The narrator explains that he moved to New York City because his parents got divorced. He and his younger sister lived with his mother, and he decided to leave. He didn't want to tell anyone that his parents were divorced, and so he left during a winter vacation. He wanted to say his last goodbyes to his mother. He tells her that he was cast out of the street and appeared in a fashion magazine. He says that if they hadn't met again, he would've lived his life without knowing. He wants to know why he hasn't come to see him in the past nine years. The narrator says that she was his first love when she was young and he was a kid, and now she doesn't like him. She says that he's shaking, and she wants to calm him down. She asks him if he feels uncomfortable about how he came to like her. He's curious, she says, because she's him and not anyone else. She remembers when they were in first grade together, and the play they're going to perform at the festival is Beauty and the Beast.