Chapter 1 | 1996 

"You have a beautiful dream."

On a mid-summer day, when it rained all the time and the sky was gloomy the whole day, Kim Woobin met the most special girl of his life.

As Woobin officially became 10-years old, he officially stopped believing in fairy tales. He used to have faith in miracles and stuff, but what happened in his 10-year life, little by little, abandoned his faith. Woobin used to believe that Santa Clause existed in real life and the presents he received on Christmas’ Eves were the undeniable evidence, until he caught his father sneakily placing the present at his door. Woobin used to believe that a good child would get helped by a nice and powerful and generous fairy whenever he need help, until a gang of bad kids bullied him and damaged his favorite remote controlled aircraft, but no one came to help him, and the aircraft could not be fixed. Woobin used to believe that he himself was a prince and somewhere in this sea of people, his princess was waiting for him, until he got flatly dumped by Jijung, the prettiest one in his elementary school.

The wet-behind-the-ears Kim Woobin swore to himself to never and ever and ever believe in those fairy tales and unreal miracles. “Those just wasted my 10 years,” he talked to himself.

Those beautiful sunny days elapsed in a blink of the eye.  Seoul’s weather at the moment was just like a one-thousand-year nightmare. It rained cats and dogs from day to night, and there was not even a ray of sunshine out there. The little boy Woobin’s mood was just as dull as the weather.

Teacher entered the class with a little girl, seemed to be a transferred student, following right behind her. All the eyes were on the new one.

“Kids,” said the teacher. “We have a new friend here. She’s Bae Suji, from Gwangju.”

Just like other kids of the class, Woobin stared fixedly at Suji who was trying to hide herself behind the teacher’s back. She was quite tiny, wearing a mossy green dress and brown shoes. Everything on her looked all cheap and old-fashioned, unlike her face.  It was an extremely, completely, seriously beautiful face. Her big round hazel eyes, the milky skin, tiny nose, and the fleshy cherry lips, all of them made Woobin feel quite sure that Suji was far prettier than Jijung.

That was when Woobin and Suji officially entered each other’s life. And they actually stayed. For a long long time.

“Hi Suji,” Woobin tried to be friendly towards his new desk mate. “I’m Woobin. Kim Woobin.”

Suji showed her shyness. Quickly, she stole a glance at Woobin and then looked down at her notebook on the table. Woobin knew how it felt to be a transferred student cause he was one once before, when his family moved from Melbourne to Seoul.

“What’s your favorite color, Suji?”

“What’s your favorite dish, Suji?”

“Hey, do you watch Moon Sailor on TV? That’s really the best!”

“Do you play any sports? I love soccer. You wanna join me?”

“Which one do you prefer, banana milk or strawberry milk?”

The only answer that Woobin received from Suji, after a stream of questions, was her silence. She kept doing the drawing task that their teacher made them do. That quite put Woobin off his so he stopped asking her questions. An hour elapsed in silence between two kids. Both were focusing on their drawing exercise.

“Kids,” said the teacher. “I told you to draw your future dream, right? Have you all done?”

“Yes, teacher,” the class replied in chorus.

“Well done, class! So any volunteer to present your drawing first?”

Woobin quickly raised his arm. “Okay, since our Woobin volunteered to present first so let’s listen to his story.”

Woobin confidently stepped up to the center of the class and began his presentation.

“My dream is to be a soccer player,” the boy started as he showed his drawing to the friends. “I’ve loved soccer since I was much younger, when dad first brought me to the soccer match. I still remember how wonderful it was, guys. They all looked so cool when they scored the goal for their team. That’s why I wanna be a soccer player. I want to be cool like those ahjussis.”

All the kids clapped their hands in admiration. That was a very nice drawing and super cool presentation from a boy at his 10. Woobin smiled in pride and then came back to his seat.

“Good job, Woobin. I hope your dream will come true!” The teacher praised him profusely. “So who’s next? Suji-ah, let’s come here and tell your friends about your dream.”

Suji hesitated for some seconds but still ended up standing up and going to the teacher’s position. As she showed her drawing, everybody looked puzzled.

“What’s that, Suji?”

“My dream,” said Suji, with a low voice, “is to eat a pizza.”

Other children burst out laughing. The class was quickly full of the sound of laughter. “She’s never eaten pizza.” “Her drawing doesn’t look like pizza. It looks awful.” “Her dream is so boring.”

Suji didn’t expect this kind of reaction so she just lowered her head in with despair and ran back to her seat. The class just stopped laughing after teacher tried to steer to another topic, but that didn’t make Suji feel any less disappointed. She hated this feeling so much that she was about to cry but she tried to hold the tears.

The girl turned her eyes to Woobin’s drawing. If only I could be praised like he was. Suji talked to herself.

“You have a beautiful dream,” said Suji. Woobin got a little bit surprised because finally she talked something to him.

“You, too!” The boy replied with a wide smile on his face. Out of sudden, Suji felt butterflies, no, a lot of butterflies in her stomach. She got blushed, but Woobin didn’t notice about that. She hurriedly hid her face by turning to another direction so Woobin would stop looking at her. It was still raining outside, but she actually felt a lot of sunshine inside.

* * *

Within a short time, Woobin and Suji became good buddies. They were together almost all the time at school, shared their favorite sound tracks and even last night’s dreams to each other.  

One day, while 12-year-old Woobin was on his way to home, a vicious dog suddenly jumped in front of him from nowhere. It was an extremely huge black husky with its eyes ferociously staring at Woobin. The aggressive dog bared the fangs, salivated, and growled non-stop that made his blood run cold. He started to shed tears and call God, but there was nobody on the road to help the boy, and his throat was totally frozen that he couldn’t make a sound. Fairy-nim, please show up and help me. I summon you. Save me, please!

“Stay calm!” Woobin heard a familiar voice behind his back. He saw Suji standing there as he turned around. “If you run, the dog will bite you!” Woobin freeze himself as Suji told him to. “Just don’t move, Woobin. The dog will go away in minutes.”

As Suji said, the fierce dog sensed that they weren’t threatening it so it slowly lost interest and then it left. Until the dog really went away and the situation started to deescalate, Suji approached Woobin who broke out in cold sweat. “It’s fine now. The dog left.”

“Suji-ah, you saved me,” said Woobin in tears.

Suji grinned as she pat his back, “Don’t say that. We’re friends.”

Woobin curved a smile after wipe his tears away. I don’t need any fairy now.  I had one by my side already. He looked at Suji and talked in his mind. 

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Author's note: I'm sorry that this chapter is really boring :( :( :( I just can't think of any good idea for their childhood memories. The story will get more interesting as they grow up, I believe. So please keep watching~