Allie’s POV

I listen to Myungsoo as he finishes up his story, but there are things bugging me about it. There are things that I can’t exactly wrap my head around. “And that’s it,” Myungsoo says looking at me. “That’s my story, that’s my past. That’s the real story that I didn’t tell you before.” I can’t say anything as I digest everything and just stare at him. “Allie, are you okay?” he asks putting his hand on my shoulder.

“When was that accident?” I ask. My voice is barely above a whisper. I hope it’s not what I think it is. I really hope it’s not what I think it is.

“I’m not sure,” Myungsoo says scratching his head. “Um…I think it’s about a year a couple of weeks ago? Around the time that I met you,” Myungsoo says gaining confidence with his answer. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that it was then since I would’ve graduated high school soon and now we’re going through exams, so it was pretty much around now. Why?”

“It can’t be,” I say standing up.

“Allie? What’s wrong?” Myungsoo says standing up next to me.

“It can’t be, it can’t be,” I say as I grab my crutches and attempt to go back home. I don’t want to sit at the park anymore.

“Allie,” Myungsoo says grabbing my shoulders and stopping me by a hug. I immediately turn around and slap him, although it’s not on purpose, it was just more of the physical contact. As soon as my hand touches his face, I freeze and we both stare at each other. He doesn’t seem mad that I just slapped him, but he doesn’t know the reason behind it. “Allie,” Myungsoo says, this time it’s incredibly softer. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to hurt you or anything by the story.” I just stand there and look at him. “I’ll take you home, okay? I’m just going to go tell Sungyeol and Cecelia.”

Myungsoo leaves me standing there as he goes to find Sungyeol and Cecelia. I suddenly regret slapping him in the face, but I couldn’t help it, not after what’s happened to me, he should be happy that I didn’t slap him all of those other times he’s touched me. Somehow during those times I found a way to restrain myself since I knew that Myungsoo couldn’t really do anything bad, but this time I couldn’t. I don’t know why.

“Okay, we can go,” Myungsoo says jogging back over to where I’m standing. I see him look down at my ankle and kneel down in front of me with his back facing me.

“What are you doing?” I ask staring at him.

“Get on.”

“On your back?” I ask surprised. “I can just walk home with my crutches.”

“I’ll carry them,” he says grabbing them from me.

“Myungsoo,” I begin, but he merely pats on his back.

“Get on. I know you’re probably tired and I’m not sure what part of the story got you upset, but can you tell me?” I think about it and reluctantly get on his back. Myungsoo starts talking not even before we leave the park. “So, can you tell me why you slapped me?”

“Maybe,” I say wrapping my arms around his neck for better support. I lean my chin up against his shoulder. I think I need comfort right now, and even though he’s carrying me on his back, I sort of feel comfort coming from Myungsoo. “I must be heavy.”

“No you’re not,” Myungsoo says. “So can you tell me?”

The way that he’s asking sounds really sincere like he really wants to know why. It’s not even like he’s mad at the whole thing, it’s just like he wants to understand why. I take a deep breath and hug him tighter before I tell him.

“It’s because of Sunggyu.”

“You slapped me because of Sunggyu?” he asks not fully understanding. “Did he do something to you?” I have no answer to that question; it’s not something that I want to answer. “What did he do to you? Allie, if you don’t tell me, then I can’t help you. I want to help you.”

“He…he…” I begin, but the words aren’t forming themselves.

“When did this happen?” Myungsoo asks attempting to coax along the situation.

“When you and Cecelia went out to eat,” I say.

“And you were home alone. Did Sunggyu come to the house?”

“Yes,” I whisper.

“Okay, I get it, no need to say anything else,” Myungsoo quickly says. “Can you tell me why you were unhappy with the story?” That’s another thing that I don’t wish to talk about, but Myungsoo told me the story about his past, I should at least answer his questions. His story was probably painful for him to tell, and no matter how painful my answers are, I should tell it to him. I feel like I should at least that much.

Myungsoo’s POV

What happened during the story that Allie is so upset? I don’t remember doing anything out of the ordinary. And that Kim Sunggyu, he’s really going to get it for doing what he did to Allie. Just by saying that he came over to the house when no one was home I can already sense what he did. I should take her to a hospital to get checked on just in case anything happened to her. If he got her pregnant I’m going to kill him.

“The accident,” I hear Allie whisper in my ear as I carry her back home.

“What about the accident?” I ask. How did that bother her?

“My parents,” she says and my eyes widen, already predicting what’s going to going to happen next. “That was the accident that my parents were in.”

