The clock struck ten and it was time for little Chen to sleep. I brought my son to his bedroom, put a blanket on his body and started reading a fairy tale. Usually, he would love it if I told him those fairy tales, but this time, he wasn’t excited at all. He didn’t even interrupt my reading and asked those who, what, which and all. He was silent until I finished reading the fairy tale.

“Papa, that fairy tale is so two days ago.”

What.

No wonder.

Okay, I forgot that I had read this fairy tale about a princess having seven dwarves for little Chen.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Chen. It’s just that I haven’t bought a new book for you yet…”

“It’s okay, papa. By the way, can you tell me another story? Well, not really a story.”

“What is it?”

“Hmm, like…how you met papa Kris?”

“How I met papa Kris? Sure. But, it’s not as good as those fairy tales. Because you know, the reality isn’t as good as those fairy tales...”

“Just tell me, pa. I’m really curious how both of you met,”

I gave him a smile, “Okay, I’ll tell you. But, I hope I won’t bore you, though.”

I could see little Chen smiling widely, being enthusiastic as I started telling him the whole thing on how I met my husband—his second father, Kris Wu.

--

I was eleven and my husband was twelve when we first met.

Since I was a kid, I had this addiction for lollipops—yes, it’s sweet and I might have diabetes for taking too much sweet but I didn’t care about that. Every week, I would go to the grocery shop and bought a box of small lollipops by myself with my own saving. But, there was a time when I forgot where I put my saving. Well, I was always that forgetful so you can’t blame me for that.

I looked everywhere for my piggybank but I couldn’t find it. I ended up finding $4 which was enough to buy two lollipops. So, I used the money to buy two. When I was at the playground alone, some tall, plump boys approached me. They were five in total, circling around me. They grabbed my hands so that I wouldn’t run away. I tried to let my hands off their grip, but they held me tighter.

I was afraid that time. I didn’t know what to do.

But then, a tall, skinny boy (which was my husband) came and asked them to let me go.

“Dude, let him go. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

One of them scoffed, “If we don’t want to, what will you do?”

“I don’t know, cut your maybe?”

I nearly had my jaw dropped. He was too straight-forwarded. He was harsh, but I kind-of liked his bravery for saying that.

“You dare to?”

He immediately grabbed his collar, “Try me.” He said, raising his eyebrow.

“O-o-okay, we’ll go now but don’t think we won’t come back.”

He smirked as those boys ran away and looked at me, “Are you okay? He didn’t do anything to you, right?”

I smiled, “I’m fine, thanks for that.”

“No problem. Oh, I’m Wu Yi Fan, but call me Kris. What’s your name?” he said, offering me a handshake.

“I’m Zhang Yixing. By the way, are you new here? I never see you around,”

“Well, yes. I recently moved here with my family. I haven’t made friends here, so you’re my first friend, I guess?”

Someone finally admitted me as his friend.

I never had friends before. Maybe I was too freaky that others didn’t even want to be friends with me. But, Kris was different. He was the one who wanted to be friends with me and I couldn’t be more than happy.

“Maybe…”

“Oh by the way, me and my stepbrother had just finished building a tree house. Wanna come?”

“Hmm, sure.”

I followed him to the tree house and met his stepbrother.

“Hey, who’s this?” he asked.

“Oh, he’s our new friend...”

I waved at him as I flashed a smile, “Hi, I’m Zhang Yixing.”

“Hi, I’m Luhan!”

“I’m sorry that this looks ugly. We haven’t decorated it yet.”

“No, it’s okay. This looks okay, actually. Very nice.”

“By the way, Kris…did you buy the lollipops yet?”

“Well, that-“

“Lollipop? You can have mine. Kris helped me just now, so I guess you deserve this,” I said, taking out those two lollipops and gave it to them.

“Are you sure? They’re yours…”

“Nah, it’s okay. Just take them.”

“Thanks!” Kris and Luhan said in unison.

Since then, we became friends. It was one of the happiest moments in my life. I finally had friends and I was literally screaming around the house when I returned home.

Even words couldn’t describe how happy I was.

--

When I was thirteen, Kris got the offer to attend the boarding school. Luhan applied as well, but didn’t get one so he stayed in the same school with me.

Since he attended the boarding school, it was quite hard to meet him. I could only meet him only during school holidays and that really , a lot.

Even worse, I missed him so much and I couldn’t just tell him that.

I knew he treated me like a best friend, but I treated him more than that.

I mean, I liked him—no, I loved him. It hurt so bad that I couldn’t confess because from the way he treated me, I knew he didn’t like me just like how I did.

--

When I was sixteen, Kris moved back to his old school.

“Why are you moving back here? Aren’t you comfortable there?