A Half-Remembered Dream

[Updated whenever inspiration strikes; I will finish it.]

"Eighteen is like the horizon: youth lies above it, and the future is hidden within."

Self-reliant and hardworking vs. carefree and unconventional

The real good girl vs. the pretend delinquent boy

1.

In the height of summer in 2004, to be exact, it was the fourth year since Wen Qingling had moved south with her parents. That summer in Nanchuan, beneath the gentle evening breeze, she met the boy she would never forget for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, life was unpredictable. A sudden family crisis forced her to board a green train heading north with her parents in a hurry. She left without even saying goodbye. She was gone for three cycles of the seasons, and the mountains and seas now lay between them. They would never meet again.

2. In early autumn of 2007, she heard that a handsome, wild new transfer student had joined the class downstairs. Her friend dragged her along to take a look, but she smiled and declined. She stared at the test paper on her desk for a long time, somehow thinking of him, of those youthful eyes, wild and aloof. She shook her head, thinking she must be going crazy.

They met again in the second semester of their sophomore year. Unable to refuse her friend's invitation, she went with a group to a KTV, where a glamorous female singer performed Cantonese songs in the private room.

In the corner, he had his arm around a girl and laughed with carefree abandon, chatting lazily with his friends. Their eyes met unexpectedly amid the shifting lights and shadows. He calmly looked away, as if they had never known each other.

Her heart ached, and she nearly burst into tears.

3.

At seventeen, Wen Qingling wondered how many times two people had to meet before they could have a happy ending. Only later did she understand that without fate, no matter how many times you meet again, it will be no more than a fleeting moment, gone in the blink of an eye.

He's the kind of scoundrel who can be sincere: when he loved you, he'd save your life by giving up a bone even at his lowest point, but once he stopped loving you, even friendship was an illusion.

"My youth was a dark storm.", Baudelaire

* This is a bad ending, bad ending, bad ending. It's important, so I'll say it three times.

* Includes a slight unrequited-love plot. Sweet at first, then the twist later brings angst.

* No real-life inspiration. All the place names and people are made up.

Premise: It was all just an empty dream