Chapter 2

Before leaving, I wanted to return their gifts to them.

Maddie had given me her first medal from her basketball competition when she was twelve. She claimed that she was afraid of losing it, so she wanted me to take care of the medal.

I went to the gym with her medal to look for her.

She was crouching on the ground as she helped Julian to assemble his clothes rack for his dorm.

There was a mattress, floor lamp, and boxes next to them.

"Lower this a little."

Julian indicated a height.

"I can't reach it."

Maddie immediately took it apart and reassembled it.

When she saw me, she asked, "What are you doing here?"

I passed the medal over.

"I'm giving this back to you."

Maddie was stunned.

"Can't you just keep it for me? Why are you suddenly returning it to me?"

"I'm afraid I won't have any more chances to do so in the future."

She did not get what I was implying. Hence, she simply tossed the medal into the boxes filled with junk.

"You're just in time. Julian still needs some hooks for his dorm. You're strong, so you should come over and help us."

I did not move.

Julian immediately said, "It's fine. Luca is heading to West City, so he must be busy packing."

Maddie glanced at me.

"He always manages to pack his suitcase in ten minutes. I bet he's not busy."

I turned to leave.

She did not even come after me and ask when I was going to leave town.

Silvia was at the library.

I passed her the few drafts she had for her competitions.

When she took the draft papers, she stared at the camera hanging around my neck.

I had bought the camera when I was fifteen, and I saved up a year of allowance to buy it.

All of our high school memories had been captured with that camera.

"You should leave the camera with us," Silvia said.

"Julian wants to make a video of his journey from childhood until today, and play it during orientation."

"It's my camera."

"We're just borrowing it, and we'll return it to you after that."

She waved at Julian.

Julian walked over and stared greedily at my camera.

"Luca, I just want to select a few childhood photos of everyone."

"But you were not here with us back then."

Julian's face turned pale.

Silvia stared at me in disapproval.

"Do you have to be this rude?

"He's just upset that he didn't get to know us earlier."

"So, are you using my past to satisfy his regret?"

Silvia seemed like she had lost her patience. She straightaway took the camera bag I hung on the chair.

"We're just borrowing it for a few days. Do you have to make such a big fuss over it?"

I reached out to grab the bag, but she dodged my attempt.

"After the video is done, I'll get Lily to return it to you."

I stared at her for two seconds before letting go.

"Alright."

I did not have anything valuable captured in the camera.

The photos that were truly precious to me were already backed-up.

April stopped me at the gate of our neighborhood.

"You're back just in time."

She tossed a hard disk to me.

"These are the videos we've taken over the years. You're great at editing videos, so you can help Julian to edit a video of his growth over the past eighteen years."

"We don't have eighteen years' worth of footage for him."

"That's why he has to use some of ours," April said matter-of-factly.

"You should cut those scenes where you're featured in and add a few more of Julian's photos. That would do."

I looked down at the hard disk.

It contained videos of our first bicycle rides, our first camping trip, as well as every single one of our birthdays.

They were asking me to cut myself out of the videos and let Julian take my place, so it would look like he had a complete childhood.

"Alright."

I took the hard disk.

April was stunned.

"You're agreeing to it?"

"Didn't you say that I usually just take a few days to digest my own emotions?"

She rubbed her nose.

"As long as you've thought it through."

Throughout all these conversations, none of them asked me when I was departing to West city.

That night, Lily came over for a date.

She brought me to our favorite steak restaurant, yet she was replying to text messages the whole time.

Julian complained that his dorm bed was too hard.

She immediately bought a new mattress for him.

Then, Julian said he was worried that he might not get along with his roommates.

She sent a few long voice messages to comfort him.

My steak had gone cold in front of me, yet she did not notice.

"Lily."

"Hmm?"

"Do you remember what I'm doing tomorrow?"

She finally looked up.

"Are you packing your bags?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

She let out a sigh of relief. Then, she slid the dessert over to me.

"Why the long face?

"Be good in West City. I promised you that I'll visit you, and I'll keep my promise."

Before she left, she tiptoed and kissed my forehead.

"Just wait for college to start.

"After a while, the five of us will go to West City to visit you."

I did not call her out for her lies.

After I went home, I plugged the hard disk into my laptop and deleted all the files inside.

Why would I let Julian take my memories for the past eighteen years as his?

I unplugged the hard disk and placed it into a delivery box.

It was the last gift I was giving them.

A clean version of our past, with me erased from it.