They stood at a busy street crossing in Vancouver, BC, waiting for the pedestrian traffic lights to turn green.

As the traffic stopped and they started walking, she reached for his hand and held it. He looked at her in confusion. They had hung out a few times before, but always as ordinary friends and never had any physical touch before. It felt a little weird for him that suddenly they were holding hands like dating couple.

He glanced at her face briefly, trying to get a hint. She showed no sign of anything being abnormal. Maybe it was because they were crossing a busy street, he talked to himself in his mind. As if confirming his assumption, she let his hand go as soon as they stepped up to the pedestrian walkway.

He felt kind of relieved, but a little disappointed at the same time. Though she was not the prettiest or smartest girl among his friends, she sure was a fun friend to hang out with. But he was not ready to date her yet, nor any girl at the time. The timing was terrible. He had just gone through a terrible break up and he needed to be alone. He needed time to think straight and recover before he got into another relationship.

He was too indulged in his own thoughts to notice the spark in her eyes.

A few weeks later…

After he pulled the car in front of her house, she sat still in her seat and did not move. As he thought she was waiting for him to open the door for her, she spoke up.

“I’m moving to D.C. next week,” she took a deep breath and continued, “I found an internship there.”

He felt a little shocked but did not know what to say. It was really nice hanging out with her, but they never really dated, not even a kiss. He thought they could keep this relationship in the pure friend zone and finally he knew he was wrong. This was not the way people in friend zone said goodbye.

“Good luck. Let’s keep in touch, OK? If I get a chance to go to D.C., you can show me around. ” He tried to cheer up the atmosphere in the car.

“Sure, let’s do that. And I have a present for you. Promise me you won’t open it until you arrive at home, OK?” She took out a small package and pushed it into his hands. Before he could refuse, she jumped out of the car, waved at him with a big smile and walked toward her home.

He did not need to open the package to know what it was. Her diary and love letter, of course. He had known her thoughts all the way, but had been ignoring them trying to reject her subtly. Now he could not hide from them anymore.

Back at home, he stared at the package for a while before he opened it. His brain told him that he should end this early for better; but his heart made another choice.

He took a deep sigh when he saw a diary book with lavender cover in the package. He shook his head as if he disagreed with his own weakness, and opened the diary.