There was a weird little laugh that echoed around the neighborhood as a very excited 9 year-old kid went home from school. He hopped and skipped along the pavement, not even bothered that the huge knapsack on his back weighed twice as his own weight. The cheeky thin boy even hummed, his silky chocolate brown hair bouncing on top of his cute head.

“Mommy hurry uuuuuup!” the boy called out to his mom who was walking behind him a few feet away “hurryyyyyyy!”

“Honey don’t run,” his mom said. She was holding a huge bag of groceries while keeping an eye on her little angel.

“But mommy you’re walking too sloooow!” he whined again as he jumped around, obviously very eager to get home.

When they reached the house, the boy’s mom went straight to the kitchen to sort out the groceries they bought. The jumpy boy, on the other hand, dropped his huge back carelessly on the floor and ran straight to the backyard. Still wearing his full school uniform, he looked around the yard. A dimpled smile spread on his face when he saw what, or rather who, he was looking for.

“Kangiiiiiiiiin!” he shouted as he ran towards a chubby boy sitting under a tree.

The 8 year-old Kangin instantly looked up when he heard the call. Just a few minutes ago, his eyebrows were frowned over the Nintendo game console he was holding. Upon hearing the voice of the hyper boy, his mood lifted up.

“Teukieeee!” little Kangin stood up and waved at the boy running towards him using the game console.

“Hey!” Teukie said when he saw what Kangin was holding “you started without me!!” he complained and made a face when he reached Kangin’s side.

“I was just trying it out,” Kangin said “here” he handed the Nintendo to Teukie “you can finish level 2 and then we’ll swap levels!” he smiled adorably at the pouting boy in front of him.

“I’ll keep it ‘til level 10!” Teukie said as he grabbed the Nintendo. He pulled out a tongue and started to run away.

“No fair!!!” Kangin shouted and ran after the bouncing Teukie.

The two boys ran around in circles and dodged each other using the tree in between them. They teased each other but they were laughing at the same time. Because Kangin was more fit than little Teukie, he didn’t get tired so easily. Eventually, Teukie stopped running to catch his breath. Kangin attacked and wrestled the thin boy to the ground.

“Get off me you chubby!!!” Teukie laughed as he pulled the game console away from Kangin’s reach.

“I’m not chubby!” Kangin shouted, trying his best to reach for the game and at the same time keep Teukie pinned on the ground “I have big bones!”

In the middle of the racket, Kangin’s mom called out from the other side of the yard. Two calls came but the boys still didn’t stop wrestling. From the looks of it, Teukie was surely at a disadvantage. He was older than Kangin but he was thin and frail.

“Youngwoon!” Kangin’s mom called out for the third time “come on inside for a while, your father’s here!”

“Dad!?” Kangin stopped twisting Teukie’s arm as his head instantly turned towards his mom. “Teukie, it’s dad!” he excitedly said. He helped Teukie stand up as if no 8 year-old violence happened. “Coming moooom!” he shouted.

Kangin faced Teukie. He didn’t like it when they were in the middle of having fun and then he would be asked to go home. But he hadn’t seen his dad for nearly a month already.

“We’ll play tomorrow,” Teukie said with a smile. He might not perfectly understand it yet, but he knew that it was more important for Kangin.

“Okay, see you Teukie!” Kangin beamed. He waved goodbye to the dirty thin boy at the middle of the yard and ran straight home. Teukie waved back.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Little Teukie woke up with an eager smile. He jumped out of bed, ran down the stairs and went out the back door. He ran the length of the backyard and reached the other side of the fence. There was a small door there. Teukie stretched the neckline of his white shirt and pulled out his silver necklace. There was a small key dangling from there. He inserted the key to the lock of the small door and it opened. Teukie bent down a little and went through the door. Another length of yard was stretched before him and he ran again, towards the house at the other end.

The house was smaller than theirs but it was equally cozy. There were a few plant pots at the back porch. Teukie always ran his hands through the leaves because he liked the rustling sound they made. He reached a screen door and eagerly knocked.

“Kangiiiiiiiin!” he called out while drumming his cute little knuckles on the door.

