April 2005, Incheon.

Three children made their way towards the *tteokbokki stall owned by a friendly auntie just outside their school, with one of them leading the other two.

“Ahh I’m so hungry right now!”

8 year-old Donghyuk who had a bowl-cut hair rubbed his stomach while his sparkling eyes were staring at the stall in happiness. 8 year-old Ahyeon who had her hair tied up in pigtails only smiled brightly at her friend’s words, agreeing with him. Meanwhile, 9 year-old Hanbin who wore glasses and had his hair combed in a sleek fashion had already ordered three cups of tteokbokki from the auntie and paid for them as well.

“Thank you for the tteokbokki, *ahjumma! We’ll eat it well!”

Hanbin thanked the auntie as he took two of the cups and handed it to both Donghyuk and Ahyeon before he took another one for himself.

The auntie only chuckled brightly at the boy’s mannerful actions. The trio were her loyal customer, they would always come after school hours because they were hungry. They also paid for one another’s food, which never failed to amuse the auntie since they were still so young.

The trio then headed towards one of the bus stop there to wait for their bus. At first, Donghyuk was fetched by his family’s driver but after both Hanbin and Ahyeon reassured his father that it was safe to ride school bus, he also joined both of his friends.

The three of them had been friends since the first day Donghyuk moved to the house just beside Hanbin’s, where Ahyeon would always come to play or just eat whatever Hanbin’s mom made for them. Hanbin’s mother was a great cook and she likes having Ahyeon around since she had always wanted a daughter. Ahyeon lived at the house just across Hanbin’s.

Donghyuk just moved from Thailand at that time, where his father opened a branch there and then decided to have the company’s main branch in Seoul. It was a time when he still had all three members of his family along with him. His mother was still healthy, his father would always make time to spend with them, and his brother was still the cheerful boy.

While his father and Hanbin’s father were introducing themselves to one another, Donghyuk stood behind his father, trying to hide himself when he saw two children about the same age as he was got out from the house beside his.

“Hi, there! Are you our new neighbour?”

Ahyeon greeted him while smiling widely, showing her set of teeth. That made Donghyuk felt even more anxious; he wasn’t good in meeting new people.

“Donghyuk, greet them properly. They’ll be your new friends starting from now on.”

He obeyed his father hesitantly as he lets go of his father’s leg and presented himself in front of the two children.

“So, what’s your name? Where are you from? Do you like fried chicken?”

“Yeonnie, you’re scaring him away...”

“What? I was just trying to make him comfortable!”

“That’s not the way to greet new people!”

Donghyuk stared at the two bickering amongst themselves over him, his eyes widened in confusion.

“Hi, I’m Hanbin and this is Ahyeon,” Hanbin introduced themselves before reaching a hand towards Donghyuk who looked lost.

“Or you can call him Binnie and you can call me Yeonnie! What’s your name?”

Ahyeon’s friendly manner and bright smile made Donghyuk felt instantly comfortable; he wasn’t so scared meeting new people anymore.

“My name is Donghyuk,” he said timidly as he took Hanbin’s hand to shake in a friendly manner.

“Oh! Your name’s Dongie from now on! Welcome to our neighbourhood, Dongie!”

From that moment on, they became friends. Even though Hanbin was a year older than them, it doesn’t change the fact that they were best friends with one another; they always play at Hanbin’s house because he has more toys than them and his mother cooked great foods.

Their friendship stayed that way until about a year later, when Hanbin moved to Japan without a word and it left them, Ahyeon especially to be extremely devastated that she didn’t eat or go out of the house for weeks before her parents took her to the psychatrist to perform a hypnosis on her.

As a result, she forgot everything that happened from when she first met Hanbin until the day he left.

A few years later, they moved from the neighbourhood in Incheon to the apartment complex in Seoul where they live now.

August 2016, Seoul.

Donghyuk stared at Ahyeon who was digging her lunch like she was hungry for days. His head was filled with questions and more questions, mostly about Hanbin. How to ask her without making it seem like I’m eager to know...

He briefly thought before he decided to ask her in the simplest way possible.

“Is he working here?”

Donghyuk asked with the most casual voice he could make while eating the hamburger he bought before coming here. He even prayed that he wouldn’t sound too curious as he felt on the inside.

“Who, Hanbin?”

