The End...A Beginning

8

The constant assessments felt worse than doing his qualification exams. Shi Gu felt like his body and mind were being stretched beyond reason. His body wasn't yet fully recovered. Spending so much time in a hospital bed after injury had made him stiff; his body achy from even the least amount of exertion. But he was responding to the physiotherapy that he endured at the hospital and that Xiang Hao Ting helped him with at home.

Yu Shi Gu returned to work at the Café with Xing Gang because – for some reason – he remembered everything about working at the café. Plus he didn't want to be a burden and thought it best to contribute what he could to the daily running of their household; no matter that Hao Ting protested.

However, his mind was a little fuzzy. He remembered his family...his aunt and the reasons behind moving out on his own. He remembered wanting to study the stars and climb the tallest mountain. But he had no recollection of the content of his final year of high school. So they started studying. Going over the coursework as he did his work outs and stretches.

Every once in a while he would be hit by a memory from school. But they were disjointed. Fragments that didn't fit together like puzzle pieces without a picture reference.

Eating braised pork even though he hated it.

Sleeping in the infirmary during lunch.

The smell of chalk. Sneezing in front of the blackboard.

Someone asking him what his relationship was with some girl...or was it some guy.

A sick bed...and a fever that felt alive and well inside him because he blushed fiercely even though he couldn't remember why.

And the constant waves of emotion from tears and anger that made him clench his fist, to giddy happiness that made him feel like he had butterflies in his stomach...but no clue who or what or when they were about.

No matter that he didn't fully recall...Yu Shi Gu knew Xiang Hao Ting had something to do with it.

But what?