When the lost is found.

Almond Blossom, Van Gogh.

It's been so many years that I almost forgot who he is.

I was 17. Z was one year or two younger than me. We met in the International Model United Nations, a summer event in which we happened to be delegates in the same committee. He came from Shanghai but he spoke English beautifully. He’s bright, and he's the kind of person that shines not through his looks but his minds. If we were in the 18^th century, he’s exactly the kind of gentleman who would deserve the admiration of the hall.

I had no idea how we became acquainted but we’d already been close from the beginning of the story, like we had noticed each other at the same instant, then fondness flourished between us. Sometimes affection just comes along, and when it goes mutual, it goes natural.  

In the meantime I was friends with two other girls, A and O, in the same committee. They're two amiable girls from Marymount with pleasing personalities. Naturally the several of us became friends who never went anywhere without looking for each other in the crowd, and alliances that supported and defended one another in the heated debates that would not go if you're fighting alone.

Everything must come to an end, but the end was too soon to be there. As we hugged goodbye, I wiped off the tears in my eyes and I wondered if our paths would ever cross again. It must have been the work of our over-reactive-teenage hormones that intensify every passion, and lose control of every sorrow. It had only been a few days' time but parting turned out to be the hardest thing for our young hearts to bear.

But as Life unfolds itself in time, you'll see it has bigger plans laid out for us.

In a few months, Z visited us once for his TOFEL exams in Hong Kong. We had lunch at Central, and that's the only time we'd got together in so many years. Then, A and Z dated each other, and their long-distance relationship went well for some time until change took its course. With distinctions in every subject, A was admitted to Fudan University but then came back because she didn't like it there. Then the two Marymount girls and I reunited in the same college; although sometimes we'd run into each other, we were never quite the same friends again. Z got into Yale the following year, and our lives were quite settled in our own ways without having anything to do with one another, or any chance of ever meeting again.

It's been so many years that I almost forgot who he is, until a few days ago when I saw his name again it took me quite a while to finally remember him. He told me he's in Hong Kong, working here after graduation. I was overjoyed. I really was. It feels like in Never Let Me Go, when Kathy and Tommy went to Norfolk, they found the music tape that was once lost for so many years.