special sister-rival she had back in the day.  Lu Hee became well-known in the Parisian ballet dance scene and often travelled back and forth between France and Beijing to visit her parents. She had bumped into Austin once in the supermarket when she was on a visiting home. The two hit it off great and settled down in Paris.

Lu Han and Se Hun grew close and one lonely night in the dance practice room, they showed each other the Rubik Cube that they both were gifted with by a “pretty girl with long, dark hair.” They were amazed that they shared a first love, one mutual, another unrequited. And still no else knew why they had such a strong bond. Lu Han entered a constant, on-off relationship with Seohyun throughout his careers because he still had Ke Xin on his mind and Seohyun always suspected another girl in the picture but never could prove it. As for Se Hun, he moved on quicker than Lu Han. He’s always had a crush on Krystal Jung throughout their trainee and young idol years, but they only began dating in their mid-20’s.

If you asked Ke Xin, moving to New York to study business was the best decision of her life. She loved the culture, and made so many friends. One time at a girls’ night out to a restaurant in K-Town, her friends were showing her this boy group called EXO. Instantly, she recognized Yi Xing, Se Hun, and Lu Han. It had been nearly four years. Surprisingly, she smiled and laughed. They had accomplished their dreams, what a small world this is. When asked by her friends why she had laughed so suddenly, she shrugged and joked, “Maybe one of them is my long lost ex-boyfriend, one of them his friend, and another whose life I saved.” She even became more  known as “Kara” then she did “Ke Xin”.

Ke Xin met Graham Phillips in 2012 when he was shooting a scene for a TV series.  Her hair had grown longer by now and from across a sea of people and through a coffee shop window, he was mesmerized by her. She was sitting there reading and during his break, he sat down next to her with a drink bought for her. Noticing that it was green tea instead of coffee, she smiled and introduced herself as Ke Xin instead of Kara. When they got married, Graham and his beautiful Asian wife’s wedding pictures were all over the magazines and you can guess that they had Peoples in Korea where famous idol groups could peruse. And concerning the tarot card reading Mr. Cai had done years ago, Ke Xin husband was a famous performer, and he was born in April.

Mr. Cai had two grandchildren, a boy and a girl, both with the last name ‘Cai’ after Graham learned about the prestige history behind the name and wanted to keep it going. Once, when the couple and their kids came to visit Grandpa for the summer, the little girl finds the long forgotten doll in the closet. When her daughter asks her if it’s from Grandpa, Ke Xin replies honestly, “No, but it was from someone very special.”

“More special than Daddy?”

“No, sweetie, not more special than your Daddy, but special.”

Ugh. My heart. But um, I’ll write a last author sort of farewell note thing or something later.