Why onCreate() remembers value of local varaible?

Question

From working with all other languages functions don't remember stuff that are in them between function calls. So why is it that value of myVariable is being remembered? How many times is onCreate() actually being called? Is this function somehow being transformed into Class to allow remembering variables by storgin them as Properties?

class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {

  override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

    var myVariable = "Hello "  //Hello you you you

    setContent {
      Text(myVariable, modifier = Modifier.clickable(onClick = {
        myVariable += "you "
        println(myVariable)
      }))
    }

  }

}