I want you to choose me. 

How badly I wanted to say those words as you turned around and walked further away from me.

Shuhua's POV: 

It was a chill August morning when the birds outside started chirping. I’ve moved out of my parents home to be independent while I pursue my bachelors degree in Drama and Theatre Education. Although I managed to get a scholarship to study abroad in Korea, I work part time at the animal shelter to cover the expenses for rent and other necessities.

Barely enough though.

Sigh. The life of a broke college student. 

The sun is lightly shining through the curtains of my window, alarming me that I should get up and make breakfast. There’s a few dirty clothes on the floor, but it hasn’t gotten too bad to the point that I need to put it in the laundry yet. 

It is too cold.

I stayed wrapped up in my blanket to keep the warmth while I scrambled around in my bed to look for my phone. 

Saturday, 1:13 pm

(2) Missed Calls from qiqi 🦒 

(1) Voicemail from qiqi 🦒 

Yuqi called me? It's saturday and I don't recall making plans with her today. It's also my day off so I wanted to overlseep today, huhu.. Guess I should call her back.. 

I unlocked my phone and slid over to Yuqi's contact info. Her display picture showed a picture of us when we were kids. Yuqi was crying with snot running down her nose, and there I was trying to console her while my knee was bleeding. I smiled as I recall the first time I met her. 

Yuqi's parents were traveling around Asia for a vacation and they had stopped by Taiwan, my hometown, for a short while. Since my parents own a reputable restaurant business, they met Yuqi's parents and little Yuqi during dinner. They hit it off fairly well, and they kept visiting frequently to talk about business and other boring adult stuff. 
I noticed Yuqi sighing pretty loudly, getting bored of listening to the adults talk. As soon as I locked eyes with her, she waved her hands and motioned me to sit beside her. 

"EYYYY!" Yuqi shouted, getting stares from the adults around her. Both our parents turned to look at me, and I could feel my face getting flushed. 

"Oh I'm sorry, I should introduce our little Shuhua to your daughter," My mom picked me up to say hello to the Song family. 

"H-hello, I'm Shuhua and I'm seven years old," I instantly buried my face on my mom's neck, trying to hide. 

"ME TOO. HI SHUHUA! I'M SONG YUQI !! " Yuqi was smiling brightly and her eyes looked like two pretty crescent moons. She seemed really friendly and I felt like it would be okay to trust her. She gives off a certain kind of warmth, doesn't she?

From then on, we were inseperable as we got along really well. Although I was a bit more introverted, Yuqi's extrovertedness complimented my personality. One of our favorite adventures was to go exploring. I showed her all the temples and museums that Taiwan had to offer, and she was really excited to learn about the figures and statues. On her last day of vacation before she traveled back home to mainland China, I wanted to take her to see the waterfalls. Our parents were just a few feet away, watching us play. 
As we were walking up the hill, we found a little stream that we had to go over by jumping on the rocks but Yuqi and I were terribly scared. To the adults, it may have seemed really safe because the distance was actually short in reality but to us kids, it was a terror in sight. 
Yuqi was already crying at this point, but she still acted brave in front of me, saying that she's jumped over rocks every day in her hometown, and that she's done this since she was just three years old. 

"C'mon, this should be easy!" Yuqi smiled weakly and held my hand so we can jump over it together. 

"B-but... " I clutched onto Yuqi's hands and I could feel that she was trembling as well. 

"It'