**

Luhan questioningly stared at the box sitting on top of his bed, his eyebrows meeting deep at the center. He recalled his mother’s words when he had called earlier, asking about the package. There was an uneasy feeling settling at the pits of his stomach. He oddly felt like the box was Pandora’s Box. He gulped down the lump in his throat.

Apparently, his mother had decided to clean his room back in Beijing. Luhan honestly felt a tad peeved since his privacy was somehow violated. It’s not that he’s hiding anything from his family; Luhan’s just the type of guy who values his privacy more compared to the others. His room was his sanctuary. It’s his safe place, his haven. Plus he’s not a huge fan of people touching his stuff. He honestly hates it.

But what can Luhan do? What’s done is done, right?

According to his mom, the box contained a photo album. “A bunch of photos from your very first recital,” she told him with a chuckle. She happened to find it hidden inside his closet, under his numerous shoe boxes and other whatnot.

Luhan was at a loss how the album ended up in his closet but what he was more confused with was why his mother has to mail it to him. She said since they were from his first performance as a singer and he’d be playing his first lead role for a musical soon, she thought it’d be a nice encouragement for him. The vocalist somehow felt otherwise.

With hesitant hands, he finally opened the box. A soft scoff escaped from his lips as he saw the album’s cover. The album was colour blue with a huge picture of a baby deer on it – ‘Dambi, if I remember correctly,’ ­Luhan thought – with glitter stickers of musical notes around it. His mother obviously decorated it. Her nickname for Luhan was ‘baby deer’ after all. He couldn’t help but smile amusedly.

Luhan gingerly took the photo album out of the box and placed it on his lap, dazedly tracing the glitter stickers. His uneasiness had faded in some way but Luhan was still feeling a tad on edge. The album had struck something inside his mind – a distant memory from his childhood.

He opened it to the first page. A familiar face was smiling at him – or rather at the camera. It was his younger self, roughly around six or seven years of age, smiling widely with his mom and dad. They were all smiles for the occasion.

He turned it to the next page and was met with his younger self on-stage, performing and enjoying his self. Luhan couldn’t help but smile fondly at the memory. He somehow could recall the moments in his mind. He chuckled, seeing himself making a face at the camera.

‘I wonder what I was thinking back then,’ he mused.

As he turned to another page, already halfway through the album, his hand halted mid-air. His eyebrows furrowed as his lips tugged downwards. A certain photo had caught his attention. An unfamiliar face was smiling beside him, tightly holding his hand. It was a girl. And Luhan was smiling widely too. A lump had formed in his throat.

Luhan squinted, trying to recall the girl with him but coming up with none. The girl was with him in some of the photos. They were with his parents, or her dad – it seemed like the person was her dad since she looked like him. And it seemed like the two of them were really close. “Oddly inseparable,” Luhan couldn’t help but whisper. He nervously gulped.

His mind was then bombarded with memories – recollections from his childhood, specifically from his first recital.

It was getting too much for him. Luhan was starting to have a migraine, suddenly feeling extremely exhausted. It was only three days before their musical after all. Maybe the pressure was finally making a toll on him.

He placed the a