Love That Never Loses the Chemistry

It was an orphanage located in the northern suburbs of Ricardo. It was remote and small in scale. It was merged with the orphanage in the east of the city a few years ago.

A few months ago, Peter helped and reconstructed the place, saying that he wanted to build an orphanage in my name.

In fact, Peter and I spent our childhood together here.

When I first met Peter, two older children from the orphanage were pulling the jade pendant around his neck.

He held it tightly and refused to let go, and his little face turned red from anger.

I was six years old that year. Seeing them, I took the water scoop beside me and hit the two bigger boys with it.

The two boys were stunned for a few seconds, and Peter found the stick and drove the boys away in no time.

"This is for you." He took off the jade pendant from his neck. "It's not worth much. I just don't want them to have it."

I refused to take it, so he stuffed the jade pendant into my hand and ran away.

Later, we became what others called childhood sweethearts. We would eat together, go to school together, and fight with others together.

When I had my first period, Peter was embarrassed but still ran to buy me tampons and boil brown sugar water for me.

When he had appendicitis, I carried him to the hospital in the heavy rain.

He refused to be adopted by a well-off family for me.

I gave up a chance to study at an excellent school for him.

From childhood to adolescence, Peter and I had never been separated.

On my eighteenth birthday, Peter held my hand and confessed his love to me in the moonlight.

"Zoey." Even in the darkness, I could still see the uneasiness in his eyes. He stuttered, "H-how do you like... to be with me?"

"What did you say? I didn't hear you." I tilted my head and smiled.

His face turned even redder. "Let's be a couple."

"What?"

He finally realized that I was teasing him and hugged me. His warm breath made my ears tickle. "I love you. Do you wanna be my girlfriend, Zoey?"

I smiled and picked a gardenia. Joy appeared in his eyes, and he put the flower on my hair.

"Zoey, what do you say?" He asked cautiously. Seeing that I smiled but said nothing, Peter held me and whispered, "I don't care. I planted this gardenia for you. You picked my flowers, which means you said yes."

"No! There are many girls who may pick these flowers. How many girlfriends will you have?"

Peter became anxious immediately. "I only want you, Zoey. I don't like other girls."

The way he scratched his head in embarrassment made me laugh so hard that I couldn't straighten my back. He stopped explaining, just held my face, and kissed me.

That was our first kiss. It was clumsy but sweet.

Peter said that gardenia represented a lifetime of love, and he would love me all his life.

"Well, listen to that. How ridiculous.

I hadn't even lived half my life when he indirectly ended my life.

A lifetime of love, heh!" I thought to myself.

The pain deep in my soul made me tremble, and my weightless tears were blown away by the wind soon.

Peter walked up the back hill of the orphanage.

I didn’t know why he came to the back hill at that time.

Every year, Peter would take me there to celebrate my birthday.

Although it was just an ordinary hillside, Peter could always create something romantic out of it.

He would catch a bottle of fireflies, ask me to close my eyes and release them when I opened my eyes.

He would take a few beers and a telescope and patiently wait for a meteor shower with me.

He would carry me up and down the hill over and over again, and even when his feet were blistered, he would still smile.

The gardenia garden was also on the back hill.

Although our love had faded, the gardenias were still blooming, giving a refreshing fragrance.

Peter took out a cigarette, and the light flickered in the darkness.

His hand stroked the beautiful gardenia petals when his cell phone rang suddenly.

"Peter, come and save me! Ms. Tyler sent someone to kill our child!"