Nine years old.

Three, loud, hard pounds on the door.

Daehyun immediately had a tickling suspicion that it was Sejin. His mom was cooking in the kitchen, and didn’t seem to have heard. He decided to mess with his legos a few moments longer, to test his suspicion.

Sure enough, after five seconds, the hard pounding came on again, this time, not just three times, but continuously. Without stopping.

“Daehyun, could you please get the door?”

Mom probably knew it was Sejin too. Only she would be impolite enough to pound on the door like that. Smirking, Daehyun darted to the front door with his bare feet.

 “DAEHYUN I’M GOING TO BE IN A MOVIE!!!!”

Sejin’s fidgeting fingers burst up above her head as she cried out at the top of her lungs, right into Daehyun’s face. Mom and the neighbors to his left and right, maybe even above, all probably heard her.

“Really?”

She nodded, her pigtails jerking frantically.

“Really really??”

“Yes!”

Daehyun couldn’t keep the corners of his mouth from rising any longer.

“Really really really????” 

“YES JUNG DAEHYUN HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU!!!!”

And Sejin shoved past Daehyun, flinging her shoes off, and ran into his living room, arms up over her head, cheering, hopping.

Daehyun ran after her, grin stretched over his face, joining her ruckus. They ran in circles around Daehyun’s pile of legos, screaming in off beat, grinning at each other from across the running circle.

“That’s great to hear Sejin! I can’t wait to see your movie,” Mom came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her apron. Sejin slowed to a stop, making Daehyun slow to a stop.

“But you’ll have to wait a really long time, Mrs. Jung. Movies take a really long time to film and make. That’s what the director guy told me,” Sejin replied, a little short of breath.

“I’m sure you’re right, Sejin. Then I’ll just have to wait patiently, and so will Daehyun. Are you staying for dinner, honey?”

Mom smiled, then turned back to the kitchen. Sejin’s shoulders deflated at the question.

“I can’t. My mom won’t let me. She said I have to eat with the whole family today since I have my big announcement to make.”

Daehyun and Sejin ran around in circles some more, until Sejin stepped on a square lego block with her right heel. After fuming about the lego for a few brief seconds, she and Daehyun sat on the sofa, while she told him about the movie. How she was going to act as the young daughter of a poor family, how she was going to miss a lot of school for a few months. How she expected Daehyun to keep up with homework assignments for her, and then help her with them when she got finished filming. And then she warned him to make sure the boys and the girls played tag fairly while she was gone, since she was the official referee. But since she would busy with her movie, Daehyun would have to be official substitute referee for the time being.

And then, it was time for Sejin to go back home, so Daehyun put on his flip flops and walked her home, because his mom told him to do so. And she hopped excitedly about her movie some more, and that made Daehyun grin. They took the elevator down to the first floor and exited the apartment building, and turned right at the sidewalk, passing the apartment playground. And a few more steps ahead, the road with the single houses began, the very first and biggest house being Sejin’s. At the front gate, Daehyun and Sejin high-fived, and she told him she’d see him tomorrow at school. Seeing her swinging pigtails disappear past the front gate, Daehyun turned back and headed home.

A whole year and two months later, Sejin, Daehyun, Sejin’s older sister Seyoung, and Sejin’s mom all rode up to Seoul to attend the movie premier. As they sat in the huge, dark movie theater, Sejin held onto her mom’s hand with her left hand, and Daehyun’s hand with her right.

Daehyun would never forget how the movie began.

A bubbly, upbeat music tune had played over a dark screen. And then, suddenly, the screen had lit up brightly, a giant, rectangular zoom-in of Sejin’s face. The screened zoomed out little by little, revealing her sitting on a wooden deck in broad daylight between her on-screen grandmother and brother, opening her jaw wide to bite into a giant slice of dripping watermelon.

-

Fifteen years old.

With a heavy sigh, Daehyun crosses the empty road and enters the playground. All the kids have gone home, and all of the playground equipment basks in a bluish purplish light. It’s slightly chilly, and Daehyun worries that Sejin is in her thin school uniform, just like he is.

