A cake, a cold winter, and a boy she never saw again

A Korean internet user shares a long, raw memory from middle school. Their father was abusive — the kind who beat them until their face was too swollen to go to school, while their mom stood by and did nothing. One day a classmate called out of nowhere to wish them happy birthday. Problem was, it wasn't their birthday. The writer told them so, and the guy laughed and said 'Oh... well, happy birthday anyway. I'll remember the real one next year. Thanks for being born.' The writer admits that back then, seeing a guy cry felt embarrassing and weak to them — but that was the one time they genuinely wanted to cry watching someone else.

The backstory: the classmate had come to check on them when they hadn't shown up to school, saw the bruised face through the door intercom, and quietly said nothing about it — just called later pretending it was a birthday. He brought cake to their usual hangout spot. They ate it in silence. Then he just said: 'I like you. I've liked you for a long time. This is my graduation gift to you — high school has dorms, so I'm saying it now.'

They never met again after that. He stopped coming to school the next day. The writer had to move towns because of their dad's job. Ten years later, they still don't know where he is or how he's doing. The playground where they shared that cake is now a parking lot, and the middle school got torn down for new construction. 'Thanks to that one cake, I didn't completely fall apart. I miss you. I liked you too.'