On June the 21^st, Jung Byunghee began his very first day at one of the smaller preschools situated within Anyang.

He entered the small picket gate, his mother handing him a small backpack with the Power Rangers printed on the front.

Byunghee waved his mother goodbye, she planted a kiss on his forehead.

“Make lots of new friend Byunghee-yah” she said “I love you”

“I love you too mommy” he said with a smile full of confidence.

Byunghee was excited for his first day at a new preschool. He gets to make new friends, play new games and have new teachers. The endless possibilities of new and exciting things gave Byunghee boundless amounts of energy.

As he walked into the common building a woman who was organizing the paintbrushes noticed him, stopping what she was tending to and making her way over to the unfamiliarised small boy.

“Hello, welcome to our preschool. You must be Jung Byunghee” she spoke cautiously “Are you here to play?”

Byunghee’s smile widened and he nodded enthusiastically. He decided he already liked this new teacher.

“My name is Lee Sunkyu and I am one of your new teachers” she introduced “Would you like me to show you where the bag rack is?”

Byunghee nodded and followed his new favourite teacher to the bag rack, placing his Power Ranger backpack alongside the others.

Sunkyu knelt down to Byunghee’s level and smiled a toothy grin.

“Now you can go play until naptime” she informed.

At the word play, Byunghee cheered a little before running off outside to make new friends and play with new toys.

Sunkyu smiled after the small boy, thankful he doesn’t seem to be having any problem whatsoever adjusting to the new environment.

~~~

Jung Byunghee ran as fast as his little legs could take him towards the giant yellow slide that seemed to tower over the entire playground.

There were already four other kids taking turns sliding down the slippery slope.

“Hi I’m Jung Byunghee. Can I play too?” he asked, introducing himself the way his mother taught him.

The eldest kid nodded and Byunghee joined the line behind a shorter kid.

“Are you new?” the shorter kid questioned.

Byunghee nodded “I came here from a preschool in Changwon”.

“Woah, that’s far” another kid said.

“You can be friends with us from now on” said the eldest kid before he slid down the slide.

Byunghee smiled brightly and nodded “Okay” he said.

After slipping down the slide four or five times Byunghee grew slightly bored, his attention directed towards the sandpit instead.

“I want to go make a sandcastle in the sandpit” Byunghee whined “I’m bored of the slide”

“Okay, let’s go play in the sand” the eldest kid decided.

But as Byunghee turned around to go to the sandpit, he was stopped by one of his new friends.

“We can’t go to the sandpit” the kid said, shaking his head and pouting at the same time.

“What? Why? I wanna make the biggest sandcastle in the world!” Byunghee exclaimed.

“Yang Seungho is in the sandpit, that’s why” the short kid stated, like it was too obvious.

“Why? What’s wrong with him?” Byunghee asked, glancing over at the lone figure sitting in the sandpit.

“He’s really mean” the short kid answered.

“Yeah, he has no friends. He’s really weird” said another of Byunghee’s newly found friends.

“Don’t go near him Byunghee” said the oldest boy “He might hurt you”

Byunghee was confused. He really wanted to play in the sandpit but he also didn’t want to play with somebody who was mean.

“I will go play in the sandpit but I won’t play near that boy” Byunghee decided “Are you guys coming?”

The other four boys looked at each other and the eldest one spoke.

“Sorry Byunghee” he said “Come play inside when you’re done making your sandcastle though”

The other four boys retreated inside while Byunghee watched after them.

He guessed he was just going to have to go make this sandcastle by himself. He wanted to make one big enough for a person to live in!

He wandered over to the sandpit and plonked himself down at the far edge of the pit. Without looking at the mean boy, he started to pile up the sand into some sort of shape. He wished he knew where he could get a bucket and spade.

“What are you building?” a soft voice suddenly asked.

Startled, Byunghee looked up from what he was doing. It was the mean boy his friends told him about. Closer up, Byunghee realised the other boy was sort of chubby, he had thick pouty lips and dark rims under his cold eyes.

Byunghee was scared of the other boys gaze.

“U-Um… I want to build a big c-castle” Byunghee stuttered, utterly terrified.

“Maybe if you use this, your castle will look cool” the scary boy said, holding out a bucket and spade.

Byunghee blinked a few times before realising the other boy was offering it to him.

“Thank you” he managed to say, cautiously taking the offering.

“Can I help? I like making castles” the boy asked.

“U-Uh yes?” Byunghee said, he was beginning to wander whether the mean boy was actually as mean as he initially thought.

The other boy gave him his bucket and spade and is now helping him make his giant sandcastle. His mother taught him that was what a nice person does, not a mean person.

“Are you mean?” Byunghee suddenly asked as the boy, who was now sitting across from him, gathered sand for their castle.

The other boy stopped helping and looked at Byunghee with the same gaze on his face, the one that made Byunghee slightly frightened.

“I don’t know” the boy finally spoke “The other kids think I’m mean”

The boy looked down at the sand and began to play with it in his hands.

“You’re nice” Byunghee said, feeling bad for the other kid “You just look mean”

“I don’t mean to look mean” he said “Do they think I’m weird?”

Byunghee hesitated before nodding slightly.

“Do you think I’m weird?” he asked.

Byunghee thought about it for a second before shaking his head. He decided that he liked the other boy.

“I think you’re nice” Byunghee decided, patting the bottom of the bucket to reveal a castle.

“That castle looks much cooler”

“I want to be your friend” Byunghee stated out of the blue “My name is Jung Byunghee”

“My name is Yang Seungho” the other said back.

“I will make the castle big enough for two people now, so you can live in it too” Byunghee said, as he continued to add sand to his giant castle.

“Really? I can live in it too?” Seungho asked, the corners of his lips pulling up into a slight smile.

Byunghee nodded.

Seungho didn’t look as mean when he was smiling.

