If Evening Were Maple Rain

Our love was deep, but fate kept us apart. The first time I saw you in Anhai a year ago shines in my memory like the bright spring sun in March, warming me. Because of family circumstances, I had to leave this place, this city I loved, steeped in shades of blue. A year later, when I returned to the place where it all began, Anhai was as peaceful as ever... You were still here, but the falling maple leaves had carried time away. You were no longer you... Truly, you weren't.

The hazy drizzle outside the window blurred my eyes. In the grayness, memories played back frame by frame... When the rain stopped and the sky cleared, I realized you had already left Anhai long ago... The person in Anhai merely looked exactly like you...

I know you're the only one in my heart, but your shadow no longer looks like you. What's happening to me? I don't know...

Love is like a train. No matter how many beautiful sights it passes, none of them is my destination... The scenery leaves me with a moving past, and what you leave me should be a place that means I never have to travel again. When everything had settled, I sat before the floor-to-ceiling window as the sunset bathed everything in a soft glow, filtering through the glass and spreading across the page... I picked up my pen and began writing this story, called If Evening, Maple Rain.