“2 dollars, sir.” He waited as the father fished out 2 dollars out of his pocket while his son was happily enjoying his ice cream. “Thank you, sir,” he said when the man handed him the bills. He pulled out the drawer of his cart and stashed away the cash before diverting his attention to a little girl who was standing in front of his ice cream cart for a quite a while now.

“Kid?” he called out, “do you want an ice cream?”

The little girl nodded.

“Flavor?”

He stared at the girl as she hummed with her index finger pressing against her lips. Her eyebrows scrunched as she stared at the menu as if it was the biggest problem she needed to solve.

“Hmmmmmmmmm… Strawberry!” she finally made her final decision.

He scooped the cold confection into a ball and put it on a cone before handing it to the kid. The girl’s face lighted up with joy as she reached up for her ice cream but was disappointed when the man pulled it away from her reach.

“2 dollars,” he demanded.

The girl wore a pout on her face and crossed her arms.

“2 dollars,” he repeated his request.

The kid shook her head.

The man sighed. “Go and ask mum or dad for it then,” he suggested.

The kid shook her head again.

“Huh?” the guy wondered out loud.

“Mum is not here. She’s too busy. And I forgot to bring my pocket money,” she grumbled, “This is all unplanned. It’s your fault, so you have to give the ice cream to me.”

“What?”

“Um!” she nodded her head confidently, supporting her statement, confusing the man, “if you don’t sell ice creams here, tonight, then technically I won’t need any money. But you are the variable that have changed the outcomes of my initial plan.”

“Huh?” the guy quizzed again, with the most bewildered facial expression he could ever make, “What on earth ar-“

“It’s okay. Here.”

He stopped his flow of words and looked at the owner of the foreign voice. She was offering 2 dollars to him.

“I’ll pay for her,” she continued while reaching out her free hand for the ice cream.

“Thank you, mam. Here’s your ice cream,” he said.

The lady smiled and knelt in front of the still-half-grumpy kid but she noticed how her eyes brightened at the sight of the cold treat in front of her.

“Here’s your ice cream,” the woman said as she extended the cone to the little girl.

“Hmmmm…

No.”

“Huh?”

“Mum said I can’t accept a gift from any strangers.”

The woman was thrown off by the firmness of the little girl’s statement.

“Oh. I’m sorry then. I guess I’ll just… ummm… give this ice cream to someone else.”

She was about to stand up when the girl called her, “Hey.”

“Um?”

“What‘s your name?” the kid asked.

The woman raised an eyebrow before answering,

“My name is Summmer.

You?”

“Oh! I’m Jung Ga Eul.”

“Ga Eul?” She asked as if she never knew.

“Um!” The kid extended her right hand forward.

Sooyoung took her hand into a handshake.

“No. No.”

“Hm?”

The kid pulled her hand from Sooyoung’s grip and pointed at the ice cream.

“Now that we know each other, I can have the ice cream,” the kid stated nonchalantly.

“O- Oh. Here.”

“Thank you.”

Sooyoung looked at the girl, who was enjoying her ice cream, before letting out a chuckle.

“Why?” the girl asked, still digging into her ice cream.

“Nothing. You reminded me of someone.”

Sooyoung finally stood up, towering over the girl who was about her waist tall.

“It’s already 8. You should go home,” she suggested, “your mum must be worried.” The statement made her pout again. “She won’t be worried. She doesn’t care about me,” the kid replied. “Hmmmm… Okay then,” Sooyoung said, starting to walk away from her.

“Where are you going?” the kid quickly asked.

“I’m going home.”

“Where? Can I come with you?”

Sooyoung looked at her quizzically. “You shouldn’t trust a stranger so easily, you know? It‘s dangerous,” she said, with worry painted all over her face. The girl chuckled. She looked up at Sooyoung and said, “I was testing you.” She took Sooyoung’s hand, “If you are a bad person, you wouldn't have warned me about yourself, right?” surprising Sooyoung with her wit. “Now, take me to your home. I’m running away from mine.”

“Sure.”

So, they walked for almost a mile when the girl finally spoke,

“Where are we going?”

“Home.”

“Can I know where?”

“You’ll know when we get there.”