“But I thought the guy lived,” I say. “I saw him in the ambulance; he gave me a thumbs up.”

“Well, he didn’t live. He passed away. That was my father.”

“Allie, I’m so sorry,” I say suddenly apologizing. “I shouldn’t have mentioned it in the story.”

“No, it’s no problem, you didn’t know,” I hear her say. The sadness is thick in her voice and I wish that I could do something for her, but I don’t know what.

We finally arrive at the house. “Are you hungry?”

“No, I think I’m just going to go up to my room,” Allie says as she gets off of my back and begins walking up the stairs.

Despite her saying that she’s not hungry, I decide to make a light snack for her anyway. By light snack, I simply mean cutting up some fruits for her to eat since I don’t know how to cook.

I knock on the door to her room, but there’s no response. “Allie?” I ask as I reach for the doorknob. “Are you okay?” I start asking myself why I had to include that part of the story, well, it was part of the story so I said it, but how was I supposed to know that those people were Allie’s parents. I thought that the guy lived, but apparently he passed away. I feel so sorry now for saying such a thing. What has gotten into me? Am I turning back into the old Myungsoo? The new Myungsoo would have never said that I would apologize or feel sorry for doing something.

Slowly, I make my way into the room and see Allie on the bed just staring at the ceiling. “Um, I know you said you weren’t hungry,” I start, “so I just cut up some fruits and brought them up for you. Is that okay?”

“Sure,” I hear her say, but her eyes don’t leave the ceiling.

I sit down on the bed next to her and attempt to see what she’s seeing, but I don’t see anything. “Um, I think that we should get you to a hospital to get a checkup.”

“I’m alright; I already went to the hospital with Woohyun.”

“Not because of your ankle,” I tell her. “But because of that other thing.”

“Oh,” she says quietly. “If you deem it fit.”

“Okay, then we’ll go tomorrow? After exams, alright?”

“Okay.”

I get up to leave the bed while I’m thinking about how much Allie has changed since the story. It’s like she’s being too formal with me, it’s like there’s something else bugging her, but she won’t tell me. Telling her the full story didn’t go the way that I planned it. I think it went in the complete opposite direction. I’m pretty sure she hates me for life now.

“Myungsoo,” Allie suddenly says before I reach the door. I turn around and look at her.

“Yeah?” I ask hopefully. I wonder what she’s going to say.

“Was Uee your first love?”

I go back to the bed and sit down on the edge and just stare at Allie. She looks so helpless and I caused this. I just wish that there were some way that I could make her happy. If I just didn’t say the story then everything would be normal. If I just didn’t want to be selfish, then maybe Allie could’ve liked me on her own instead of me forcing her to. But that was the new Myungsoo before; the old Myungsoo is starting to come back, the kind, caring, and considerate one who focused on his schoolwork and helped other people because it was right. The new Myungsoo, the one because of Uee, is starting to fade.

I shake my head to Allie’s question. “Uee wasn’t my first love.”

“Who was your first love?” she asks.

“Will you eat some fruits if I tell you?” I ask holding up the plate. She takes an apple slice and I nod my head. “My first love happened in elementary school.”

“What happened?” Allie asks suddenly interested. Why does she want to hear this story?

Allie’s POV

I want to hear about Myungsoo’s first love. I have to figure something out. It’s something else that’s been on my mind since the story, too. The girl that he always said he saw, the girl that he said that he left during elementary school. It somehow reminded me of myself. Don’t tell me that Myungsoo came from my childhood. That would be just too weird.

During the story when Myungsoo was describing her, I just had this strange feeling that I might know the girl. When he was talking about how he left in elementary school, I suddenly got this feeling that I have experienced it before. And I was already right about the accident being my parent’s accident, so what else am I right about? But if I’m the girl, then is fate really playing with me?

“You see,” Myungsoo starts, “I left in elementary school because of my parents. They wanted to put me into a better school for my middle school years, so they pulled me out early for elementary school and sent me to like a boarding school type place. I would’ve dealt with it, but I left my first love back home. We played together often in elementary school. And once I even made her fall, and she cried.”

Myungsoo starts telling stories and as he says them, it’s like he’s transformed back into the past remembering all of the happy memories. He must’ve really liked her, his first love. The incident about the falling, it reminds me of an incident that I went through when I was younger and in elementary school.

