All about Leo

A dark secret

After the establishment of a new friendship, Hazel walked into biology class with renewed happiness. Leo waved at her from his seat.
She waved back, and walked towards her seat beside him when Emma poked her elbow.

"Oh hey Emma!" Hazel squealed and hugged her long forgotten best friend.

"Hello Hazel!" She returned her hug affectionately.

"Seems like you found yourself a new friend?"

"That's not it, he helped me once. So I sorta regret my harsh attitude with him. Hence I decided to befriend him,that's all" Hazel shrugged.

Leo looked at Emma from a distance. He tilted his head a bit and examined Emma and Hazel while silently scribbling some korean characters in his old notebook. A few moments later Hazel pulled her seat and said;
"Hey"
"Hey, how are you?" Leo started a conversation.

"I'm fine, what about you?" Hazel replied normally for the first time.

"Wow! You sound so different now that you are talking normally," Leo mocked. The corner of his lips lifted into a smirk.

"Well we are friends now! And you must realize that it's an honor for you to be my friend" Hazel said, rolling her eyes.

Leo chuckled. Was she serious? Honor?

"I believe friendship is a relationship far from ego or honor. It's pure from these things, friends never feel honored,they feel blessed to be in a friendship that is pure and strong."

Hazel didn't know what to say. She just nodded.

"So, tell me about yourself. You are from North Korea right?"

"No"

"Then? China?... Japan?...."

"Gosh no! I'm from Seoul, South Korea" Leo interrupted.

"Oh right!" Hazel tried to hide her embarrassment. "I was just about to say that"

"If you say so." Leo shrugged.

"Well actually," Hazel turned to face him.
"I was wondering if you were born in Seoul or somewhere else. I mean look at you, you don't look much korean."

Leo smiled." You guessed it right, I wasn't born in Seoul. Actually I spent most of my life in New York only. I was born here. I lived here till I turned 14. Then my dad got transferred and I had to move to Seoul. It's great that I got to come back, if even as as an exchange student."

"Oh,then you must've missed New York alot. I mean your friends and all," Hazel commented.

A dark shadow hovered over Leo's face and fast flashbacks shuffled at the speed of light in his memory.

"Hey?" Hazel waved her hand to bring him back to attention.

"Oh yeah. Sorry. Not really, I mean I didn't miss anything that much. Infact... infact I was glad that I left New York" Leo pursed his lips.

"Glad? But why? Were you running away from something. Or someone?".

"Yes, my past" Leo replied in a mysterious tone.

"Your past?" Hazel repeated, clearly dumbfounded.

Something had struck her hard. Was he Leo? The Leo from her past? No but that wasn't possible. That Leo had gone to Canada not Seoul. She shook the thought away.

"Well it's not something I would like to share. It's personal. You can say that something happened in New York which made it impossible for me to live here, so shifting to Korea was a relief at first. But as time passed, I did miss some things and some people."