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Gregory Gan has changed.
His hair is longer, wisps of ebony barely touching the back of his collar. He's lost weight---leanness replaced with skin on bone. The scowl affixed onto his face seems permanent now, and the cocky edge that had graced his step two years ago is completely gone.
In fact, it would be easy for Jeong-Soon to convince himself that this isn't Gregory Gan, if it weren't for his coal-black eyes. He sees fire in them---anger, sadness, life, so much emotion packed into his stare that Jeong-Soon can't deny his identity any longer. He sees butterflies and headphones and swollen pink lips. He sees the boy who'd asked him whether he'd ever been kissed.
Hi.
It's been a while, hasn't it?
You never gave me your number, so I couldn't text you.
Do you still have the headphones that lady gave us?
I missed you.
Why did you leave?
"Uh---babe, my leg's falling asleep," Mia whispers, and Jeong-Soon finds himself flushing as he hurriedly clambers off his girlfriend. Right. My girlfriend. I've moved on. He probably has, too.
He finds himself slipping his hand into Mia's, his thumb rubbing circles over her palm. The familiarity of the action calms him down---but his tongue is still heavy, lying like lead in his mouth as he desperately tries to find the right words to say.
His silence is rewarded with a dismissive once-over from Gregory. "You're taller," he remarks, and Jeong-Soon notes how much Gregory has to tilt his head up to look him in the eye now. The few inches of difference between them has grown to a little over a head.
Jeong-Soon pulls his hand out of his girlfriend's, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Um, yeah, I guess so." Something floods him at having Gregory talk to him first---euphoria, perhaps. He mentally curses himself for the way his heart flutters, thumping staccato in his chest at hearing Gregory's voice again.
