( five )

She bid her goodbye to her playmate, Chan-chan. The boy waved his hand and returned back to the slide. However, Sehun stopped him for a while by calling his attention. Chan-chan waited for him to speak. Sehun hesitated if he should pursue his plan; but in the end he also did. Placing his palm on the boy’s head, he erased the child’s memory – the memories that they have of them. They must be forgotten or else they might be put into a serious problem in the future. Sehun had this gut feeling that him knowing about them would threaten their peaceful lives. The kid knew how they looked like, and this would detriment them when the boy grows. He will see that the three of them still looking young – the same good-looking faces which seem to never grow old.

Lay grabbed Sehun’s wrist and pulled him. “Let’s go.” He shortly whispered, stopping the latter from fully erasing the child’s memory.

After the partial deletion of his memory, Chan-chan was left at a dazed. Soon he snapped out and returned back to reality, eyes blinking. He turned to look left and right then shrug. His focus went towards the sky. “It’s time for me to head home.” He went to the bus station and waited for his ride to come.

Years have passed.  Ara moved to another school and Sehun quitted his job. He cannot further stay there for such a long time, otherwise, his identity will be revealed and this would jeopardize his family. Since everything had been cleared to her when she was still a kid, Ara began protecting her fathers. She stopped seeing her old friends in kindergarten and erased every memory of the past in order to move on successfully in the present. Furthermore, she started calling them ‘oppa’ instead of appa as their endless youthful looks fit the new title.

(end of flashback)

--

“Ara?”

“Do you know him?”, Miyoung moved closely to Ara as she whispered to her ear. Ara shook her head as her encounter with a stranger brought her to deny the fact that she does. She knows she does. That same look in his eyes, that smile, not to mention those elf-like ears he possess — they were all familiar to her. However, she pushed herself to believe that she didn't. She could have mistaken; that's what she was hoping.

“I don’t think so.”, she replied her back in a low tone of voice and looked at the guy in front of her with eyes soaring not to believe what she saw. “Sorry. Have we met before?”, the other looked at her curiously.

He nodded and realized that he could’ve mistaken. “Oh, I’m sorry. Haha.”

'He laughed?'

“I thought you’re someone I know.”, there was a bit pause. 'Someone?' Ara questioned herself. Am I just someone to you, Chan-Chan? “Well..”, he started to stutter. 'Does he remember me? How? Sehun already erased his memory right?' Wait, what was she saying? She wasn't even sure if it was really him. But realization struck her when he mentioned her name. 

 “.. well, this morning I bumped into someone.”, he beamed a smile that no one can discover how it was bright. And even though the auditorium was only a half full of lights, Ara could see that he was him - Chan-Chan; the kid that she had been good friends with ever since, and the kid that she’s been hiding for years.

“Anyways, I.. I was just going to say.. Can you move your head a bit?”

“Oh.”, he looked like he was about to jump. Never did his energy lessened. He was the same old lad. “Sure. If you just said earlier.. ”

He tilted his head slowly to his right and raised a thumb up. “Is this okay?”, “Uhn”, Ara nodded.

Meeting him again made Ara worry. She lived in a game of ‘hide and seek’ and met different people for temporary. Chan-Chan is the only one she considered her greatest friend – her only childhood memory. He decided to listen again to the one speaking on the stage but before that, he eyed Ara. For sure, he had seen those eyes before, but it’s just that he can’t remember where or when.

“Sorry. Sorry I’ve bothered you.”

---

Miyoung pulled Ara’s arm inside the classroom they are intended to go to. But it seems that they aren’t of the same. Ara checked her schedule and hers was two rooms away from her new friend. “I think we aren’t classmates.”

“Aww.”, Miyoung whined while looking at her. “But we can still see each other since we’re of the same school. Don’t be sad.”, she held her arm too. Miyoung smiled at her. She’s right. “Your room is here. B-41.”, she tongued out. “Oh! Okay. See ya!”, before making her way inside, she waved at Ara goodbye.

Students came in and came out of their classrooms, making the hallway traffic and impossible for Ara to find her designated room. Her eyes fluttered around the area. Boisterous laughs came from her back. She turned around to see a group of men whom she assumed to have a good bonding even before they get into college. She examined them and the way they treated each other looked so fun. They’re so close that look like they would even be absent when one of them gets sick or what. That time, she wished that she also had that kind of people around her. But realizing, Luhan, Lay and Sehun had been her best buds. She focused again to her main goal – to find her room. Ara looked onto her schedule. “Why are buildings here so complicated?”, she muttered. Then someone blocked her way. She stepped on her right. The guy stepped also on his left, mirroring her move. She moved to her left. The guy also did the same, however, to his right. “You know what? Go right.”

They both let out a chuckle in unison until they met eyes. “You?”

She had seen multitude of heads but this one is familiar.

“Are you also here too?”, he asked upon reaching the door. It is half-open so it only took him a little amount of effort to open it for her. He let her go inside first since she’s the girl. She tucked her hair into her ear that was nearly covering half of her face and went in.

“Yes. You?” If he’s from here then, we’re classmates?

She thought of saying ‘No’ but that just wouldn’t do anything. “Why would I ask you if I’m not?”, he chuckled.

It was then that moment that she completely analyzed his question. Yeah, Ara. Why would he ask if he’s not in here, too? What a dumb question. “Sorry I’m just-”

Before she could excuse herself he cut her. “Confirming?” His eyes. They’re making her look at him even more. How could he possess such kind of eyes? It’s so happy that it doesn’t even look like it blinks and tearing off? How could it possibly that kind of cute when it is of a tall man’s eyes? And why does it come to him naturally even though there are things that are bothering him all these years?

Ara looked down, pretending not to see those capturing windows of a man. They say that when you look into one’s eyes, you also look inside deep in their souls. This can probably be a way to let you open up to someone else.  

“Chanyeol?”, a guy slapped him on his back. “Ohh, you’re here too?”, he replied with a melodious tone and asked the same question he asked Ara. “Yeah.”, he spoke. This is her chance to go. The two of them are making out a conversation. So she slipped into her way, finding a vacant seat where she can place herself.

Chanyeol.

So, that was his name. He never introduced his real name to me. His introductory message when they were still kids flew back into her mind. “You can call me Channie or Chan-Chan. But I prefer Chan-Chan.”

She jotted it down to the last page of her notebook and beside it she drew a stick man with big ears. Her eyes wandered to the big ears she have drawn. It was of the same Chanyeol has when her eyes spun around the place he’s at. Sitting in front of her was a guy and in front of that guy is a girl and on the girl’s left, there was him. They weren’t seatmates and she was glad, but her eyes always landed on the place where Chanyeol was. They weren’t seatmates and she was glad because if they were, it may put her into danger with Chanyeol discovering that it was her - Bambi, his childhood friend. She doesn’t know why he called her Ara when they first met. But what she knew was that, she’s already an erased memory; a false memory from his past.