*chapter thirteen;

On the next day after school, Soah finally got a chance to look at the yearbook. It was so embarrassing if Luhan had found out why she wanted to borrow it from Yohee. Fact was: Yohee had attended the same middle school as Luhan and when Soah had found out, she wanted to know everything about him since he hadn't told her much about his past yet. But unfortunately Yohee couldn’t tell her anything either, because they hadn't been in the same class back then. Luckily, there was the yearbook and it was better than nothing. She could find out what Luhan’s club activities had been and how he had looked like back then.

She sat down on her bed and searched for the surname “Lu”.

Soah didn’t recognize him at first. To be honest, she needed to look at the name twice to make sure it was the Luhan she was looking at, and when she examined his face on the picture, the face which was so familiar yet so unknown, truth hit her out of nowhere.

She knew that kid. The memory was blurry, but she was sure she knew him. His hair had been black and short back then, and on the picture, he was smiling, showing crooked teeth, but this was... she had seen it before.

***

It was back in the beginning of middle school, five years ago.

On a sunny day, two weeks after the opening ceremony, Soah was on her way home. When she got out of the school building, there were usually boys standing by the entrance, waiting for some older girls, probably their girlfriends. It was always so embarrassing to pass by there, because the younger  female students would always get the feeling to get checked out, so Soah was always waiting for a bunch of girls to pass by to get out unnoticed.

On that day, someone was waiting for her. A boy her age stepped out. Short black hair, crooked teeth, a plaster on his face. He was from the same school as the older guys and maybe a junior just like her.

“I love you!” he blurted, when she wanted to walk by.

Soah stopped, turned her head around and looked at him in surprise, not realizing what he just had said. “Pardon?”

The boy blushed, his sudden courage was gone and he looked down, his face glued to the ground. “I love you. I see you every morning walking into the bakery and I can’t help but look at you," he stuttered.

Soah didn’t remember much of that day. The last thing she remembered was that she had run away.

Soah wanted to give him a proper answer, telling him that they barely knew each other and asking him for his name first, but the people’s whispers and laughers around her got too loud. They were making fun of her. No, they were making fun of the boy who was so brave to confess in front of so many students. She lifted up her hands and covered her face. Everything got too much for her to take in at once.

She cowardly turned around and left him without giving him an answer, running away from the situation, because she was too shy, too embarrassed. 

Later that day, she regretted it badly.

Maybe the boy had started to tear up, maybe he had gotten humiliated, maybe they had even bullied him.

During the next days, when Soah passed by the bakery, she was looking out for him. He had said every morning, did he? Why wasn’t he there then? And the next day neither. And the next day neither. She wanted to apologize, she wanted to ask him so many questions, but Soah never saw the boy again and then she started to forget about the incident.

***

Until now. Soah shut the yearbook closed and ran out of the house, still in her uniform, but that didn’t matter to her. Her mind was blank.

Luhan knew who she was. He had known all along. Although she had forgotten about him, because he had changed so much, he had never forgotten who she was. She was the girl who had left him after his confession without another word, who hadn't even apologized for her pathetic behaviour, who had allowed people to make fun of him. But the question was...

Who was Luhan?

Was he her boyfriend who had really loved her all along or just a guy seeking for revenge, because he had gotten his heart broken?

No, no, no. She didn’t want to believe the latter. It wasn’t possible.

The Luhan she knew would never do that. The Luhan she knew was warm, caring and kind. Never in his life would he do such a humiliating thing. But still... she only knew so little about him that she actually started to doubt his intentions. Why hadn't he ever said anything? Didn’t he want her to remember or was he really trying to win her heart just to break it righ