I had to wear Julian down until he finally agreed to be my boyfriend.
He was this untouchable, revered genius, and I, a regular girl, had managed to snag him. I wanted to put him on a pedestal.
He never met my parents, looked down on my friends, and for the most part, simply dismissed everything about me.
My best friend, Harper, exasperated, chewed me out, “How can you act like you never get sad, never feel wronged?”
I just smiled foolishly. “I love him, you know?”
“Besides, he’s amazing, a golden boy. I’m the one who lucked out.”
I genuinely thought Julian was just naturally aloof.
That was until the fourth day of our silent treatment, when he announced his new girlfriend online.
Later, when we unexpectedly ran into each other, I greeted him politely. But as I was leaving, he suddenly asked, “How did you do it? Just stopped loving me, just like that?”
I didn’t answer his question. Instead, I simply said, “Excuse me, my boyfriend’s waiting for me.”
……
Julian was wrong. No one just ‘stops loving’ overnight. It’s a slow burn of disappointments, a quiet accumulation of heartbreak until there’s nothing left but to walk away.
The reason Julian and I started our silent treatment, in hindsight, was almost laughable.
I was out with friends, and I ended up having a bit too much to drink. They started chanting,
“It’s so late, and it’s not safe. Have your boyfriend come pick you up.”
I hesitantly called Julian.
The phone rang several times, but no one answered.
He was always busy, and the time he had for me was minimal. Once, when I kept sending him messages, he’d coldly chastised me, “I have experiments to do. Don’t distract me.”
My friends were gradually picked up by their boyfriends, walking hand in hand into the night. A few patted me on the back before they left, looking like they wanted to say something but held back. Soon, only Harper and I were left, both single.
Just as I was about to give up, Julian’s low, distant voice came through.
I asked if he could come get me.
There was a moment of wordless silence. I thought the signal was bad, so I pulled the phone away to check, only to realize Julian had already hung up.
I couldn’t even get into our apartment. Julian had changed the code. From behind the closed door, his voice was chillingly scornful.
“You reek.”
“Come back when you’ve cleaned yourself up. Only then will you be allowed into my place.”
Rarely, I felt my temper flare. I stubbornly held out for three days, refusing to contact Julian.
This was our first real silent treatment. Usually, when he was angry, I’d immediately backtrack and apologize, no matter the reason. I always made the first move to make up, and then I’d comfort myself.
But if I didn’t contact him, he never bothered to reach out.
Suddenly, I felt so weary.
Still, I didn’t last past the fourth day. I found myself standing at our doorstep, thinking that we were close to getting married anyway, why let such a minor thing cause unpleasantness?
Besides, one more apology wouldn’t hurt.
Harper smacked her forehead, groaning. I weakly argued, “Well, after drinking, I really don’t smell good, you know.”
But after I said that, she suddenly went quiet, staring at me intently for a long moment.
It took her a while before she said, her voice trembling, “You’re so incredibly stupid.”
Julian leaned against the doorframe, tilting his head as he looked at me. “What are you doing here?”
“Julian, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come home so late that day, and I definitely shouldn’t have had so much to drink.”
I admitted my ‘mistake’ out of habit.
Julian seemed to just recall the matter. “Oh, we broke up. You don’t need to apologize to me.”
“What…?”
“Didn’t you say it yourself when you were chasing me? Unless we broke up, you’d cling to me every single moment.”
“You gave me a few days of peace, so I just assumed we were over.”
A beautiful girl walked out of the room. Julian put his arm around her waist. “Let me introduce you. This is my new girlfriend, Chloe.”
All the blood drained from my face.
“I thought we were just having a fight.”
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.
The crisp click of the door closing jolted me awake.
Harper had just brought me back, and now she was rushing to take me away again.
“She experienced a major shock, so she’s temporarily lost her voice,” the doctor explained. I sat on the side, picking at my fingers, only able to make faint wheezing sounds.
My phone was flooded with messages, all asking about the nine-picture collage Julian had posted on Ins with another girl.
The last time I’d seen Julian smile so brightly was when I proposed to him.
“You always say you’re busy.”
“You can spare five minutes for a proposal, right, Julian? Will you marry me?”
His scolding words about me delaying his experiment came to an abrupt halt, his stern face melting away like ice.
I smiled with him then, truly believing he loved me too.
Julian’s call came through at that moment. “Stella, there’s still a lot of your stuff here. Come pick it up tomorrow.”
Five years we’d been together, and he was always like this.
“Stella, be quiet.”
“Stella, stop hanging out with your friends. You’re becoming so common.”
“Stella, my time isn’t meant to be wasted on these pointless anniversaries.”
But Julian, the perpetually busy man, was actually home on a weekday, wearing casual clothes and making coffee for his new girlfriend at the kitchen counter.
When I had a fever, Julian only poured me a glass of water before telling me, “Something came up at the lab. I have to go.”
A switch flipped off inside my chest, leaving me utterly numb to the world since yesterday.
I just robotically picked up items and placed them into boxes.
Julian reached out to help me with a box, but I instinctively flinched away, and the contents spilled all over the floor.
His expression instantly darkened. “Breaking up wasn’t your choice? Who are you trying to play dumb for?”
He didn’t know I literally couldn’t speak right now.
Julian was handsome, came from a good family, and was a rising star in the biology field. His enrollment had caused quite a stir. Even though he himself was an impassive iceberg, it didn’t stop others from relentlessly pursuing him.