Donghyuk nodded. She mentions his name so casually, did she remember everything?

“Yup, he’s only working to substitute his friend, Juwon or something. He’s just here for two days and today is his last day.”

“Ah, you mean Junhwe? That tall guy from class 2C?”

He actually knew Junhwe since they used to go to the same dance academy before summer break and he was also the one who suggested Junhwe to work at the cafe as a part-timer when he was searching for part time jobs.

“Yeah, I think. I don’t even talk to him.”

After Ahyeon finished her packed lunch, she reached for the chicken wings set Donghyuk brought for her earlier and started eating it. She has always been a big eater, especially when it comes to her favorite food, chicken.

“So you don’t talk to any of the other workers? Hey, you should try to be more friendly--”

Ahyeon rolled her eyes. Here comes grandpa-mode Kim Donghyuk, she told herself.

“Don’t even lecture me, Hanbin had given me enough headache for what he said about the fact that I don’t talk to the other workers yesterday. Don’t even start.”

She then continued to bite the remaining flesh left of her second chicken wing, aiming to eat her third. At that time, she missed the frown formed on Donghyuk’s face at her words. Man, this is so delicious, I missed eating chicken wings so much!

Donghyuk only stared at her as questions starting to cloud his mind, throwing him in a sea filled with unanswered questions and unwanted feelings.

It was clear that he didn’t want Ahyeon to remember who Hanbin was.

Because he knew that Hanbin wasn’t just a friend to Ahyeon in the past.

“Ah, that reminds me. Have you heard about the new cafe across the street?”

Ahyeon’s question ended his train of thoughts as he looked at her bright smile. Her smile has always been bright ever since the first time he met her, just that she rarely smiles these days compared to then.

“No, why?”

“I’m gonna go to hell if Jimin hears this, but I heard they sell churros in that cafe! I wonder if—“

He knows how much she loves sweets and how she had been craving for churros since a month ago, as they were scrolling through Instagram while on their usual book-reading session. If it’s about Ahyeon, he had a special place in his brain for remembering facts about her.

That was how much he treasures her.

“Do you want to go there after school? Jimin won’t know if you’re going there after school session.”

Donghyuk’s suggestion made Ahyeon almost squealed in joy, she had been craving for churros for so long. Just the thought of getting to eat it made her feel extreme joy bubbling in her chest. She knew it was a wise decision to talk to Donghyuk about it, he always knows what to do.

As they were talking to each other animatedly, Hanbin who stood beside the counter sipped the last drop of his canned drink before watching the two. There was a small smile on his face as he watched both of them smiled. He wished that he could turn back the time but that would mean that he had to go through another painful stage once again. As long as they are happy, that was all he wanted.

“Why don’t you just start over, Hanbin? It won’t hurt for you to try,” Jimin’s high-pitched voice almost shocked Hanbin.

He turned to look at the older woman while sighing.

“If only it was that easy... everything is different now, noona. We can’t turn back time, after all,” Hanbin replied as a bitter smile graced his features.

Jimin only stared at him and nodded in understanding; everyone knew the real story except for Ahyeon.

With that, the last days of their summer break finally ended.

 

************************************************

 

      The morning during school days are always a bother for Hanbin. Why do we even have to go to school? What a waste of time, he thought as he tried his best to get out of bed. Even before he could try to summon the spirit to wake up and get ready for school, he heard someone stepping into his room.

“Oppa, have you woken up?”

The girlish voice and a small hand entered his line of sight; the hand was touching his arm that was splayed down his bed and a pair of bright eyes looking at him. Aside from his mother, this little girl is one of his most precious person in the whole world. His mother had her around six years ago, when they were still living in Japan and his father was still alive. The day she was born was the new beginning for them, according to his mother.

“I don’t want to wake up, Hanbyul-ah,” Hanbin mumbled sleepily before whining.

“Then I’m going to kiss you, oppa!”

And then, comes the warm peck on his cheek from his lovable Hanbyul. As if by magic, he found a whole new reason to wake up to every morning and rose from his position, before leaning towards Hanbyul and pecking her forehead in exchange.

“Where’s mom?”

“She needs to go to work early, so she cooked breakfast for us.”

Hanbin nodded in understanding. His mother’s job as a kitchen staff in one of the restaurants around the neighborhood requires her to be ready for the restaurant’s opening much earlier than other workers. Sometimes when his mother wasn’t on duty for particular days, she will eat breakfast with them and send Hanbyul to her kindergarten.

