Class reunion: Purple is for dreaming!

(Baohatinh.vn) - At night, the waves crash against the shore of Xuan Thanh beach (Ha Tinh). The furious sounds from the Gala dinner resound.

"Lan" dragged me roughly towards the side of the boat, holding up her iPhone 16 screen to show me. "You're still very beautiful!" - the message on the phone lit up and blinked.

"Lan Dieu" burst into laughter when she saw my wide-eyed expression. "Lan Dieu" and I are related, live next door to each other, and studied together from elementary school all the way through high school. We often call each other "closest sisters." Because of the trust we formed in first grade, we tell each other almost everything.

On a Xuân Thành night, the sky was a dark, ink-like color, but the lights of the seaside town shone brightly. To celebrate our 20th anniversary since graduation, our high school class chose Xuân Thành as our "meeting point." That day, we spent the whole day together, having a truly wonderful time.

Image for illustration purposes only (from the internet).

"Tu the Curly-Haired," "Dai Cat," and others from Binh Duong also hastily landed their Boeing planes at Vinh airport to head straight to Xuan Thanh. That day, "Tu the Curly-Haired" displayed many behaviors that didn't match his age. He looked like a child, very cute, even though he was the owner of a company and possessed a huge fortune. He had a luxury car, a house on a main street, and a glittering gold chain around his neck.

The light from "Lan Dieu's" phone screen illuminated the words "Tu 12H." The sender was revealed. "Tu Xoan" praised "Lan Dieu"! The man inside me suddenly awakened, hinting at a shady scheme. "Lan Dieu" pouted and recounted: "He's messaged me several times today, inviting me here and there. Before I left, he messaged me about dates and stuff, but I didn't reply."

Then, "Lan's tone" shifted, her voice becoming serious, like that of a woman struggling to raise two children in high school and elementary school: "Back in our school days, we had feelings for each other, but it was pure and innocent. I only sent her one purple crape myrtle flower, pressed in my notebook on graduation day. Every student in our specialized literature class was vaguely infatuated like that! She went to study in Ho Chi Minh City, I studied in Hanoi . We only exchanged letters and chatted. Once, she confessed her feelings, but I refused. I didn't think we were compatible. After that, she got married, I got married. We never dated or met up again."

“So you’re not going to answer him?” I asked. “Lan Dieu” scoffed, “That would be crazy.” I urged, “Answer what ‘Tu Xoan’ said.” “Are you out of your mind?!” Lan Dieu snapped. “ We can’t cross those beautiful boundaries, you know! Purple is for dreaming, ” Lan Dieu threw that meaningful remark into my ear, then hurried off to the beach, singing as she went. I thought to myself, “Lan Dieu! You’re so spirited.”

That night, Lan slept over at Man's place. The two of them worked at the same company and were always together, inseparable.

A photo went viral online.

“Purple is for dreaming”—I understood “Lan” was referring to the color of the flowers that year, the flowers that Lan gently pressed into a page of her school notebook and sent to “Tu the Curly-haired.” Back then, we considered pressing phoenix flower petals, lilac flowers, and even entire butterfly carcasses next to a dry blade of grass into our yearbooks as a “fashionable” way to say goodbye to our school days. Some wrote flowery, ornate handwriting, and not a few shed tears, wetting the pages, as if rivers and seas were about to part ways.

In the days without internet or mobile phone service, we exchanged those memories as a promise for tomorrow – the day we would grow up but always remember each other. We transformed from innocent and naive into mature adults.

"Purple is for dreaming" marks the end of a time when everyone was like that. The purple of the past is not a continuation of a frivolous, faded feeling later on. Adults have heavy responsibilities. We cannot carry over the feelings of students to present-day relationships when honor and responsibilities have changed. The order and rules of life compel us to be serious about what we have, even if only we ourselves know it.

Let the past, with its pure and innocent beauty, add a carefree spirit to the present, with the belief that: you meet yourself, and only you, nothing more, nothing less. That is also the greatest and most anticipated meaning of a class reunion...

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/hop-lop-tim-la-de-mong-mo-post290254.html