The Heartless

Once upon a time, there was a boy born without a heart.

Just as the blind cannot see the vibrant colors of the world, and the deaf cannot hear the world's clamor or tranquility, a person without a heart cannot feel any emotions.

The townspeople found the boy peculiar and shunned him. Some children would throw stones at him, singing mocking rhymes: "An empty chest cannot grow a heart, just as a desolate graveyard cannot bloom flowers."

Fortunately, his family loved him dearly and cared for him with all their might.

But whether he was bullied or cherished, it made no difference to the boy. He grew up numb and unaware, shedding no tears even when standing before the grave of his last remaining family member.

This numbness frightened those around him, leading them to band together to drive him away. They destroyed his home, stole his belongings, making it impossible for him to stay.

So, the heartless boy embarked on a journey, with no nostalgia for his hometown and no expectations for the future.

Because he had no heart.

***

Years passed, and the heartless boy traveled through many places, endured many hardships, and witnessed many strange things and people. Among them, he met some who were similar to him, born with broken hearts, like shattered pots that could not hold emotions for long, leaking through the cracks.

Yet, such cold-hearted people could blend among ordinary folk, not being rejected or exposed.

The heartless boy sought their advice, and they told him the secret was to use the fragments of their hearts to retain a bit of emotion, using it only in front of the most important people, pretending to have a rich array of feelings, even if these emotions were not genuine.

But this method was useless for the heartless boy. He had no heart at all, unable to fake what he had never possessed.

Others showed him sympathetic expressions, which he couldn't distinguish as genuine pity or pretense. But it didn't matter; he wouldn't care anyway. After resting enough, he turned to leave.

An old man stopped him, telling him there was a way to solve his problem.

"Find a perfect heart," the old man said. "Ask its owner to share it with you."

For the first time, the heartless boy had a goal for his wandering.

He was going to find a perfect heart.

***

A perfect heart was not easy to find. The heartless boy wandered for years, meeting countless people and examining their hearts, only to discover that many so-called ordinary people were not much different from those born with broken hearts.

The only difference was the size of the holes in their hearts and the quality of their emotions.

Unsure whether to continue his search, the heartless boy decided to rest in a small village along his way.

At the village entrance stood an old tree, tall and massive, with a kitten stuck at the top, meowing helplessly.

The heartless boy climbed the tree and rescued the kitten, not out of pity but because he lacked the fear of heights that other villagers had.

A young woman took the kitten from him, expressing her gratitude as its owner.

The heartless boy didn't pay attention to her words, staring at the young woman instead, lost in thought.

It wasn't her youth or beauty that captivated him but the sight of her heart, beating perfectly within her chest—tender, rosy, and unmarred.

It was a perfect heart.

This was why the heartless boy stayed in the village.

***

In his travels, the heartless boy had learned many things, but never how to ask someone to share their heart.

He didn't even know how to make a pleading expression, clumsily displaying skills he thought might impress the young woman.

For example, using carpentry skills to repair her leaking roof before the rainy season, or using painting skills to capture the starlight in her eyes on canvas, or using baking skills to make a strawberry-topped cake for her birthday.

These efforts seemed effective, as the young woman would smile at him—a person the villagers called the emotionless freak—each time.

Her smiles were genuine, filled with joy.

Yes, the heartless boy recognized joy in her smiles, even if he had never tasted it himself. Miraculously, he felt it.

This must be the magic of being close to a perfect heart.

During a spring festival, the heartless boy used his magic skills to conjure a flock of white doves, sending them towards the young woman, surrounding her and her perfect heart.

The girl, holding her cat, walked through the doves and approached the heartless boy, smiling.

The cat leaped from her arms, rubbing against his legs, and the girl stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.

"Thank you for everything," she said, blushing. "I have a gift for you too."

No further explanation was needed; the heartless boy knew what gift she had given.

At that moment, he was no longer heartless.

Half a heart, shared from her perfect heart, beat within his chest.

For the first time, he felt love and warmth, overwhelming emotions that flooded him, making him both confused and ecstatic. The young man smiled for the first time, lifting the girl and spinning joyfully.

At the beginning of this spring, he and she lived happily together.

Sharing one perfect heart.

***

But this was not the end of the story.

A heart is perfect because it is whole and independent. When divided into two, placed in two souls, it is no longer complete.

Whenever they were together, the two halves resonated, creating sweetness. But when apart, the pain of separation seeped through, teaching the formerly heartless boy the reality of jealousy and sadness that accompany trust and joy.

No matter how closely entwined their souls, they remained two distinct people, with their own independent consciousness, unable to perfectly meld like the divided heart.

The pain grew, overshadowing their happiness. Even small separations, like him going to town or her picking plums alone, caused them each to clutch their aching chests, collapsing to the ground.

Their first argument erupted.

Followed by the second, the third, and countless more.

Seeing the young woman’s increasingly haggard face and the blood seeping from the heart’s split edges, a complex emotion arose in his chest—a mix of self-sacrifice and relief for her sake, sweet and bitter.

He finally decided to return the half-heart to the young woman.

Although the two halves rejoined in her chest, a deep scar remained, and it was no longer the flawless heart it once was.

As for him, without the heart, he became the heartless boy once more.