The woman searched through every one of the boy's notebooks.
To no avail.
She searched the boy's entire room as well.
Still, nothing.
The woman looked at the boy.
"We probably won't find it."
"Maybe I wasn't paying attention while cleaning one day and threw it away as trash."
The woman looked at the child apologetically.
The boy shook his head instinctively.
Yet his lips were tightly pursed.
The expression on his face looked as though he was about to cry.
Could the missing red maple leaf also be foreshadowing that his relationship with Ya Ya... was severed because it was gone?
There was no way for them to return to the time when they first met.
"Ah."
The woman's eyes and brows softened.
She sat down beside the child.
She gently smoothed the child's somewhat disheveled hair, which had become messy from crawling in and out of the cabinets while searching.
"It's upsetting to lose a gift from a friend."
"But Xuanxuan has tried so hard to find it."
"You just need to explain things properly to your friend."
"Mom believes your friend won't blame you."
Seeing that the child still had his head lowered,
the woman stroked the child's head again.
"Don't worry."
"Your friendship with your friend isn't built on just one maple leaf."
The boy opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
That's not it...
A friendship between friends naturally couldn't be decided by a single gift...
But...
His situation was different.
The maple leaf was gone...
Perhaps the only object carrying the shared memories between him and Ya Ya had disappeared.
The moment he thought of that...
He felt terribly sad.
Especially sad.
He couldn't help reaching out and clutching the clothes over his chest.
The woman's brows drew together slightly.