Ponto de Fuga

Tu Qin gazed at the somewhat unfamiliar young face in the portrait at the center of the mourning hall and thought she might be losing her mind.

The deceased was her ex-boyfriend, Liu Lingxu, who had been gravely ill for several years. Two months ago, he contacted her, and they chatted online a few times after that.

Calling him her ex-boyfriend wasn’t entirely accurate. Liu Lingxu had been her senior in high school, two years above her. She developed a crush on him after one of his speeches, and after a week of infatuation, she cornered him outside the boys' restroom to confess her feelings. Liu Lingxu accepted, and they became a couple. Their relationship lasted about as long as a class break, ten minutes or so; before the next bell rang, Tu Qin had already changed her mind.

They were boyfriend and girlfriend for only ten minutes. Their entire interaction consisted of “I like you,” “Shall we date?” “Let’s go see a movie after school tomorrow,” “Oh, I can’t—thank you, goodbye.” And that was it.

Tu Qin was twenty-six now. All her relationships were like this: she’d fall for someone, confess or be confessed to, and then break up. Her longest relationship lasted three hours, because she’d gone to the cinema—she didn’t want to leave early, so she forced herself to endure for the whole movie.

She was a lithromantic—she could only feel attracted to others in a one-sided way. The moment her feelings were reciprocated, she would feel repulsed or even disgusted.

So none of her relationships ever ended well. If she didn’t get punched when br