Chapter 3

When I woke up the next day, it was almost noon.

I barely slept last night, only drifting off in the dead of night.

I opened SnapChat, found Madison's chat, and scrolled, stopping at our conversation from two days ago.

"Girl, is this Julian? My brother's doing his grad studies at this university, and I dropped him off today. Thought I'd check out some hot guys, and guess what? I saw your husband!"

"Why is your husband downstairs from the girls' dorm? Does he have a sister studying here?"

Ten minutes later.

"Did I see that right? Your husband is hugging that girl? Is that a sister? That's clearly a *girlfriend*!"

I tapped on the first picture. It was identical to what I saw yesterday: the two of them, flirting outside the dorm, just like a newly infatuated couple.

"I think I stumbled upon a huge secret."

Below the photo was a video.

In the video, Julian opened the car door for the girl, shielded her head, then got into the car himself, and sped away.

My thoughts drifted, back to the past.

A girl's playful voice echoed.

"Julian! Is that you? Where's Mr. Lim?"

Julian rested one hand on the sports car window, slowly turning his head, his tone lazy.

"Our houses are close. You can just ride with me, it's on the way. No need to trouble Mr. Lim."

He walked up to me, took my small backpack, opened the passenger door, and made a "please" gesture.

"Get in, my princess?"

I gave a small huff, as if granting a favor, and stepped into the car in my cute leather shoes.

"You don't have to flatter me like this. Don't worry, I'll still give you the courtesy of riding with you."

Julian fastened my seatbelt, then grinned, his eyes blinking at me.

"So, does this mean we're good? You're so generous; don't be mad at me anymore."

Mad?

Why was I mad?

I couldn't remember.

We were about the same age; little squabbles were common, but from childhood on, Julian always made it up to me.

I didn't understand why Julian would fall for someone else.

I reached for something, wanting to tidy up, but I didn't know what to organize.

It felt like there was nothing I absolutely had to take with me.

I just felt like a jumbled program, emotions running wild. I needed to grip something, anything, to keep myself from unraveling.

Then, a photo album appeared in my hands.

Inside were photos of Julian and me. I flipped through them, page by page, each picture seemingly telling me that Julian loved me.

Tucked deepest inside was a high school yearbook photo of us.

I was in my school uniform, white shirt, blue blazer skirt, hair in a high ponytail, leaning my head against the person beside me, smiling and giving a peace sign to the camera.

Beside me was Julian, his hair closely cropped, holding two bunny ears above my head, his smile exceptionally bright.

I looked into the eyes of my 18-year-old self in the photo, tears blurring the image.

I couldn't control my tears, and I couldn't control the 28-year-old Julian falling in love with someone else.

I took a deep breath, deciding to go find him.

Julian, the 18-year-old you, please save me one more time.