Lost and Found
If We Were A SeasonWinter; present
“Arghhhh!” shouted two boys at the same time. They accidentally crashed into each other and one of them was riding a bicycle while another one was on foot. “Hey! Look where you going!” shouted the taller one while lifting his bicycle. “Me? You should look to your---- Jaehyung?” said the boy who was walking earlier. The blonde one looked up and his small eyes went big, “Brian?”
Fall, 24th July of 1992; past
Two beautiful boys were born into the world. They were born at the same time, same place but they are far from being twins. In fact, they have no blood relation whatsoever but their families are neighbors. So, they basically grew up with each other by their side.
4 years old;
“Omma, Jaehyung-ie bit me!!” cried the smaller one.
7 years old;
“Omma, Brian ate my lobster!” cried the taller one.
12 years old;
“Omma, I’m going to Brian’s house”, said the taller one while happily skipping his way to their neighbor’s house. “Alright, don’t go anywhere else. If Brian asks you to go to the park, make sure to tell Ms. Kang”, replied his mother.
Brian and Jaehyung’s room were located across each other and their house’s roof was connected so sometimes they’ll casually hanging on the rooftop, stargazing. They also have this phones made by cups that were connected by a string across their room’s window. The cups also have a bell hanging so that if one of them pulls the string, the bell on the other cup will ring. So whenever the bell rings, they will immediately run to the window. That’s how their childhood went, as far as they remember.
3 years old; spring
Jae waited for Brian in front of his house, because Brian always stops by his house before they went to school together. But not today, instead of Brian, Ms. Kang came out of the gate, telling Jae to go first because Brian was not feeling well. Jae simply answered, “Ah, alright” even though he has a very bad feeling about this.
Later that evening, when he came back from his school, his heart dropped when his mother told him he cannot go to their neighbor’s house again. Then he heard the reason.
“Jaehyung-ie, Kang family moved this morning. They are going to Korea”, that’s what his mother said.
For a few days, Jae shut himself up in his room. He only goes out for school and dinner.
“Why didn’t he tell me?” that’s the only question he wanted to ask his best friend. They spent all their time together and Brian did not once tell him about the move.
17 years old; present; winter
The boys stared into each other eyes for a few seconds. “Wh-what are you doing here?” the smaller one asked. Jae’s head went blank. “Jaehyung-iee, Jaeeeee, Jae-ah,” the smaller called his name while waving his hands in his face. Jae grabbed Brian’s hands and he finally opened his mouth. “Is this really you, Brian? Brian Kang?” he said while his hands still grabbing the smaller one’s hands.
“Eyy, nobody calls me that here. Hi, I’m Younghyun, Kang Younghyun now. And please let go my hands Jaehyung-ie”, the smaller chuckled.
“It is you. What are you doing here?” Jae asked and finally releasing Brian’s hand.
“That’s what I asked you before. What are YOU doing here? I lived here, Jae-ah”, replied Brian or now goes by the name Younghyun.
“I moved here, just now. They are loading the stuff and I’m taking a stroll here with my bicycle that seems a bit broken now”, said Jaehyung while eyeing his broken bicycle.
“Ah, your bicycle. Here, let me walk you. I know a repair shop around here. Then, we can go to your house. I want to meet your family, I missed them. Come.” Brian said, lifting Jae’s bicycle and grabbing the blonde’s hand.
Jae, who was still shocked by the meeting, just followed Younghyun aka Brian to the shop and let Brian do the talking. Then, they walked to Jae’s house which is coincidently right next to Brian’s house.
“ This feels like we are back to our childhood, right Jaehyung-ie?” asked Brian when they found out that they were neighbors.
They were in Jae’s room when Brian pulled out a string from Jae’s pile of boxes. “Ah, you bring this string! I thought you threw it away after I move away!” Brian shouted excitedly. Jae’s face fell and Brian did not realize it.
“We should connect it again; I’ll ask mum if she has any plastic cups that we can use. Oh, you also have the bells!” Brian exclaimed while continued to rumble through Jae’s boxes. Jae’s memory flooded back, their childhood memories flooded back. Jae’s quietness brought Brian to reality and then he saw Jae’s face. His smile dropped. He eyed Jae’s gloomy face carefully.
“Why didn’t you tell me? That you were leaving?” Jae finally opened his mouth. He spat out the only question that has been bugging him for years.
They looked at each other eyes. Brian walked to Jae and stood only a few centimeters from each other. He grabbed both Jae’s hands, his eyes dropped, not really know how to look at Jae’s face right now and said,
” I’m sorry. I thought it will better for us if we didn’t say goodbye. I’m so foolish, I’m really sorry. I thought if we didn’t say goodbye, someday we will meet again, like now”.
Both of them were dead silent. Then Jae started sobbing. Brian looks up and hesitated but then he hugged Jae. Now, both of them were sobbing in each other arms.
“Do you remember when you tied the string again when they broke because we don’t have any strings left after you used all of them in your school project?” Jae asked between the sobbing.
Brian laughed while rubbing his eyes and said, “Yah, that’s why the string has many knots on them. We tied it together again and again”, Brian responded while laughing and both of them laughed together. And that’s how they started their friendship again, like the broken string.
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