My Childhood Love Came Back Too Late

"Kiss her! Kiss her!"

In the video, Alvin was actually smiling.

The way he looked at Freya—soft, indulgent, warm in a way he had never once looked at me.

Not in three years, at least.

The video ended with Freya rising on tiptoe toward him, then cut to black.

Freya's social feed refreshed.

The new post: a screenshot of her guaranteed admission acceptance letter, next to a photo of her and Alvin together at KTV.

The caption read: High school's over. A new beginning. Got my school, got my love.

Comments from mutual friends piled up underneath:

"I'm SO jealous! Your boyfriend's hot AND a genius!"

She'd replied with a blushing emoji.

"Bet SOMEONE's seeing this and absolutely losing it rn "

"The tomboy! ^^ Girl above is calling you out!"

I closed my phone and lay back on the bed.

The ceiling was very white. The light stung my eyes.

I thought about everything I'd put in for that guaranteed admission spot.

Cutting my waist-length hair short. Drilling practice problems until three in the morning. Never taking a single weekend off. Filling notebook after notebook with revision notes.

I'd been so close to reaching that slot.

So close to going to the same university as him.

He never knew that every single first choice on my college applications was the school he wanted.

He'd said he wanted to go north. Wanted to see snow.

So I put every application toward the north.

And now?

I sat up, reopened my phone, and logged into the college application portal.

One by one, I changed every first choice.

All of them to the south.

He hated the heat. Said he didn't like the south.

But I liked places where spring came warm and flowers bloomed.

The south would be good.

The farther from him, the better.

I hit submit. The screen read: Changes saved successfully.

Then I turned off my phone and drank the bowl of porridge. It had gone cold.

The porridge was bland. No sugar.

He knew I liked things sweet.

But he never thought to add it—just like he knew I was waiting, and never came.

The next day I went back to school to pick up my file.

The moment I stepped through the gate, every pair of eyes turned toward me with contempt.

"Someone went straight from the college entrance exams to a hotel room with some older guy. Tsk tsk tsk."

"Who? Who?"

"The tomboy! There's video proof!"

I stopped walking. Not far ahead, Freya was surrounded by a cluster of classmates.

She was holding up her phone. A video was playing on the screen.

A hotel corridor. Me in wet clothes, swiping a keycard to open a door.

"Getting knocked up by some old guy at her age…"

Freya said it with a smile, her tone dripping with implication.

Whispers rippled through the crowd, eyes full of malice and appraisal.

I walked over and stood in front of her.

"Delete that video. Now."

"Why would I?"

She tilted her head, all innocence. "You're the one who went to a hotel. What's it got to do with me?"

"You're making things up and you know it!"

"Am I?"

She turned to Alvin beside her. "Al, tell me. Didn't she go to a hotel?"

Alvin was standing right there, file folder in hand.

He looked at the video on the phone screen. Then at me.

"Alvin."

My voice was shaking. "Tell her why I went to that hotel."

He knew everything about last night.

Even if he didn't like me, after all those years, he would at least say one fair word for me.

Right?

Then he looked me in the eye and said it.

"If you didn't do anything, then you've got nothing to worry about."

When I heard that, I thought I'd misheard.

"What did you say?"

"You know what happened. Just ignore it."