Too Heavy for Tears, the Arrogant Cripple Broke Down Chapter 09

Too Heavy for Tears, the Arrogant Cripple Broke Down Chapter 09

The question came out of nowhere, yet it was so unmistakably Evan.

He would never say, “I missed you,” or “I was wrong.” Instead, he asked about things that seemed completely unrelated.

As long as he was asking about the weather, the temperature, or whether I had eaten, he could pretend he wasn’t revealing anything.

But I understood.

“It’s not too bad,” I said. “A little warmer than back there.”

He nodded and fell silent again.

The streetlight stretched our shadows across the pavement, one standing and one seated.

The silence lasted a long time.

Once again, Evan was the one who finally spoke.

“Nina, during those three years, I wasn’t testing you.”

I looked at him.

“I truly wanted to let you go.”

“Every time I said we should break up, I meant it.”

“I wasn’t waiting for you to talk me out of it. I just thought… I wasn’t good enough for you. You deserved someone better.”

His voice remained even, but one hand was clenched tightly on his knee, his knuckles white.

—

“Then you actually left, and I realized…”

He paused.

“I couldn’t even bring myself to ask you to stay.”

“It wasn’t because I didn’t want to. I just didn’t know what right I had to ask.”

I stood there and listened.

Strangely, I didn’t feel the slightest urge to cry.

Maybe it was because I had waited three years to hear those words.

By the time they finally came, all I felt was calm.

“Evan.”

He looked up at me.

“I truly loved you back then.”

“I loved you so much that every time you tried to end things, I assumed I hadn’t done enough.”

“I changed so much and endured so much. Eventually, I realized the problem wasn’t that I wasn’t good enough.”

“The problem was that you never believed me when I said I loved you.”

His eyes reddened, and he quickly turned his face away.

I kept going.

—

“You said you weren’t good enough for me, but did you ever consider that every time you pushed me away, you were hurting me too?”

“You weren’t the only one in pain every time you said you wanted to break up.”

He said nothing.

I could see his shoulders trembling slightly.

I took a deep breath and finished what I needed to say.

“It’s not that I won’t forgive you.”

“I just don’t know whether we can ever start over.”

Silence settled between us again.

After a long time, Evan wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and turned toward me.

“I can wait.”

His voice was soft, but every word was clear.

“I’m not waiting for you to come back. I’m waiting for you to decide for yourself.”

“No matter how long it takes.”

I looked at him and suddenly felt that he had changed.

It wasn’t that he had become better or worse. He had finally stopped hiding inside his shell.

Yet in that very moment, I understood something with absolute

—

clarity.

He had finally learned how to say all the things I had needed to hear.

But I no longer needed to hear them.

I wasn’t saying it out of spite or trying to act tough.

I truly didn’t need to hear those words anymore.

Had he said those words a year ago, or even six months ago, I probably would have cried.

I would have thrown my arms around him and said, “I’ve been waiting so long for you to say that.”

But now, the part of me that had spent years waiting for him to open up had disappeared without my noticing.

“Evan.”

He looked at me.

“By the time you learned how to say those things, I no longer needed to hear them.”

His hand went still on the armrest of his wheelchair.

He didn’t follow me.

He didn’t say anything else.

I turned and went upstairs without looking back.

The final comments flashed in front of me.

—

[She waited three years to hear those words, but by the time she finally did, she truly didn’t need them anymore.]

[The female lead made the right choice. It isn’t that she never loved him. They simply can’t go back.]

[The male lead finally learned how to communicate, but it was too late.]

[Some chances, once missed, are gone. He needs to accept that.]