You are the one that everyone likes, and I am the one that everyone shuns.

Sunlight peeked into the room, drawing a groan from the little kid curled up on her bed. She hated mornings because that meant she had to go to school, and she hated school. 

"Byul, get up! It's time for school!" Her mother poked her head into the small room and said in a cheerful voice. 

Moonbyul kicked around in bed and sat up, wrapping the blanket around her. She really did not want to go to school. 

"Breakfast is on the table. I'll be going now," Her mother came into the room and sat on her bed. She smoothed her hair and patted her cheeks before kissing her. "Have fun in school!" 

She looked as her mother left, sulking. School was never fun. 

She slid out of bed and slipped on her small blue slippers. She waddled around her small room, gathering the things that she needed for school and changed out of her favourite pajamas to put on the dreary-looking school uniform. Dragging her backpack, she went out to the kitchen. A plate of sandwich and a cup of milk lying at their usual spot. She climbed onto the chair and sat there quietly, chewing on her tuna sandwich, all alone in the small wooden cottage. Her parents worked in the city and they always had to leave home early. She was seven, and every morning, she had to go to school with no one by her side. She finished up the last bit of milk and left for school. 

There was something she looked forward to in the morning though - the beautiful blue cottage that was twice the size of hers. She would look at it for a few good minutes before leaving for school which was situated at the end of the road. 

She sat on the steps of her cottage and looked dreamily at the house across the road. She wished that was her house, and she wished she could be like the person living in it. 

"Byul!" Someone shouted, bringing her back from her thoughts. 

There she was, standing in front of her cottage and waving. Solar. 

Moonbyul remained seated on the steps as she stared at the person on the other side of the road. She blinked a few times before dashing off in the direction of the school, leaving Solar standing on the road laughing. 

She had gotten used to Moonbyul's reaction. They knew each other ever since they were born, but the other person never spoke to her before. She never spoke to anyone. She never spoke. 

Moonbyul continued running, constantly turning back to see if Solar came but she saw no one behind her. She slowed down and eventually stopped running. She could not explain her own actions either. Solar was the kindest person around the area, no one would ever run away from her, but she would. 

"Oh, look who's here!" That was the voice that would appear in her nightmares. She froze in her spot as three boys, taller than she was, closed in on her. An obnoxious laughter erupted by her ears as she fell. There was a tug on her shirt, water dripped down her long hair and names were called, but she never retaliated. Not a cry was heard. This was the reason why she hated school. She hated the people there. They were her living nightmare. 

"Moonbyul?" She could hear footsteps approaching her. "What are you boys doing?" 

"Hello Mrs Kim! Solar!" The boys backed away when they saw the mother and daughter approaching. "She fell! We're just going to help her up."

There she was, standing in front of her, big eyes looking at her with concern. Moonbyul met her eyes and looked down at her feet. She was always there to witness her worst state. 

"Go away. Stay away from Byul!" Solar shouted at the boys as she squatted to join Moonbyul on the floor. 

"We're just helping her!" The boys whined as they saw how Solar reacted towards them. They never dared to get on the bad side of the girl because she always had good things to share. Every kid in school loved her. 

Solar took Moonbyul's hands and pulled her up from the floor. She picked up her bag, swatted the dirt off and handed it back to the owner. All the while, Moonbyul had her head down. Mrs Kim smiled at her daughter and patted her head. She knelt down in from of Moonbyul and ruffled her hair to get rid of the water. "Everything's alright."

Moonbyul nodded her head timidly and smiled a little. Ignoring the boys who were trying to get her attention, Solar reached out and poked the other girl's cheeks, as if to say 'look at me'. And she did, briefly before she looked down again. 

"Honey, hold Byul's hand. Take care of her, alright?" Mrs Kim turned to her daughter and held their two small hands together. "You boys get going as well."

Solar held onto Moonbyul's hand and swung it lightly. "Let's go!" 

