Tiffany had just returned from her work. She hugged herself as she unlocked her door because the temperature had gone unbearably cold even when it was still early in autumn. Before she left for work this early morning, she had left cooked meals for Luhan. From her first impression of him, he didn’t seem to be very friendly, she wondered if he was able to make himself at home.

Tiffany took off her jacket and hooked it on the wall and walked into the kitchen. The dirty dishes were piled in the sink, but she wasn’t bothered with the dirty dishes. She was glad that he ate her cooking well. She later made her way towards her room, where Luhan was supposed to be resting. She knocked on the door a few times.

“Luhan, can I come in?”

She waited for a while but there was no answer.

“Have you had your dinner?” She asked. The passive response encouraged her to twist the door knob and peeked into the room.

Empty.

There was nobody inside.

The kitchen was empty and there was no sound coming from the toilet either. Where could he possibly be?

-

She hated going out at this time, when the sky was dark and it was cold but she couldn’t help but feel extremely worried. There was something fishy about her mysterious guest, but she trusted her instinct that she needed to protect him. Tiffany rushed outside and looked for him at the convenience store, at the bus stop, at the phone booth near the back gate of the apartment, but he was nowhere to be found.

“I’ve looked for him everywhere! I couldn’t find him!” Half-panicked, Tiffany spoke into her phone, informing Kris about the missing guy.

“Calm down, Tiffany. He must be nearby. Have you tried looking for him next door?”

Tiffany looked up to look at the balcony of her house. “Why would he-” her words took a sudden halt when he saw that familiar thin figure leaning against the railing at the balcony next to her apartment unit. Luhan didn’t saw her since his attention was occupied on the piece of paper he held in his hands.

Tiffany let out a dry sigh, dumbfounded at the surprising turn of event. “I should have,” she said into the phone, earning a small chuckle from Kris.

-

Luhan was holding a postcard, nothing written at the back, and the paper was worn out. There was a picture of a winter landscape, a field of snow with scarce trees with white leaves and a frozen lake. The picture was labeled with the word ‘Sweden’. He kept staring at the picture with a grim expression. He finally sighed and looked away from the postcard. Instead, his eyes caught a girl standing below, just outside the gate, staring at him with an unreadable expression on her face.

After moving to the unit next door, Luhan thought that Tiffany would quit bothering, but apparently, he was wrong. He heard the door bell rung and moved inside to open the door, only to find Tiffany waiting outside the door.

"Why did you move? Your wounds aren't fully recovered and-"

Luhan was not really in the mood for talking so he closed the door again. Right before the gap was closed, Tiffany quickly blurted, “Wait!”

He rolled his eyes and opened the door again. He refused to unchain the first lock so there was only a small gap that let Tiffany see him.

“You haven’t explained how you knew my name.” She suddenly said, her voice mellow.

“I told you-”

“I doubt you got the wrong people, because I’m the one who forgot everyone.”

Luhan stopped acting like he didn’t care and stared into her eyes. They were bright and honest, just like how he remembered them from five years ago. He could see a hint of desperation in them from the way she frowned.

“I’ve never met anyone who knows me from five years ago. Other than my aunt and her family, nobody here knows me.”

After a brief silence, Luhan asked, “What happened?”

Tiffany hesitated for a bit. It was a topic that she avoided talking about as much as possible, but if Luhan was a part of her past, she’d rather open up that wound to fill in the missing piece inside of her.

Luhan unlocked his door and opened it wide so that they could see each other clearly. Tiffany’s gentle eyes looked straight into his. It felt as if he was being pierced to the soul.

“I was involved in a plane crash. Flying from China to South Korea. My whole family was killed, and I suffered from a head injury. I couldn’t remember anything before that point of my life. I lost a family who felt just like strangers to me, and I had no one who could give me a clues to who I was. I was told that I had been living abroad since I was small so my aunt didn’t know much about me either. All the people that I know now are the people whom I met after the crash. But still… All these years, I feel so hollow.”

So she survived that crash. All this time he thought that she was dead, killed in the crash. If he knew sooner, he wouldn’t have fallen too deep in the hole he was in right now; he wouldn’t have give up so easily. But then, at the end of the day, he had no one else but himself to blame for it.

Luhan wished she had nothing to do with him anymore because of how things had turned out for him. It would be too dangerous for both of them. However, for some reason, he should at least let her know something form her past. This was the last, and the most he could do for her.

