2011

"Daniella please bring this to our neighbor, They recently moved" My mother told me 

"Eomma were not in korea, people here doesnt do this" I whined

"I know sweetie but our neighbors are actually korean like us. Be hospitable to them"

I gave up the argument and prepared myself to go next door. 

I rang their doorbell and patiently waited for them to open the door. 

"Ann- Ugh Hello?" He awkwardly greeted

"Hi! I came by to welcome you in the neighborhood. Eomma prepared some kimchi for your family" 

"WAHH Come on in sweetheart. I didnt know that there are other koreans in this part of town" His mom greeted excitedly

"Annyeong eommonim! Im Dani. Were the only koreans in this side of the village and were really happy youre now one of us" I replied

"This is my son Euigeon. I think he's around your age. You should stay here and have dinner with us"

"Aniyo eommonim. My mom wants to invite you to dinner tonight too. She was really thrilled to have another korean in the village"

"We cant do that. The kimchi is already more than enough" she said arguing with me

"I insist eommonim. It's been so long since we met native koreans." I explained to them

"What do you think son?" She asked Euigeon 

"Im okay with it ma. And please call me Daniel already mom." He turned to me and smiled.

"Im Kang Daniel, nice to meet you" he added

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Daniella Kang." 

The Kang family locked their home for a while and went to our house. My mom and Daniel's mom clicked immediately. 

We were seated on the sofa awkwardly trying to watch a show on tv. 

"Dani bring daniel to your room. I know youre itching to play." Mom said making me immediately grin

I asked daniel to come with me and I showed him my room.

"I hope you play games too" i told him while opening my gaming consoles.

"Its rare to see girls who are also into gaming. What games do you play?" He asked curiously

"Well fortunately, Im one of the girls who are into gaming. I play Call of Duty, GTA, Final Fantasy to name a few." I told him while trying to pick a game for us to play

"You have a lot of games and consoles" 

"Like I said, Im not like the other girls. I prefer to stay home and play. This is where all my money goes to" I explained to him

"I think Ill be coming over frequently too" He said laughing.

He stopped when he spotted something

"What are you looking at?" I asked when I saw him stare at the window

"Our rooms are right across each other and we have like a tree house in between our houses" He said

"ooooh that tree. It's been there since we moved 10 years ago."

"I know its rude to ask someone their age but how old are you?"  He asked politely

"Its not rude if you're going to be answering the same question." I told him smiling

"Okay, ill answer that too" 

"I'm 15 internationally"

"I'm 14 internationally" he replied

"Oh so Im your noona?" I said a little bit disappointed

"By a few months yes. I'm born December so by the end of the year were the same age" 

"Was that supposed to make me feel a bit better?" I teased

"Of course. Besides if we are in korea right now, we'll both be 16 regardless of when were born" 

"Okay fine" I said defeated

"How long have you been living here and why is the tree house unoccupied?" He asked

"I've been living here since I was 5. I was born in Busan but when I was 3 years old, We moved to Atlanta because of my father's work. After 2 years we moved here again because of his work. Mom and Dad decided to settle in Canada and we're here ever since."

"Do you miss korea?" He said obviously looking like he's homesicked

"I havent been in korea since I was 3. I don't remember how it looks like anymore. The only thing that reminds me Im korean is my physical appearance and the culture at home"

"That's a bit sad. We arrived 2 days ago and I wanted to come home already" 

"Why are you here Daniel? Why did you leave korea?" 

"I'm finishing my high school here. Dad got promoted so he needed to be overseas for a while. He brought us with him and were going to be here until I finished."

"What school are you going into?" I asked

He showed me his class card. I went to my table and dugged in to my own class card. 

"Well you just got lucky newbie" I told him beaming;

"Why?" 

"Looks like you wouldnt be alone during your first day in school" 

"Agaiin, why?" He asked still not getting what Im saying. I gave him both are cards adn allowed him to read it

"Were in the same class?" He asked finally getting it

"Yep" 

"That's so cool" He said now excitedly

"Hey I have something to ask if that's okay" 

"Yeah sure, what is it?" 

"Your mom called you Euigeon earlier, what is really your name?" 

"My real birth name was Kang Euigeon but back home noone can properly pronounce my name. Even abeoji had a hard time calling my name so we decided to change it to my english name which is Daniel. This is so weird coz our names sounds alike" 

"You dont have to worry about that. My friends and family usually calls me Dani and not Daniella. You know what Daniel, for the first time in a while, Im pretty excited to start school" 

"Why is that?" 

