A lot of children have imaginary friends at some point, and it’s perfectly healthy. It’s a sign of creativity and intelligence. That’s what Suyeon, Hwamins mother, kept telling herself as she watched her daughter play with her ‘friend’. To be honest, she was worried. Hwamin was getting a bit old for an imaginary friend. Most children lost their imaginary friends when they started going to school but Hwamin was turning nine soon and had created her friend when she was eight. Suyeons friends had told her that there was no need to worry as long as Hwamins friend didn’t tell her to hurt other people, but he did seem to be doing something to her daughter. Hwamin had always had a difficult time adapting to new situations but ever since this friend appeared Hwamin had completely shut herself off from her classmates.

Hwamin didn’t see it like that; to her the friend was a savior. He had all the patience with her that no other adults had and always said she was his favorite and that he hated bullies who do mean things to others. The only thing about him that was a bit odd was that he also disliked her old friends.

“I’m your friend too, you know? You can’t just tell me to go away whenever you feel like it.” He told her one day as they were sitting in the garden. There was a book lying in front of him from which he’d been reading to her. The little girl had just been called by one of her old classmates to come to a birthday party.

“I know you’re my friend. Don’t worry, you’re my favorite friend Kyungsoo!” She smiled at him and crouched a little closer. The young man chuckled and closed the book, affectionately brushing his fingers over her nose.

“No peeking.” He smiled and brushed her hair. The girl shrugged and covered her eyes, peeking through her fingers curiously to see what Kyungsoo was doing. The man was laughing and pushed the book aside, motioning for her to come closer and sit on his lap, which Hwamin did. Despite the warm weather Hwamin didn’t mind it when he wrapped his arms around her. With her mother it was always annoying because she’d squeeze her too tightly and place those wet kisses on her cheeks right in front of the other kids. Kyungsoo didn’t do that, he just held her very loosely in his arms and sang to her.

When Kyungsoo sang to her Hwamin could sit still for hours and listen to him. He sang all the songs she knew to her, and often more that Hwamin didn’t know and didn’t understand. Kyungsoo said the song he was singing was called “Scream”, but Hwamin didn’t understand why. He wasn’t screaming, just singing.

“What does ‘vague expectations’ mean?” She asked when he stopped. Kyungsoo smiled down at her and ruffled her hair.

“’Vague expectations’ means you aren’t sure what’s going to happen. Expecting something means you think something will happen. I could expect that if I sing, you tell me I have a nice voice.” He paused, smiling at her as he waited for her affirmation. When Hwamin nodded quickly he continued. “But sometimes people don’t know what’s going to happen, say if I were to dig a hole here I wouldn’t know what to find. There would be dirt but other than that I would have vague expectations.” He explained calmly. Hwamin nodded although she wasn’t entirely sure if she understood.

“What does endure mean?” She then asked, trying to remember all the hard words in his song.

“That’s what you do every day, Hwamin. When Yura does bad things, you always endure them even if they hurt you.” Kyungsoo smiled sadly and gave her one of his very rare squeezes. Hwamin nodded again and pulled up her knees.

“And disappear?” The song had been so sad that she almost didn’t want to know. Kyungsoo leaned in and whispered something to her. Disappearing, he said, was something he’d never do to her. Although this wasn’t a good explanation, Hwamin still smiled and felt a sense of relief. Kyungsoo brushed a hand through her hair and lied down on his back, gazing up at the sky. Hwamin lay down beside him and looked at him, curious just what he saw in those clouds that she didn’t.

“What’s up there?” She asked. Kyungsoo raised a hand and pointed up at a particularly big cloud that was drifting by the sun.

“That’s where I come from.” He told her before turning on his side and tickling her. Through her fits of laughter and struggled Hwamin didn’t see the sad smile on his face. “You’d like it there, it’s really pretty.” He brushed her hair, letting her catch her breath. This only made Hwamin more curious. What did Kyungsoo’s home look like?

“Can I go there too? I want to see.” It made Kyungsoo smile. He shook his head and turned back to look up at the sky.

“You can’t go there yet. I can come down from there and go back up as much as I like. You can go up there only once. If you don’t stay, then I can’t come down to see you again. I don’t want that to happen...” After that Kyungsoo refused to talk about the sky no matter how much Hwamin asked. Eventually she gave up and asked him to sing for her again.

They were interrupted when the door to the garden opened and a slender woman with dyed blonde hair came out. She was wearing a flowery dress that seemed to dance with every step she took, but her expression didn’t match her beautiful clothes. As she approached them Hwamin instinctively crawled closer to Kyungsoo who’d sat up.

“Hwamin, you didn’t do your homework yet.” Suyeon sighed, “Why don’t you come inside and study? I’ll make you lemonade and you can start with music.”

“You should always leave the topic you like best for last so you can look forward to it.” Kyungsoo interjected. Hwamin nodded at him.

“Kyungsoo says I should do that last because I like it.” She repeated to her mother. The woman sighed and rubbed her temples.

“Let’s just go inside sweetie, I’m sure Kyungsoo is warm too. I’ll make you both lemonade okay?”

Hwamin glanced at Kyungsoo who was visibly unhappy with this turn of events and reached out to take his hand.

“Please? I am thirsty. Mom makes really good lemonade.” She whispered. Her friend smiled and nodded, humming his song to her. Content Hwamin followed her mother inside, tugging on Kyungsoo’s hand to walk faster.

This was going too far, Suyeon thought as her daughter talked excitedly to the empty space beside her, something about building sandcastles. When she noticed her mother staring, Hwamin waved at her mother and told her “Kyungsoo wants to go to the beach”. Tired, Suyeon shook her head and motioned at the undone homework. Then the strangest thing happened. Hwamin looked up and pouted slightly, but eventually told her “friend” that she’d do the homework. As long as she’d been alive, Hwamins mother had never seen anyone convince her daughter so quickly.

Indeed, the girl opened her textbook and started on her calculations, reading them out loud and stopping here and there as if she was being corrected. When Suyeon came over to check the calculations Hwamin just smiled her and told her that she didn’t have to check them because “Kyungsoo” had already checked them and he said they were correct.

“So they are..” Suyeon mumbled, surprised when every answer written down was correct. Only then did she notice that both lemonade glasses were empty. Maybe her daughter was hyped on sugar? “How did you do this? You don’t like math.” She asked, forgetting for a moment that she wasn’t supposed to tell her daughter that. Hwamin shrugged and moved over the couch, closer to “Kyungsoo”, her mother presumed.

“You have vague expectations of me. It’s used like that, right?” Hwamin then turned to the space beside her and nodded as if she’d been given affirmation.