“We used to attend the same high school in Beijing.” Luhan told her.

Tiffany’s eyes brightened in an instant. “So you do know me?” She smiled a little.

“Get inside. You can ask me anything. I’ll tell you what I know.”

-

Five years ago.

He was sitting at one of the tables, just sipping on his favorite Taro bubble tea in the middle of the busy street. Even though he hated being in the middle of a crowded, loud place, he loved the night market just the same because he got to enjoy any local delicacies he wanted for cheap. He loved food and he could never get tired of Chinese food.

As his eyes lazily observed the busy street, his attention was caught upon a girl, dressed in the uniform of the school he went to, totally immersed into browsing the handmade jewelries stall across the food hawker he was at. She was smiling to herself as she did. She had a very cute smile, not exactly mesmerizing or captivating, but the warm, girl-next-door sort of cute.

She was with a couple of other girls in the same uniform who were busy chatting with each other. One of them whispered something to her ear, ad she nodded. The other two girls left her there. After some time passed, the girl looked around and started to look a little insecure, probably from being left alone. She pulled out her phone and tried to make a call, but it seemed like no one was picking up.

She carefully made her way through the busy crowd, while keeping her eyes alert, looking for her friends. Luhan finally rose from his seat and tailed the girl, keeping a little distance between them. He chuckled to see whenever the girl slightly jumped backwards, intimidated at some of the rather loud sellers. Aside the large choice of food, there were also a wide range of black market goods available at the night market and the competition between sellers cold be quite fierce.

The girl was too busy looking around and was caught off guard by a seller. The large guy pulled her by the arm into their stall and talked about their products. The girl seemed to be stuttering as she shook her head, refusing their offer. The seller got upset and yelled at her.

Luhan quickened his steps and quickly put himself between the girl and the seller.

“What are you doing?!” The seller shouted.

“Sorry, but I’ve been looking for this girl. We need to leave now.” Luhan grabbed the girl’s arm.

“Are you from other stalls? You can’t take my customer away!”

“She’s not buying your stuff so let her go, okay?”

The girl looked back and forth between the seller and the unfamiliar boy standing in front of her. For some reason, Luhan had a feeling that she didn’t understand the conversation that was going on between them.

Luhan exchanged a brief eye contact with the girl before he pulled her away from the stall with force and ran as fast as he could without letting her go. They could hear the seller shouting curses at him. When he looked back, one of the sellers was going after them. Luhan was quick enough to miss their tail and brought her to a rather shady spot between buildings along the night market. They both were panting heavily and catching their breaths before the girl finally spoke.

“Thank you.” She said. It was very faint, almost non-existent actually but Luhan could tell from her accent that she wasn’t a local.

“You can find your own way from now on.” Luhan told her. The tone of his voice direct and lacked warmth. He was ready to leave when she suddenly grabbed the hem of his ed shirt over the black t-shirt underneath.

“W-wait. Can you help me?”

Luhan simply gave her a cold stare, which made her anxious. This guy is not very friendly, she thought. Funny how a face as pure as a child could exude such intimidating air. But he saved her anyways; he must be a kind person.

“I’m Tiffany from Korea. My Chinese is not very good.”

Luhan raised his eyebrows, amused to see a foreign student. He didn’t think he ever meet a foreign student at his school.

“Where are your friends? It’s dangerous to walk alone,” Luhan spoke in Korean. He had been studying Korean for awhile now so he had a good grasp of the language. Her expression brightened in an instant.

“Thank god, you can speak Korean!” She sighed in relief. “I lost my friends and I can’t seem to contact them. I really hope you can help me one more time.”

Luhan shrugged, his expression still cold and dry.

“Um…” Tiffany spoke again, “can you help me to get home? I live in an apartment complex nearby, but I’m still not very familiar with the streets here.”

Luhan let out a faint sigh. “Stick close to me.”

Tiffany nodded her head enthusiastically. This time, Luhan took his time to maneuver his way through the busy street. Tiffany still had a small part of the hem of his shirt tightened in her little fist as she followed him from behind. She sometimes let out a meek squeak when people bumped into her, which caused Luhan to smirk, enjoying the little ‘humor.’ At the end of the street, Luhan stopped a bus and took it together with her, safely sending her home right in front of the building she lived at.

Thank you so much for all the support :D I'm glad you guys enjoyed the story so far.