“Good morning Jungsoo!” beamed Kangin’s mom when she opened it “the little raccoon is still sleeping,” she said “would you wake him up so you two can start breakfast?”

“YAY! Waking up Kangiiiiin!” Teukie jumped in his place.

Kangin’s mom let him inside the house. There was a delicious smell of pancakes which made Teukie’s stomach rumble a bit. He saw a juice box on top of the counter as he walked pass it. While Kangin’s mom had her attention back to the stove, Teukie picked up the juice box.

The door to Kangin’s room was slightly ajar when Teukie got there. He slowly pushed it open and did his best to stay quiet. He tiptoed towards the huge bed. Teukie sniggered when he saw Kangin at the left side, deep asleep.

Still keeping quiet, Teukie walked towards the side of the bed. He looked down at the chubby sleeping boy. He always found Kangin extremely adorable. At times he looked like a mean bully, but most of the time, Teukie saw him as a kind-hearted kid… his bestest friend in the world. As he was staring, he popped the straw in the juice box and started to sip. Just then, a funny noise echoed across the room. Kangin’s fart.

“Hmpkkk!” Teukie half-choked in the middle of his drink. All the apple juice in his mouth squirted out and bathed the sleeping Kangin.

“AISH!” Kangin instantly opened his eyes and sat up when he felt the cold juice splattered all over his face. He looked a bit dazed and irritated. But when he saw Teukie, his anger faded. Soon enough they were both laughing there like there’s no tomorrow.

“I DID NOT!” Kangin protested for the nth time already as they ate breakfast in the kitchen “I REALLY DID NOT!!”

“YES YOU DID!!!” Teukie shouted louder while there were strips of bacon in his mouth. He laughed his weird little crazy laugh and Kangin couldn’t help but to laugh along, though he still looked quite flustered.

“Youngwoon, you shouldn’t fart when there are people around,” Kangin’s mom teased with the boys as she served the pancakes.

“MOOOOOM!” Kangin’s cheeks burned red “I DIDN’T REALLY!”

“Yes you did! I heard it!!!” Teukie pointed a fork at him as he laughed.

After breakfast, they wrestled each other again. It’s been a habit during weekends that whoever wakes up first would go the other one’s house, have breakfast there, and then trash the place up.

They played the whole morning and took a nap after eating lunch. They would both be asleep until 4:30pm in Teukie’s huge white room. After that the boys would rush down in front of the television to watch their favorite cartoons while munching on some junk fund.

There was a time when they stumbled upon a box full of stage props while they were playing around Teukie’s basement. They opened it out of curiosity.

“Teukie look I’m a king!” Kangin excitedly claimed when he pulled out a huge plastic crown from the box “I’m King Kangin!!!” he stood up looking all brave and majestic.

“I want one too!” Teukie said as he rummaged through the box. He eventually found a crown. But it was more like a tiara. “how do I look?” he asked Kangin when he put the plastic tiara with pink gems on.

“You look pretty!” Kangin said with a smile “hold on, I found something here!” he pulled out a wig and threw it at Teukie “put this on too!”

“How come you don’t have a wig too?” Teukie asked while figuring out how to make the wavy blonde wig on his head.

“Because I’m King Kangin!” the chubby boy said “all I need is my crown!”

“What am I then?” Teukie asked after he put on the wig and he placed the tiara on top of his head too.

“You’re Queen Teukie!” Kangin proclaimed “coz the King needs a Queen!”

“I thought all you need is your fancy crown?” Teukie pouted. He looked really pretty with the blonde wig and tiara because his facial features were more feminine.

“Of course I need my Queen more!” Kangin nudged Teukie, and the pouting queen smiled.

They stayed there and played with the props. King Kangin always rescued Queen Teukie from the clutches of The Evil Furnace and The Sinister Broken Washer.

Every day they would play with each other after class. They went to different schools but it wasn’t a hindrance. Besides, their houses were just right next to each other. Their parents even made a small door that would fit the boys so that they wouldn’t need to go out on the streets just to visit each other. They were the only ones who had the keys to the little door and they always kept it with them.

They first met when Teukie’s family bought the house two years ago. The boys were introduced to each other with their real names, Youngwoon and Jungsoo. It was a mystery until now why they decided to call each other Kangin and Leeteuk, which was eventually shortened to Teukie. They often fought like brothers but one pout, lame joke, or a juice box would fix them easily. There was something special with the bond of the boys.

