While waiting for the test results, I couldn’t help but ask about Mr. Holland. Back when I decided to drop out of school and venture into business, the disappointment in his eyes haunted me to this day, making me too afraid to contact him even after all these years.
All I’ve ever dared to do was send occasional holiday greetings in the group chats we were
both in.
Mr. Holland had really put all his heart into teaching me back then. He was already established in the industry, so he didn’t need to take on graduate students anymore, but he made an exception just for me. He was the second person in the world to treat me well, aside from. Grandma.
However, I dropped out after being accepted into the graduate program with him as my mentor. The only reason I did that was to take care of Irwin, as he was too busy to do so himself when he first started his company. Back then, he often had stomach issues, so I wanted to be there for him.
My memories were coming back to me now. I remembered how earnestly Mr. Holland had tried to dissuade me.
He told me that, as a man himself, he understood men better than anyone else. If a man liked me, he wouldn’t ask me to give up my studies to help him. Asking me to make sacrifices meant that he didn’t love me as much as I thought he did.
To give up everything for someone who didn’t love me as much as I wanted him to would only leave me with scars and nothing else.
I didn’t remember what I said to him. In fact, I couldn’t remember almost anything about Irwin, including that intense and fiery love I had for him in the past. This was probably a coping mechanism my mind came up with after all the trauma he put me t
Forgetting my love for him was probably the only way I could continue living.
- gh.
Time proved that Mr. Holland was right; he’d foreseen my future even back then, which was why he was so disappointed in me when I told him that I was giving up my studies for Irwin. He’d told me that he never wanted to see me again.
Because of this, I haven’t dared to contact him all these years
However, I missed him. I wanted to know how he was doing, so I couldn’t help but ask Shaun. He told me that Mr. Holland had fallen sick and had been hospitalized for over a week now.
Despite knowing that Mr. Holland didn’t want to see me, I couldn’t resist checking on him secretly, so I arranged with Shaun to visit him.
