Sorry for the confusion but all the chapter posted previously were combined into this one ~

Yoojung is a little cute girl at the age of six, spending her vacation on her grandparents’ house. Here Yoojung has the chance to play with some kids on the street, something she does not have the opportunity to do in the city. That is probably why she loves to go to her grandparents' house the most. The countryside is much safer, there are not that many cars, people are way more trustworthy.

Yoojung and the kids are now playing hide and seek.

There is a public garden near the place they are playing, a perfect place for Yoojung to hide herself.
And so she does.

She goes inside the garden and forgets that she is there only for hiding herself. She starts to wandering around, looking the different kind of flowers, running after the colorful butterflies whenever she sees one, trying to climb upon the trees ~

“What are you doing here, human?”

A voice scares the little Yoojung, making her to fall from the tree, hitting her on the ground. Not a very pleasant experience - shall we say that - but thanks God the tree is not very high and she does not hurt herself too much.

Yoojung starts rubbing her lower back in an attempt to make the pain go away, but to no avail. She looks up at the tree and sees a kid using a mask on their face; a mask that resembles a fox.

Yoojung is sure she has already seen that mask somewhere. Probably some Japanese cartoon but she really does not mind about it. “You scared me!” Yoojung yells at the person, still rubbing the injured part of her body “And who are you calling human?”

The kid jumps from the tree in a plastic way and lands beautifully with both feet touching the floor while opening one arm as the other arm is on their chest. The kid bends down as if waiting for some claps of an imaginary crowd.

Yoojung is astonished. Did she just witness the kid doing a somersault like people do on the Olympic Games?

“You. You are a human so I called you human.” The kid replies nonchalantly.

Although Yoojung knows she is human - of course her teacher has explained that to her and to all her classmates as well, and if your teacher says so, it is true - Yoojung does not know why it triggers her so much when the kid calls her like that so she replies in annoyance “I am not human! I am Yoojung.”

“Whatever, human!” The kid shrugs their shoulders.

The kid pesters Yoojung and what annoys Yoojung the most is that the kid is very mean. The brat did not help Yoojung to stand up after they make Yoojung to fall. Did the kid's parents not teach them how to be polite? “Are you not going to help me to get up?”

The kid looks down at Yoojung, who is still sat on the floor and replies “I cannot help you.”

Yoojung gets up and looks at the kid. Now she can say almost for sure that the kid is a girl. They have almost the same height and they are wearing similar clothes; white oversized shirts and jeans shorts. However Yoojung looks down and she sees the girl is on her barefoot while Yoojung is wearing white shoes.

“What do you mean by you cannot help me?” Yoojung furrows her brow.

“I am a human spirit that cannot touch humans.”

Yoojung does not believe the girl. Who is this girl trying to fool? Yoojung is probably one of the smartest girls in the world, - or so she thinks - she already knows that Santa Claus does not exists but of course she did not tell her parents nor her classmates because she does not want to ruin the Christmas magic.

“Ok then,” Yoojung replies and a couple of seconds later she asks “What will happen to you if you touch a human?”

“I might disappear.”

Now things start getting interesting to Yoojung. She thinks about proving to the girl that she will not disappear when Yoojung touches her. And well, if the girl is really able to disappear, this is something Yoojung is keen to witness.

Yoojung hums and pretends to believe. When she is sure the girl’s attention is on something else, Yoojung runs toward the girl in an attempt to touch her. However, the girl is fast and dodges Yoojung's approach without much effort. Yoojung on other hand, trips over a stone - which she is sure it was not there seconds before - and falls on the ground.

“Hey! Why did you do that?” Yoojung mutters as she gets up, fixes and cleans her clothes.

“You tried to touch me and I simply dodge you.” The girl replies shrugging her shoulders.

Yoojung cannot see the girl's face due to the fact that the girl is wearing a mask, but she bets the girl is smirking because of the way the latter's voice sounded.

“I am going to have my revenge!” Yoojung says but before she starts running after the kid, bear interrupts them.

“OH MY GAWD! A HUMAN!” the bear shouts and starts running everywhere with a horror face.

“What is going on, Yeonjung?” Yoojung is totally taken aback when another weird figure, that looks like a hamster, starts talking to the bear.

“A human!” The bear replies pointing at Yoojung while hiding behind the hamster, which obviously does not make any sense for Yoojung. Bears are stronger than hamsters, right? The bears on TV make people afraid so they should be fearless ~

The hamster turns to the masked girl “What is happening, Doyeon?”

“It is nothing, Chungha unnie.”

“Who is this kid?” A Penguin asks “She is kind of cute.”

“Is this human annoying you?” Now an ostrich-like figure makes its appearance.

Too much information for Yoojung to process. She is now surrounded by weird people that are using some kind of magic trick or whatever they are doing, the only she knows is they are weird.

Doyeon shakes her head side to side and someone else replies “I saw this kid running after you. How come you say she is not annoying you, Doyeon?” But this time Yoojung does not know where the voice comes from until the person talks again “Down here, kiddo!”

Yoojung looks down and sees a... stone? Probably the stone she tripped earlier.

“Stone-Nayoung unnie, Jieqiong unnie. No need to worry. This kid here,” Doyeon points to Yoojung and goes on “does not offer any kind of harm.”

“If this kid annoys you ~” the cute Penguin starts talking and out of thin air, its face starts changing into something scary.

Into a.. shark?

