我曾经遇到过一个苹果。一个红透了的苹果。那时我还小，才上初中，同桌是一个会脸红的男孩子。是的，吵架也脸红——我和他吵过不少架，每次都是他先道歉。我还暗暗觉得，他很有绅士风度。后来老师调整位置，我和他分开了。

那天下午阳光很好，骑着车上学，想着一些遥远的事，突然就想起了他。他是上午走的，调到了第三组，不知道为什么，我的心里空空的，就像一间许久没人打扫的房间。来到教室，看见新同桌，一位跟我没说过几句话的男生，不经意间，我就把目光投向了他，他在和他的新同桌谈笑风生。坐到座位上时，我终于吁出一口气，不是为了什么，只是因为在这个角度，我看不见他。

我的手伸进抽屉里拿书时，碰到一个令人舒服的凉凉的东西——一个苹果。上面贴有一张纸条，写着“送给你”，还有一个笑脸。熟悉的字迹，是他。

I didn't smile, but I felt a tree of apples growing in my heart. The largest and reddest apple fell right into my hand, and it was mine.

I didn't eat it or tear off the note; I just put it in my bag's layer, with the paper side facing outwards. It was so red and round, like a poem by Whitehorn. I looked at it as if reading words on an apple, reading out a heart that was also as red and round.

I don't remember how those days passed. Only remembered because of the angle problem I sat on the seat looking back at him, he still was that way: will blush, will solve some math problems that girls wouldn’t understand, would smile foolishly towards teachers – only without those arguments between us again. In those brief glances back and forth, I heard my own heartbeat for the first time.

Every day after school, I would talk to that apple as if it could hear me; the apple must be tired of hearing about trivial matters from a girl with secrets inside her mind yet remained polite like one serving rice grains in a silver bowl. Over time whenever passing by fruit stalls seeing apples reminded me of him – his radiant smile and blushing during arguments.

When apples began to rot away from decayed spots water started dripping down; knowing this is cider made me even more perplexed than before. The aroma filled with wine-like scent still hadn’t prompted me to discard them yet either.

As they rotted completely leaving behind nothing but seeds within their core - after graduation when walking past fruit stalls buying another apple placing the same note upon its surface - while no longer being original anymore nor am i - life went on following old habits until university days came along when memories faded further away...

The sound of tears falling onto ground is etched vividly within memory now though...