The Love That Remains

The memories do not return at once as he expected. He finds himself standing on the road where he met Fang Aisa for the first time. It feels like his body has been sent back in time.

Soon, he sees a teen girl with black hair and dark eyes with an emotionless look in her eyes. He recognizes her right away. She looks like she is fifteen. It seems like he is really back in time.

He is about to stop her when he feels someone passing through him like he is the air. The boy is a younger version of him with an almost smile and a sad look in his eyes. He still remembers what he was thinking that day. His parents' divorce. He left South Korea to live in this country. Though he knew Chinese because his mother taught him by herself, he couldn't easily accommodate himself as his mother did. His mother was originally from here, but it was new for Sung Jun.

The boy asks the girl a question. She blinks at him in surprise before she answers him. She points in the direction ahead. The younger Sung Jun nods and thanks to her. He doesn't give her another glance before he runs to the school. Soon after, Wang Mei finds Fang Aisa. Things are happening differently from his real memories.

"What's wrong, Aisa?" Wang Mei asks curiously.

"Nothing." Fang Aisa stares ahead in the road, slightly dazed. Sung Jun cannot help but feel jealous of his younger self. She has that kind of expression for his younger self. She never showed it to him.

Sung Jun receives another set of mundane memories of his other life. It didn't interest him much. He watches them meet in the classroom again. Younger Sung Jun takes the seat next to Fang Aisa. She is surprised to see him again, but she doesn't greet him. The younger Sung Jun is also surprised to see her again. He decides to treat her as a stranger. In his eyes, girls are troublesome creatures.

Like the bees are attracted to flowers, the girls in the class also gather around the new student. Fang Aisa and Wang Mei are the ones who are most bothered. Their peaceful sleep is disturbed by these giggling and whispering girls. The younger Sung Jun already has a habit of this.

After three weeks, Fang Aisa decides to take the matter in her hands. She turns around and glares at the group of the girls.

"If I ever see you here again, I will pull out your tongues." Her cold voice is enough to freeze hell.

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"Fang Aisa, you...why don't you skip school like you used to?" One of the girls yells at Fang Aisa.

"Why? Are you paying my school fees? If you don't like to see me, just close your eyes." Fang Aisa gets up from her seat. "Besides, if you like seeing him so much, why don't you take a picture and make a portrait of him? You can see him as much as you want without embarrassing yourself or him."

The younger Sung Jun is impressed by her words. He has never seen anyone like her. Most girls either join these fangirl groups or they are too afraid to stand up to him. For the first time, a girl enters his eyes.

The older Sung Jun is watching this all from sidelines. He sees his younger self falling in love with Fang Aisa at that moment, though his younger self has not realized this yet. He looks at the other Fang Aisa who is also different from the one he knows. What has changed this girl into the one he knows?

Because Fang Aisa catches younger Sung Jun's attention, he starts to notice her more. He even starts observing her when she is asleep and drooling on her desk. After school, he finds her with Wang Mei most of the time. It's a sheer coincidence that they also live in the same area. He sees her making gangs with Wang Mei, fighting other gangs, and beating the crap out of anyone who offends her. She feeds stray cats and dogs when nobody is watching. She rarely does her homework and she hates math. After the math teacher Wu Xiang appears, she didn't take his any lecture after his first lecture. She spends most of her time in school at the rooftop. Sometimes, she would sleep there without any care for the world.

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The younger Sung Jun doesn't know-how. He starts to find her cute. Though she keeps her face expressionless most of the time, he sees her smiling from time to time. He starts greeting her every day. He leaves food on her desk sometimes when she is not around. She always takes the food and eats them. He once leaves a flower. She stares at it for a long minute when she finds it. Then, she puts it inside her book.

Little by little, he finds out about her habit. She isn't serious about her studies. Her handwriting is really bad. She cannot keep her concentration on math problems for a second. She likes sweets and sour dumplings. She likes to visit the local market frequently to eat there. The older Sung Jun quietly watches his younger self stalking Fang Aisa.

On the day of the math test, Fang Aisa falls asleep. The younger Sung Jun shakes his head and acts as the eraser falls from his hand. In the pretext of picking up the eraser, he pinches Fang Aisa's leg to wake her up. Fang Aisa wakes up with a jolt. Before she can catch the culprit, he is already doing the math. She stares at him doubtfully.

When the class president confesses to the younger Sung Jun, Fang Aisa pops out of nowhere and drags him out of there. She stops when they reach the rooftop. Without thinking for a second, she kisses his lips. It is nothing more than a peck. The younger Sung Jun widens his eyes in shock because he doesn't dislike this feeling.

"I will take your responsibility," she says proudly. The older Sung Jun remembers saying the exact words to her one time.