Perhaps it was the way the lamplight shone, causing the first snow of the year to drift magically around them. Perhaps it was the way that her eyes caught light with ease that drew him in. Perhaps it was the lonely, lost look that pulled her eyes towards his. The girl of seven saw through the barriers the boy of eight built around himself. His eyes that had the same look that troubled adults possessed which the girl was familiar with as she grew up knowing pain and sacrifice at a young age without her mother.

Those eyes had tugged on her heart, seeing such uncertain eyes had urged her to step closer towards the boy. When he had not backed away, she continued to approach him as if he was a shy creature of the forest. She stopped in front of him, arm's length away from him. Their foggy breaths interlacing and swirling between them. It was then she realised how cold he must have been in his tailor-made suit compared to her over-worn jacket. His hands were shaking, his complexion was getting paler by the second. She made the move of removing her red scarf that had once belonged to her mother and placed it around his neck delicately. Once half his face was covered with the bundle of red wool, she grabbed his hands which took him by much surprise. She blew her warm breath into his hands to warm them.

It was then he knew that almost everyone he had met would never be as warm as the girl in front of him. The boy has met many adults and had saw built-up lies and appearances. He had assumed that it was normal, even his parents had masks over their faces and personalities so it had to be a normal occurrence. Despite what his parents thought of him, a child who would not understand, he understood all of it. He knew that his parents had been struggling to love each other, he knew of the fights that occur when they thought he was asleep, he knew that something big was going to happen in the loveless-marriage  and he knew that when it comes, he will have to choose. But for now, he wants to think as naively as a child of eight should. He wants to play like the other kids, like the kids in the park where he drives past every day in his father's expensive car. He wants to have family outings where families go out to have fun like in the dramas and the movies. And most of all, he wants to have friends, friends to invite over to his house, friends to have fun, friends to tease, friends to comfort and support and perhaps a best friend who he can confide everything to.

When her eyes were brought back to his, she smiled warmly at him. She removed one of her oversized gloves and put it in his hands. He stared blankly at it. He brought his eyes back up to her not knowing what to do with the knitted gloves. She blew air out and gave him a 'are-you-serious?' look. When he did not move or attempt to put them on, she gave in and took his hands. Carefully, she put the mitten on his hands, it was a bit large but both his hands were now covered and looked a lot like he was praying. In an attempt to keep her other hand warm, she slipped her hand into the other glove on her other hand. She peered curiously at her own praying hands and then shifted her gaze back to his. She couldn't control a cute giggle that escaped her lips and soon, giggles were followed by laughter which were followed by a lot of stomach holding and crouching to lessen the pain of the laughter.

He intently watched her as she went through the phases. Her reactions were cute but he had no idea why she was laughing. It was only after she regained her composure that he understood the cause of the giggles. She had started making fishy motions with her hands and then seaweed motions and finally she ended it with a dance that had mostly concentrated on the movements of her hands. He thought of her as easily amused which she was of course. At the age of seven, who wouldn't be easily amused?

Aside from her bubbly outward appearance, this young girl had experienced more than her share of misfortune at such an early age. Having her mother taken away from her should be a traumatic experience for any child and yet she did not show it. After the departure of her mother, her father became her role model. He would be the mother, father, the siblings and the best friend because at such a young age she needed much consoling. Her father would provide as much as he can, working multiple jobs so he can raise her and pay for the rent. If it wasn't for the kind neighbourhood they lived in, they might have not been able to make ends meet. Her caretakers while her father was working would be the ahjummas, ahjussis, unnies and oppas who lived close by. They were extremely kind to the single father and his child, it could have been pity or just raw kindness but he was extremely grateful for their help.

When she had finally calmed down from her fit of laughter, she stared at the boy’s features while he took in her appearance as well. His tailored suit was a perfect fit and made him look much older. His cute bowtie that was askew bothered her. She took off her glove to straighten out the bowtie. He watched her fiddle with his bowtie, her deft fingers worked seamlessly.

“There. All better,” she spoke quietly. Her first words to him and he decided that he liked the sound of her voice. Her voice had a childish quality that also proved to him was genuinely sincere unlike the voices that spoke to him every day. Those voices with an added sweetness which made his stomach feel funny and his mind knew that those voices were used to please him and in turn please his family to gain advantages.

She looked at the glove that covered his hands and thought perhaps two hands would look better than one hand. She took his hands again and used both gloves to cover his hands while her bare hands swung around her sides. The warmth in her gloves made his heart warm too and slowly smiled at her. Her lips lifted into a bright dazzling smile that he couldn’t look away from.

He decided that her smile would give him courage to break rules he had planted inside his mind. The first rule being not to get too close with anyone. He took her hands and walked towards the light of the shops. She was in shock as she was being dragged away and when she had registered what had happened, she quickly tried to get out of his grip.

“NO!” she shouted at him and when he turned around to stare at her. She had a defiant look on her face that said it all. And despite her glares, he took her hand again and whispered, “I’ll get you food,”

At the mention of food, she had realised her stomach had been grumbling non-stop and blushed furiously. She nodded her head as he slowly led her to the food stall. Her mind wandered around the sound of his voice, although it was a whisper, she could hear the loneliness and the maturity. She promised herself that she would try to make him happy because she grew up believing no one should be unhappy.

