Youth Is Like the Wind, Years Flow On

1
My twin sister offered to help me get the attention of the guy I was secretly in love with.
Instead, she started dating him.
Later, when my sister was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure, I refused to be her donor.
I said no in front of our parents and him.
...
At my sister's funeral, my parents each slapped me across the face.
Bernard stood to the side, his silence deafening, his eyes burning with a hatred that could sear a soul.
I knew they all despised me.
They hated me for not saving Kathryn.
Hated me for sealing my own sisters fate.
I can still feel the suffocating joy that filled her hospital room the day the compatibility results came in. The room buzzed with it. My mother clutched my father, thanking God through her tears. Bernards eyes were red with relief.
But I refused.
"Kathryn is your sister, Kelen! You'd really just stand by and watch her die?"
"You grew up together! You're flesh and blood!"
"We're begging you, on our knees, please, save your sister!"
"You heartless, selfish girl!"
...
In those days, the scorn and confusion of everyone around me felt like a wave trying to pull me under.
Bernard even came to me, his voice tight. "Why won't you save her?"
I just glanced at him, saying nothing.
The resentment in his eyes was a physical thing before he turned and walked away.
The year after Kathryn died, I left the country and never looked back.
I heard Bernard also left for college, preparing to take over his family's corporation after graduation.
It didn't matter.
I deliberately built a wall around that part of my life, blocking out everything about my family. About Kathryn, about Bernard, about my parents.
I pretended to forget, forced it all down.
I tricked myself into believing it was all just a bad dream.
Hiding in the fragile utopia Id constructed for myself, I became a surgeon.
I used to be squeamish, terrified of blood. I endured so much ridicule and doubt during my first year of med school. Looking back, I have no idea how I pushed through. But I had to win the scholarship; it was my only lifeline. My parents, consumed by their hatred for me, weren't sending a dime.
Those years abroad were a blur of endless work and study.
After clawing my way through hell, I finally became a top surgeon at a renowned hospital in the city.
After a grueling two-week stretch at the hospital, I stumbled out, my hair a mess, ready to collapse at home.
And there he was, standing right in my path, as if hed been waiting forever.
Bernard.
"Marry me," he said.
2
I was always the quiet one. Growing up, the only person I ever really talked to was my sister, Kathryn.
So when I realized I had a crush on Bernard, I panicked.
The only person I could tell was her.
It happened during the first lunch of freshman year. The high school cafeteria was a chaotic sea of bodies, and I got separated from Kathryn. Someone shoved me hard in the throng, and I stumbled backward, falling right into Bernards arms.
I scrambled to my feet, my face instantly flushing hot the moment I saw him.
That night, huddled in my bed, I whispered my secret to Kathryn. She was a hundred times more excited than I was.
"Oh my God, you like Bernard?!"
"Shhh! Keep your voice down! It's just a little crush!"
"Just a little crush? That's Bernard! He was crowned the king of our school the day he walked in, and he's a genius. Wow, Kelen, you sure know how to pick 'em."
"Stop teasing me."
Kathryn and I were complete opposites. She was a vibrant, sunlit field; I was a quiet, shaded corner. She wanted to be a doctor; I wanted to be an artist. Her effortless brightness was a language I could never learn to speak.
Who wouldn't fall for a girl like Kathryn?
Including Bernard.
...
I stared at Bernard, completely bewildered.
It had been so long. The man standing before me was a stranger. His hair was slicked back perfectly, his suit immaculate. A pair of thin, gold-rimmed glasses rested on his nose. The golden boy who once ruled our high school hallways now looked every bit the corporate executive.
But none of that mattered.
The day Kathryn was buried, I buried my own foolish, girlish heart with her.
The only thing that mattered right now was the insane proposition hanging in the air.
He wanted to marry me.
"Bernard, do you have any idea what you're saying?"
"I do."
"What do you know? Marry me? You're insane."
"I'm not insane," he said calmly. "I've already spoken to your parents."
"What?"
"They're waiting for us at home. I've already bought the plane tickets."
Taking leave, boarding the plane, landing
As we stepped out of the airport, my mind was still a fog. I didn't know how I'd let him drag me all the way back to my hometown.
The car turned onto streets I no longer recognized, and it hit me.
I had been away for a very, very long time.
My parents' reaction was exactly as I expected.
"Uncle, Auntie, I want to marry Kelen."
"Absolutely not! Bernard, how could you do this to Kathryn's memory? Did Kelen force you into this?"
Of course. In their eyes, I would forever be the monster who killed their perfect daughter.
"This is what Kathryn wanted."
Bernard took a deep breath, and his next words stunned the entire room into silence.
3
"Kelen, I found your love letters under your pillow!"
"Kathryn, why were you going through my things!"
"I didn't mean to! But honestly, why write them if you're just going to hide them?"
"I I'm scared. So many girls like him. It wouldn't make a difference."
"Who cares what anyone else thinks? Just give them to him!"
"No, I can't."
"Why not? You have to be brave!"
But I wasn't Kathryn. I didn't have that kind of courage.
Those letters were my secret world, written in the stolen moments between studying. They were dreams I spun for myself, a sweet comfort only for me. They had nothing to do with him. I couldn't bear the thought of him knowing, of him seeing me. A shining star like him belonged with someone just as dazzling.
Not with someone as insecure and timid as me.
The next day, I noticed the letters were gone from under my pillow. My heart leaped into my throat. I cautiously asked my parents, but they hadn't seen anything.
My fear turned to a single name.
Kathryn.
It had to be her.
When she told me, grinning, that she had delivered all my letters to Bernard, my world collapsed. It felt like being thrown into a bottomless pit of darkness. All those secret, tender feelings were ripped out into the open, as if Id been stripped naked in the middle of the street.
Shame and rage burned through me.
...
Bernard pulled a journal from his bag.
I recognized it instantly. It was Kathryn's favorite, the one she carried everywhere. She loved to document everything, writing in it every single day.
When Kathryn got sick and then passed away, my parents hatred was a wall that kept me from everything that was hers, including her belongings. I never thought I'd see that journal again, and here it was, in Bernards hands.
"After Kathryn passed, I was so busy with the company. I never really went through her things properly," Bernard said softly, his fingers tracing the worn cover as he opened it.
I could see the grief still etched on his face. Of course. How could he ever forget the girl he loved so much?
He began to read excerpts, his voice a low murmur recounting the little moments Kathryn had captured.
My parents were openly weeping.
I fought back my own tears, clamping my jaw shut. I had no right to cry. But my heart felt like it was being pierced by a thousand tiny needles.
Much of that journal was filled with things we did together. While I was buried in textbooks, shed be on her bed, sketching and writing. She would always ask me how my day was. Most of the time, my mood was just flat. So she would draw a little, multi-colored sun next to my name to cheer me up.
This journal, this time capsule of our sisterhood, was now in his hands.
The colors had faded, the pages yellowed with age. He must have read it countless times over the years.
Bernards voice cracked as he turned to the final, tear-stained page. He took a shaky breath.
Kathryns last entry, her final wish, was for Bernard and Kelen to get married.
And just like that, the dam I had built inside me shattered. The tears Id held back for so long finally broke free, streaming down my face.

First, search for and download the MotoNovel app from Google. Then, open the app and use the code "324546" to read the entire book.