The latter looked at their hands and then back at Solar. She did not understand why the other person would always willingly take her hand even when other kids pushed them away. Solar was different. She would smile at her and never expected anything in return. She would sit and walk in silence with her. All she wanted to say was a simple 'thank you' but she could not and the other person did not seem to mind. 

She trailed a little behind Solar who had the three boys by her side. She was always the outsider, even when she was not.

With her mother's words in mind, Solar stuck with Moonbyul throughout the day in school. Kids in school approached her for the first time, but only with the intention of playing with the girl next to her. They never laid eyes on her, and she was okay with that. At least no one tried to pull her hair or steal her food. 

When the day ended, Moonbyul would always be the first to rush out of the school. While the other kids were still waiting for their parents, she would already be on her way home, humming tunes that only she could hear. 

Solar was still in school, looking around for Moonbyul until she heard another kid commenting how the weirdo ran home again. She would have shouted at the other person for being mean but she remembered what her mother reminded her to do. She had to take good care of Moonbyul. Worried that the other kids would bother Moonbyul again, she hurried home. 

Instead of walking on the side of the road that she would usually be on, she went over to the right side where Moonbyul's house was situated. The small wooden cottage came into sight and she noticed a small girl sitting on the steps in front of the door. She stopped in front of the girl but she was too engrossed in doing the work at hand - folding paper planes. She cocked her head and looked amusingly as the paper planes lined up the steps. So she was folding paper planes every day? With a smile, she walked back to her house. 

Moonbyul loved paper planes. She loved looking at them soaring in the air, even though they never flew far. That temporary moment of flight gave her the feeling that she was free. It felt like she could fly. 

As she was folding her last plane, a pink paper plane landed in front of her. She looked up and saw Solar sitting on the steps of her cottage, smiling at her. She was pointing at the plane that she launched and did a gesture which Moonbyul understood it as 'open it'. She reached out to the pink plane hesitantly and looked at Solar who was nodding encouragingly. She carefully unfolded the plane and saw three crooked words written on the inside. 

Solar was watching Moonbyul closely on the other side of the road as she unfolded the paper plane and a smile crept up her chubby face when she saw, for the first time, Moonbyul smiling at her. 

Paper planes meant a lot to her, but she found another reason to treasure it even more. She folded the pink paper back into the shape of a plane and held it close to her, with the three words closer to her heart.

Moonbyul, please smile.

-

You are still the one that everyone wants, and I am the one that will never get the chance. 

It had been seven years ever since the two children started speaking, through written words. 

Solar was the first person, apart from her parents, that Moonbyul let into her life. She did not regret that decision though, to have spoken to her through the paper planes. They would spend hours sitting on the steps, opposite each other, writing on a single piece of paper that was folded into a paper plane until it was filled with words. 

As happy as Solar seemed, Moonbyul knew through the times they spent together that she was not. She was still the person in school who people surrounded, and Moonbyul was still the person in school who avoided everyone. In school, she would just look from afar, knowing that Solar would be there for her if anything happened. Little did she know that Solar would be looking around for her, because having others around only made her even lonelier.

She did not know when did this start; this feeling she had towards Solar. Whenever she saw her with someone else, she wished it was her. 

But she did not know that Solar also wished the same. 

One day after school, just like any other days, Moonbyul would be waiting by the school gate for Solar. She looked at her watch, the one that Solar gave her for her tenth birthday, and frowned. She should be here by now. She looked around, but she only saw people from Solar's class. 

She kept her head low as she walked back into the school. Did something happen to her? 

And then a shout from the field behind the classrooms distracted her thoughts. It sounded like the person she was looking for. She quickened her footsteps and saw two people standing by the field, a girl and a boy. 

The girl being Solar, and the boy being the bully who picked on her the most back then. 

"You nasty person! Why did you do that?" Solar pushed him repeatedly, but the triumphant smile still remained on his face. 

"Now that you've given your first kiss to me, you're my girlfriend." He tried to put his arms around Solar's shoulders but the girl pushed him, harder this time, until he fell to the ground. 

Her face was red, redder than the time she accidentally drank from her father's glass of wine thinking it was juice. "You stole it!"

