Ever since you left this world, I haven’t been able to move on at all… I have been taking good care of our daughter Bom-ah. She’s 9 years old now, she grew up well and she looked just like you Bom. She’s cute like you, she has that dolly eyes like yours, she loves to pout when she’s annoyed or sad like how you did before, and she even has a strong strength like yours when she hit me and most of all, she loves corn more than anything just like you. Bom-ah… I really wish that you’re still here, with us, so that this family will be completed. Without you here Bom, I still feel that something is missing…

I love you Bommie, and I promise I will take good care of our daughter. I hope you’re happy in the place you belong to now…

“Daddy! Daddy!” a voice of a kid interrupts my thoughts

“What is it JiMin-ah?” I smiled looking at her

“What are you doing daddy?” she asked.

“Ah, it’s nothing... Why are you here?” I said.

“I wanted to ask you to accompany me watching my favorite show dad. Um… Who’s that girl on the picture daddy?” she said pointing towards the picture I was holding before.

“Oh… this… um, well this is your mommy” I said rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly.

She looked a bit surprised hearing what I just said.

“Huh? My mommy..? I never heard about her before… can I meet her?” she said.

“Yes... that’s because I haven’t told you about her JiMin-ah… mianhe… but we can’t meet her anymore” I said a bit sad.

“Why can’t we?” she looked confused.

“Because she has gone to a place beyond our reach baby, but I’m sure she’s watching us from the place she’s in right now” I tried to comfort her

 “Oh… then tell me stories about mom! Like how do you meet her and all” she said getting all excited

“Alright then, come sit here” I said patting my lap signaling her to sit on my lap.

She walked towards me and I help her to sit on my lap.

“Ready?” I asked.

She nodded her head signaling that she’s ready.

“It all started on the first year of high school. Back then, I was the so-called popular kid in school because I joined the band called ‘Bigbang’. I was acknowledged by all the students in the school and on the other hand, your mother, Park Bom, was the prettiest girl in school. Not only that she’s pretty, she’s also smart. Many boys wanted to be her boyfriend and many girls were jealous of her beauty. But despite all of that, she actually didn’t like being the spotlight. She prefer to be alone by herself more and she would read novels most of the time. Because of my popularity, many girls wanted to be close to me and even wanted to become my girlfriend. But I only had my eyes on one girl and that girl is your mother, she’s older than me but I like her anyway. Even though I’m famous, your mother never even once looked at me, I tried so hard to get noticed by her but I never succeed. She walked past me on the hallways, she sat besides my table on the cafeteria and she even joined the same extra classes with me but she never looked at me. I have been her secret admirer since the beginning of high school until summer breaks. Our school held a summer activity where we went camping together for a few days and that’s when everything changes…” I told her.

“What happen next daddy?” she said with enthusiasm

“Well…”

[Flashback:]

“Yah Jiyong! Help me carry these bags!” yelled Youngbae, one of my band’s mates

I help him carry those bags and loaded them to the bus.

We’re going on a camping today, me and my band mates are in charge as the committees of this event. We made the activities that we’re going to do on the camping. We gather people to join and many more. We’re basically in charge of everything regarding to this camping.

“Are all the students coming?” I asked Youngbae while loading the bags and other stuffs we needed to bring.

“Nope, as from what I saw on the list, it’s just about 25 people that are going” he replied.

“Well, most of the other students are probably on holidays now with their families” I said.

“Yeap and guess what, Park Bom noona is coming” he said with a smirk on his face.

My eyes widened after hearing her name and Youngbae chuckled at my reaction.

“You know Ji, you can’t keep being her secret admirer forever. This is the perfect moment to make a change” he said.

“What change? Everything is perfectly fine now” I tried to deny it.

“Quit the lies Ji, I know you well and I’m serious here. Make her notice you, before it’s too late” he said while loading the last bag into the bus. I can sense that he’s serious from his voice. Well, I can’t really lie to him since he knows me the best out of all other members.

“Is everything loaded? Are we ready to leave?” asked Seunghyun, one of my band’s mates too

“Yeah, everything is loaded let’s go!” shouted Youngbae.

