Chapter 6

Yuxi stepped back, her face turning from angry and shocked to worried.

"Oh, Hehuan," she began with sorrowful eyes. "You can tell me the truth." She brushed his cheek with her hand, sighing in pity. Then, she turned to glare at Xuesong.

The whole class held their breath. Xuesong did too. After all, he didn't know if he hurt Hehuan either. He knew it wasn't possible, but doubt was starting to sink in.

The two of them, Yuxi and Hehuan, stood there for a long time.

Then, a tear dropped from Hehuan's face. Yuxi was taken aback, but she wiped it away from his face with sad eyes.

Hehuan slapped her hand away. Her eyes widened.

"Hehuan? Are you okay?"

Hehuan looked up, tears starting to form.

"Y-Yuxi, what did I ever do to you?" Hehuan asked through shaking breaths. "W-why are you pinning my best friend for something he didn't do?"

Yuxi held up her act. She smiled gently at Hehuan. "Oh, my poor Hehuan. You told me Xuesong did this, didn't you? You must be in a lot of confusion right now to have forgotten." Then, she gasped. "U-Unless, Xuesong manipulated you!" What she was saying was bullshit.

Hehuan sniffed. "Yuxi, m-my wounds are a very sensitive topic to me. A-And, I never told anybody else except Xuesong about them. A-Also, Xuesong wrapped bandages on my arms and took care of me every day."

Huh? Xuesong didn't remember that. And, it sounded too cheesy to be true.

But a small shower thought, if it did happen, he was fourteen now. He had forgotten his memory when he was twelve... Did Hehuan never change his bandages in two years?

Xuesong decided not to think too much about it.

Yuxi was taken aback. "W-what?"

Hehuan continued, wiping his tears away. "Why would you think about doing something so cruel as pinning the blame on Xuesong?"

Yuxi bit her lips in uncertainty. The class had started to shift tones, their glares targeted towards Yuxi now. They seemed so easily swayed. Yuxi's thick skin seemed to have thinned.

Yuxi pulled out her last card. "Hehuan, then, if you could kindly tell me, what did cause those injuries?" Hehuan flinched, unconsciously rubbing his arm.

"Ah- uhm.." he seemed uncertain, his gaze shifting towards Xuesong, as if saying "help me." What? Was Xuesong supposed to know the answer? Xuesong gave Hehuan a small smile, for the lack of anything better to do. Hehuan looked at him back in betrayal.

He turned back towards Yuxi, making his eyes well up more tears. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He seemed speechless for real this time.

The bell seemed to make everybody flinch. Hehuan wiped away his fake tears and sat down, the rest of the class slowly moving to gather their books as the teacher walked in. The intense aurora of the class still lingered there faintly.

The teacher himself seemed taken aback at the mood of the classroom. "Ah- good afternoon, class." The class echoed back hollowly. Some still eyed Hehuan and Yuxi quietly. The teacher flipped through a binder that Xuesong assumed was for attendance, glancing at the students, then back at his binder. After a while, he set it down and sighed.

"It's been a few weeks into school, but I think all of you have worked very hard, so I have decided... to take you all on a trip." What. Xuesong groaned internally. The class's mood seemed to brighten exponentially, though. "Oh, of course, since this is a psychology course, we will be doing something psychology related." The class's mood dimmed. "We are going to go see a haunted house, then, when we come back, I want you all to write a two-page essay about different factors that may cause fear and how fear is registered throughout your body."

A haunted house. Sounds like a pain in the ass.

After giving his grand field trip reveal, the teacher continued to ramble on about the trip. Xuesong listened half-heartedly, staring at the Hawaiian shirt the teacher was probably forced to wear since it was Friday. He noticed Hehuan glancing at him, as if trying to get his attention. Xuesong looked away.

After class, Xuesong attempted to make a run for it again without talking to Hehuan. The whole day, his encounters with Hehuan had been so awkward, so he wasn't in the mood to talk. But, of course, Hehuan was.

"Heeey, Xuesong!" Hehuan caught up to him quickly. "You promised you wouldn't ignore me again."

"I'm not," Xuesong said monotonously. "I need to piss really badly." Hehuan frowned.

"No you don't, the restroom's the other way." Xuesong sighed, turning around to look at Hehuan, who was walking beside him now. He really wasn't in the mood to talk, and just wanted to go home, but Hehuan wasn't going to let go of him.

"Listen, what do you want, Hehuan?" Hehuan crossed his arms and pouted.

"Don't you have something to say?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry about Yuxi" Xuesong didn't know how to answer that question.

"No! Aren't you curious about how it happened?" Oh. He must be talking about his arm. Xuesong shook his head. He genuinely wasn't. And, Hehuan said it was a sensitive topic, even if he was faking it, so he wasn't going to ask. But, Hehuan's face turned darker. "Unless you already know."

Xuesong was taken aback. "What?"

"Huh? You don't remember?" Hehuan's eyes dulled momentarily, then shifted to his usual tone. Xuesong looked at him, confused. "You don't remember meeting me at your little picnics?" When Xuesong's face hadn't cleared, Hehuan's mood seemed to darken.

"Ah- Hehuan?"

"Oh, it's okay, Xuesong. It was only three times, so you probably don't remember." He smiled, returning to his usual self. Xuesong was still confused, and a little worried. He had never seen his friend make that kind of face before.

Hehuan seemed to notice, slapping him on the back. "Hey, cheer up, Xuesong!" he said loudly. "Anyway, don't think too much about it, it wasn't a big deal."

Xuesong's brain wasn't done registering when Hehuan walked away to retrieve something he had forgotten.

Xuesong... didn't remember a picnic. But, the word made him feel conflicted.

When Xuesong met Hehuan, Hehuan felt like somebody Xuesong had seen before. He had a comforting but cold presence, like somebody Xuesong knew but didn't understand.

When he was twelve, had he forgotten about... a picnic?

But, Xuesong knew that something bad happened to him to cause him to forget something. It was called a trama response. There was also amnesia, but Xuesong hadn't forgotten anything but when he was twelve.

What had happened during his "picnic" that was so big his brain forced him to forget?