“I don’t even remember her name anymore, like I said in the story. I could barley even recognize her when I thought that I saw her during high school, but then again, it could have not been her. It could only have been a trick of my imagination. I went back, after middle school, I got expelled from the school because I was acting up because I didn’t want to be there. I tried to get expelled sooner, but nothing worked out the way that I planned.

“When I got back, though,” Myungsoo continues, “my parents didn’t even remember her name and neither did I. I spent too much time at the boarding school attempting to come back that I didn’t even remember her name. What a bad guy I am, forgetting my first love’s name. Plus, it’s not even like my parents were even in my life all of the time. I doubted that they would remember her name. I didn’t even know where she lived, so my search ended up fruitless.”

“What was your favorite game to play during elementary school?” I ask looking at him. This answer should answer the thoughts and ideas that I have about this mystery girl that Myungsoo may be looking for. The answer, though… Am I really the girl from elementary school?

“Hide-and-go-seek,” Myungsoo says without a second thought.

“I thought so,” I whisper.

“What did you say?” Myungsoo asks looking at me.

I stare at him. “I think I know the girl that you’re looking for.”

Myungsoo’s POV

“You do?” I excitedly ask. My first love, it’s been how many years since elementary school and I haven’t seen her once since then, I haven’t talked to her since then. If what Allie is saying really is true, then maybe I could tell her how I’ve felt through all of these years. How I tried looking for her, how I thought I saw her, how I’ve had a failed marriage, and about everything else that I would tell her. She’s was my best friend, I hope she is still is now. “Who is it?”

I see Allie look at me in my eyes. Suddenly, it seems like she has compassion for me, it’s like whatever she was mad at before suddenly disappeared. Did she really like hearing about my first love that much?

“You’re looking at her,” Allie says.

It takes me a moment to digest the words. I’m looking at her? So that means…that means that Allie is my first love? There’s no way, right? It’s just too freaky. First I left her and then I come back and am put into an arranged marriage that I thought was good, until she cheated on me. Then I change into a new person on the day that I saw an accident, which just so happened to be Allie’s parents, and now she’s saying that she’s the girl from my past?

“No way,” I mutter. “You’re…but…how?” I ask. There are so many thoughts going through my head at the moment. “You’re…but you don’t even look like how you did.”

“I guess you could say that I’ve been through a lot,” she says with a smile.

It suddenly hits me like a ton of bricks. Most of my memories of elementary school that I just so happened to erase and forget about throughout my life with Uee, through my partying stages, and through my trying to transform into a new person that can live without Uee just to show her how capable of a person I am without her. The memories from elementary school come back into my mind.

“It all makes sense now,” I tell Allie.

“What makes sense?” she asks looking at me.

“Why Sunggyu says that you’re his.”

“He says that I’m his?” Her face suddenly looks like she’s angry about something, that she’s suddenly remembering something.

“Do you remember something?” I ask moving closer to her.

“I think…” she says. “That night that he came here, he asked me if I remembered him from fourteen years ago and I said that I didn’t.”

Fourteen years ago was how long ago we were in elementary school. It’s all starting to make sense. “Do you remember elementary school?” I ask her.

Allie shakes her head. “Ever since I’ve had to start caring for Cecelia, she’s been on my mind and after our house burned down, all of my memories went with it. I don’t have anything from elementary school.”

“Well, let’s not concern ourselves with this right now,” I say. “I’ll explain it to you later. Why don’t we get some proper food? I’m hungry,” I complain.

“What’s up with the sudden change in attitude?” she asks.

“I just found my best friend, my first love, how could I not be happy?” I ask looking at her.

“Well who said that I accept being your first love?” she asks sticking her tongue out.

“You know,” I say looking at her. “Some things never change. Let’s go downstairs, okay? I’ll cook.”

Allie comes downstairs with me and I sit her in the kitchen with me while I decide to cook. I may not be the best cook around, but I can at least attempt to give my best efforts.

“Here you go,” I say placing the hot plate in front of her. “It’s breakfast for dinner because…I can’t really cook.”

“It looks good anyway,” Allie says as she digs in. “Where did Sungyeol and Cecelia go?”

“They probably went to go eat somewhere, don’t worry. Cecelia is safe with Sungyeol,” I tell her.

“Okay,” she says nodding her head.

“Let me ask you something,” I say looking at her.

“What?” she asks as she chews through a pancake.

“How did you know that you were my best friend?”

“When you were explaining the thing about falling down, I suddenly thought that I had gone through the same experience. When you were talking about leaving in elementary school, I thought about the time when I was in elementary school of my best friend leaving. I just thought that it was probably you.”