I fell for him at first sight, chasing him all the way through college graduation.
At graduation, I was heartbroken, thinking I’d never cross paths with him again.
“I won’t bother you anymore.”
But when some gossipy people raised their cameras towards us, Julian suddenly took my hand.
“Let’s try being together.”
“Don’t look at me, look at the camera.”
I still remember the thrill that vibrated through me at that moment.
When I first got Julian to be my boyfriend, I felt like I’d hit the jackpot. I even thought, “Well, at least he’s so cold, I’ll never have to worry about him cheating.” It turned out to be nothing but empty words.
I first saw Chloe’s name when I accidentally picked up Julian’s phone by mistake.
His phone was filled with countless chat messages between him and Chloe. They talked about everything from lab progress to everyday gossip.
I saw Chloe ask Julian, “Julian, how come you never post about your girlfriend on Ins?”
Julian replied, “Nothing worth posting.”
It still stung deeply. Julian’s eyes turned cold. “Are you going through my phone?”
“Who is Chloe?”
He seemed a little impatient. “A new junior in the lab.”
“You never told me, and do you two really have so much to talk about?”
Julian seemed to just realize I was jealous, and his expression softened slightly. “It’s just a new lab member joining, what’s there to talk about?”
“Besides, Chloe and I only talk about lab stuff. If I told you, you wouldn’t understand.”
“You could still share with me,” I said, feeling a little wronged.
He still had that poker face. “I already told you, you wouldn’t understand. It’s like how I’m not interested in all those plants and flowers you keep.”
I owned a flower shop. I remembered how excited I was when I made my first big sale, rushing to show Julian.
He just turned away dismissively. “Childish. What’s the point?”
His career was noble, my dreams were insignificant.
After that day, Julian’s phone, which had always been unlocked, now had a password.
Harper’s voice pulled me back. “Stella, don’t be a fool. For him to be with someone else so quickly, it only proves he’d already moved on.”
But four days later was the pre-wedding dinner arranged by both families, where they planned to discuss Julian and my wedding arrangements.
By the time I arrived, the scene was already in chaos.
Grandma Helen was struggling to catch her breath, visibly furious, while Julian knelt directly in front of her.
“Grandma, Stella and I have already broken up.”
“This wedding, it’s not happening.”
As soon as she saw me, Chloe also dropped to her knees, her eyes red-rimmed.
“Miss Davis, I know you and Julian have been together for a long time, but love doesn’t follow a timeline.”
“And I heard, Miss Davis, that ever since you graduated, all you do is hang out with friends or run your little flower shop. You can’t offer Julian any help with his career or family!”
“We new people in the lab have never even seen you. Other seniors’ partners have visited the lab occasionally, but you? You actually expect Julian to drop his important project to pick you up from a bar?”
“Miss Davis, please, I beg you, let Julian go.”
She listed off item after item, defending Julian so passionately that the eyes of some relatives, who weren’t closely involved with either family, also changed as they looked at me.
My heart, shattered by Julian’s silence, ached. I forced myself to speak through the pain.
“The engagement gifts, I’ll send them back tomorrow.”
My throat, unused to speaking for days, was hoarse, making my words sound like a choked sob.
But my answer didn’t satisfy them. Chloe pressed on, aggressive. “Then write a guarantee letter and send it to everyone.”
“Julian’s college roommate told us, everyone in our lab knows, that he only agreed to be with you back then because you relentlessly chased him, and he took pity on you.”
“Don’t try the same tricks again!”
“I forbid it!” Grandma Helen cried, her finger trembling as she pointed at Julian. “You scoundrel! Stella is the granddaughter-in-law I chose!”
But Julian’s face was full of sneering contempt. “Grandma, I know you’re grateful because Stella saved you back then.”
“But at that time, she was just following me! She knew you were my grandma, so she ‘accidentally’ found you collapsing and took you to the hospital. It wasn’t because she’s as innocent and kind as you think!”
“She had ulterior motives, all to get closer to me.”
I stared blankly at Julian. I was just waiting for him on that street; I wasn’t following him. When I helped the old lady, I had no idea she was Julian’s grandmother.
No wonder when Julian rushed to the hospital, he only frowned, said “thank you,” and then warned me with annoyance.
“Don’t use such methods again next time.”
Something in my heart completely crumbled away. I gave a small, sad laugh. “So that’s what you truly believed.”
I stared at Chloe, enunciating each word. “I never came to the lab because Julian didn’t want me there.”
“You said I never did anything for him? He got a stomach ulcer from irregular meals during his experiments. I found a nutritionist, repeatedly adjusted his gut-friendly meal plans, and made him portable, easy-to-digest meals.”
“I loved him for nine years. Can you even count how much I did for him?”
All those things, one by one, if the person involved didn’t care, what was the point of repeating them?
For these nine years, I played my hand and lost.
“Forget it.”
“This is where it ends.”
Tears, uncontrollable, welled up in my eyes.
“Julian, we are officially over.”
Julian’s eyebrows twitched, a half-smile on his face. “Stella, you’d better mean that.”
“Yes, you don’t have to worry about me bothering you anymore.”
But he seemed unconvinced. “Last time we fought, you used a dozen different fake accounts to add me. I’m deleting them all today. Don’t try any other tricks.”
I nodded, my posture earnest. “Don’t worry.”
“Never again.”
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