My Childhood Friend Loves Mocking Me Chapter 09

My Childhood Friend Loves Mocking Me Chapter 09

Jake went back to Northern Town.

Aunt Clara was the one who called to tell me the news.

She said he came home with a high fever-nearly 40 degrees Celsius-and was in the hospital for

three days.

After he got out, he seemed like a different person. He grew quiet, stopped going out, and just fell into a routine: classes, studying alone, basketball. Every now and then, he’d just sit on the balcony,

lost in thought.

“He’s lost almost twenty pounds. Lila, I know I shouldn’t disturb you, yet my heart aches for him. He has never been like this since he was a child.”

I held my phone tight, not knowing what reply to make.

“When he was half-conscious from the fever, he kept murmuring your name nonstop, begging you not to leave and promising he would change.”

Aunt Clara paused softly.

“Lila, tell me honestly, is there any chance left between you two?”

I fell into long silence before answering.

“Auntie, I have no idea what the future holds, but I have no wish to turn back right now.”

She wept softly on the other end.

“Okay, I understand. I won’t push you. You just take care of yourself, alright?”

After hanging up, I sat on the windowsill, staring blankly at the sycamore trees across the street. It was late autumn; most leaves had fallen, leaving bare branches stretching toward the sky, casting fragmented shadows under the streetlamps.

Memories drifted back to the year I turned ten, when young Jake grinned widely with a missing

tooth,

saying he liked having me around.

Those innocent feelings were all genuine.

He did have feelings for me, yet he never realized it himself.

I once loved him wholeheartedly, pouring out all my courage and affection.

Still, fond affection could never be an excuse to hurt someone.

I closed the window and drew the curtains shut.

That night, a parcel arrived for me.

Inside the big box lay nothing but a simple childish drawing we had made years ago.

It depicted young Jake holding little Lila’s hand, standing openly beneath a sycamore tree,

with clumsy handwriting scrawled below: We will stay together forever.

A dried sycamore leaf was taped to the back of the paper, alongside a short note written by Jake.

The sycamore tree at home still grows wildly. If you ever wish to come back and take a look someday, I will always stay right here. I’m sorry.

I tucked the leaf between the pages of a book and placed it deep inside my desk drawer.

I opened the window again. A full bright moon hung gently above the sycamore branches.

I thought of myself a year ago, standing in the Hales’ yard looking at this same moon, wondering when he’d finally be kind to me.

Now, a thousand miles away in Southern City, my heart was utterly at peace.

The moon was the same, / but I had finally learned to chase my own light.