CHAPTER 1  Meili

"Meili?"

The voice was quite familiar to her ears. She turned around to see who called her but, she found no one.

"Not again..." She sighed. "The same voice, again..."

"Aren't you going to appear in front of me for once and stop bothering me?" She shouted angrily. But again, she got no response.

"Meili?" This time, she heard another familiar voice, a deep manly voice. But she knew well who it was this time.

"You scared the hell out of me Meili!"

"Sorry!" That word didn't really mean a lot to her. Unlike others, Meili never thought twice before apologizing. It should not be that difficult to say sorry if you know you've done wrong. Actually, for her, it had never been difficult to say sorry even if she was not wrong. After all, the first person she ever trusted, the only one person she cared about, never really cared when he once apologized.

"How many times have I told you to call me by my Korean name, Yeol?"

“Hmmm…” The tall man frowned and went closer to her to poke her forehead. "Too many times, I guess? Come to think of it, why would I call you with your fake name when I know your real one? I’m already used to it"

"I am not the same person Yeol! I have changed! Everything about me has changed, including my name! I'm not..."

"Meili! You're still my beautiful little Meili!" He interrupted her. "Even your name means ‘Beautiful’, why would you change it?" he insisted while patting her head.

"Chun Hee, it's Chun Hee, Yeol!" She corrected him while shoving his hand, a bit annoyed. "And I'm not a little girl, I'm 27, Chanyeol!"

Chanyeol had been her only friend since years. She was only 6 when they first met. They used to go to the same school. He was older than her by 4 years. She used to sit alone in the gym, look at her huge duck doll and cry. The little lonely girl caught his attention and he one day decided to go talk to her. At first, she didn't want to answer him. No matter how many questions he asked her, no matter how many times he went to her, she just ignored him. Few weeks later, when she got used to all his annoying questions -which he repeated almost every day- she finally decided to talk. "What is your name? Why are you always here? Why are you always alone? Why are you crying? Don't you have any friend? Can I be your friend? Why have you never answered me? Do I look that boring? ..." Even though he was bombarding her with questions -again- she could only answer two of them.

"Meili" she said.

"Eh?" Chanyeol was a bit surprised by her answer. He wasn't expecting it, he thought she was going to ignore him again. Of course, he knew her name already –he had asked her classmate- but he wanted to hear it from her.

"My name is Meili." For the first time he heard her quavering voice, and for the first time she looked at him, straight into his eyes. The little girl was touched by all the efforts he had made to be her friend. He didn't give up even though she was giving him the cold shoulder all the time. She decided he was going to be her only friend. She never really answered his flood of questions, it was two years later that she told him about her private life, when she judged that someone was worth her trust again and that he was not going to let her down even years later