We all hop on to the bus and we’re ready to leave. I entered the bus, looking around for an empty seat and there I spot her, sitting at the back seat next to her friend who is busy chatting with her other friend. She’s sitting on the window seat and she’s looking outside the window while listening to music from her ipod. I don’t know why but she’s so beautiful right now…

“Are you just gonna stand there or sit hyung?” asked seungri suddenly interrupting my thoughts. He’s the youngest member on the band and the most annoying too sometimes.

“Oh… yeah I’ll sit next to you” I replied and sat down.

It took us 2 hours before finally reaching our camp site. It’s near to a mountain area and it has a breathtaking view. The weather here is a bit cold. I bet it will be colder if we go near the mountain. 

“Alright guys! Let’s set up the tent. There will be five tents and each tent will be occupied by 5 people since we’re all 25 people. You can choose your own partners” I make the announcement.

Everyone starts to discuss about their partners and within a minute they are already gathered in groups. They started to set up their own tents. I’m in the same tent with my band since we’re already 5 people. We had no problem on setting up our tents because we have done it before. We only take 10 minutes to set up our tent. After we’re done, I looked around and spot her, she’s struggling with the tent and her friends seemed not so helpful too so I decided to help her.

“Need help?” I said while approaching her.

“Ugh, sure. It’s so hard to set up a tent” she complained.

“Actually, it’s pretty simple if you know how to. Here let me show you” I started teaching her how to set up the tent and within minutes we managed to finish setting up her tent.

“There you go. It’s not really hard isn’t it?” I chuckled.

“Yeah, thank you… um?”

“Kwon Jiyong, but you can just call me Jiyong” I smiled at her

“Ah I see, thank you Ji. I’m Bom by the way, Park Bom” she smiled back and offered me to shake hands with her.

She’s so cute… I thought while shaking her hand

“Um, after this I think we will have our lunch. So… Um… I would like to have lunch with you, if you don’t mind noona?” I said shyly.

“Oh, I don’t mind at all, let’s have lunch together!” she said cheerfully. It makes me even more addicted to her

“Alright then, see you at lunch!” I said and walk back to my tent.

Youngbae was standing in front of our tent. He saw me talking to Bom before and smirked at me.

“I see you finally make a move huh?” he smirked

“Oh shut up” I said jokingly

It’s finally lunch time, everyone started to grab their lunches. For the first day, we serve ready made food and for the rest of our stay in here we will have to cook our own food. I grab my own lunch and also Bom’s lunch.

“Hi noona!” I said while approaching her, she’s sitting together with the rest of her friends but she stands up and greets me back.

“Here, I brought you your lunch” I hand her the lunch box.

“Thank you Ji… Wow! How did you know corn is my favorite food??” she looked surprised when she opened her lunch box and saw some corn inside.

“Well, a little bird told me” I winked at her causing her to blush. My heart skipped a beat looking at her blushing face… it’s just so cute!

What she didn’t know is that I did some research on her general information like her hobby or where she lives and of course I knew her most favorite food which is corn. That’s why I specially requested to those who are in charge of foods to cook a special lunch which has corn in it for Bom.

“Omo!! It’s really delicious Ji!” she said happily while munching her corn.

What I love about her is that when she’s happy, she will have that dreamy face and when she smiles her eyes will turn into crescent shape. She really looked like a 5 years old kid who just got a balloon.

“Why are you staring at me Ji? Is there something on my face?” she said while pointing at her face asking whether there is a food stain or not.

“Ah… Ani noona. Your face is just really pretty and cute, it makes me want to stare at you” I said, giving her a cheeky smile.

“Yah! Don’t tease me” she pouts while her cheeks slowly turn into reddish color.

I chuckled and ruffled her hair causing her to blush even more.

----

“Thanks noona, for having lunch with me! I hope you can have fun for the rest of our stay here” I smile widely at her.

“Yup Ji! You too, I hope we can hang out more” she replied.

I take her empty lunch box together with mine and toss it into the rubbish bin provided there.

I turned around once again to have a look at her. She’s now sitting together with the rest of her friends, joking around together. I can see her laughing from here and she still looks so beautiful even when she’s laughing so hard.

