The old days

"Wow, Haley is that you?" Jason looked up seemingly excited.

I smiled widely and ran up to hug him. He's 6'0 so it made hugging him difficult but I didn't mind.

He smiled at me as well and hugged me tightly. His arms seemed longer than they use to. He could easily engulf me in his arms. His smell brought me back to the old days. The comforting smell that only he could hold.

Memories flashed into my mind and I was taken to the day before my 18th birthday. Just after Zhang Yong left.

.....

At this point Jason and I weren't very close as he had just transferred from Korea and couldn't speak chinese. But I had always loved to learn languages so I already knew korean, english, mandarin, cantonese, and japanese by then.

I was crying on the rooftop of my high school. Sulking over the fact that Zhang Yong left me all alone. I can still remember the day clearly.It was February so it was a bit chilly but honestly I didn't mind. The skies were clear despite the recent blizzard. It would've been a perfect day in my book since I like it to be slightly colder than warmer.

Since no one except outcasts from dramas come up to the rooftop I decided it would be a prefect place. Not because I wanted to jump off or anything I wasn't that dumb.

I heard rustling behind me and a kid with black hair and blue eyes walked up to me. I looked up at him and could easily tell he was Asian/American. He looked at me for a while before I spoke.

I wiped my tears and stood up. As I was always tall it shocked me a bit that he was taller than me. Not many people were so he must be new.

"What do you want. Never seen a pretty girl cry?"

I walked away angry. I wasn't actually mad at him. I was just reflecting my anger on to him.

He grabbed my wrist and turned me around (as a classic male lead would). As I was about to yell at him. He suddenly hugged me. My face was buried in his chest so I couldn't speak and since he was holding my head and upper back I couldn't move away.

To be honest though I didn't want to. It was the first time I had felt safe. I wanted to feel okay and I felt that.

I cried in his embrace and he just held me while gently stroking my head.

When the bell rang and I stopped crying he pulled back.

"괜찮아?"(Are you okay?), he seemed to realize he was speaking in the wrong language and tried to say the same phrase but in mandarin.

He looked utterly confused. I laughed a little a replied in korean.

"Yes, thank you.", he just looked back at me and smiled.

Not shocked about the fact that I could speak korean.

...

I came back to reality after thinking about the first encounter with my one and only best friend.

He moved away 2 years after that day to study in the U.S. We didn't get to stay in contact but he's one of the few people I knew would come back.

I looked back up at him after pulling away from the hug. There was a lot I had to tell him about.