He Left Me on the Launched Drop Tower for His Bestie’s Laugh Chapter 09

He Left Me on the Launched Drop Tower for His Bestie’s Laugh Chapter 09

I looked at him.

His eyes were bloodshot, but his gaze was earnest in a way I’d never seen.

“Don’t you have a job?”

“I took extended leave.”

I stared.

“Ethan, why are you staying? I’m not going back with you just because you’re here.”

He didn’t speak, his eyes reddening.

“You don’t have to go back. I’ll be right here. You do your thing. I won’t bother you.”

After that, Ethan stayed at the village school every day.

He fixed Principal Reeves’ leaky roof, chopped wood for Granny Zhang, kicked shuttlecocks

with the kids in the yard.

He bought a ton of food and supplies, but every time he offered them, I said “no thanks.’

He’d just leave them by the dorm door without a word.

He kept at it for a month.

Until the rainy season hit. That night, a torrential storm broke.

A rumbling sound came from outside-something sliding, a muffled crash like a wall

collapsing.

Then I heard Principal Reeves shouting in the yard, “Mudslide! The back hill gave way! Get to higher ground!”

I shot out of bed, didn’t even put on shoes, and yanked the dorm door open, bare feet on mud.

The rain hit like a wall, soaking me instantly.

Principal Reeves had said that slope had been loose for a couple years, but there was never money to reinforce it.

I ran toward the back hill, rain blinding me, mud so slick I could barely stand.

But the ground beneath my feet was sliding.

A massive force shoved me sideways.

I fell into the mud, mouth filling with grit.

Ethan charged through, scooped me up, and ran.

Then the entire slope gave way.

A wall of yellow mud rushed down, swallowing everything.

Ethan threw me with every ounce of strength he had.

When I fought to lift my head, I saw Ethan standing right where I’d been.

The mud was already past his knees.

“Ethan!”

He looked back at me.

Just one glance, so brief, but there was something in it I’d never seen before.

He smiled. “Willa, didn’t I teach you to be brave one more time?”

My eyes burned. “Who asked you to be the hero? Run!”

He was sinking with the mudslide.

“This time… I don’t think I can.”

“I never told you. All these years, I didn’t recognize my feelings for you. I’m sorry.”

The mud slapped his back like a heavy quilt coming down.

His body pitched forward, and then, in an instant, he was swallowed by the yellow flow.

His right hand, which had just waved, sank into the slurry, fingertips dragging across the surface for a second-then gone.

I stood there.

Rain hammered my face, my body.

I was drenched, but I felt no cold.

Where Ethan had been was just mud.

“Ethan!”

My voice was a ragged croak, but I still screamed.

The rain stopped.

Search and Rescue arrived.

When they pulled Ethan from the mud, he looked like a statue just unearthed.

Eyes closed, lips purple, his face cracked with dried mud.

My fingers were stiff.

I scraped the mud from his face with my nails, piece by piece, revealing his forehead, the bridge

of his nose, his chin.

In the face of death, love and hate seemed so small.

I stared at him blankly.

“Ethan.”

“You said you’d never chosen me before, but this time you wanted to.”

His right hand was curled against his chest, fingers loosely clenched.

I pried it open.

His palm was empty, but there was a deep imprint in it-the mark of something held tight for a

long time.

I suddenly remembered.

Every morning when he left things at my door, I never came out.

Once I glimpsed through the crack.

He’d crouched down, put the fruit there, and before standing, he pulled something from his

pocket and gripped it for a moment.

He was holding that frog.

The one I’d left on the lectern, weighed down by a chalk box, that later went missing. I thought

it was lost. He had taken it. He’d been holding it all this time.

The first time in his life he chose me, and after choosing, he was never going anywhere.

Just like the wind today, staying here forever.