To the Love of My Life

Ruby Gregory dipped her head lower, turned around without saying a word, and headed towards the Gregory’s house.

She paced quickly, and just like usual, he didn’t turn away, watching her silhouette disappear into the house of the Gregorys.

About five minutes after she entered, a faint light began to emerge from the house.

This was the glow of a candle, far less bright and glaring than the lights in the Burton’s house.

Steve paced two steps back and forth in front of the Gregorys’ gate. After hesitating for a moment, he took a step forward and walked into the Gregory’s courtyard.

Maybe it was his selfishness speaking, using a candle to prolong his time with her. Now, he was thinking again of helping her solve the electricity problem, in order to spend more time with her.

Though the additional time would be short, for him, it was incredibly precious.

He stood at the door, using the faint light that came from his own courtyard, pressed the yellow doorbell button on the white wall. After about a minute, he heard footsteps approaching from inside.

The door opened, revealing Ruby dressed in her pajamas, topped with the same old coat.

Caught by surprise, she watched him without uttering a word.

Before Ruby could ask anything, Steve quickly explained himself, “Today is New Year’s Eve, walking around in the dark isn’t considered good luck. I thought I would offer to check your circuit.”

Ruby moved to the side. The structure of the Burtons’ Mansion and the Gregory’s villa were the same—the main power switch was located on the back wall.

With familiarity, Steve headed over, removed the wall painting cover, opened the breakers and took out his mobile phone. He glanced, noticing the main breaker was off, presumably tripped. He pretended that it was troublesome to handle and eyed those various power switches intensely for a rather long time, before he finally switched on the main breaker.

The entirety of the Gregory house lit up instantly, both inside and out.

Calmly, Steve hung the wall painting back, turned around and told Ruby, who was standing behind him, “The circuit breaker had tripped.”

It wasn’t that the circuit breaker had tripped, she was the one who had turned off the main power… Ruby thought silently, but merely nodded at Steve on the surface.

Everything turned out perfectly fine now. Apparently, he had no valid reason to stay any longer. Steve cleared his throat several times, grappling to say the words “I am leaving,” yet he couldn’t articulate it.

The atmosphere was dead silent.

Just as the silence started to become painfully awkward, Steve forced a smile, “Then I’d better get going.”

Ruby stared at him without saying a word.

Steve smiled again, he moved towards the front door.

Ruby turned her head, watching his stiff pace. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

The moment Steve opened the front door and stepped out, Ruby finally couldn’t refrain from calling out, “Steve Burton.”

Ruby didn’t speak, instead she moved towards Steve, face-to-face, standing at the entrance of Gregory’s house.

Before she could say anything, a loud noise suddenly echoed in their ears. She and Steve simultaneously turned towards it –a firework had lit up the night sky, forming the number “10”.

The subsequent noises continued nonstop, the numbers in the sky kept changing with each second.