The half-penguin half-shark creature bites the air in a threatening method, frightening Yoojung in a way she has never being scared before. And as if it is not enough, the shark continues after its transformation “~ tell me. I will make little pieces of her.”

Yoojung thinks she might be going crazy these people are not wearing costumes or doing magic because it feels so real. This is the kind of thing that only happens in the cartoons. She runs away as fast as she can in order to go to a safe place.

“That will be not necessary, Sohye.” Doyeon giggles pointing to Yoojung, who is running as fast as Usain Bolt [1]. “I told you guys she does not offer any kind of harm.”

After running like a marathoner, Yoojung finally feels safe.

“Yoojung ah, where were you?” A kid came closer to the breathless Yoojung.

“Your parents were looking for you.” Another kid replies.

“It is already late, they were worried.”

Only after hearing the last kid Yoojung realizes the sunset. She knows her parents might be worried sick and they are going to scold her if she does not come back to her grandparents' house immediately.

***

Today is the last day of summer break and tomorrow Yoojung will be back to her city. However, she is still curious with the events occurred yesterday.

After all, Yoojung is a little girl at the age of six and six years old kids tend to be very curious and sometimes fearless. Or sometimes the curiosity is so big that it overcomes the fear.

She is in front of the garden’s gate, trying to gather all her courage to come inside it. She gulps and then she takes a deep breath, praying for the courage to take control over her little body.

“What are you doing?”

Yoojung turns around to face the owner of the voice which just scared her. She almost falls on the floor once again but this time she is skilled enough to keep her balance “Hey! Why do you always have to do this?”

The word ‘always’ is a bit too much since it is only the second time they meet each other but in fact it does not really matter. The little Yoojung probably only used this word to add drama to her statement.

“I knew you would come again.” Yoojung cannot see the girl's expression due to her mask but she can tell for sure that the kid is replying in a confident tone - or more like a smug one.

Yoojung decides not to get annoyed by the other girl’s behavior “Ok, I think we did not start in good terms. I am Yoojung.” She offers her hand for a handshake but Doyeon only stares at it, then she looks back at Yoojung's face.

Yoojung is dumbfounded at the girl’s rudeness. Yoojung is only trying to be kind and friendly, why does this girl have to act like this? That is when a thought crosses Yoojung's mind “Oh! You cannot touch humans, right?” She takes a middle sized wood branch from the ground and offers it for Doyeon to shake the other side.

The girl giggles when she gets what Yoojung is trying to do. She holds the other side of the branch and shakes it with Yoojung “I am Doyeon.”

A hand shake - or more like a “branch shake”.

Yoojung smiles to Doyeon and even though she cannot see Doyeon's face, Yoojung is almost sure that the other girl is smiling too.

“Doyeon, where are you?” Yoojung, now a ten years old girl, asks when she enters the garden.

Suddenly a tiny wood branch hit her head, causing her to whine in pain by the sudden attack. She turns around and yells at the person who just hit her with the branch “HEY! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS?”

“You are late! You told me that you would come here yesterday!” Doyeon replies and Yoojung can hear the pain in Doyeon's voice. Doyeon still uses her mask but Yoojung knows her so well by now that Yoojung does not need to see Doyeon's face to find out what the latter is feeling.

“I am sorry, Doyeon ah.” Yoojung replies rubbing her head on the hit spot. “My father had to work one day more than we expected so we were not able to come before.”

Doyeon nods lightly, in a way that only the trained eyes of Yoojung are able to notice and by doing this, Yoojung knows that Doyeon already forgave her “But we still have plenty of time. What you want to do today, Doyeon?”

Doyeon thinks for a while and then she offers the wood branch for Yoojung to hold. The same old branch that one time Yoojung offered as a handshake “Let us just walk for now.” Yoojung gladly accepts the branch and holds one side of it as Doyeon holds the other side.

They are not able hold each other’s hand, but holding the branch is the way they found to be - or at least to feel - close enough; a way to hold hands without really touching each other’s hand; but still a way to show their affection.

***

The last day of this summer break has arrived and they are playing tag. However, they cannot touch each other so they are using some random branches to tag each other. Not the first branch offered by Yoojung because that branch is kind of special.

“Doyeon.” Someone calls and gets Yoojung's and Doyeon's attention.

“Oh! Somi! Long time no see you.” Doyeon says as she runs toward a giraffe-like figure and hugs it.

The giraffe Doyeon face, causing the girl to giggle. The giraffe makes a disgusted face and says “You are salty!”

Doyeon playfully hit the giraffe's neck “Of course! I was playing with my friend.” Doyeon rolls her eyes as she points to Yoojung.

“Oh Lord! A human!” Somi exclaims as soon as she sees Yoojung. Yoojung is kind of shy so she only smiles awkward while scratching the back of her neck. Somi looks back at Doyeon and says “She does not smell that bad. Can I her?” But before Doyeon can say anything, Somi is already in front of Yoojung, the latter.

“What are you doing?” Yoojung protests trying to keep Somi away from her.

“Yuck.” Somi says with a disgusted face “she tastes as bad as you.”

“Hey! What do mean?” Doyeon yells and starts running after Somi. Yoojung is still trying to clean her face when Doyeon provokes her “Somi, how dare you say I taste as bad as a human?”

And it works ~

“DOYEON AH! How dare you say I taste bad?” Yoojung starts to run after Doyeon, even though she knows she cannot really catch the masked girl; it is dangerous.

The three of them keep on running and playing together until Somi leaves Yoojung and Doyeon alone again.

They lay dow