Sooyoung took a peek when she heard a huff from the girl.

“So, ‘Ga Eul’, did your mum give you the name?”

“Um. She said it is her favourite season after summer.”

Sooyoung wore an inward grin at the answer, “It’s a beautiful name. Matches you so well.

By the way, why do you run away from home?” She looked at the girl, waiting for an answer.

The little girl sighed.

“Mum doesn’t love me anymore,” she replied while her face was painted with a tint of sadness.

“What makes you say that?”

She sighed again, as if she was an adult who owns all the problem in the world.

“She doesn’t care about me anymore lately. She always come home late and she doesn’t play with me anymore. She even forgot my birthday,” she grumbled.

“But your birthday was only yesterday. I bet she remembered it by now.”

“Hmmm… She did promi- Wait. How do you know when is my birthday?”

“I guessed,” Sooyoung replied with a smile, “Don’t you love your mother?”

“I love her!” she reacted to the guess, “It’s just… I don’t think she needs me. I can’t help her with work. I can’t make her smile when she is sad. I can’t do anything,” her voice started to crack.

Sooyoung went down on one knee and pulled the girl into a halt. She looked at the girl while she tried to hide her face from the latter’s stare.

“Ga Eul-ah~” Sooyoung smiled at the girl who was still trying to hide her face from her. She pulled the girl backwards into a loose embrace while she pointed at a moving figure.

“Look at that puppy,” she told the girl.

Slowly she lifted her chin up to peek at the puppy when she heard a cry coming from it. She wiped her tears away with her sleeves to get a clearer look at the yelping puppy.

“Is it… lost?” she mumbled quietly but loud enough for Sooyoung to hear.

“I don’t know. Is it? Why do you think it’s lost?”

“Because it’s crying… like me.

Should we take it?”

Sooyoung shook her head while resting her chin on the girl’s shoulder.

“We can stop it from crying, but it will still be sad.”

“Then what should we do?” The girl asked while looking at her.

“Just wait,” she answered as if it is a matter of fact. She adjusted the girl’s head to divert her attention back to the puppy.

Soon enough, the puppy’s yelps turned to, somewhat, a happier bark when it saw another dog approaching it. The bigger dog was jogging towards the puppy while carrying something in its mouth. Both of them watched how the puppy bounced in happiness and how it was wagging its tail when the bigger dog finally got to it, dropped the piece of food and tend to the little one.

“It’s its mother,” the kid blurted.

“How do you know?” Sooyoung asked.

“Because who else… could… make… hmmm” she started to lose her words when the realization came to her.

“Hm?”

“Hmmmmm… who else can make the puppy that happy other than its mother,” she continued as Sooyoung slowly turned the girl around to face her.

“Now the puppy doesn’t look lost anymore, eh? He’s home.”

The girl nodded.

Sooyoung lifted the girl’s chin with her index finger to catch a glimpse of her eyes.

“You see, Ga Eul, sometimes a mother has to do the things she hates for the people she loves. But never doubt a mother’s love – it is a blessing from God Himself. She won’t have forever in her hands, but even if she has it, she would spend half of it for you and give the rest of it to you, so that you can get nothing else but the best.”

The girl nodded. Sooyoung smiled.

“Do you want a birthday present?”

Hearing the word ‘present’, the girl nodded her head in excitement. Sooyoung pulled the girl into her loose embrace again, facing away from her.

“For you, Ga Eul,”

The kid followed Sooyoung’s hand as she swiped the night skies with it, revealing a heavenly view. The girl gaped at the wonder she was seeing, as she realized how Sooyoung has unveiled a magnificent view.

“For you, a sky full of stars.”

The girl was awestruck by the most mesmerizing view that she had ever seen. The sky never looked more amazing than that, as if a kind hand had tossed diamond dust and spread it across the sky, only for her to see. They were sparkling and shimmering, gleaming and glittering for her.

“Like it?” Sooyoung asked.

She nodded while still gaping at the view.

“A- a shooting star!” She exclaimed. Sooyoung chuckled at her cuteness.

“What is the color of a star?” she asked.

“White?”