One day, while Teukie was going downstairs, he saw that Kangin’s mom was in their living room, talking with his mom. He looked around if Kangin was there too, but he wasn’t. He didn’t want to eavesdrop but he heard that Kangin’s mom was crying. There were a few muffled words that stuck in his mind though “His father… I let him… no other choice… we’re leaving… far away… couldn’t come back…”

“Hmm,” being a 9 year-old, it didn’t make any sense for Teukie. He didn’t even hear the whole thing, only the ones not blurred out by the heavy sobs. But even so, there was a tinge in his heart that told him something was wrong. There was something in aching in his chest… saying that Kangin would leave.

“Teukie!” Kangin shouted from under the tree when he saw Teukie stepping out from the back door. He happily waved and beckoned him.

Teukie kept a dimpled smile upon seeing his best friend but deep down he was feeling lonely already.

“I finished level 28!” the younger boy said when Teukie sat down beside him. He showed the Nintendo to Teukie “look Teukie! Look I finished it!!!”

“Wow!” Teukie exclaimed as he tried to sound genuinely amused.

“Hey…” Kangin, who already memorized Teukie’s every mood, became a bit alarmed “I asked if you wanted to take the level, and you—“

“What? No,” Teukie shook his head when Kangin offered him the game “it’s not that, Kangin.”

“Then what’s wrong?” Kangin asked “do you have a tummy ache again?”

“No,” Teukie chuckled at Kangin “I wanna ask you something…”

“What is it?” Kangin noticed that Teukie was serious. He’s not used to seeing the hyper and noisy kid turn serious all of a sudden. He was used to seeing Teukie all jumpy and not shutting up.

“Will you leave me?” Teukie asked, looking up at the leaves as they swayed with the cold breeze.

“It’s Saturday today,” Kangin said, not getting Teukie’s point.

“I mean… not for school,” Teukie still looked up at the leaves. He refused to look at Kangin because he could already feel the queue of tears behind his eyes “like, forever. Will you leave me?”

“Hmm…” Kangin finally understood. He placed the Nintendo on the grass and held Teukie’s shoulder so that they could face each other “I won’t ever leave you Teukie.” He determinedly said “the king would never leave the queen.”

Even though Kangin used their little role-play game as an example, Teukie found a smile on his face. He held back the tears as Kangin hugged him tight.

“If ever I leave you,” Kangin said “take my Nintendo. Bury it under our tree. When we see each other again, we’ll dig it up and play level 29, deal?”

“Deal.”

When the sun was about to set that day, the boys didn’t know that their deal would come quickly. Teukie was called back home and his mom broke the news that his best friend would be going back to Korea that day. She didn’t need to explain that Kangin’s parents were divorced, that the father abandoned them for another woman, that the mother sold their house because she had no capacity to continue paying the rent, and that they would just go back to their homeland and live with their relatives. Teukie’s mom knew that her little angel wouldn’t understand those yet. So she just told him that Kangin would be going back to Korea to finish his studies there.

Of course, after 15 years, Teukie fully understood everything. It was a cold night but he didn’t care. He stood there, in the middle of the back yard, under an old tree. A cold breeze passed which made the man dig his hands deep in his pockets. His chocolate brown hair flowed with the breeze. Teukie just stood there remembering that time.

That time when the breeze was as cold as this and his hair flowed just the same. It was that time when he stared from under that tree as his best friend walked away. Teukie watched as Kangin tried to let go of his mom’s grip and run back to the tree. He watched as Kangin shouted in protest “I’M NOT LEAVING! I DON’T WANT TO GO TO KOREA!” but there was nothing the raccoon could do.

Those events flashed back as Teukie stood in the same spot. He looked down at the grassy ground. There was a patch without any grass. He knew that patch very well. And he knew that underneath that odd slump of earth was a white Nintendo game console, waiting to be played. Fifteen years had passed already and Teukie was sure the game wasn’t working anymore. The game had given up on the long period of time. But he didn’t.

“We’ll still finish this…” Teukie whispered in the wind.