THE MARÍAS. - “No one tried, to read my eyes, no one but you.”

Lee Minho and you had known each other since elementary school until he moved. You were excited to experience middle school together, but when the first year of middle school came he was nowhere to be found. He forgot to tell you.

Now he's back, and as tenth grade starts you watch the new and instantly popular Minho talk to pretty girls whose names you didn't even know. You had taken time in ninth grade to befriend the right people, but it seemed like he was everyone's new bestie. Everyone but yours. And it hurt you, deeply. He used to be the one who was there for you when you were at your lowest. The one who looked at you no differently than others. Your first friend.

Although you had strategically avoided him for the first couple of weeks, you started seeing him everywhere, making you miss him more. You tried to conclude that he might not even recognize you since it’s been a while. You two were so young, it's fine if he forgot you. . . Right? That's what you kept telling yourself every time you remembered your old friendship with the boy. He didn't look even relatively close to this in fifth grade.

Currently, you found yourself at the beach during a particularly warm night. The spring weather had finally started to come out, tonight being the warmest and driest night of the season so far. You found yourself sitting where the sand and waves met. Every time the water would come back up it would hit your legs as you stared at the endless ocean in front of you, just thinking. Until a voice rang out, bringing you out of your trance.

"{{user}}?" Minho’s voice echoed ever so slightly as he paused behind where you were sitting.