It took four months before you were healed enough to walk around by yourself. Your face didn’t look like an octopus’ anymore, your left side was pretty much okay, so you started wandering around the city, on foot because your subconscious was telling you to stay far away from cars. The snow was long gone now that it was August, and you felt ready to try and start going to school again, at least for the classes that could be done during the autumn session, and not just during the winter one. You were glad your general knowledge wasn’t gone. Seemed like only your relationships had been damaged in the accident. On the mental side, of course. Your body would never be exactly the same and you knew it – you had a huge white scar on your left arm, and another one on your hip, and one more on your leg – but it was okay. You were glad to be alive.

You were curious, though. That Kevin guy… you hadn’t seen him since he had given you the teddy bear. You weren’t really worried about not remembering anything about him, you were just curious about what kind of guy he was. Not enough to be his girlfriend once again, hell no, but you wanted to know what the old you had loved in this person. Maybe it would help you be the person you used to be if you knew that…

“Is it you?” a soft voice suddenly resounded behind you as you were walking near the river in Old Montreal.

You turned, knowing you had heard that voice before.

“Oh… it’s you…” you said, seeing that it was this Kevin guy. “What are you doing here?”

“Taking a walk…” he shrugged. “I just happened to see you and wonder if you were the one I thought you’d be…”

“I’m not, obviously.”

“Eh? But you’re-”

“I’m not the one you used to know. So I’m not that person anymore.”

“Oh. I suppose you’re right…”

“I’m always right.”

He giggled a little, scratching the back of his head.

“Yeah, I guess that’s how it is…”

“Anyway, what do you want? You said you’d leave, didn’t you? That it’s better that I don’t remember anything.”

He looked away softly, softly taking his silver cross pendant between his fingers, as if he wanted to get courage from it.

“I thought I could get over you… I thought… I could forget about you. But I can’t.”

“You’re the one who wanted to break up.”

“I know… but… I had my reasons…”

It seemed so painful for him to talk about this. He was obviously struggling to find the right words. You decided to go easy on him.

“I guess you did. But what now? Why are you here?”

“Well I said I was taking a wa-”

“Not that. Why are you talking to me?”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I remembered… all those times when we were together… all those times when we laughed together… all those times when we cuddled on the couch of my apartment…”

“I don’t remember any of these.”

You words were obviously hurting him. But despite the sadness in his eyes, he forced on a smile.

“I know you don’t…”

“Then what do you hope to accomplish by being here?”

“Nothing… I just… hope you can forgive me. For causing that accident…”

“I’m not sure of the guilt there, dude. It was probably my own carelessness that caused it.”

“But you’re always so prudent while driving. I know you were upset when you left…”

“Maybe you do, but I don’t. I don’t remember, as I said. You’re wasting your time if you think that-”

“I don’t think anything!” he interrupted you.

He looked hurt, sad, almost desperate. “I don’t think you’ll come back to me. I just hope you can forgive me…”

“Whatever. Dude, I don’t know you. I have nothing to forgive someone I don’t know,” you said with a shrug, walking away.

You turned before being too far, though, and looked at his sweet, dark, teary eyes. He looked so pitiful. But uncertain. As if he felt too guilty to dare stay close to you, but at the same time being torn at the idea of being far from you. You sighed.

“If you want, walk with me. I guess we could be friends,” you chuckled, walking again.

You didn’t hear him say anything, but he was quickly next to you, walking by your side. You observed him, silent. He was even thinner than the first time you had seen him after waking up. He was definitely walking on chopsticks, and his arms weren’t much bigger than toothpicks. His honey-colored hair had grown quite long, and so that part that had grown was pure black. The rest was starting to lose its color, getting less saturated. He didn’t have guyliner this time, but he was definitely cute despite that. He didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. What the heck was he eating to be so thin?

“Is there… anything wrong?” he asked softly, noticing you were staring at him.

“Nah, you’re just awfully thin.”

He chuckled. “Yeah. I guess I really am.”

“Why is that so? I mean, don’t you eat anything?”

“Actually, I have very little to eat… I don’t have much money, so… if I can afford two meals a day, I’m very happy. One meal is usually what I can get. My apartment costs too much…”

Oh. So he had financial problems? You felt bad for asking him this…

“Were you like this when you were my boyfriend too?” you couldn’t help but ask, curious despite feeling bad about it.

“Yeah, unfortunately… we could never go out on dates or anything… I never had money for anything else than survival… I still don’t, mind you…”

“Sell those jewels of yours, then. They must be quite valuable. They have precious gems in them.”

He instinctively touched the pendants on his necklace and his earring, before he shook his head softly.

“I would never sell these. Not even if I were starving to death. I’d live in the streets rather than sell them…”

“That’s a bit intense…”

“Well, it’s only normal. They were birthday presents. My leather jacket I wear in winter, too, along with the little makeup I have, which is why I don’t wear it too often. And my winter boots…”

“Oh, were they?”

That explained why he had such expensive-looking items when he had no money…

“Yeah. Given to me by you. I could never sell them.”

Oh. Oooh. So that was why…

“I see…” you muttered. “So… I gave you these…”

“Yeah. On my birthday. On Christmas I managed to be stubborn enough for you not to buy me anything. I just wanted to spend the day with you. It was plenty enough for me…”

You nodded thoughtfully. He was that kind of guy, uh. He sounded so sweet. You suddenly frowned, remembering something.

“How did you buy the teddy bear?”

“Eh?”

“The teddy bear you brought… how did you pay for it?”

“With money?”

“Not that, you idiot!” you sighed. “How did you get the money to buy it?”

“Oh, that.”

“Yeah, that.”

Silence.

“So? How?”

Silence.

“Dude, you fell asleep?”

“No,” he said in a soft voice. “I’m listening.”

“Then how did you pay for it?”

“I got money for it?”

“UGH, YOU’RE SO- gawd…”

He looked uneasy. “Please don’t use the Lord’s name like this…”

“Eh?”

“You said ‘God’…”

“I said ‘gawd’, it’s not the same.”

“Still… please…”

Oh. So he was religious. Okay…

“All right… Still, you didn’t answer! Where did you get the money?”

He sighed, knowing you were stubborn, and you wouldn’t let go of that so easily.

“I worked, of course,” he said, trying to satisfy you with this.

“Well duh, of course you did! I mean, you usually barely have enough to buy food, don’t you? That’s what you said or something… so how did you get enough for the bear?”

“I didn’t eat anything but one slice of bread per day for a week, okay! And I only drank water, and I worked extra overtime until four in the morning for two weeks, so could you please talk about something else now?”

He obviously looked hurt. You felt really bad for insisting so much…

“I’m sorry…” you mumbled. “I didn’t know, I thought you, I don’t know, I thought you had someone to help you out for that single time…”

“Of course not, my parents are dead and I don’t have relatives here. And I don’t have friends either. People don’t get friendly with the ones who are stuck in poverty.”

He looked a bit bitter, but it didn’t seem like it was towards you. At least that was something…

“I guess it’s useless to tell you that I want to stop at L2 to get a bubble tea and something to eat?”

“It’s not useless, but I won’t take anything. I already had my slice of bread of the day.”

“…”

“What?”

“Nothing…”

You sighed and just walked towards Chinatown to go to L2 and get what you had said you wanted to get. Kevin followed, silent, his dark eyes full of love and sadness staring at your back.