Ping woke up the next morning feeling lighter.
His leg hurt less.
His heart felt warm.
He got dressed quickly, almost clumsily, his mind already at school.
He kept thinking about keng – every memory with him made him smile. He couldn't wait to make another memory with him.
But when ping got to school,keng wasn't there.
He checked the classroom twice,he stood by the door longer than necessary,he looked down the hallway,then back again.
Maybe he's just late.
At break, ping went straight to the old pavilion. He sat where keng usually sat, his hands resting on his knees,eyes fixed on the path leading there.
Everytime footsteps approached,his heart jumped – then fell.
Minutes passed
Then an hour.
The pavilion felt quiet.
He's probably not feeling well,ping told himself, forcing a small smile.
He'll come tomorrow.
The next day,ping searched for him the moment he stepped into the school.
Keng wasn't there.
The warmth in ping's chest slowly faded,replaced by something cold and uneasy.
He stood there in the corridor, watching other students laugh and talk, wondering why everything felt so wrong.
He gathered his courage and went to keng's friends.
"Have you seen keng?", he asked, his voice softer than he wanted.
Their eyes met his with a hesitation that made his heart sink.
They didn't know. They had even gone to keng's house. They couldn't bring themselves to tell him.
"It's empty", Tao said softly. "No one lives there anymore....his house".
Ping froze.
The word echoed in his mind.
He didn't respond. He couldn't.
The pain in his chest swallowed him whole, and even though he blinked back the tears, his friends could see it there – quiet and unbearable.
He walked through the rest of the day in a daze .
Classrooms blurred together, words were meaningless, laughter around him sounded distant, almost cruel.
At home, he barely ate. His mother asked what was wrong, but he shook his head, unable to speak. He locked the pain inside him even as it throbbed relentlessly.
Days passed
Weeks passed
A month.
Keng never came back.
Ping replayed every memory – the winks, the teasing smile, the laugh that had once made everything feel lighter. Every memory now twisted into a stab of longing. He couldn't bear to hide it anymore.
One afternoon, he finally broke.
He hugged his mother tightly, burying his face in her chest.
The tears he had kept in finally spilled over.
He cried like he hadn't cried in years,the sound breaking through the quiet of their home.
His mother held him close, rubbing his back gently. She remembered the day he had cried like this after his father died and cried with him, whispering "it's okay baby,let it out".
"Mom... he left me, h.... he",ping gasped between sobs.
"He left me. I can't find him anywhere,mom I looked for him, he left me".
His mother held him tightly as she could.
Ping cried until there were no more tears left, until his body shivered with the exhaustation of grief.
And even then, the emptiness remained.
That night, ping lay in bed, eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling.
Sleep wouldn't come.
His mind was full of questions, and the ache in his chest was relentless.
It was just him.
Alone with the absence that has swallowed everything.
The quiet of his room pressed down on him, the memories of keng echoing louder than any sound outside.
He could only whisper to himself,
P'keng where are you.