He’s alone again, despite being surrounded by 13 other little kids. At the age of five, he doesn’t know much about why his friends in daycare paid no attention to him.

They were always grouped up in pairs of threes or fours, getting dirt under their nails in the sandbox, or playing mommy and daddy, or just coloring books with crayon. He was never in any of those groups.

Through his glasses, he sees that his friends are good at having fun without him. By himself, he has nothing else to do other than playing with his stuffed toy, Puff the Magic Dragon.

 He has had Puff since he was four, given to him by his aunt who now lives in a different world, as his mother told him. Puff is green, with a red belly and yellow claws made from cotton felt which little Kyungsoo saw as scales. Puff is a mighty dragon. On wintery days, he could blow fire out his mouth and on hot days, he could blow wind and sometimes even snow! Puff protects little Kyungsoo from his older brother, who tends to be mean sometimes. When Seungsoo teases him about his large glasses, Puff would stomp his giant feet on the ground and the house would shake, leaving Seungsoo terrified. Whenever little Kyungsoo feels hungry, Puff would say a magic word and little Kyungsoo would feel as if he just had a tub of ice cream!

“Kyungsoo! Let’s go to Honalee!” Puff says excitingly, eager to go back to his hometown. Kyungsoo nods and smiles, showing his line of teeth with some empty spots in between.

Every now and then, Puff and Kyungsoo would travel to Honalee, where Puff was born. Puff would bring Kyungsoo to his house, a large, brown building, where he grew up with his family. Puff’s mother would prepare a feast for them whenever they come to visit. A huge plate of fish and chips, chicken nuggets, fried chicken, potato wedges, stacks of pancakes with butter and maple syrup, boxes of cupcakes, and for dessert, always banana split with extra chocolate sauce.

They would meet up with other dragons from Honalee before they went back home. They would sail the ocean and build sandcastles. Only when it’s near sundown, little Kyungsoo’s mother would call them home.

Little Kyungsoo is now seven. He’s going to school. “They don’t allow toys to school,” his mother would say. “But Puff is not a toy, he’s a magic dragon!” he would say back.

He’s having a hard time at school, it’s hard for him to learn the new words and remember what they all mean. It’s even harder to write them down.

“Puff can help me. If you just let me bring him to school,” he persuades his mother.

“If Puff helps you, what would the teacher do?” says his mother.

“The teacher would thank Puff for making me smart, and they won’t bother me,” he says.

“The teacher would have nothing to do, then. A teacher is supposed to teach. Now, say, if you learn from Puff and not from the teacher, the teacher would be kicked out of the classroom, for not doing her job. She would not be able to eat if she’s kicked out,” his mother says.

“Why?” asks little Kyungsoo.

“Because in the classroom, there’s a hidden piggy bank. Only the teacher knows where it is, and how to open it. If the teacher cannot enter the classroom, then she can’t find her piggy bank. If she can’t find her piggy bank, she would have nothing to give to the vendors. She would have to stay hungry for a long time!” his mother tells him with full of expression.

Kyungsoo forms a frown.

“Now you wouldn’t want your teacher to be hungry would you?” his mother asks in compassion.

Kyungsoo shakes his head slowly.

“Of course you wouldn’t. Being hungry is the worst thing that could happen to people. Okay, Kyungsoo?”

He nods.

“So let’s let Puff stay home while the teacher teaches you, okay?”

He nods again, this time, much slower.

Kyungsoo is now nine. His mother enrolls him into the choir club, when his teacher told her that Kyungsoo enjoyed it the most on the Club Day when they had the chance to visit each club on school and see firsthand what the club members do.

Puff stays at home, on Kyungsoo’s yellow bed. Puff would wait for Kyungsoo to come home and do his homework with him.

Kyungsoo is now eleven.  He goes home at seven in the evening on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after choir practice.

Puff stays at home, in the brown toy chest, waiting for Kyungsoo to pick him up and go to Honalee. It doesn’t happen anymore, but there’s no wrong in hoping.

Kyungsoo is now thirteen. He’s packing up his bags for a camping trip in his new school.

Puff is in the brown toy chest, in the store room.

Kyungsoo is now seventeen. He’s joining a traineeship programme in a large entertainment company. He knows now that he wants to be a singer. He would have to leave the house and live in a dorm near the company’s building. He would spend the rest of his life like this.

Puff stays at home, in a black plastic bag, along with Kyungsoo’s old clothes in the store room. Puff no longer hopes for Kyungsoo to ask him to scare Seungsoo away, or to teach him Maths, or build sandcastles together, or warm him up on a cold day. Honalee is too far from Kyungsoo, and he can’t get there anymore.

Next week, Puff will be sent to an orphanage.

He just wants to see Kyungsoo again.