“Think again,” she suggested as she motioned the stars with her hand, as if gesturing them to dazzle for the girl. “They weren’t wrong when they called them diamonds. But they never knew it could shine like this. Only you do.”

The girl kept on gaping at every single star that greeted her with its shine and pointing them out for Sooyoung to see.

Gradually, they bid farewell to both of them and started to fade again into the dark night sky, leaving only an uncountable few behind. Sooyoung noticed that the girl’s expression started to change as well, the smile she had, started to fade into a frown.

“What’s wrong, kid?”

The girl turned to her and crashed into her embrace, staggering the woman.

“I miss mummy. I want to go home,” she mumbled, “Can you please take me home?”

Sooyoung chuckled before answering to her wish, “I guess the stars did a good job distracting you and  luckily we live so close to each other. Look, we’re home.”

 The girl pulled herself away from the hug and looked around only to realize that they were only a cross away from her house. She saw a few cars in front of it, immediately recognizing that it was her teacher’s and her aunt’s. Immediately a smile bloomed on her face and she dashed to cross the road to go back home. But she stopped mid-way and turned around to crash again into Sooyoung’s arms, staggering the woman back, again.

“Is this your favorite kind of hug? Because I need to get use to it.”

“THANK YOU, UNNIE! FOR THE STARS AND THE TREAT!” she pecked Sooyoung’s cheek and gave her the widest smile making the latter burst into a giggle.

“You’re welcome for the treat, but you have to thank your mom for the stars.”

“Eh? Why?”

“She is the one who put the stars in both our skies. You have to take care of her, okay?”

“Okay! I have to go now! See you someday, unnie!” The girl waved as she ran across the road.

“I have to go, okay!~” Sooyoung shouted loud enough for the girl to hear. She saw a few nods and wavings from the girl before she heard her screaming her lungs out as she entered her house.

“Ga Eul,” Sooyoung was thinking out loud.

- - - - - - - - -

“MUMMY! AUNT TIFFANY! I’M HOME!” the girl screamed as she saw the familiar faces in the living room.

Her mum almost jumped to her and grabbed her into her arms, with tears running down her cheeks. “Where did you go, Ga Eul? Do you know how worried I was?”

“Sorry mummy. I thought you don’t love me anymore,” before her mom managed to say anything, she cut her off, “And! And! I know now that you do. Because you made the stars shine for me. Ad right now, I feel like a puppy. So please don’t get mad at me~” she buried herself into her mother’s arms.

Her mother sighed before tightening her hug.

“I don’t even know what you're talking about. I guess I’ve been quite busy lately, haven’t I?”

“Well, it’s a good thing that she’s back. Ga Eul-ah~ Don’t run away like that next time. If you want to run away, just call me instead, okay?” another woman chirped in.

“Okay, Aunt Tiffany. I’m sorry. Mummy, can I go and shower now? And then can we please have dinner? I’m hungry~” she said while patting her tummy.

Jessica ruffled the kid’s hair and kissed her head, “Of course, dear.”

“Wait, Ga Eul!” Jessica called her, stopping her half way up the stairs, “Did someone bring you home?”

“OH YES! How can I forget about that unnie! She had to go she said.”

“Did she give you that letter?”

“What letter?”

Jessica walked to her kid and took a letter from her back pocket.

Jessica

Was written on it.

“I think this is for me. Go and take a shower, okay? And come down for dinner.”

“Okay!” the girl continued her running upstairs.

Jessica was slowly opening the handwritten letter before she heard a scream from her kid, “OH MY GOD! Thank you mom!” and a loud “weeeeee~” afterwards.

“From her?” Tiffany peeked over her shoulder.

“I don’t know.”

She opened the letter that read:

Dear Jessica,

Don’t worry too much about your work. Just follow your guts as always.

I’ll be here for you. Everything is going to be okay.

Don’t forget to wear that beautiful smile of yours, because I’m wearing the smile you gave me.

p/s Ga Eul is such an interesting kid. She’s feisty, smart, cold and warm, and so lovable all at the same time.

 Just like you.

Hang in there, okay?

Love,

An angel who misses you.

And she smiles.

Here's a long, light and boring update.

*sigh*

Sorry for this.

Still, comments? :)

Love, 

Hana