Three elementary school students were walking through the stone path, hand in hand, holding into each other’s small hands.  The only boy, was in the middle, between two older girls, who were being protective and affectionate toward each other.  The sky was already turned dark as they had after school club, caused them to come home in a bit late.

They had arrived in front of three similar houses.  Three modern midi sized house has stood firm in a row.  They retracted the grip of their hands as they need to go inside their own home.

“Unnie!  Sungjae!  See you tomorrow.  Sleep well.  Saranghae…”  The girl with cute smiley eye rushed inside the house after formed her hands into heart shape, directing to the older girl and the boy.

“Ne, you too…”  They both replied.

Park Chorong, the oldest of them was about to enter her yard, but she stopped as she noticed that the boy did not move an inch, standing in front of his gate while looking down blankly.

“Are you not going inside?”  Chorong approached the boy.

He shook his head.

“Why?”  Chorong asked worriedly.

“They are shouting to each other.”  The boy pointed inside the house.

Chorong looked up the boy’s house.  She could hear a noise vaguely.  It sounded like people having arguments.  She walked closer to the boy called Sungjae, then placed her palm on Sungjae’s ear, covering it.

“Just close your ears and head straightly to your room.  Don’t listen to bad thing.  Arasseo?”  She said calmly, her eyes staring on Sungjae caringly.

“Eung—“  Sungjae nodded after listening Chorong’s advice.

Chorong pulled her hands away as Sungjae wanted to placed his.  He covered his ear by his own palms, then headed inside the house.

Chorong was waiting until the younger boy disappeared behind the door.

She had just about to reach the doorknob when she heard Sungjae screamed and cried out loud.  She ran toward Sungjae’s house, and after a while Bomi, the girl with smiley eyes also joined in after dashed outside from her house.

“Come with me!  You’ll be arrogant jerk if you keep living with your mother!”  Sungjae’s father was dragging him out, while her mother was struggling to released Sungjae off.

“No!!!  I want to stay here!  I don’t want to live with you!”  Sungjae yelled out, trying to retract.

“Let him go!  I will not let him live with useless man like you!”  Sungjae’s mother shouted out, she pushed his husband away.

“I don’t want to leave my friends.  I want to be here!”  Sungjae kept screaming.

“You will get new friends there!”  His father yelled back.

“Let me go!!!”  Sungjae gathered all his power and managed to let go off.  He ran toward her mother and hid behind.

Bomi and Chorong were watching the scene in silence.  Their parents also rushed outside after hearing the noise.  They tried to arbitrate Sungjae’s parent.

“Okay!  I’ll leave.  Sungjae-yaaa…  I wish you won’t take after your mother who only cares about career and money!”  Sungjae’s father said in anger tone.

“Just leave!  You jerk!”  Sungjae’s mother snapped.

“You are arrogant !!!  Money changed you!”  Sungjae’s father snapped back.

“Yaaaaahhh!!!  Stop you two!  Kids are watching!”  Chorong’s father stepped in, stopping the arguing as it would not be good for children.

After a long sigh, Sungjae’s father walked away, leaving the rest in tense mood.  The mothers tried to calm Sungjae’s mother down, while Chorong and Bomi consoled Sungjae who was crying hard.

The other night, Chorong had just finished her additional course as she needed to study harder for exam.  She would be Middle High School student next semester.  She was about to arrive at home, and she saw two kids were squatting down near to trash can.

“What are you two doing here?  It is cold.”  Chorong scolded them.

The kids looked up.  Their face got pale due to night wind.

“My mom has not come home yet.  I am afraid to be home alone.”  The boy, Sungjae answered.

“I want to accompany him.  Friend should not leave the other alone.”  The girl, Bomi added innocently.

“Why don’t you wait inside.  You’ll get sick.”  Chorong continued to scold.

“We want to see you coming home.”  Bomi said lightly.

“We haven’t played a lot recently.  It is hard to see you.”  Sungjae added.

Chorong was a bit taken a back.  She barely could spend any time with them as she was busily studying for exam.  Whenever they visited Chorong, she was not in place.  They could not depart for school together again because Chorong left early to have additional class before school.  The kids must miss her so much.

“Let’s go to my house.  We will play a while, but you have to leave before eight.  Arasseo?”  Chorong said cheerfully. 

She stretched out her small hands, reaching out the kids.  The kids smiled widely hearing Chorong utterance, then grabbed Chorong’s hands to get up and followed Chorong behind.

“Nuna, what is mean?”  Sungjae asked innocently.

Chorong was shocked, while Bomi looked up, expecting the answer too.

“Where did you get that word?  It is bad word.  You should not say it to anyone you love.”  Chorong said calmly.

“My dad called my mother like that.”  He replied lightly.

“They are married, it means that they love each other, right?  But why Sungjae’s dad said bad word to her?”  Bomi added.

Chorong sighed.  They are only one and two years apart, but Bomi and Sungjae is really innocent.  They have no sibling, so they do not have much information or knowledge about life and society.  They only follow Chorong, and listen to her well.

“Bbom-ah…  Sungjae-yaa…  You should not say a bad word to the one you love.  Adults sometimes are like that.  They have more complicated thought, and have more problem, so they often arguing, or saying bad stuff.”  Chorong explained calmly.

The youngers were listening to her carefully.

“I don’t want to be an adult.  It is scary.”  Bomi shuddered.  She crossed her arms and pouted.  Chorong found it really cute, and she could not resist to pinch her chubby cheek.

“Being adult is not only a bad thing.  There are many good things too.  You will get new experience, feeling, and taste.  You can do anything.  The thing that kids is not allowed to do.”  Chorong said, giving encourage to the youngers.

“When you are being an adult you will not hear ‘Yaaaahh!!!  You should not do that!!!  You are still a kid!’ anymore.”  Sunjae imitated the words he frequently heard.

Chorong was chuckling away observing their acts.

“And you can drink alcohol too.  Adults love it very much.”  Bomi blurted out, then imitated a drunken man.

“Yaaaaahhh!!!  Is that only your intention for being an adult?”  Chorong yelled out.

Bomi flinched away.

“Adults doing it almost every day.”  Bomi murmured.

“Drinking alcohol every day is bad for health.  You should not do that when the time allowed.”  Chorong stated firmly.

The younger gave sincere nods. 

“We will get married too.”  Bomi said excitedly.

“Who is going to marry mischievous girl like you?”  Sungjae sneered.

“I am going to marry Rong Unnie.”  Bomi replied cheerfully.

“No!  Chorong Nuna is mine, I am going to marry her.”  Sungjae disagreed.

“I’ll buy her diamond ring for our marriage.”  He continued.

“I’ll feed her dakbal every day.”  Bomi rebutted.

“I am not going to marry you two.  You are too noisy.”  Chorong said, putting the youngers into disappointed face.

She bursted in laughter seeing Bomi and Sungjae’s reaction.  She approached them and caressed their head with her small yet warm hands.

“Let’s grow up well together, and find person of our dream—to live the life happily.”  Chorong said softly.

They continued to chatter away innocently.  Bomi was goofing around which caused Chorong and Sungjae to burst out of laughter.  They forgot all the stress and problem for a while.