Our Pinkie Promise

Everything went into slow mo, like those I’ve seen on movies when the protagonists finally hugged each other and say those three little words. It felt like we were on a big screen, waiting for the director to say “cut” while his warm arms still tangled around me. My heart was in a hurry and it’s like going out of my chest at any moment. We stayed like that for long minutes without hearing words from him.

“I’ve been watching you since we’re 5.” Donghae said as he finally detangled his arms around you.

“What do you mean?” I said, still couldn’t understand what he meant.

“My eyes are watching your every moves, the very first day we saw each other, that day on your 5^th birthday.” He made it clear to me.

I didn’t know if I heard it right. But from that moment, I felt my body freezing for I-don’t-know-reason at all. Donghae held my hand tightly, like lovers did. My heart skipped a beat again. That night, I didn’t know how many times my heart beats irregularly. I didn’t know how many times I felt fireworks inside my head.

“I want you to know that I have a crush on you.” He said, revealing his chest.

Should I believe him for saying such even though I knew it was just a sudden outbursts of emotion of a 7-year old boy? It’s the only question that ran in my head. “I know you’re just carried away by your emotions. We’re just 7 and we’re still young. We’re young for this.” I said contradicting everything he was up to.

“In love, it doesn’t matter whether we’re young or old, rich or poor, or even weak or healthy. What’s important is that we love and respect each other. Though we’re young, we’re free to love and be loved.” He explained, still holding my hands. I wanted to free myself from him, but I can’t. It seemed like there was a force that driving me to him and him to me.

“But this is not the right time for us to enter such. Can we be just friends for now?” I said, offering him the only thing I could give him for now.

“We can be friends, but for how long?” he queried, still asking for questions that I don’t have certain answers.

“I don’t know. Maybe until we reach the right age.” I said, still uncertain.

“I understand. Then, can we make a promise?” He said raising his pinkie finger.

“What promise?” I asked clueless.

“We promise that we will wait for each other until we’re freely to follow what our hearts says. And we also promise that when the right time comes, we will love each other faithfully. Promise?”

“I promise!” I said immediately as I tangled my pinkie finger with his.

Before the night ends, we sealed our promises with curtsy in our hearts. I know it was too early to conclude such thing—that at the end we’ll be together. But for the heart who loved sincerely and purely, everything’s impossible. We just have to believe and stand tall that we can make it.

A promise to make

Or a promise to break

A promise of forever

Or a promise of never

A promise of happiness

Or a promise of goodbye

It’s a pinkie promise of a boy and a girl

Who’s in heart believes

That it could be real