Neal also said that he’d “been running from…” his father for a very long time. I definitely think Rumple and Pan have encountered each other before, so it’s possible Rumple and Bae/Neal were aware of each other in Neverland. and Neal ran away!
Good point but…
That doesn’t mean Rumple was aware of Bae whenever/if Rumple went to NL. My personal inclination is that whenever Rumple went to NL (to get squid ink is my current theory) Bae saw his father from a distance and began to try and figure out how to leave NL. But the trick here is that no one is supposed to be able to leave. In my own theory, PP let Bae leave because Bae had to father Henry someday. But PP had to wait until after the Curse was cast and until Emma was a bit older. Bae was eventually allowed to leave, though in his eyes it probably seemed like he got lucky and found a way to leave because I think PP is very sneaky.