Chapter 1- At First Sight

            On a sunny afternoon, a boy was sitting in the playground sandbox.  He was compressing sand to form small mounds for his toy trucks to climb over.  Making engine noises with his mouth, the child was pushed one of the trucks up the hills.  He reached over to grab another truck and filled the back of it with sand.  Feeling alone, he looked around for other kids he could ask to play with him.  There was no other kids his age in the playground.  A few older kids were playing tag but the child didn’t think they would want to play with him.  The child continued to play with this trucks but felt a bit lonely.

            A pair of small feet then stepped into the sandbox and stood in front of the boy.  A small girl, bit younger than the boy, was smiling at him.  She was holding a doll in one hand while on the thumb of her other hand. 

            The boy shyly asked her if she wanted to play with him.  “Do you want to play trucks with me?”

            The girl nodded and sat next to the boy.  He handed her a large yellow truck, the one with the load of sand on its back.  She dumped the sand and carefully wiped the remaining to leave it as clean as possible.  She then placed her doll where the sand once filled. 

            He wanted to tell the girl that the truck was on its way somewhere important with the sand but decided not to say anything. He was simply happy that he now had someone to play with and did not want to give her an reason to leave.

            “What’s the name of your doll?”  He asked out of curiosity. 

            “Mimi.”  She picked up the doll and turned it toward the boy. 

            They boy then asked if Mimi was the girls name as well.  She explained that the doll was named after her best friend..  “My name is Ahn Sohee.” She lifted her hand and held out four fingers.  “I’m four.” She said with a cute smile.

            The boy smiled back at her.  “I’m Kwon Jiyong.  I’m six years old.”  He also lifted his hands to shows six fingers.  Sohee began to slowly count Jiyong’s fingers, one by one.  “One, two, three, four…” She suddenly stops counting to ponder about what number comes after four.  Being only four years old, she felt comfortable counting up to her age.  She never really had to count higher than four and had a hard time memorizing all the other numbers. She made a cute ooh sound once she finally remembered what the next number is. “Five, six!” She ends with excitement.

            The corners of Jiyong’s mouth raised.  He giggles at the thought that other kids had a hard time counting to ten when he himself could count up to fifty, and sometimes even higher than that.  They continued playing in the sandbox for long time.  Jiyong even built a lopsided throne for princess Mimi.  Sohee became bored of playing with the trucks soon enough.  She suddenly grabbed her doll Mimi and headed toward an empty seat on the swing set. 

                        The boy followed the girl to the swings but there was no empty seat for himself.  “Can you help me.”  The small girl was struggling to climb onto the seat so the boy helps her up.  Once she’s safely positioned on the seat, Jiyong used all his strength to push her as hard as he can.  The seat flew too high for her comfort and she almost fell off the seat.  She let out a shriek of terror which alarmed her mother.  A lady ran toward her daughter’s cries.

            “Sorry, I pushed her too hard.”  Jiyong frantically explains.  He only wanted his new friend to have fun.  He didn’t know that she would become frighten or that she could fall off.  He felt extremely guilty for scaring the girl.

            The mother held her child to try to reassure her and make her stop crying.  Sohee began to sob in her mother’s arms.  Jiyong picks up Mimi, who laid on the ground next to the swing.  Before he could hand it to the crying girl, her mother carries her away.  Not knowing what to do, Jiyong sits on the swing while hugging the doll.  He watches Sohee’s mother sit down on a bench while still trying to calm her crying child.

            The seats next to him became vacant and he once again felt alone.  He swung himself on the swing with no enthusiasm.  Moments later he once again notices two small feet.  Sohee was standing in front of Jiyong once again.  Her little eyes were puffy from crying. She sits on a swing next to Jiyong.

            “Here’s Mimi.”  He handed the doll back to her owner.  Sohee grabbed it as quick as possible and hugged it tightly.  “Sorry for pushing you hard.”  The girl does not reply.

            Jiyong stared at her.  He had no other words  of apology.  He just wished she would say something to him and stopped being mad at him.

            “Mimi wants you to push us on the swing.”  Sohee said.  Jiyong smiled because he knew she had forgiven him.  He gets up and positioned himself behind her.  With the his palms on her back he gave a small push.  The swing moved forward enough to make Sohee go weee in excitement.

            Jiyong really liked his new friend Sohee.  He was glad she forgave him and they were now having fun together.  Jiyong even taught her how to safely jump off the swing without being scared.  She landed on her knee once but did not cry.  She laughed instead.

            The children continued to play on the swings until Sohee’s mother called out to her.  The girl sighed, she did not want to go home because she was having fun with her new friend Jiyong.  She got off her swing and picked up Mimi, who had fallen to the ground again, and dust her off.

            “Sohee”  The girl looked up at the boy.  “Will you marry me when we grow up?” he asked her.  At that moment, Jiyong spotted a small yellow flower on the grass.  He ran to pick it and ran back.  “Be my friend forever and marry me when we grow up.”  He handed her the flower.

            Sohee at first was confused but then smiled.  “Ok.” She said.  The boy jumped for joy because that meant that Sohee and he would stay friends forever.  He liked the idea of marrying too.  He gave Sohee a hug.  “Do you promise?” Her small head moved up and down.

            Sohee’s mother called her again.  The small girl gave Jiyong a kiss on the cheek and ran toward her mother.  Jiyong stood there watching his future bride walk away with her mother.  He was very happy.