WHEN I WAS 7 YEARS OLD, I CRIED AND SAID I WAS GOING TO MARRY MY NEIGHBOR. I WENT TO A JOB INTERVIEW 15 YEARS LATER — THE GENERAL MANAGER LOOKED AT ME AND SMILED: ‘THE GENERAL MANAGER… DID YOU APPLY TO BE HIS WIFE?

He had lost his parents at a very young age and lived with his grandmother in the house right next to ours, which made the adults in the neighborhood care about him even more.

When I was only in the first grade of elementary school, he was already a university student who spent most of his time studying and working hard for his future.

Every evening, he would sit quietly on the apartment stairs with a book in his hands while watching me play in the courtyard, and somehow that simple presence always made me feel safe.

Whenever I fell off my bicycle and scraped my knees, he would patiently clean my wounds and tell me that I needed to be more careful next time.

Whenever my grades were bad, he would sit down with me and make sure I understood my lessons properly, even if it meant repeating the same explanation many times.

Whenever I cried because a friend upset me or treated me unfairly, he would take me to buy ice cream and listen to my complaints as if they were the most important things in the world.

In my small and simple world, Connor was like a superhero who could fix everything and make me feel better no matter what happened.