“Have you taken a bath?”

His question was replied by an excited nod from Hanbyul; she has always been elated whenever she goes to her kindergarten, as it was the only time when she could have conversations with children her age and play around like the kid she is.

After a few minutes in the bathroom Hanbin finally gets ready for school, albeit lethargically. It wasn’t until Hanbyul calls for him from the living room that he finally realized that he was almost late in sending Hanbyul to his kindergarten. He rushed out from his bedroom while holding his red backpack in one hand, and grabbing Hanbyul’s packed lunch on the other when he passed by the dining table.

“Hanbyul-ah, have you got everything ready?”

Hanbin asked while kneeling behind Hanbyul to her backpack and putting the packed lunch inside it before zipping it back. The latter only nodded to his question.

With that, they went to Hanbyul’s kindergarten by riding a bus and after giving each other a peck on the cheek, Hanbin was left alone to walk to his school. The walk to his high school was only a few blocks away but he didn’t feel like coming in early, but then he has always been on detention for coming late to school that the detention room felt like a normal class.

He stopped by a restaurant just beside the school building and fished out his phone from his pocket to look at the time.

7.00 a.m.

Still way too early for me, he thought for awhile before stepping inside the restaurant and sat at one of the tables there. Even the owner already recognized him and she had already given up in lecturing him to come early to school after a few times. He ordered a bowl of rice and a bowl of egg soup plus some side dishes.

He knew for a fact that most of the students are currently running to reach the school ground by this time since the school gate will start closing at 7.30 a.m., but he could care less about it. Few of the delinquents also eat here too, as he stared at the table beside him where three boys (or gangsters) from his school eating their breakfast sloppily.

“Yo, Hanbin! You’re quite late today,” One of the boys greeted him from the table with a friendly wave.

“Yeah, woke up later than usual. You guys saw Bobby yet?”

“Hmm, not sure. Probably stops by the convenience store to buy cigars again.”

Hanbin only replied the statement with a small nod of acknowledgement. Even though he’s a delinquent (or whatever the other students call him and those boys were), he never really got along that well with the other delinquents. They seemed to put him on a pedestal, he noticed, especially after what happened on the second day he enrolled in the school.

“Hey, new student right? I heard you came from Japan, I wonder if you can understand us,” A boy with crumpled uniform and weird hairstyle came to ask him last year, when he first enrolled in the school and just came back from Japan.

There were four other students who share the same characteristic as the first one and they huddled around him like he was some endangered species. He should’ve known better at that time, because they didn’t want to make friends, they wanted his lunch money. The stupidest thing he did was answering that question with a big friendly smile on his face.

“I can understand you guys just fine, I’m Kim Hanbin.”

“Why are you talking informally to me, you jerk. Give us your lunch money.”

“Why should I?”

That resulted in him getting a hard knuckle on his forehead and few kicks on his stomach. No one has ever hit him like that before, so his temper was rising from the deepest of hell and he ended up beating up all of them with his boxing moves. There were actually benefits from taking boxing lessons for his anger management after all.

Long story short, the group of boys were actually the number one delinquents in the school and in the whole Gangnam. Thus, with their defeat to Hanbin made him the number one gangster in the whole Gangnam and the delinquents had basically bowed down to him every time he walked within their sight. Even though it made him confused the first few times, he had accepted it after a while and went on fights with people who challenged him.

With that, he earned the nickname ‘Yakuza Kim’ and everyone in his school are afraid to get close to him, except for few students such as Kim Jiwon the basketball player from his class and also Kim Taehyung the bookworm who lived in the same neighborhood as he is.

“Oh, Ahyeon! You’re finally here!”

The greeting from the restaurant owner brought him back to reality and in an instant, his head turned to the figure by the entrance. There was a real reason why he always came by this restaurant to eat breakfast, even when it meant he had to skip eating breakfast made by his mother.

He wanted to see that smile again, the smile that reminded him of his childhood and the smile that made his heart beating a little faster.

And then, their eyes met.

He wished he could see her smiling at him for once. 

---

Glossary:

1. Tteokbokki - Spicy rice cake

2. Ahjumma - Auntie (usually used to call a stranger who is much much older than you, not your blood-related aunt.)