Suddenly she turned to my direction and our eyes met. She stopped laughing and smile to me. I swear that was the most beautiful smile I ever see, my heart skipped a beat again and the world seemed to stop turning when she smiled to me like that…

Park Bom, I will make you notice me and make you mine only… I said inside my heart before walking away.

[End of flashback]

“That’s it daddy?” JiMin asked.

“Of course not, that was the beginning JiMin-ah” I chuckled.

“Then continue daddy! The story is very sweet! I wanna hear more of it dad. When did you finally tell her that you like her?” she said excitingly.

“Well, okay. It was on the last day of our camping there…”

[Flashback:]

It was finally our last day of our camping here… it’s so sad because we rarely have quality time together like this between students. And mostly, I still want to be able to see and even play with Bom everyday like this. When we go back, I’m pretty sure we will be busy with our own activities for the rest of the summer…

We’re having a small bonfire party outside our tents. We’re all having fun together, some of us take turns to sing, Youngbae plays the guitar, Seungri and Daesung, another member in the band, are showing off their dancing skills. They even do their silly dances which make everyone laugh. Seunghyun hyung is doing the beatbox thing to help Youngbae with the music.

On the other hand, I wasn’t really paying attention to what they were doing since all I’ve been doing is staring at Bom. She sits not far from me, next to her female friends and she seemed to enjoy the moment so much. She has been laughing at all the jokes and silly acts that they were doing.

“Bom! You should sing! You have a really nice voice” I heard one of her friend said to her.

“Yah!! Everyone! Park Bom here wants to sing!” her friend yelled.

“Huh?? Ani Ani! I don’t want to, I can’t sing!” she tried to reject it.

“Oh come on Bom, don’t lie, we saw you singing before. It was beautiful!” said her other friend.

“Alright! Bom noona is the next person that will sings here in front” said Youngbae.

I didn’t know she sings… I said in my head.

I watched her shyly get up from her seat and walk towards Youngbae. She whispers the song she wanted to sing to him and he nodded his head. Youngbae started playing the guitar and she started singing.

The moment she started singing, I was already mesmerized with her voice… It’s so nice and very soothing voice. I can’t take my eyes off her right now, I keep staring at her and it seemed to caught her attention because she suddenly look at me and smiled while she continues singing.

Your voice is as beautiful as you are noona… I said inside my head.

When she finished singing, everyone clapped and cheered for her as she slowly walked back to her seat.

“That’s the performance by Park Bom noona! Nice one noona!” Youngbae announced.

We continued the party till almost midnight. Everyone feels tired and they all go back to their own tents to rest. I went inside my tent too but I’ve been lying on the sleeping mattress for 15 minutes but I still can’t sleep. So I decided to go out of the tent and get a fresh air.

When I’m outside I spot a figure sitting not far from our camping site. At first, I thought it’s some kind of female ghost sitting there because who the hell sits alone like that in the middle of the night??

But as I approached the figure, it turns out to be Bom.

Why is she here all alone at this time? I thought

“Can’t sleep noona?” I said

She turned around suddenly, looking all shocked.

“Oh my gosh Ji! You scared me! I thought it was some kind of ghost talking to me” she said. Her eyes widened and her breathing rate increases.

“I’m sorry I scared you noona” I laughed

“Yah! Don’t do that again okay! You scared me to death” she grunts.

“I won’t noona” I chuckled. “Can I join you?”

“Yeah, sure Ji” she replied.

The place she’s sitting is actually near the edge of the hill where we set up our tents. The view is actually pretty from here. The moonlight is glowing through the night and you can see small hills covered in mist down there. There are also some trees but because its night it can’t be seen clearly.

We sat here in silence for a few minutes. No, not the awkward silence, but the silence where we’re both just enjoying the view in front of us.

“Can’t sleep too noona?” I finally break the silence.

“Yeah Ji. I can’t believe this is our last day here…” she sighed.

“Noona?” I said looking at her

“Hmm?” she replied, still looking at the view in front of her.

