5th August, 1996.

6 years old Sooyoung was happily walking around the playground all by herself. Well, not really walking around but she had been circling the big shady tree for a quite awhile now. Amazing how she did not get dizzy from it. Once she realized that she had ran out of cookies to eat, she began to panic and went running towards her mother who was not that far from where she was.

“UMMAAA!” Tears started to stream down on her cheeks as she frantically pointed at her empty little jar. “Me no cookies left! Me no cookies left!”

Her mother laughed at her before filling up the jar with cookies again. She knew her mother has back-up cookies of course. Sooyoung was a happy little kiddo once again and started to walk in circles around a new tree again. All of the sudden she started to hear someone was screaming but she did not know where it came from. Sooyoung stopped on her tracks as she started to search for the loud crying voice. When she finally found the source of the voice, she spotted a girl surrounded by three other kids whom she assumed are bullies because the squatting one was crying.

Sooyoung didn’t know why but she could feel that her blood was boiling when seeing how the bullies spilled sands on top of the girl’s head. One of them was trying to snatch the doll from the girl’s embrace too. “Give me!” The girl fell backwards when the kid who wanted her doll kicked her. That was the moment Sooyoung could not handle it anymore. She came running towards the scene and crashed into one of the bullies.

“YAH!” She pushed the other one who was spilling sands on top of the girl’s head. “Go away! Shoo! Shoo!” She commanded after giving a wedgie to the one who got the girl’s doll. Afraid to fight back, they ran away before Sooyoung could take another step forward towards them. Sooyoung shook her head in disappointment as she looked at the bullies running away. Her attention quickly changed to the crying one once the girl pulled her into a hug. “E–Eh?”

The girl did not utter a word but just continuing to hug the puzzled Sooyoung. Sooyoung let go of her cookie jar and decided to embrace the girl tenderly. “Hush…Hush…You are safe now.” She nodded at her own words while giving comforting pats to the girl. She even helped to remove the sands from the girl’s head. It took them awhile to break the hug since the girl could not stop crying. But when she has stopped, Sooyoung picked up her cookie jar and offered a cookie to her. “Cookie?”

“Uhm…” The girl stared at the cookie for awhile and put it inside . She almost had Sooyoung’s hand inside too. “Eh…” Sooyoung flashed an awkward smile before they fell into a comfortable silence. They were staring at one another while munching happily. Sooyoung swore she felt that her heart skipped a beat the moment the girl showed a sudden smile to her. She felt that she blushed at it which caused her to almost choke on her last cookie. The girl noticed it and laughed at it once she was done with her cookie.

She pointed at herself afterwards. “Jessica Jung.”

“O–oh…” Sooyoung nodded in understood and pointed at herself too. “Choi Sooyoung.”

The next thing happened was Jessica pounced on Sooyoung for a hug as Sooyoung’s back met the ground hardly. “Chingu yah~!” Sooyoung ignored the pain of her back as she looked at Jessica in confusion. “Chingu?” Somehow Jessica blushed at the sudden stare that Sooyoung gave her. She nodded sheepishly and pointed at herself again.

“Sooyoung ah, will you be my friend?”

5th August, 2004

Today’s classes had just ended and the two friends were waiting for their school bus under the big shady tree next to their school gates. The 14 years old Sooyoung was busy plucking the grasses since she does not have any other thing to do. She could have been eating cookies right now but she finished all of the cookies she brought during recess. She used the grasses that she plucked to make it like a bouquet of flowers. It was a total fail though but she knew she tried her best for it. Sooyoung glanced at her friend and ended up staring at the person for quite awhile.

‘She’s so beautiful even when she’s asleep.’

Sooyoung found herself blushing for the nth time of her life whenever she looks at Jessica. “S–Sica…” She called out in a soft voice and did not expect the sleeping one to hear it. Jessica slowly started to wake up and she let out a heavy yawn as she threw her arms in the air. She looked over at her friend before a smile escaped from her lips. “Youngie~ is our school bus here yet?”

“N–no…Di…Did I….wake you u–up…?” Sooyoung rubbed her nape using her free hand. She was still holding the grass that she created as a flower. “Ahuh,” Jessica nodded as she pouted. “But its okay, Youngie~” She flashed a smile to the pouting Sooyoung and noticed the flower-shaped grass. She pointed at it in puzzled. “Yah, what is that?” Sooyoung panicked when she realized that she was still holding on it. She wanted to throw it away but Jessica came closer to her to look closely at it. “E–Eh? These are grasses! I thought you found a rare flower, Youngie!”

Sooyoung gulped nervously and offered the grasses to the surprised Jessica. “S–Sica! Please accept these!” Jessica stared blankly at her friend for a moment before looking at the grasses again. Sooyoung noticed that Jessica was not accepting her little gift and her shoulders dropped in disappoint. “I–I made these for you…It was supposed to be a flower but it kind of look like a green hairy poop though…” And with that, another moment for Sooyoung to blush because of Jessica’s killer smile flashing right at her. Jessica was about to say something but Sooyoung quickly knelt on one knee in front of her friend. “I know Valentine’s Day is months away but I would like to ask you this before someone else does…” Sooyoung shut her eyes due of her overflowing embarrassment. She still had the grasses extending out for Jessica to accept it.