And then she saw Moonbyul standing a few steps away from her, by the classroom building. Maybe it was this feeling of safety and comfort that the other person had, Solar ran to her crying. 

Moonbyul hated it when Solar cried because she did not know what to do. She felt helpless. She could not say words of comfort. She did not know how to. She simply just could not. 

The bully was walking towards them with a smug expression on his face. He stopped a few inches away, and bent his back to look at Moonbyul in the face. Studying her expressionless face, he sniggered. 

"Are you trying to say something?" He mocked. "I can't hear you."

Solar used to say "go away, get away from Byul" to him when he picked on her when they were kids. She just wanted to say "go away" but she could not. She opened but nothing came out. She forgot how to speak. 

And all she could do was to listen to the thunderous laughter with her fists clenched. 

"Go away. Just go away!" Solar wiped off her tears and stood in front of Moonbyul. "Aren't you tired of picking on her? So what she can't speak? At least she's so much more a better person than you'll ever be!" 

Without waiting for the boy's response, Solar pulled Moonbyul away. Curious of his reaction, Moonbyul turned around to see her bully dumbfounded. And she was sure he would never disturb her again, all thanks to Solar. 

Usually, Solar would talk a lot on their way home and she would listen, but that day, she was very quiet. The reason was obvious. 

The boy was mean, at least to her, but she never expected him to be such a jerk. Jerk? Yes, jerk should be the word for him. How dare he. Moonbyul occasionally peeked at Solar, whose cheeks were still stained with tears. She sighed inaudibly and took out her handkerchief. 

Solar looked at the blue handkerchief and back at Moonbyul again. With a smile, Moonbyul waved the handkerchief. Take it. Moonbyul was still the same, she did not change much. but she smiled more and to her only. She took the handkerchief and wiped off the tears on her face. She must look like a fool right now. 

They saw their houses in the distance and naturally, they separated in the middle of the road. Moonbyul on the right, and Solar on the left. After all these years of friendship, they found beauty in silence. For Moonbyul, through the silence, she could hear the soft breathing of the other person, knowing that she was beside her. For Solar, through the silence, she got to find out more about the other person. She stood up for her in the most unconventional way, she hugged her awkwardly when she needed a hug, and she never spoke to her, but it was fine. It was just fine for her to open her door every day to see Moonbyul sitting on the steps of her house. 

They reached home, and as usual, Moonbyul stood outside the house until Solar disappeared behind the door. Like other days, the house was empty, and she got used to it. She retreated into her small room and sat on her bed that was by the window. She looked out and she could see Solar's room across the road, on the second floor. The curtains were down, and she would most probably be crying again. She was bright, so full of energy, but she had the most sensitive heart and little things could make her emotional, let alone a stolen kiss. 

She went to her table and grabbed a piece of blue paper. She fiddled with her pen, thinking of something to write. There was this nagging thought in her mind but she tried to ignore it. It was just the silliest idea ever. She wrote down words after words, but only to scratch them out one by one. In the end, she succumbed to the thought in her mind and wrote them down. Carefully, she folded the piece of paper into a plane and brought it out of the house. She stood in front of her house and looked at the paper plane in her hands. Should she let this plane fly? She looked at the blue cottage sitting on the other side of the road, and then at the window on the second floor. 

With a flick of her wrist, the plane flew across the road between the two houses and then landed right in front of the door. Looking at the paper plane for the one last time, she went back into the house and never came back out for the rest of the day. 

Solar pushed herself up from the bed, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. No more crying over a stolen kiss. It was just a stolen kiss. Her first kiss. She peeked out of the window but strangely, Moonbyul was not there on the steps. She ran down to the door and threw open the door. She was not there, but a paper plane was.

She picked up the plane and unfolded it. There were many black patches on the paper, words that Moonbyul scratched out, but three words caught her eyes. The three words that were surrounded by black patches. She smiled and stared at the words for a long time. Yes, it was just a stolen kiss. She looked towards the window on the other side of the road to see Moonbyul frantically hiding behind the curtains. 