"First, It will be awesome to fool the people. Like seriously were the same age, same surname, our names are alike. My name is the female version of yours. Second, I can stop sitting with those people in the canteen. Third, I can have a friend who isnt annoying and a user"

"What's wrong with the people around you?" He asked concerned

"Im not bragging but Im one of the top students in school. I cant say I have a lot of friends but I cant say I dont have friends either. It's just that it's a bit hard to see who is real from who's fake. They are hanging out with me because I help them study but when I needed help there are only a few who is willing to lend a helping hand" 

"Youre not bullied are you?" he asked even more concerned

"No of course not Daniel. They won't even bother bullying me. Im just glad I'll be spending time with someone who isnt going to use me like those people"

"I'm glad I met you then. I'll keep you company at school if..." He said trailing

"YAH! Why is there a condition?" I whined

"Let me finish first" I zipped my mouth urging him to continue

"If you'll play with me after class" I slapped his shoulder when he finished. 

"I got scared for a moment there" 

Time flew when I was with him. I'm usually socially awkward when I interact with men I just met but Daniel is different. he's very different from all the other men I met, and that's a good thing. 

We can talk about random stuff and not get bored. He enjoys staying at home too just like me. and What really impresses me is the fact that he's okay that I play games. The guys around me are pissed when I beat them when playing video games. We were finishing up a fight with one of the bosses when we heard my mom call for us.

"DANIEL, DANIELLA COME DOWN DINNER'S READY" I heard my mom shouted

We both went down immediately and joined them. His dad won't be home til next week so its only him adn his mom. Likewise, my dad is also away for a businesstrip. 

"You two seems a bit closer now" His mom commented

"She plays videogames too mom" He said excitedly

"Im relieved that my daughter has now a real buddy. I swear she's like a caveman sometime, always inside her romm stuffing her face with food while playing games" 

"Mom please stop embarrassing me" I whined

"Mrs. Kang, why is the tree house in the middle abandoned?" He asked curiously. 

Oh right! I forgot to answer that question since I was too excited were classmates.

"The tree has been there since we moved. Back then my bestfriend lived in that house. My daughter and his son are real best buddies so we decided to make them a tree house just like ours when we were kids. We build it for Daniella and Seungwoo so that they can hang out there. It was nice until 5 years ago when their family moved. We lost contact and they never went back. My Daniella is so sad she stopped going to the treehouse and stayed at her cave" 

"Mom, please stop saying Im a caveman" I told her a bit irritated

"It must have been hard having someone constantly with you then suddenly they're gone" He said understand me 

"My son's the same. His bestfriend and him has been together ever since. He grew up with Ong but just because we moved, they lost their communications.Daniel's a  homebody as well because of it" Daniel nudged his mom. It's now his turn to feel a bit embarrassed. 

I guess Daniel adn i are more a like than I could ever te

After we finished dinner, we decided to hang out at Daniel's place. He showed me his game collections and his mangas. 

"Hey Dani" I looked at him awkwardly. 

Dani the same name Seungwoo used to call me back when were kids

"Hmm?" I asked

"Do you want to go to your Tree House?" He asked me 

"Why?" 

"It looks like the tree house wont be going anywhere any time soon" I looked at him very confused. What the heck is he trying to say.

"Okay, what Im trying to say is that you seem down most of the time when you look at it. Let's create new memories there" He added excitedly

"Whatever" I told him having internal debates. 

There is something special about Kang Daniel that I cant point out. He's charming and a gentleman. As I saw earlier, he's a good son to his parent and potentially a great friend. 

Honestly Im still scared of opening up to him. Seong woo was really my bestfriend. I do everything with him and I was very used to having him always by myside. When he left, It dug a hole in my heart. I wanted to talk to him and tell him how bad my day was but he never replied to all of my emails and letters. I missed him so much. I missed having my bestfriend around. 

Im afraid of getting close to Daniel for the same reason. I'm afraid that he'll leave me too and forget all about me. Im afraid that just like Seongwoo he'll never reply to me again. When he left, he promised he promised he'll still call or email me but none of that happened. I'm afraid to get hurt but even if Im scared, there is something about him that makes me want to try and take a risk. Something's telling me it wouldnt be the same and that he's different. 

Maybe this time it's time to finally let go of Seong woo and move on. 

I went back to our house and looked for my mom.

"Mom?"

"In the kitched sweetie" She shouted

"Mom where is the key to the tree house?" My mom's eye lit up and you can see fireworks on her head. She rushed to their room and looked for the key.

She came back holding 2 duplicates of the key. 

"Im so happy youre going back there. I have to thank Daniel for this" She said smiling

"Mom don't get your hopes up yet. Im still not so sure about being friends with him" 

I went back outside and found Daniel already waiting at the foot of the tree. 

"Shall we get inside and make this tree full of our new memories?" He said excited 

I looked at him and smiled. 

"Kaja"