I sat on the gray carpet placed next to my bed, settling myself comfortably onto it. Carefully, I take out a pale yellow box I had kept under my bed for long. I remove the dust that had collected on it, blowing and wiping it away.

Slowly, I took off the lid of the box away, placing it on the floor next to me. Looking at the contents inside the box, my heart slightly ached. I let out an uneasy sigh as I reached towards one of the contents; red, wool mittens.

My fingers gripped onto the inside of the pocket of my jacket, desperately trying to search for warmth. I innerly cursed myself for not bringing my mittens, causing this to happen. Out of nowhere, a hand reached towards my arm and pulled it out, causing me to let out a small scream out of shock.

“Hey hey, it’s just me, relax okay?”

I turned to the side just to meet a foolish grin plastered on my childhood bestfriend, Wang Jia Er, or known by his other name, Jackson Wang. I let out a small whine and hit his shoulder lightly, complaining on how he shocked me.

The only response I got was a small laugh from him, somehow being able to tolerate my childishness. He then pulled my hand near to his mouth as he breathes out warm air onto my hand, massaging them as well.

The whole time, I just watched him with admiration, thankful that he’s taking care of me. Jackson then pulled out a pair of red mittens from the pocket of his jacket, wearing it on my left hand, then the other.

“You should keep these mittens in your bag at all times, even when it’s not cold, okay? I can’t be with you all the time to hold your hand and keep you warm.”

I looked up to his face and receives a wink, only to look back down and bury my face into the scarf wrapped around my neck, in hope that he wouldn’t notice my reddening cheeks, not that it wasn’t red from the start.

See, the thing with this guy is, he plays around a lot. And most of the time, it’s with my heart.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t develop feelings for this guy. He’s incredibly handsome, and smart too at it. He too seemed to be gifted with fencing skills, given the fact that he had won a lot of fencing competitions.

I let out a sigh unknowingly, knowing that he doesn’t share the same feelings with me.

A bitter smile appears on my lips, remembering the memory. I shook my head, trying to get myself out of that memory. I quickly put down the red mittens next to me, along with the lid of the box.

I then took hold of the object that had been stashed at the edge of the box, leaned against the wall of the box. It was a gold medal, written;

FIRST PLACE

FENCING COMPETITION

INTERSCHOOL LEVEL

My thumb slightly grazes over the writing in the middle of the medal, a smile on my lips.

I nervously waited in front of school, playing with my fingers out of worry. It was Jackson’s fencing tournament today, and I was nervous for his results. I had messaged him for what seemed a thousand times, but it seems like he completely turned off his phone and didn’t check any messages.

From the edge of my eye, I see a figure of a guy running towards my direction, slowly getting bigger and bigger. I squinted my eyes, trying to get a clearer look at the figure.

The nearer the figure got, the more recognizable it becomes for me. A smile appeared on my lips as I noticed the smile oh his lips too; meaning that he got a good result.

As he was close enough to hear me, I shouted out

“Congratulati-”

My words got cut off as he hugged me, his one hand on the back of my head while the other was on my back.

I got caught off guard for a few seconds, quite flustered by the sudden move before I quickly brushed it off and let out a small chuckle as my arms find its way around his waist. After a few minutes of staying in that position, he pulled away and looked at me in the eye.

“Guess which place I got.”

I made a thinking face for a moment before making the number 2 with my fingers, an anticipating look on my face. He put his bag to the front and takes out a medal before placing it around my neck and fixing his bag again.

I took hold of the medal around my neck and read the words written on it, my eyes slowly widening. The whole time I was looking at it, I could feel the smile he had on his lips.

I wrapped my arms around his waist again, instinctively as a way to congratulate him, myself proud of him. He was the one to let out a small laugh this time, his arms too wrapping around me.

“Congratulations, Wang Jia Er. I knew you could do it.”

He let out a small hum in acknowledgement and seemed to pull me closer towards him, if it’s even possible.

A heavy sigh was released from my lips; out of longing.

I terribly missed him.

Unknowingly, tears were gathering in my eyes. As soon as I noticed them, I blinked and wiped them away. I lightly slapped my cheek, mumbling to myself as if it was possible to hypnotize one's self.

“No, you got yourself into this, you’re gonna stay strong.”

I then moved on to the next object, which was a CD. I clearly remember the day Jackson gave it to me.

I stared at Jackson in awe as he finished dancing to Super Junior’s Sorry Sorry. It was exactly a week ago, when he started to take interest in Kpop, or to be more specific, Kpop dances.

I was amazed on how he managed to learn the dance perfectly, in the time span of seven days. He walked towards me with a proud smile on his lips.

“How was it? I was cool, wasn’t I?”

I let out a small snicker at his question, not being able to hold it in. He looked at me in a baffled expression, as if shocked that I had snickered.

“What, wasn’t it good enough?”

I shook my head at his confidence, a small teasing smile on my lips.

“No, it .”

He placed his hand on his chest comically, an offended look on his face. He walked closer towards me and sat in front of me.

“You’re lying, aren’t you?”

I pursed my lips and kept a straight face, shaking my head as a sign of ‘no’. The guy then plopped onto the floor and rolled around, whining. Seeing this, I laughed.

“I was kidding, Jackson. It was great.”

Hearing this, he immediately sat up and moved closer to me. He looked dead into my eyes and questioned again,

“Now you’re not lying, right?”

I smiled and shook my head, truthfully this time. A wide smile slowly grew on his face as he fist pumps into the air. He then stood up and took the CD out of the CD player and put it in a casing.

He then walked back to me and passed it to me.

I took it and looked at him with confusion in my eyes, confused on why he’s giving it to me.

“You’re the first person to see me dancing, and the first person to compliment my dancing. I just wanted to give this to you as a sign of gratitude.”

After saying all that, he shot a sheepish smile at me as he rubbed the back of his neck, as if he was shy. I let out a small chuckle, my heart internally doing flips at this gesture.

“Thanks, I’ll keep it well!”

I looked back at the CD in my hand, slightly twirling it around. I guess I really did take care of it well.