I had always been close to my grandmother. She was my playmate whenever my parents would leave me to her care. We would play with dolls and sometimes even go hide-and-seek. However, when I turned seven, she suddenly got sick, which caused her body to become paralyzed. And of course, after that day, we couldn’t play together anymore.

A week before my grandmother died, my parents brought me to her hospital room. She asked me to come to her bedside. Then, she instructed me to turn towards the bedside table. When I did, I saw this beautiful angelic figurine standing on it. She told me that it was mine, that it was something she wanted me to have to remember her by. At that time, I didn’t know she was going to die soon so I didn’t even feel sad. But after her death, I held onto the figurine more dearly.

So how did Dong Hae get hold of it? Well, since it became one of the most treasured possessions I ever had, on the day our teacher asked us to bring the most important thing to us for show and tell, I brought it to school. But even if I did, I really made sure that it wouldn’t break. That was until after I stood in front and told my classmates how important it was to me.

As I walked back to my seat after a round of applause from my classmates, Dong Hae reached for the figurine and took it from my hands. “Can I borrow?” he remarked too late.

Used to his attitude, I decided to lend it to him. I thought that Dong Hae couldn’t possibly to mean to break it. But when I sat down, a fat classmate of ours who sat three seats behind me suddenly stood up and walked towards the front. As he did, his body bumped accidentally into Dong Hae’s chair, causing Dong Hae to fall over and drop the figurine on the floor, shuttering it to tiny pieces.

Even though it was clearly not Dong Hae’s fault, I really felt angry towards him. I glared at him as tears formed in my eyes. And in turn, he looked at me with apologetic eyes, repeating the word “Sorry.” That day, teacher scolded me for bringing something so precious when I was aware that it might get broken. But she didn’t say anything to Dong Hae (talk about favoritism).

For a week, I ignored Dong Hae’s presence in class. But after that, I started to accept that fact that Dong Hae wasn’t at fault. That didn’t mean I became friendly towards him because I never was. I just treated him the way I did before the incident happened. And as for the figurine, I somewhat forgot it over the years.

“Is that what I think it is?” I asked in disbelief, my eyes starting to water as I remembered my grandmother once again. “How did you manage to fix it?”

He smiled proudly. “You think I’m awesome now, don’t you?” he said, handing it to me. “It’s my birthday present. Sorry it took so long.”

Suddenly, I realized that all those birthday notes he gave me all these years were not simply a joke after all. He must’ve been putting the pieces back together so he could give it back to me as it was before. And though I hated to admit it, the thought of that made my heart flutter. No one had ever done anything this sweet to me before, and I never expected him, of all people, to be the first. And it made me feel guilty to think that he was always teasing me. “You’re such a fool, you know that? You could have just told me you were doing this, instead of giving me those stupid notes.” I remarked, caressing the smooth surface of the figurine that felt new despite the crack marks around it.

“If I told you then, you’d only tell me to forget it. That I’d never be able to piece it back together, am I right?