A few more steps, and he throws on a grin over his face before jumping into the swing next to hers.

“What’s up?”

Six years of acting makes every expression on her face an award winner. The boiling frustration in the way she kicks at the poor sand by her feet, is no exception.

“Everything .”

“Aren’t you starting that new drama in the next few weeks? And why didn’t you put on a coat?”

She yanks her head in his direction, throwing the grin off his face in surprise.

“You know I am. Stop asking pointless questions. Aren’t you going to punch something? Aren’t you mad? Don’t you hate my mom? Don’t you hate my chairman?”

Daehyun veers his gaze away, digging his shoes into the blue sand, a helpless sigh warming his lips.

“Why would I do that…?”

The words disappear into his mouth, but he tries his best to mean it. His chest is heavy, but he tries. Sejin’s not happy with him, of course.

“It’s not fair. It’s not fair. It’s NOT FAIR!”

She yells into the darkening sky and the empty road bordering the playground.

“Mom used to love you for helping me catch up on homework and lessons while I was out filming. Why is it that suddenly, because we’re lo and behold fifteen now, that I can’t be friends with you anymore? Who cares about a fifteen year old actress’s personal life, as long as I act my part out in my roles? Who made up the rule that says if you’re an actress, you can’t have any male friends? Jung Daehyun, say something!”

Suddnly, Sejin’s crying, and Daehyun has no idea what to do. He wants to comfort her, rub her back and tell her he’d build her a lego animal or sing her a song like he used to, but he doesn’t think that will help her anger subside any.

He hates it too. But reality is reality, and they’re fifteen now. They’re old enough to take on responsibilities, even if it means doing things they don’t want to do. And Daehyun and Sejin, can’t be seen as the best friends they’ve been ever since they built ugly, round sandcastles at the playground.

Sejin’s career depends on it, her mom had told Daehyun. She had begged him, to not let any of the other kids at school find them suspicious.

“You’re just gonna side with mom and the rest of them, aren’t you?”

Daehyun can’t look up at Sejin’s face, her sob-broken question. If he does, he might just break and tell her how he really feels, too.

“You’re going to abandon me, just like that…”

She sniffs, and she’s that kind of actress that cries loudly, scenically, with tears the size of miniature marbles, and it’s all the more unbearable because this time, she’s not acting.

“I’ll climb over the brick wall into your backyard.”

Her sniffing quiets. She’s looking at him, he knows, but he refuses to take his eyes off his shoes.

“Whatever it takes to come see you, I’ll do it. I’ll wait til it’s too dark for anyone to be in the streets, I’ll be as quiet as a cat, I won’t let anyone see me and get suspicious. That way, we’ll still see each other, and do whatever we want to do then. But we can’t… we just can’t be like we used to be at school, and out in public, Sejin. That’s that.”

She’s trying to hide it, whimpering a little more softly, but Daehyun can hear it vividly all the same.

“You don’t understand, Daehyun… this isn’t just a one-time acting role for our classmates at school… this is… it’s…”

“I know. I know it’s going to be for a very long time.”

There are tears welling up in his eyes but Daehyun blinks them away, because he has to be tough for Sejin.

But before he can stop her, Sejin jumps up from her seat in the swing, and runs off across the road back to her house, leaving Daehyun alone in the blue sand.

It’s not until two months later that he gets to speak to her again.

His mom’s out at some meeting, and he’s just finished washing his dinner’s dishes, when there’s rough, loud pounding at the door. In three successive bangs.

He goes out in his bare feet, and is more than startled to see Sejin. A carelessly thrown on hooded jacket over shorts and a tee.

She barges in without as much as a “hi”, flicking her shoes off, as if they were like they used to be in the old days, as if nothing has changed.

“Help me practice my lines. Mom’s out at that meeting and my manager oppa had some family thing in Seoul.”

“What about Seyoung noona?”

