Chapter 14: Her Past

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” - Soren Kierkegaard

Ahri's P.O.V
(Flashback. Three Years Ago.)

I was a third year high school student, also known as a junior, if you want to call it, at my school that time. There were only five minutes till the bell rang, signalling the students that classes were about to start. I was busy chatting with my friends, Yoona and Jessica, while the other students were busy chatting with their own group of friends. The bell rang for the second time, and everyone straightened up and went to their respective seats. Mr. Lee went inside the room and greeted us like usual. After greeting us, he announced that we will be having a new student today.

"Okay class, before we officially start the classes, I would like to announce that there will be a new student today. Please do greet him warmly. This boy came from Canada, and he's 3 years older compared to you guys so I request all of you to respect him alright?" he said and we all responded with a 'Neh,' "Okay boy, introduce yourself,” our professor asked the new student politely.

A tall lean boy, about six feet tall, entered the room. He had brown hair and a slightly pale complexion. He was what most of my girl classmates would call and classify as 'hot.' He had a light smirk on his face that only made him more gorgeous when he introduced himself. "Nice to meet you all. My name is Wu Yi Fan but you can call me Kris. I'm Chinese but I came here from Canada, so you can speak to me though English, Chinese, or Korea. I wish you guys can take care of me well." He finished it off with that smirk of his. The girls were practically squealing their heads off, awestruck of the new student.

"I guess that have their new eye candy now." I thought with a roll of my eyes.

"Thank you for that wonderful introduction. Now, please seat next to Ms. Park Ahri. Park Ahri, please raise your hand so Kris here can see where you are." Grumbling, I just realized that the seat next to me was empty, so of course the new student just had to sit next to me. How cliché. Oh, and that was sarcastic, by the way. I raised my hand and Kris saw me, still with that smirk of his. I saw the girls glaring my way as he sat next to me. Probably jealous that I got to sit with their eye candy. I just shrugged and felt a little bit proud of myself.

Kris greeted me and asked for my name. I debated against myself at first, but soon enough, I told him my name and we shook hands, which gave me butterflies in my tummies of you ask me, but I ignored it. After three more classes, with me getting stuck beside Kris all the while, it was finally lunch time. The girls surrounded him all of a sudden and I felt the need to help him so I asked him if he wanted to come eat lunch with me and he immediately complied. We went to the cafeteria, bought our lunch and went to our usual table with Yoona and Jessica. They were already there so might as well introduce them to Kris. As I introduced them to each other, I can't help but notice that his eyes were focused on Jessica all the time. Even when we were eating, his eyes has seemed to linger at her for most of the time.

I felt weird at the pit of my stomach. I may have gotten jealous at that time, so after we ate lunch, I asked Kris if he wanted to get to class early since I wanted to talk to the girls about something, and he said yes, surprisingly. After making sure he was gone, I asked Jessica first if she likes Kris. She denied it, so I felt relieved. Then, I told them that I like Kris and they said they were happy for me. I did feel that Jessica was faking it at that time, but I shrugged it off since I don't like doubting my friends.

The first day went off like that and when the last class was finally over, Kris who was beside me, asked me if I would like to hang out. And of course I said yes. I mean what the hell? Your crush just asked you out, who wouldn't agree to that?

We went to the nearest coffee shop, which was named Starbucks, and I could still remember him drinking a latte while me, a simple cup of coffee. I didn't like coffee at all at that time, but he said he liked it so I might as well begin liking it too. We talked for two hours, and during that time I knew quite a lot about him, like he was the basketball captain at his past school in Canada, and that he might have had a professional career at basketball if he hadn't went to Korea. I knew that there was something else he wasn't saying but I didn't want to pry to his business, especially that we met just today so I just shrugged it off and said that it was ok.

The conversation continued and he eventually he asked about my friends, Jessica and Yoona. Well, maybe just Jessica since he was asking me a lot of questions about her, like what her hobbies were and what's she like. I happily replied though since I remembered how Jessica told me that she didn't like Kris at all. I even asked Kris jokingly if he said that he likes Jessica and he denied it. I believed him since he said it without stuttering and his face didn't really show that he was lying, I think.

The day ended with Kris walking me home. He even said that we should hang out more often since he had a great time. I, of course, said yes and asked him if I can call him oppa remembering that he was three years older than I was. He said yes. He told me that he skipped a couple of years, and those times when he travelled from and to different countries due to his parents’ occupation had affected his studies, hence his arrival at our school. Apparently, their job had become permanent in Korea, so he told me that he might be sticking around for good.

He waved goodbye and I happily entered my humble abode.

I suddenly couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

Two months later, Kris and I became the best of friends. I knew a lot about him and vice versa. He became close with Jessica and Yoona as well, but he and I were closer. I even had sleepovers at his place, with no malice involved whatsoever, since his mother knew of it and I slept at another room. We usually do it once in a while, especially when exams were coming and we would study together. Well, mostly me since sometimes he would just watch videos on his laptop or sometimes he texts someone with his phone; I don't know who though, since it didn’t really look that big of a deal.

His fangirls in school had kept on increasing as well. It was annoying too, because sometimes when we eat lunch at the cafeteria, a random girl would walk up to us and give Kris chocolates and gifts – but mostly chocolates. Heck, some of the girls even gave him flowers. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Girls and this generation. Kris politely rejected them though, although it was clear that he liked the attention he was having. I could see it in his eyes.

The more we became closer, the more my feelings for him intensified. The mere skinship he had been giving me had sent butterf