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"My birth name is Mary Ahn", Mari choked up, her thick Canadian accent showing when she spoke English. She waited for a reaction, something that proves her that Mark did not forget about her. But the boy only tilted his head and send her a cute smile. "That's a beautiful name. Mary" He repeated the name and the way it rolled off his tongue made tears well up in Mari's eyes.
Her world was collapsing right in front of her eyes and she couldn't stop the tears from falling when Jisung was all over her face. "Noona! Are you alright?" He asked concern showing in his voice. Mari nodded but a second later she shook her head and stared straight at Mark, who seemed as surprised as Jisung about her outburst.
"Do you need a glass water?" Mark asked, like the gentleman he is. But Mari shook her head. She didn't need water. All she wanted was Mark to remember her—and their past. But it was no use. Mark Lee had forgotten about her completely.
Her hands were shaking when she ran through the practice room to grab her bag and her hoodie. She looked back at Jisung who seemed frozen, almost afraid of what was going on. And then she looked at Mark and said one thing, before disappearing.
"My mum used to call you fire-spitting-lizard, Mark Lee."
The door closed with a smacking sound when Ahn Mari ran out of SM Entertainment. Mark and Jisung were still too frozen to move and stared at the door. "L-Lizard?" Jisung repeated the word Mari had spit in Mark's face. His accent was cute, but Mark couldn't concentrate on the Maknae.
His head was spinning. "Lizard?" He asked and looked at Jisung who only shook his shoulders.
― 💌 ―
As soon as Mari stepped into her manager's car, she knew she fucked up. She did such a big mistake by running out of the rich company like a teenage girl on her period. But getting the fact that Mark forgot about her—or rather them and their backstory—hurted like a slap on the cheek.
Or more like a thousand stabs in the back.
Mari sat down in her seat and made herself as small as possible. Sora, who was sitting behind the steering wheel turned around a surprised look on her face. "Are you alright, Mari? You look as if you've seen a ghost!" Sora announced and Mari sniffled, trying to swallow the emptiness in her body.
"Mari? Are you listening?" Sora spoke and Mari looked up and let the tears simply roll down her cheeks. "Give me five more minutes and then I'll head back to practice. I promise." Mari said and continued crying into her arms. Sora nodded, confused as to why the young woman was at a breaking point.
Her eyes were swollen when Mari walked back into the practice room a while later. Jisung looked up from his tablet and smiled at her. "Do you feel better now, Noona?" He asked and Mari simply nodded. "Kinda." She chuckled and bit her lip, looking around.
"Mark-hyung left," Jisung said and Mari nodded. "Yes. I can see." - "You know Mark-hyung from your childhood?" Jisung asked and sat down next to Mari who only nodded. "We went to the same elementary school and had the same guitar teacher. We even went to SM's global audition together."
"You didn't pass?" - "No. My dancing wasn't good enough back then. I only got accepted by my company when I moved to Seoul with my parents a few years back."
Jisung nodded. "Your Korean is much better than Marks though. I mean he's fluent but he does have a tiny accent. Yours is almost not noticeable." Jisung scratched his nape, not sure of what he just had said. "Mari-noona!" He then said and jumped up, twirling before looking at the older girl once more.
"Mark-hyung probably only needs time to collect his thoughts and all. He was so surprised when you called him Li-Lizard?" Jisung guggled and Mari nodded. "I guess so. I didn't mean to surprise him like that but I felt so sad. It was selfish of me to push all this on Mark..." Mari bit her lip and looked at Jisung.
"Let's practice. Maybe I can apologize afterward."
Jisung nodded at her words and went to turn on the music. Mari felt at ease as soon as the music filled her ears and she forgot her weird feeling in her stomach and let the music guide her through the room. Jisung already behind her, dancing and supporting her with his presence.
― 💌 ―
Ahn Mari... Mary Ahn... Ahn Mari... Fire-Spitting-Lizard...
Mark was stressed. He had a feeling he should know the name of this girl and the nickname. But it only tickled a tiny part of his brain that thought of Canada. Was she a friend of him when he was back in Vancouver? He didn't remember.
A lot had happened since he left Canada and due to his stressful training and his schedules he did grew apart with a lot of friends he had back in the day. Was Ahn Mari one of them?
"But she wouldn't react this emotional if we were only friends," Mark said to himself when a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. "Come in!" He yelled and waited for the person to step inside. Mark was tilting his head when he saw Ahn Mari stepping into the room.
She was wearing casual clothes, her training gear in a bag pack on her shoulders. "I-I wanted to apologize" she started in English and without speaking formally. Mark gulped. "Apologising for what?" - "My behavior. I never meant to shout my feelings in your face like this."
"So you know me." - "We were best friends until you moved to Seoul. We went to the Global Audition together, Mark. It's me, Mary. Crazy-Cat-Girl Mary." Mari said and bit her lip, looking at Mark who seemed to finally catch up with who she was.
"Mary Ahn. Daughter of Opera singer and business man." He said and Mari nodded, tears threatening to fall out of her eyes once again—but this time, happy tears.
"I haven't seen you in ages!" He gasped and clasped his hands in front of his mouth. Mari chuckled. "We've been miles apart and you never really answered my texts." She answered and moved a streak of dark hair out of her face.
He opened his mouth, but couldn't answer. She smiled.
"It's okay. You have been busy. I've been following your activities so I know that you have three units to promote with." She went to turn around but he quickly grabbed her wrist.
"You changed."
"And so did you, Mark Lee. But at least I didn't forget about you."
Mari softly took his hand off her wrist and smiled. "Maybe we can catch up sometime. But currently, I am busy. My mini album is doing pretty good and I have a lot to practice for that Special Stage with Jisung so..." - "Yeah, maybe we find some time in our busy schedules to talk about everything."
Mark watched Mari walking back to the door. "Ya, Mary!" He called and Mari turned around. "Do you still have that big, fat undying crush on me?" He asked and Mari cocked an eyebrow, looking at him. The lie left her mouth, but the truth stayed in her heart.