“But you can’t remember anything else?”

“Not really,” she says. “I would look in old yearbooks, but I don’t have anything.”

“Right,” I say. “Why didn’t I think about that before? I’m pretty sure that I have old yearbooks. We can go through them sometime. How about after dinner?”

“Okay,” she says with a bright smile. Somehow, I think that this is going to go well.

Allie’s POV

After dinner, Myungsoo and I sit on the couch in the living room after he got some boxes from his bedroom of things from elementary school. “Look, see, there I am,” I say pointing at my elementary school picture. “I was ugly.”

“No you weren’t,” he says with a laugh. “I thought you were beautiful.”

“Well, the spoiled brat has some compliments,” I say hitting him lightly.

“Hey, the spoiled brat is now going to turn into a different person because of a certain somebody,” he says turning his head away from the book and looking into my eyes.

I feel my cheeks turning red before turning my attention back to the book. “Kim Myungsoo had such frizzy hair back then,” I comment trying to change the subject.

“Hey, it’s not my fault,” he says. “It was simply my hair.”

“Well, I didn’t think that you were that bad looking in elementary school. Now, I can say that you’re pretty ugly,” I say with a laugh.

While Myungsoo attempts to convince me that he’s not ugly anymore and that girls like him, I flip through the yearbook a little more to see the rest of the people that went to the elementary school before I stop at a certain page of the older grades. “Sunggyu went to our elementary school?” I ask Myungsoo knocking him out of his personal monologue.

“Oh yeah, I thought I told you that I know why he said that you were his, well, maybe,” Myungsoo says scratching his head. “You see, I don’t remember everything, I just remembered that Sunggyu went there and we were kind of friends all three of us, right? Do you remember that?”

I think about it for a moment. Were the three of us friends? “I don’t really remember elementary school,” I honestly tell him.

“Well, that’s alright, I kind of remember like playing with him on the playground and with you. We would always play hide-and-go-seek together and other various games. I would chase you and you would chase me,” Myungsoo tells me as he comes closer to me on the couch. “I liked being with you, you were my best friend. I hope you still are, right?”

I slyly look at him and make it seem as though I’m thinking about it. “Maybe not best friends, we can just start out as friends again. It has been like fourteen years since I last saw you,” I admit. “But you’ve done so much for me without even knowing.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like we don’t know nothing about each other,” Myungsoo says. “I mean, I told you the full story about Uee and Sunggyu and you told me about your parents even before we realized that we knew each other.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t recognize me,” I joke with him.

“Hey, I could say the same thing to you,” he says. “You didn’t know who I was either.”

“I’ll give that to you,” I say looking at him. “But this drastic change in you, I don’t think I’ll get used to it.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re the annoying spoiled brat that annoyed the heck out of me,” I tell him. “I thought you were nice because you helped bring Cecelia home and because you brought my book back for when I was studying. But then I thought you were a spoiled brat when you were late to the tutoring session, but then I thought you were nice again when you said that I could live here.”

“I’ve always been a nice person,” Myungsoo says putting reason behind it. “It’s just that the circumstances that I’ve been through have made me into the stranger that you don’t know anymore. I’ll change, I am changing into the old Myungsoo, okay?”

“Maybe,” I say eyeing him.

“Hey, Allie,” Myungsoo says reaching over and rubbing the top of my head.

“Isn’t it late?” I ask looking at my phone.

“I guess,” Myungsoo says looking at his phone. “Why?”

“Shouldn’t Sungyeol and Cecelia be coming back soon? They’ve been at the park for such a long time.”

“You are right; I should give him a call and ask where he is.”

Myungsoo’s POV

“Sungyeol, where are you?” I ask into the phone as soon as it picks up.

“Who are you?” a strange voice asks. It’s surely not Sungyeol’s.

“I could ask the same thing.”

“If you ever want to see your friend and his sister again, you better listen to everything that we say,” the voice threatens.

“It depends who you are.”

“You’ll find out soon enough. Are you ready for this?”

I give Allie and look and attempt to smile, but it just doesn’t come out. I think she can sense that something isn’t right. I am going to change into the old Myungsoo, the one that was caring and not so cold towards girls and the one who didn’t see them as toys, but it’s just going to have to wait for a little longer. That’s okay, right?

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So who was on the other end of Sungyeol's phone? What happened to him and Cecelia? Myungsoo and Allie have reunited from elementary school, how is their relationship going to change now? 

Chapter 16 is up. Hope you enjoyed :D