The two of them were polar opposites. If Seokmin was lively and funny like the sun that brightens up everyone’s days, Haneul was mysterious and serene like the moon in the night sky.

Everyone wondered how the two of them got close since their personalities contradicted so much. Opposites attract? No.

Haneul was the type to want to make friends but was too shy to even begin a conversation, and Seokmin was the type to come up to anyone and immediately click with them. So for those who knew them well, it wasn’t rocket science the two became friends: they both wanted it. One just needed a push, and one was that push.

They met on the first day of kindergarten. Seokmin was already friends with everyone and was playing in the sandbox with them when he noticed a little girl sitting on a bench reading the well-known The Little Prince, one of the books that sat in the book shelf inside the kindergarten.

Without saying a word to his newly-made little mates, little Seokmin walked to the little girl with his little legs. When he got to her, he didn’t say, “Hi, I’m Seokmin, and you are?”. No, that was far too advanced for someone his age. Instead he asked, “Do you want to play together?”

The little girl only giggled, closed her book, placed it down beside her and jumped off the bench. Seokmin, without knowing anything, held her hand as he pulled her towards the sandbox. They, at the time, didn’t even know each other’s names.

Since that day, they were basically together every single day. Seokmin lived only a street away from Haneul, so he was always eager to walk home with her after school, even during elementary school. Even since then, Seokmin and Haneul were only separated in classes, but the young boy would wait in front of Haneul’s classrooms and they would skip home together.

As well as during middle school, Seokmin was never a second late to wait for Haneul in front of her classroom, for lunch and after the school bell. Hell, he was never late to wait in front of Haneul’s house in the morning on the way to school either.

It was at the beginning of middle school when things started to become difficult for Haneul. Seokmin was, without a doubt, good-looking. This trait mixed with his bubbly and open personality in turn resulted with him becoming popular.

People befriended her only to be closer to Seokmin, and all their conversations would always be about him.

‘What kind of food does Seokmin like?’

‘What music does he listen to?’

‘What toothpaste brand does he use?’

It was okay at first, since they were bearable. But when the questions got far too personal – especially personally about her – she began to be irritated and deeply hurt.

‘What does he see in you?’

‘You’re not even pretty.’

‘Do you even talk?’

‘Seokmin should find better friends than you, shouldn’t he?’

‘Don’t you think he’s wasting his time with you?’

There came a time when she wanted to be alone and without the presence of who everyone calls ‘the sun’. But the boy was persistent; again, never being a second late to wait for Haneul in front of her classroom.

She cared for him, so much. So much to the point of actually having feelings for her most treasured friend. Yes, sometimes she wanted to be away from him, but at the same time, wanted him to always be by her side.

Haneul obviously didn’t want Seokmin to know she was being tormented by some of their school mates because of him, so she kept everything to herself. Seokmin didn’t notice at all.

But the moment she shuts her front door after getting dropped off by Seokmin, her mother would immediately notice how much in pain she was just by looking into her eyes. Mothers are one of the only people who would know their children’s (especially daughters’) feelings; and the eyes are the windows to the soul.

Every day her expression got darker and darker, but Haneul’s mother was asked to just let it be. As much as it broke Mrs Kim’s heart, she only listened to her daughter and always comforted her every time she came home from school. The feeling of her mother’s love at least eased her pain a little.

It was weeks before finishing the 2nd last year of middle school when Mrs Kim received wonderful news from her husband in the States. Since then, Haneul dropped out of school and stopped hanging out with Seokmin. She stayed at her aunt’s house for a few days for she knew