Paper planes never had a meaning to her, but she found the reason to treasure it seven years ago, and even more seven years later. She folded the blue paper back into the shape of a plane and held it close to her, with the three words closer to her heart.

I like you.

-

You are the person I love, and I am the one who is loved. 

Solar looked at the letter in her hands over and over again. I'll be waiting for you to come home. I love you. She could almost hear the other person's voice beside her ear. 

She looked out of the taxi and saw the familiar sight. The fields were still as green, and the sunset was still as breathtaking. The road was a little bumpier, but apart from that, nothing had changed. It had been seven years since the Moonbyul's confession, and three years since she left home for her studies.

She was going home, back to the people she loved. The longing was unbearable, especially when the only things she had of the other person was just a picture a few years ago and the letters she sent. They were together, but apart. Maybe in distance, but never in heart. 

Three years ago, Moonbyul stood in front of her house, with a letter in her hand. 

Open this when you come back three years later. Those were the words written on the blue envelope. Solar looked at Moonbyul weirdly and asked, "I can't open it now?"

With a grin, Moonbyul shook her head. No. 

Solar raised her eyebrows subtly as she flipped the letter about, not knowing what the other person was up to. 

Over the years, Moonbyul changed quite a bit, but she liked the change. She became more confident, and no longer avoiding other people. Many times, she stood up for her without uttering any word, but the others understood her clearly. Go away. Stay away from her. Above all, she became more open to her. She would no longer avoid her eyes, and the distance between them shrank.

One day, as usual, another paper plane flew to her. 

She saw words on the wings. That was rather unusual because they would write it on the inside. When she picked it up, she let out a laugh. Running across the road, with the plane in her hand, she went straight into the outstretched arms of the person who she loved. 

"Yes," she whispered into Moonbyul's ear and hugged her even more tightly. 

Moonbyul had never smiled so much in her life before, not until her cheeks hurt. She looked down at the blue paper in Solar's hand. Paper planes never failed her, and she had them to thank, thank them to convey the words that she could not. 

Miss Solar, do I have the honour to call you mine? 

Separation was never easy, but she could wait. She looked around to make sure no one was there and she took a step forward. 

"Oi!" Solar slapped Moonbyul's arm after she felt a kiss on her lips. 

Moonbyul was laughing as she saw how flustered Solar was. She pulled her into a hug and affectionaly patted her head. Solar lightly pushed the other woman away, smiling at her confused expression. 

"This is how you do it, stupid," Solar said softly and leaned it to kiss Moonbyul, longer and sweeter. 

When she was abroad, the thing that she looked forward to was receiving letters, but somehow there was this feeling of emptiness after each time she read the letters. Something was missing, and she only realised after three years that it was because Moonbyul never mentioned the three words in all her letters. And they appeared on the letter that she gave her three years ago, the letter that was slipped between her passport. 

The taxi stopped in front of her house, still in the shade of blue that Moonbyul loved. Sky blue. She looked across the road and it was no longer the small wooden cottage. It was in a shade of pink, the one that she loved. Confused, she entered her house. She missed home. She missed her parents. She missed her loved ones. 

"Mom, is the Moon family still living across the road?" Solar asked after giving her mother a tight hug. 

"They still are, and Moonbyul is such a beautiful grown-up now," her mother said. "I can't believe that shy little kid back then was her." 

After settling down in her room, she looked out of her window and saw Moonbyul standing in front of the pink house, waving at her. She never left. She waited for her, like what she promised. She rushed down and when she opened the door, she saw a blue paper plane flying towards her.

It landed at her feet and she picked it up. Slowly, she unfolded the paper plane but unlike other times, there was nothing on it. She looked up, puzzled, and saw the other person already there, standing in front of her, with a smile. The smile that she loved. Moonbyul pointed to the paper plane and opened even before she could react.

"I love you, and thank you, for loving me too."

Those were the words that she wanted to write down again and again, but she figured it was best to tell Solar in person.