Love Unspoken

The two bears that now caught her attention were the very ones Alexander had won for her at the arcade. The sight of them stirred long-forgotten memories, which slowly began to clear, as if a gust of wind had swept away the dust to reveal a vivid image.

It had been a sunny Friday afternoon. Quinn had been stationed outside the high school gates, her patience wearing thin as she waited for Alexander. As the sun began to dip, marking the approach of dusk, a boy in a white shirt finally emerged from the school, his uniform and backpack distinguishing him from his friends.

Upon spotting the young girl waiting by the gates, one of his friends teased, "Your little girlfriend's been waiting for you."

The boy responded with a playful smack to the back of his friend's head before leaving the group to approach her. Crouching to meet her pouting face, he flashed a smile and asked, "Have you been waiting long?"

In those days, she was innocent and guileless. She nodded in affirmation, holding up three fingers to indicate the three hours she had waited.

He scooped her up in his arms, his fingers playfully pinching her cheek. "Then I'll make it up to you," he promised.

He took her hand, leading her to the arcade where he pointed to the selection of claw machines. "Pick one, and I'll get it for you," he offered.

Her eyes were drawn to two bears, one larger and one smaller, nestled together. For a fleeting moment, she thought they resembled her and Alexander.

She wanted those two bears, but they were snugly wedged in the back of the machine, seemingly impossible to win. Despite his best efforts, which lasted until the arcade's closing time and cost him over a hundred dollars, he couldn't win them.

In the end, he resorted to buying the bears from the arcade owner. Even though they were purchased, she cherished them as if they were hard-won prizes, clinging to them dearly.

When she handed the larger bear to him, he accepted it with a smile. "Are you giving this to me?" he asked. She shook her head, pointed at the bear, and gestured, signaling that this one represented him.

"Is this me?" he asked, looking again at the one she had kept, "And this one is you?" She nodded, took back the bear from his hands, and placed it next to the small one, hoping her affection for him was clear.

But he misinterpreted, "Hmm, it does look like a big brother with his little sister." Even though she was young and naive, his words made her feel differently about the bears at that moment.

Later on, after her friend Freya damaged the bear, she never played with them again. And she didn't know when those two bears had become his profile picture.

Ever since Quinn had linked her profile with Alexander's, it seemed he had never changed his profile picture. For years, she had never paid any attention to it.

Quinn scrolled through the photo time and again, feeling a heavy ache in her heart as if something was pressing down on her, making it hard to breathe. By the time she snapped back to reality, her face was blurred with tears. Closing her eyes, Quinn lifted her hand to wipe away the tear stains, shielding her eyes from the sight. Her phone lay silently in her palm, and the doll in the picture seemed to stare at her through the screen.

She didn't sleep that night. She sat up before dawn. The sleepless night left her bedding ice cold, her hands and feet frigid. She coughed, a sign of another cold setting in.

Quinn glanced at the dim light outside, then got out of bed when she noticed a notification on her phone. She couldn't resist unlocking the screen; the enlarged photo still lay there quietly.

Long pressing on the screen, she saved the photo and then minimized it, allowing it to return to its original dull appearance. However, as she clicked back, she saw the title with Alexander saying: "User is typing..."

Quinn's heart leaped, her gaze fixed on those words. 'It is still early... is he typing to me?' Quinn wondered. But no message came. After waiting a while, during which Quinn nearly forgot to breathe, the words "User is typing..." flashed next to Alexander's name again.