Chapter 1: Kris’ POV

When I stepped out of the car, a strong gust of wind hit me and sent chills throughout my entire body.

I should have brought a jacket with me.

As I rubbed my bare arms, I walked a couple of blocks, stopping when I arrived at a small Italian restaurant.

Taking my phone out of my pocket, I then unlocked it and then clicked on the SMS application on the home screen. Within a few seconds of me sending a text, through the restaurant window, I saw a girl get up from her seat and walk towards the door.

“Kris!” Allison squealed in excitement.

“Hey,” I nodded.

Quickly, she rushed over to me and grabbed me in a tight hug.  

“Welcome back!” she said.

“Thanks,” I grinned as I wrapped my arms around her.

“Come on, let’s go in,” she urged.

Holding the door open for her, I let her go in first before I followed her inside and to the table.

The restaurant was pretty busy for a Thursday afternoon. It was past most people's lunch breaks yet almost every table was occupied with people eating and chatting with each other. 

“Thanks,” Allison smiled when I pulled her chair out so she could sit down. “You’re such a gentleman Kris.”

“You’re welcome and thanks,” I said, pushing her in before I took my seat.

“So, how’s Korea?” she asked after the server came and gave us our drinks.

“Well I debuted. Since then, we’ve been doing fan sign events, interviews, and performances so I’ve been busy doing all of that,” I replied. “Plus, since the half of the group that I mainly work with promotes in China, we’ve been flying back and forth between Korea and China a lot.”

“I’m amazed you haven’t passed out yet,” Allison chuckled. “But you’re enjoying it right? It’s been your dream to be a performer for a long time now.”

“Yeah, I love every moment of it. But it’s good to be home for once. I needed a vacation like this,” I said. “So what about you? How’s everything?”

“Honestly, everything has pretty much been the same since I last talked to you. Leo and I are still together, I’m still living at home, and I’m still attending SFU,” Allison replied. “So compared to yours, my life is very boring superstar.”

“What about other people?” I asked. 

“Like who?” she asked.

“Um…” I said before taking a long sip of my water. “Lily?”

“I haven’t heard from her in a while. But she's really busy with school so it's understandable I guess,” Allison said. "I’ve heard from my mom that she’s doing well though."

"Well that's good," I nodded. 

"Have you talked to her recently?" she asked. 

Resting my elbows on the table, I propped my head up on my hands and tried to think of the last time we even had a substantial conversation. 

“No. Last time we talked, she was stressed out over physics,” I chuckled as I began to remember all of the complaints she would mutter when she was practically half asleep. They never really made sense either, she was so out of it at two in the morning. “And she was still in grade eleven then.”

“That was like four years ago!" Allison exclaimed. "How have you two gone so long without talking to each other?"

“I don't know. We just stopped," I shrugged. 

When I was first starting out as a trainee, I remember that we would talk to each other on the phone every week. But after a couple of months, the calls started to become less frequent. Instead of once a week, it turned into every couple of weeks. Soon, it became every couple months. Then, we just stopped calling each other all together. And then just like that, four years went by. 

“So where is she now?” I asked. “SFU? UBC? TU? McGill?”

“Actually no. She’s at HKU,” Allison said.

“Wait, you mean," I began. 

"Yeah," Allison replied with a nod before I even got to finish my sentence. 

The University of Hong Kong? I always thought Lily would end up going to school in Canada. I mean, I knew that she was looking into applying to schools in China and Hong Kong. She's talked to me about it before. But I never thought she would actually go through with it, nevermind accept the school's offer of admission. 

“What’s she studying? Or at least, what is she thinking about studying?” I asked. 

“Medicine,” she replied. “She got into the five year program there and is working on getting her MBBS.”

“Wow,” I was all I could muster.  

“I know right?” Allison chuckled. 

If Lily was in grade eleven four years ago, then that means that she's already in her second year of university. So she's been in Hong Kong for at least two years now. How could I have not heard about this from Allison or even my mom? Surely, they would have brought it up at one point.  

But then again, they could have assumed that we were still in contact with each other and that I had arleady known so they didn't bother to mention it to me. 

While I was eating, I felt a pair of eyes staring at me. At first I tried to ignore it, but then when I looked up from my pasta, I saw Allison smiling at me. There was also a mischievous glint in her eyes that I had caught, which made me feel somewhat uneasy about what she was about to do or say next. 

“Let me see your phone,” she said, holding her hand out.

“What are you going to do to it?” I asked suspiciously.

“Nothing bad. Just let me see it. Please?” she asked again.

Grudgingly, I got my phone out of my pocket and entered my password before giving it to her. 

"Just as I thought," Allison mused. “Wait, how do you add a contact on this thing?” 

Allison was never very good with technology.

Chuckling, I took it back from her and pressed a couple of things on the screen before giving it back to her. 

“What are you doing?” I asked as I watched her slowly use the touch-screen’s keyboard to type. “I already have your number.”

“I know that. But I saw that you didn't have Lily's so I'm putting it in,” Allison replied. “Here. Now you have it.”

She handed my phone back and on the screen was her name and her number. 

“Thanks Allison,” I grinned.  

Lily Yuan. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that name.