Daehyun knows it shouldn’t have come out of his mouth that way. It shouldn’t have come out of his mouth at all. He’s glad to see her, he really is, he just can’t bring himself to say it.

She’s glaring at his stupidity, his inability to express himself truthfully.

“She’s out on a date. And she hates me since mom won’t let her see any guys either.”

She plops down on the couch and draws her knees up to her chin, tossing an extra script book next to her. The title of the drama strikes Daehyun as overly melodramatic.

“Starting page 44. You’re Taeha, I’m Yeoreum.”

Daehyun slowly picks up the thick script book, through the pages. It’s a little different from the usual movie script books that Sejin has. Or the dramas where she plays the younger version of the main characters briefly in the beginning. It’s really thick, with scenes jumping in and out of days and weeks and months like a hopscotch game. It’s confusing, and Daehyun can’t imagine having to memorize it all.

He has no idea who this fictional Taeha character is or what they’re dealing with in the scene, but he starts at the top of the page with an odd question.

“Why does Hajin bully you? I thought you guys were friends in middle school.”

He peers at Sejin, who’s curled up with her knees to her chin. She’s unfocused, almost like she’s not really there at all, and her unopened script book sits dejected next to her.

“… Hajin and I dated for a bit last year. He said he liked me… but he didn’t. He just wanted someone he could show off to his friends and… whoever. It didn’t end well… I upset him. And now…”

She blinks, once, then twice, before closing her eyes slowly, biting her lower lip with a deep breath of air. Her form seems to deflate as she exhales.

“I told you I can’t study at home because my parents are always arguing… well the reason…”

Daehyun is lost in the troubled, regretful tremor of Sejin’s words. Everything about her, down to the excruciating detail, reflects the hesitation of the girl in the scene.

“The reason is… my mom is having an affair with Hajin’s dad. My dad found out… and Hajin found out too… and he’s…”

Daehyun stares at her a little too long, the quiet between them extending too far, almost bringing Sejin back where Yeoreum sat now.

“Oh, is it supposed to be me…”

He reads Taeha’s lines out loud like a 4^th grader reading a story out loud because the teacher had called on him to.

“It must be so upsetting inside. When you did nothing wrong. You’re facing the consequences of mistakes that adults made.”

Daehyun’s rather baffled by the seriousness of the scene, because once he puts a hand on Sejin’s shoulder as he’s directed, she begins crying, just like that. Just as it’s written in the script.

Huge, marble tears flow down her cheeks, and she finally unfolds from her curled seat to turn toward Daehyun. Her gaze falters for a moment as she looks down at the open page in his hands. He realizes, it’s his turn to speak.

“It’s okay to cry. Cry all you want. I’ll be here until you’re done.”

In one brief glance, the next directions tell Sejin to let go with her sobs, so Daehyun puts the book down in his lap. He’s amazed at how quickly she’s gotten into her role. How quickly those marble tears spoke for that poor girl.

Sejin starts shaking from the exertion of the flowing tears. Daehyun is just about to tell her to stop and move on, when she catches his left shoulder in her hand.

The way she looks at him, wet eyes, wet cheeks, a degree of truth and reality stark in those firmly set, round eyes, makes him go rigid.

All the words are swept from his mouth, with her coming much closer to him much too fast. Their lips touch, Daehyun’s a little dry and completely frozen, hers wet, moist, a bold moment of pressure tingling his senses right where her lips fit over his.

She draws back leaving a harsh, growing tingling over that spot, Yeoreum’s tears gone from those eyes, Sejin’s clear, sharp face watching him intensely. There’s red creeping under the drying tears at her cheeks.

“I just… had to know what it would feel like with you, before I have to do it with that other guy in a few weeks.”

With that, she grabs both of her script books, her fingers brushing against his very briefly, and rushes out the door.

-

With Daehyun's story, I've developed a much more narrative story than the others~ Stick around to find out what happens to the two friends! No songs embedded in this chapter ;3