“I don’t want this to end…” I said

“Huh? What do you mean Ji?” she said, finally looking at me

“I… I just don’t want this to end… you know, us… I know we’re not an item or what but I enjoyed spending time with you here. I really wanted to be close to you since the beginning of high school noona, but you never noticed me…” I said sadly

“Ji…” she tried to say something

“No, noona listen to me first. I know I sound ridiculous right now, saying all these stuffs to you and you probably won’t understand either… but I just wanted to tell you that I lik- ani, I love you noona. I fall deeper for you every time you smile at me, every time you laugh, every time you tell me stories about you and your corns, I basically love everything about you noona…” I explained everything to her.

“Ji” she said again.

“I know it had just been 4 days we knew each other but I’ve been your secret admirer for quite long now. It does sound creepy but its true noona… I tried so hard to get your attentio-”

“Ji! Are you gonna listen to what I want to say?” she cuts me off.

“Uh… sorry noona… what is it?” I said

“I noticed you before Ji…” she started to speak

I widened my eyes, not believing what she just said

“w-what…?” I stuttered

“Yeah… I only act like I don’t know you because I thought you’re so famous in school, why would you notice an average girl like me? I saw you couple of times while passing through the hallway but I acted like I didn’t see you. I’m also afraid that if I’m close to you, the other female students who admire you will bully me. But when you talked to me on the first day of our camping, I’m so happy Ji, I thought that you would finally notice me. I even did a little dance inside my tent in front of my friends…” she said, looking embarrassed admitting her little dance.

I chuckled at her little confession and ruffled her hair.

“Hul! Why do you always ruffle my hair? You know it gets messy if you do that” she pouts.

“Stop being so cute then noona” I said jokingly, making her blush.

We sat there in silence again, drowned in our own thoughts. I turned my head to look at her, admiring her face

How can she look that young when she’s actually older than me? I said in my head

“So… noona?” I break the silence again

“Yeah Ji?” she replied

“Be my girlfriend?”

[End of flashback]

“And that’s our story. The end” I said

“What? What’s next daddy? Did you two kissed? Like the one in the fairytales?” she replied.

“Aren’t you too young to talk about that JiMin-ah?” I chuckled

“Hul! I’m almost 10 years old now dad” she pouts.

“Okay, okay. My little JiMin is going to be a teenager soon” I said.

“I am! But what really happened next dad? I’m still curious, tell mee tell mee” she whined while giving me her puppy eyes.

“Hmm… your mother accepted me. And we dated for 8 years before I finally asked her to marry me. We also went through hard times at school because many female students didn’t like our relationships. I even got into a fight with uncle Seunghyun because it turns out that he loves your mother too. But thank God, we manage to made up and be friends again” I said.

“You’re so sweet dad, mommy must be very lucky to have you. I want to have a boyfriend like you too dad!” she said.

“I’m sure you will find your prince charming one day sweet heart” I smiled at her and pinched her chubby cheeks.

“Hoamm… can you tell me how you ask mom to marry you?” she said while yawning and rubbing her eyes.

“Maybe next time okay? You looked sleepy already. Let’s get you to bed” I said and carry her towards her bedroom.

----

She climbed up to her bed and hugs her favorite froggy doll, the doll made by Bom before she gave birth to our daughter.

 “I wanted our baby to love froggy dolls too like me when she grows up later!” that’s what Bom said when she made the doll. I chuckled upon remembering her words.

“That doll was made by your mom” I told her.

“Really?? Wow thank you mommy! I love you!” she said happily and then she kissed the froggy doll.

I tug her in the bed and make sure that she feels comfortable enough to sleep.

“Wait dad… you said mommy went somewhere beyond our reach… where did she go? And why did she go there?” she asked.

“She went to heaven dear… she passed away after giving birth to you” I looked down sadly

“Don’t be sad dad…” she touched my face and lifted my chin up.

“I won’t JiMin-ah. Besides, she gave birth to an adorable little angel here. I love you so much” I smiled

“I love you too daddy, good night” she closed her eyes.

“Good night baby” I kissed her forehead.

I turned off the lights in her room and walk out. Before I close the door, I take a peek back at her, my little daughter sleeping peacefully on her bed while hugging her doll.

I will take good care of her for you Bommie… I smiled and closed the door.