Dara practically grew up with Jiyong. Jiyong had always been there for her during the most significant times in her young life. Her earliest memory of him was when she was eight.

She was crying in the park when a boy about her age sat beside her and wordlessly handed her a hanky. She was crying because she just had the worst first day of school in her short life and she missed her previous home where everyone talked in a language she could perfectly understand.

“Nothing is as bad as it seems.” The boy confidently told Dara. She looked up, surprised to finally hear a boy her age speaking in a language she could clearly understand. Just hearing someone her age speak Korean after a whole day of listening to other kids speak in gibberish/Tagalog/Taglish made her feel a million times better.

“You want some nuts?” He offered to her a handful of mixed nuts. She shook her head. “I’m allergic to nuts.” He shrugged in response.

They sat side by side in silence. They didn’t talk much that day but just his quiet presence beside her calmed her nerves.

They met everyday at the park for the next four years until they were twelve when Jiyong’s appearances became less and less frequent. To say that she was not hurt was a lie but she understood why he had little time for her. She knew he was starting to get closer to his own dreams. Who was she to get in the way of his dreams? 

He promised that no matter what he would always show up on her birthday. He was there on her thirteenth birthday although he stayed for only about ten minutes before he was rudely called away. 

So on her fourteenth birthday when he didn’t show up as promised, she felt betrayed but she was not surprised. She sort of knew this was going to happen someday but she didn't think it would happen this soon. She stopped going to their spot for a week. She was feeling petulant. She wanted to be the one who did not show up for a change.

It was a mistake because he never came back to see her after that. She made it a habit to drop by at their spot everyday but he never came back. It seemed he had forgotten his way back. She refused to believe that he had forgotten her although everything pointed to the fact that he had.

Eight years later, Dara was finally done with her studies and her family allowed her to move back to Korea on her own. She never really moved on from Jiyong, especially after catching a glimpse of him on the night of her eighteenth birthday. He was taller and thinner than she remembered but it was him, she was sure. She called out to him but he just looked weirdly at her and hurriedly walked away, disappearing entirely as he rounded a corner.

After that brief encounter he was once again a no show. She made up her mind to go look for him as soon as she was able to get back to Korea.

How she will find him she didn’t even have a clue though. All she knew about his identity was that his name was Jiyong. Just Jiyong with not even a surname to aid her.

She knew that he loved nuts. He always had some with him. He loved ramyun. She knew they now lived in Seoul but that does not mean anything. He had a dog named Gaho but he had to reluctantly give him up when his family moved to Seoul.

She also knew he loved to rap and dreamed of becoming a successful rapper. He used to force her to Iisten at his pathetic attempts at rapping. To be fair, he was really getting good at it the last time he performed for her.

She knew a lot about his growing up years. Well, she knew a lot about him but none of the stuff she knew gave her a clue as to where she might find him or gave her a clue as to his identity.

Other people would have just given up and moved on with their life but not Dara. Other people would have stopped believing in imaginary dream friends but not Dara. Yes, you read it right. Jiyong was her dream friend because they never met in real life. But no matter how crazy it may sound Dara was a hundred and five percent certain Jiyong was real and not just a dream manifestation of her emotional needs.

He was too extraordinarily brilliant and she was honest enough to admit that her brain was and is not that extraordinary enough to possibly conjure someone as special as him. She would stake her sanity on the belief that Jiyong was and is a real person and not just a figment of her imagination.

For the sake of her sanity, Dara goes back to Korea determined to start her quest for Jiyong. Will you journey with Dara as she helplessly and hopelessly tries in real life to find her dream Jiyong?

A/N: Just posting the foreword for now. Will be finishing my pending stories first before moving on with this story. Just putting this up to make sure I don't forget my idea for this story.