The core idea of this novel is that love goes beyond staying by someone's side. It is also about protecting them with your life and carrying responsibility across the divide between life and death.
The purity and passion of campus romance reach their height in the heroine's split-second sacrifice, when she throws herself forward as her lover's life hangs in the balance. She gives her life to protect him, turning the unfinished song “Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine Roses” into a mark of love that is tragic yet eternal. Grieving, the hero chooses to care for her parents, turning his longing and love for her into a lasting commitment to fulfill her duty as their daughter. Their love, cut short in an instant, does not vanish with her life. Instead, it settles into a responsibility and devotion that cross the boundary between life and death, showing the deepest side of love: not just the sweetness of meeting and understanding one another, but also sacrifice in times of danger, loyalty after parting, and an eternal promise to make the one you love's concerns your own mission.
