An Ode to Freedom

My chest tightened as I watched Flora walk away. Then, I straightened my outfit and went to my mother's company.

That afternoon, I had plans with a few classmates to go back to my previous school and visit our teacher.

While we were talking, I happened to scroll past a new post from Sean on his social media. "Walking around campus with my love again feels like I'm being given a second chance to clear my regrets for not being with her during senior high."

When I saw the familiar background, my heart skipped a beat, and I left in a hurry.

Flora and I had a secret base on the second floor of the East Building, a private storeroom filled with my memories. When I arrived, the place was a wreck. The model I had used to win a competition was smashed on the floor, and its pieces were scattered on the floor. My collection of game cartridges had been dumped out and tossed everywhere. My diary even had marks from someone trying to force it open. If it wasn't locked, I'd have no more secrets left by now.

Anger rushed through me.

Startled by the look in my eyes, Sean shrank back behind Flora and said in a small voice, "Flora, I told you we shouldn't have come. See? Vincent's mad now. Maybe I should apologize to him..."

"It's fine."

Flora glared at me. "Vincent, half of this storeroom is mine. I only brought Sean here to have a look. Stop glaring at him like that."

I took in a long breath and answered coldly without lifting my head, "Fine."

Flora frowned. "What kind of atti..."

"Flora." I cut her off before saying gently, "I'm not angry. It's your storage room as well. It is normal for you to bring your fiancé to see it. Why would I be mad about it?"

I tossed the broken model pieces, the scattered game cartridges, and the diary into the trash. As Flora looked at me, startled, I said calmly, "I won't get in the way of your date. Goodbye."

I was not sad.

Flora was the one who had bought me those cartridges.

The models were ruined, but I could always buy better ones.

The locked diary was filled with the thoughts of a teenage boy, yet the dazzling girl in those memories was no longer the same. All that love had turned into something absurd.

What was there left to cherish?

In the days that followed, Flora did not come to talk to me. She was busy showing off her love with Sean. All of our friends knew how deeply she loved him.

I ran into them more than once, being affectionate with each other at home, and Flora never said no to Sean.

She even managed to persuade Jack and my mother to set the wedding for two weeks later.

Sean was the love of her life, and she couldn't stand to see her man suffer even the slightest criticism or slight.

Sean even posted another update on his social media smugly. "Love at first sight is superior to years spent together."

But none of it could stir anything inside of me anymore.

I was going overseas.