~~~

Once the afternoon had arrived, and Byunghee had played with his new friend Seungho all day, it was time to go home.

At 3:30 Seungho’s mother entered the common building where Seungho and Byunghee were playing with paints, the other children were either outside or over the other side of the room playing with the blocks and Lego.

His mother took him home and Byunghee sat alone waiting for his own mother to pick him up. He was excited to tell her all about his new friend.

~~~

“… then we made a giant sandcastle! It was big enough for both of us to live inside!” Byunghee enthusiastically told his mother during the car ride home.

“Wow! You must have worked really hard to make such a big sandcastle” his mother responded.

Byunghee nodded enthusiastically.

“A-And then we went and played in the cubby house! And Seungho tried to eat the food but it was pretend food mom! It was all made from plastic” Byunghee giggled, remembering the event earlier that day.

“It sounds like you had a very fun day!” his mother said enthusiastically “Did you make any other friends Hee?”

Byunghee thought about it for a moment and nodded.

“I made some friends when I first got their but they didn’t like Seungho” Byunghee explained.

“That’s a shame” she cooed “Why don’t they like your friend Seungho?”

“They said he was mean and weird” Byunghee explained “But he isn’t”

“I’m glad you made friends with him then” his mother said as they pulled up at their apartment complex “Maybe you are his first friend”

~~~

Approximately one week after Byunghee had started to attend his new preschool, Seungho and Byunghee had become attached at the hip. If you saw Byunghee, Seungho was always there too. The other children found it odd that Byunghee had become friends with Seungho. They didn’t understand why such a nice boy like Byunghee would want to play with someone like Yang Seungho.

“Mommy” Byunghee called out to his mother from the back seat of the car.

“Yes Byunghee-yah” she replied.

“Can Seungho stay over at our house?” he asked “I want to have a sleepover party”

Byunghee’s mother glanced in the mirror, watching her son in the back seat. He looked very excited at the possible idea of a sleepover party. He has never had one before.

“I think that will be alright” she said “You will just have to make sure Seungho’s parents think it is a good idea”

“Thank you mom!” Byunghee said, bouncing happily in his seat.

After parking in front of the preschool, Byunghee’s mother walked him to the gate, saying goodbye to her son.

Byunghee waved a quick goodbye back before running into the common building, immediately searching for his friend Seungho.

He found Seungho building a tower out of blocks in the corner. He bounced energetically over to the other young boy, knocking over Seungho’s tower in the process.

Seungho looked up at Byunghee, his gaze making Byunghee feel a little uneasy. However, Byunghee quickly remembered that Seungho always glares like that. Byunghee didn’t think Seungho was mad.

“Sorry for knocking your tower” Byunghee said “I was excited”

“It’s okay” Seungho said “We can build it again”

Seungho picked up a block and put it on top of another, starting his tower from scratch.

“Oh! I nearly forgot!” Byunghee exclaimed “Do you want to come to my sleepover party?”

Seungho stopped making his tower for a moment and looked over to Byunghee.

“I will ask my parents” Seungho said.

Byunghee squealed with excitement “It’s my very first sleepover party! We can play games and make drawings! It will be fun”

~~~

At 12:30 it was finally naptime. All of the children took a mat from the cupboard and laid them out on the floor. The lights were switched off and sleep soon engulfed each and every one of them… Except for Byunghee that is. He was still excited and ready to continue playing.

He squirmed and fidgeted while the others were sleeping. He kept sitting up and looking around to see if anybody else was awake and willing to play with him.

As he sat up to peek at the other boys and girls the teacher came up behind him. The teacher he had on his first day, Sunkyu, did not work on Thursdays or Fridays. On these days another teacher looked after them. Byunghee did not like the other teacher. He didn’t like her one bit.

“Be quiet Jung Byunghee. The other kids are trying to sleep and if you don’t sleep now there will be no fruit and snacks for you today” she whispered harshly, before walking over to check on the other kids.

Byunghee bit down on his lip, trying not to cry. This teacher was the meanest teacher ever! He couldn’t help that he wasn’t sleepy at all! It wasn’t fair!

He finally couldn’t take it anymore and started to sob quietly.

Before the teacher noticed Byunghee was crying and ‘disturbing the other kids’, someone crawled onto Byunghee’s sleeping mat and hugged the upset boy.

“Don’t be sad” the other child said.

Byunghee stopped crying and tried to wipe away his own tears.

He turned around to see Seungho’s once cold eyes filled with concern.

“You shouldn’t be sad” Seungho repeated, hugging the other boy tighter.

“Thank you” Byunghee said, before Seungho discreetly crawled back onto his own mat before the teacher noticed what was going on.

After naptime had finally ended and Byunghee no longer had to pretend to be sleeping just so he wouldn’t get into trouble with the teacher again, it was fruits and snack time. The teacher put plates of fruit and other delicious snacks onto the table for the children to share.

Seungho took a banana, peeling it and eating it quickly. Byunghee learnt yesterday that Seungho really likes bananas. Byunghee took an already peeled orange, giving one half of it to Seungho.

After they finished with the fruit, Byunghee took one chocolate snack to eat. His mother taught him to only eat one snack if he eats all of his meal. Seungho ate three snacks and put a handful of snacks in his pocket.

“Are you allowed to do that?” Byunghee questioned “What if you get in trouble?”

Seungho looked over at Byunghee “I don’t know. I always take extra snacks home”

Byunghee didn’t want Seungho to get in trouble but he let Seungho take the extra snacks because Seungho likes snacks.