Eunsook laughed in glee as her best friend Taemin chased her around the playground. Tag was their favorite game and even though Eunsook had a hard time running quickly on her short stubby legs, Taemin always let her tag him when he could see she was getting tired.

“You’re it!” he yelled as he finally tagged her. Eunsook pouted, hoping to persuade him to still be it.

“Sookie, come on! I’ve been it this whole time!” he whined, but they both knew that he would cave. He couldn’t say no to his noona.

“Alright, I’m going to count to 10 mississippi and then I’m going to get you!” he cried, causing her to smile the biggest smile and scurry away from him.

As she ran away, she wasn’t paying much attention to where she was going and she bumped into another kid on the playground. She fell down with the force of the collision and her knees scraped on the pavement, causing tears to well in her eyes.

“Here I come!” she heard Taemin shout.

“Yah!” the other kid said, and Eunsook instantly recognized that tone of voice: it was Jongin, the class bully. He always picked on her and made fun of her pigtails even though her mommy told her she looked “so cute I could eat you right up.”

Eunsook began crying even harder when Jongin hit her on her arm, “You big stupid-head! Watch where you’re going,” before he ran away.

"Noona!" Taemin exclaimed, finally seeing her and rushing over. He glared at Jongin’s retreating figure. “Noona, are you okay? Sookie?”

But Eunsook just cried harder feeling more embarrassed as other classmates stopped around them to see what had happened. Taemin noticed her distress and covered her body with his thin arms, wrapping them around her and patting her back.

“Shhh, it’s okay, noona. I’m here, Taeminnie’s here.”

Just then the bell rang and a teacher came over to them, unsure what had happened. She clucked her tongue at Eunsook and hoisted her off the ground. Taemin refused to release her hand and the teacher scolded him, telling him to get in line for lunch, but he shook his head stubbornly, holding on even tighter.

The teacher shook her head and told them to go the nurse’s office to get bandaids for Eunsook’s knees. Eunsook wiped the snot off her face as Taemin led the way and she couldn’t help but think she had the best friend in the world.

After the nurse fussed over Eunsook, Taemin walked her back to their classroom and she told him what happened, how Jongin had hit her and called her a stupid-head. He frowned at this but didn’t say anything as they entered their classroom and sat down for story time.

Eunsook lost herself in the teacher’s story and didn’t notice Taemin’s harsh glares at Jongin who sat across from them in the circle.

As the final school bell rang, Eunsook went to the closet to grab her bag and then turned to find Taemin only to find that he wasn’t in the room. Frowning, she called for him but Kyungsoo told her that he already left. Eunsook’s heart sank but she went outside to wait for her mom.

Her mother pulled up to the curb right in front of Eunsook and motioned for her to get into the car. Eunsook shook her head and looked around for Taemin; they were supposed to be giving him a ride home from school but she didn’t know where he was.

Impatient, Eunsook’s mom got out of the car and gasped at her daughter’s bandaged knees. “Eunsook-ah, what happened?”

The girl didn’t bother to answer because she finally spotted Taemin, who was walking toward them with a bloody nose. “Taemin-ah!” she cried leaving her mother and running to the younger boy. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Taemin said, moving past her to where Eunsook’s mother was waiting for them, looking more confused and concerned by the minute at both children’s cuts and bruises.

As Eunsook turned to follow, she saw Jongin round the side of the building, his nose bloody and scrapes all up and down his arm. He saw her looking and quickly ducked his head, avoiding eye contact. Frowning Eunsook turned and saw that Taemin was once again glaring at Jongin, eyes squinted in disapproval and hatred.

When they finally pulled up in front of Taemin’s house, Eunsook jumped out with him, telling her mom to wait. Taemin rushed to the door, avoiding her questions as she asked him about his bloody face and bruised fist.

“Taemin, what happened? You didn’t hit anyone did you? Did you get in a fight with Jongin?”

“Eunsook,” he said, clearly annoyed. “I just told him that it was rude to hit a girl and he said that you weren’t a girl, you were a fattie. So I hit him. Twice. On the face.”

Eunsook just stood there, her 7 year old brain unable to fully comprehend what he had said. Her eyes teared up at the name Jongin had called her and the thought that Taemin had hurt himself, just because of her.

“Sookie, don’t cry. I’m okay, really.” He cooed, hugging her to his tiny body. “I love you, you’re my bestest friend, okay? Don’t you let that stupid Jongin make you sad!” He wiped the tears off her face sloppily and then kissed her cheek before Eunsook's mother honked the car horn repeatedly.

“You better go. I’ll see you tomorrow!” he said, pushing her away as he turned to enter his house.

As Eunsook joined her mother in their car, she placed her stubby fingers over her cheek where Taemin had kissed her and felt her heart flutter a little.

Taemin had been her first friend and now he was her first crush, too.