As they approached the food stall, the smell of food lured her to move faster and soon it was her who was leading him. Her eyes took in all the food displayed and thought to herself, “I want it all,” He watched her as her eyes tried to devour the food by just looking at them. He nudged her and she turned to him and directed her inescapable puppy eyes at the target. He nodded in response and as soon as she got his approval, blurted out all the food she wanted from the stall to the ahjumma who could not keep up with her order. The ahjumma gave her a sceptical look and asked her how she was supposed to pay for all that food. The boy rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a few 100,000 won notes. Both females’ eyes bulged out at the money in the little boy’s hands.

“Did you steal that?” the girl asked. The boy stared back and answered, “No, my maid told me to keep some on me all the time,” the girl looked back in wonder. Her thoughts wandered on the idea of him being extremely rich and was soon broken by the ahjumma who cleared .

“What did you want to order?” he asked her and she spoke her order much slower. After ordering, they waited patiently for the ahjumma to pack her order and the boy paid for all the food. They slowly made their way back to the park bench they had first met. In silence, they ate heartily. He occasionally watched her content smile and he thought to himself, “If such a simple thing as food made her happy, then she must live a very sad life,”

“Why aren’t you eating? It’s delicious,” she smiled at him with her sauce covered mouth. He stared at that unclean face and saw how unconcerned she was of her appearance. He liked how she didn’t care how she acted in front of him, he liked her honest nature and her bright personality. He took a bite of the food and smiled back. He felt those cheek muscles he hadn’t used in a while and decided that smiling must be a good thing if he felt so happy.

As they finished the food, they both smiled in content and she giggled at the sight of his unclean face. She took a tissue and wiped his face clean while he watched her, “You’re such a messy eater,”

“You too,” he replied when he took the tissue from her hands and used it to clean her face as well. “There. All clean, Miss messy eater,” he .

“Thank you Mr messy eater,” she replied back with a curtsy.

“Call me Taemin,” he said seriously.

“Then you can call me Naeun,” with the same seriousness but the twinkle in her eyes made her seem like she was teasing him. She stretched out her hand and shook his warm one, “Nice to meet you Taemin-ssi,”

“Like-wise,” he curtly replied. His eyes had a longing look like he wanted to say something but he couldn’t bring himself to voice it out. She stared intently at him as his mouth opened at multiple occasions but not a syllable came out.

She blinked and stared out into the night when she heard a familiar voice calling her name, gasping in shock, she let go of Taemin’s hand and ran towards the sound. Taemin, also in shock, saw how she ran away, leaving his hand to cool in the winter chill. He looked at the pair of gloves on the park bench and put them to keep that warmth that Naeun had left on his hand. He turned to find her and saw that she ran towards a man who kneeled in front of her and picked her up, earning squeals of joy. Taemin looked from afar in envy, his father had never done that before and he wished inside that being poor looked much happier than being rich.

As he stared, the man noticed the boy at the park bench and walked towards Taemin while Naeun was still in his arms. The man studied the boy and had seen the sort of family background that surrounds the boy. He placed Naeun down and kneeled in front of the boy, “Boy, did Naeun bully you?”

“No, sir,” Taemin replied formally as he was taught by his mother. Naeun watched curiously as the two males conversed.

“If she ever does, tell me and I’ll teach her a lesson. OK?” the man joked and the little girl whined, “Appa!! I don’t bully anyone,”

‘”Yes, sir,”

“Don’t be so formal. You looked after my daughter and even gave her food,” Taemin looked at the rubbish they left and blushed in embarrassment over the mess they had left. Naeun saw his embarrassed facial expression and quickly cleaned up the mess. “I’ll give the money to pay you back,”

“No, sir. It’s fine. I have plenty and I’m happy that she was happy,”

“I’m still happy, oppa,” his eyes widened at the last word. No one has ever called him ‘oppa’, and hearing it from her lips made it seem like the word had special meaning. He treasured this feeling of pride that came from just one word.

“Aigoo, you can’t just call anyone oppa, Naeun-ah,” her father reprimanded teasingly. “Now say goodbye to your Taemin oppa. He needs to go now, his umma is waiting for him there,” they all looked towards the women standing not far from them who was looking at Taemin.

“That’s not my umma, sir. She’s my nanny,” he replied and waved at the lady. The man watched as the lady approached them.

“Young master, you need to return to the party. Your mother is looking for you,” Taemin nodded at her and turned back to the man and the daughter and bowed respectfully.

“Goodbye Miss messy eater,” he playfully joked and was met with a warm hug and a whispered, “See you Mr messy eater,”

The man and the daughter watched as the woman led the boy away. “Did you have fun today? I thought I lost you,”

“I had lots of fun with Taemin oppa and you’ll always find me appa,”

“Let’s go home now. It’s getting late,”

While the family of two headed home, Taemin had returned to the fake party to please his parents and their guests. He was reminded of Naeun as he stared at the pair of gloves on his hands and the scarf around his neck. His heart and body warmed at the thought of her while his surroundings were just a cold social interaction that he must attend.

“I wanted to ask you to be my friend, Naeun,” he whispered to himself as he regretted not asking the question. The answer that may fill the emptiness in his heart. He would sincerely have liked her company for the rest of his life. His thoughts were broken when a girl came up to him. She was different to all the other rich girls but he can tell that he would prefer Naeun over the brave rich girl in front of him because Naeun would always be more genuine than anyone he knows.

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Thank you for reading this. This is my first fic and I'm sure there is probably many errors so bear with me

Thanks again