Love Began with the First Meeting

"I'm fine." Maggie forced out a smile. Silently crying, she continued, "I've just caught a cold. When you called me, I was just missing home."

After she said that, Hana felt relieved. "You scared me. I just wanted to check if you were feeling better. What happened to you this time? Why does it sound so serious? Alas! I also wanted to visit you last time, but you were so firm then and said that we shouldn't abuse any family privileges." When Hana started talking, it seemed that she had opened the Pandora's Box of chatting. She couldn't restrain herself from babbling on and on. "But come to think about it. You are at your school. It's not a military zone. What do you mean by 'privilege'? My visiting you has got nothing to do with your father's power."

Sniffing, Maggie strangely felt better when her mother nagged her. She suddenly enjoyed the implied care which was contained in Hana's haranguing of her. 'What's so important about Edgar anyways? He was already gone the moment he appeared. Only family lasts forever,' she consoled herself. This was the argument she used to convince herself and she believed that she would feel better thinking about matters in these terms, but she didn't! She felt even worse.

After chatting with Hana, Maggie finally hung up, ending the call. Her tears had stopped flowing, but her heart was still a heavy stone in her chest.

Benjamin and Monica glanced at each other. Without any verbal communication, both of them decided not to talk about anything which might bring back Maggie's tears. One could eventually share everything with a close friend, but in the meantime, there was a need for some personal space as well. Everyone had his or her own little secrets. A good friend shouldn't dig out your secrets out of curiosity, but should rather be willing to help and provide company as needed.

The fever had been severe for days, but strangely, the day after Maggie had cried, her fever broke and was gone. Even though her voice had become even hoarser, to the point of sounding like barbed wire on stone, the doctor said that she was starting to heal. Benjamin would later crack jokes about this, saying that a woman's tears could really flush out harmful bacteria and heal them.

When she was better, Maggie decided to leave the patient room because she hated the pungent smell of the disinfectant and various other medicines which clung to the space. After she returned to the student hall, she worked with dedication and quickly began to catch up on the schoolwork that she had missed.

Monica always felt that Maggie was too hardworking. From time to time, when she watched Maggie studying like it was the last day of her life, Monica felt like a trash! Utterly useless. Perhaps, to many others, she was trash, but she was trash of the highest quality. She was trash of the National Defense School! When compared to Maggie's example, Monica felt that she really had to work much harder.

"Maggie, you are so hardworking. Do you want to be an officer and work in the office, or be a soldier in the camp?" Monica asked one day.

"I want to be a soldier," Maggie answered without hesitation, a dreamy light flashing in her eyes.

Surprised, Monica sprang towards her and exclaimed, "That can't be! You're working so hard to be a soldier? Shouldn't you go..."

"Only with good grades will I be able to choose where I want to go! They would then have no reason to reject my request." Maggie didn't even raise her head from her books as she declared in a raspy voice. The blisters on her lips had started to heal. But the wounds had made scabs. If she opened her mouth too wide or even when she ate food, the scabs would be torn apart. It was such a torment!

Maggie wanted to complain about the pain, instead she concentrated and focused only on the necessities of her studies, while avoiding thinking about unnecessary things in life, like pain.

Monica felt that after Maggie had returned from the military training, she seemed to be occupied by secretive thoughts. Sometimes she would stare at the screen of her phone for a long time and her eyes would become sad and drift away. She would smile, then she would experience a rapid change in emotions ranging from daze to anticipation and finally disappointment. After observing Maggie for some time, Monica finally concluded that Maggie was in love. That man must then be in the Eagle!

'Every man in the Eagle is enchanting. Is it possible that Maggie has fallen for someone there? But... I thought Maggie had secretly been in love with that man?

Could it be... Monica thought wistfully. When she thought that she was close to the answer, her eyes lit up. With a shock of realization, she gazed at Maggie, as if trying to figure out the answer from her face. Monica almost blurted something out, but managed to bite her tongue instead. 'If what I think is true, I might again arouse her feelings of sadness. What should I do?'

While Monica was in a dilemma, Maggie continued indulging in her reveries. The more she tried to get Edgar out of her mind, the more he occupied her thoughts. No matter how hard she tried, she still couldn't help but think of him. Their time together replayed in her memories like reruns of a soap opera on TV.

Then she started to look at the phone screen again, expecting to see a message appear. She even tried to live without checking messages for one whole day, but she felt so tortured. 'I am waiting for a person who is never going to reply to me. Why haven't I given up yet? What am I doing?' she questioned herself as doubt gnawed at her heart.

While she was thinking about this, she opened her phone's message box, planning to type something. But her fingers never landed on the screen. Instead they hovered in limbo above the keypad. She had to admit to herself that she was afraid; afraid that the disappointment would be too much to bear; afraid that all of her hopes for Edgar would be dashed; afraid that she would never have the chance again to even lie to herself and indulge in her dream.

If she sent another message out, it would have to be her last message to him. 000000