Third Year

December…

The snow was falling down in steep amounts. It wasn’t cold out though. In contrast, the sky was white and the wind was low. Ryeowook waddled out the front door and flopped face first into the snow. Laughing to himself, he rolled over just in time to see Hyungsik dog pile on top of him.

“Gotcha!” the younger of the two shouted.

Their faces were close together, puffy snow suits pressed up against one another. Ryeowook gasped, giggling. “You’re crushing me!”

“How can I be crushing you?” Hyungsik argued playfully, “You’re so round and soft. It’s like a marshmallow!”

Ryeowook waved his arms and legs, making a snow angel. “You’re so scrawny, that’s all, dongsaeng,” he returned, eyes twinkling with humor.

They continued playing around in the snow, talking to one another from time to time. Neither of them even noticed the cold, only focused on making a better snow ball than the other boy, or making a prettier snow angel.

Once they were all tired out, Ryeowook climbed to his feet and offered his hand to Hyungsik. “My umma says she’ll make us hot cocoa. Wanna come inside?” he asked.

“Okay,” Hyungsik grinned, dusting snow off his fluffy suit, “By the way, what do you want for Christmas?”

October…

Ryeowook was digging through his closet, trying to assemble his costume. The window to his upstairs bedroom was wide open and allowing a cool breeze in. Finding his bandana, he wrapped it around his head and peeked out the window to see his friends waiting down below.

“Hurry up!” Hyungsik whined, grinning and waving around his pumpkin shaped candy collector. He was dressed up as a clown without any of the make-up. A wig adorned his head and a striped orange and red suit covered his body. “Are you a pirate?” he asked, looking confused. “I thought you wanted to be an angel!”

“I can’t find my angel costume,” Ryeowook called back “I’ll be down in a second!” And then he ran out, fumbling with his sneakers. When he reached the door, his mother handed him a brown jacket and a pumpkin container to get candy – a matching one to Hyungsik’s.

“Let’s go,” the clown was humming with excitement, offering his hand to Ryeowook. They bounded down the street, swinging their connected hands excitedly.

Later that night, Ryeowook would take the first bite of his Halloween candy, and find out he had a cavity. Darn.

March…

Third grade was more than a little fun. Ryeowook was positive that Hyungsik was having fun in second grade. Of course, with all of that fun came some less than enjoyable incidents. For instance, the current situation wasn’t very nice at all.

“He’s my best friend!” Hyungsik yelled, yanking harshly on Ryeowook’s arm.

On the other side, Ryeowook’s new friend jerked on his other arm, saying, “No, he isn’t. Who are you anyway? He’s my best friend, so go away!”

“We’ve been friends for years!” the second grader growled, pulling hard.

Ryeowook winced, opening his mouth to in. Instead, he was interrupted by more yelling from his classmate’s side. What could he say? They weren’t even listening to him anyway. Sighing, he let them go on as they pleased, feeling helpless and slightly guilty. Guilty, because he finally understood what the rope in tug-of-war felt like.

If he could help it, he would never play that game again. Poor rope.

May…

It was just a lazy day. Ryeowook had finished his nap and it was finally time to go hang out with his friend. Walking outside, he saw Hyungsik sitting at the swing set.

“What’s up?” he asked, taking the empty plastic blue seat.

“I heard a rumor at school today,” the boy replied, “It was about some girl and boy from your grade.”

Ryeowook nodded slowly, confused. “What did you hear?”

“…apparently they were caught doing something bad under the jungle gym. I heard they were making out,” Hyungsik explained, seemingly puzzled as well. “I pretended to know what that meant, but I’m not really sure what they were talking about. What’s ‘making out’?”

“I don’t know,” he responded, leaning his head back, hands gripping the gel covered chains of the swing. Ryeowook swayed back and forth slowly, eyes turned up to the grey sky. “Maybe that person didn’t finish their sentence? What were they ‘making out’? Like…were they making out a bird they couldn’t see too clearly? Or maybe they were making out some bug that was crawling on the floor.”

Hyungsik kicked his feet. “Do you think they would get in trouble for doing that stuff?”

“Teachers are scary. Remember that one teacher who tried to frame me?” he reminded.

“Oh yeah…teachers are really evil,” the boy agreed.

Ryeowook swung higher and higher, saying, “Hey, let’s play the Brave Game!”

They finally reached the same height, and before Ryeowook could jump off, Hyungsik took the older boy’s hand, holding it tightly as they swung in unison. “Look, we’re married!”

“You’re right,” he laughed.