Everyone might always want to have a childhood friend. Someone that grew up, playing, sharing joy and tears together with you. Lastly, understanding you more than anyone else. It would be the sweetest dream for everyone to have such a childhood friend like that. However, as a result of a long period of time of being together, other feelings could be developed side by side with the strong bond of friendship. Hatred? Love? Because of that, not everyone liked to have a childhood friend. In this case, Eunbi was one of them.

Hwang Eunbi, a nerdy girl who was born in Cheongju, South Korea. Since she was born, Eunbi had proved that she was a super smart girl as she spoke her first word when she was three months old. She knew how to walk a month later and know how to read when she was six months old. At three years old, she could solve basic Mathematics problems. She had proved that she was a genius so her parents decided to move to Seoul, where her talent would be developed to the best. So when Eunbi was five, she left her hometown and moved to Seoul. However, the young girl didn’t know that another family also moved to her neighborhood. coincidently that family happened to be the Hwang’s new next door neighbor. When Eunbi’s parents had settled down, they brought some gifts to their new neighbor. The adults talked cheerfully to each other while Eunbi was hiding behind her mother’s leg. She didn’t go to nursery school, only staying home reading books alone in her room. As being isolated from society in such a young age, she was super shy toward strangers. She wore her reading glasses despite that she could see things clearly without them. But she preferred to have them on anyway.

The neighbor noticed her shy presence, smiling and praising her.

“Is this little girl your daughter? She looks so bright and cute.” The female neighbor exclaimed.

“Yes, her name is Eunbi. She doesn’t have many friends so she’s pretty shy.” Eunbi’s mother replied softly.

“Oh really? Poor little girl… Oh, I know. Maybe she can play with our daughter. I’m sure both of them will have fun with each other. Coincidentally, our daughter’s name is also Eunbi.”

“I’m sure Eunbi will be glad to have a new friend, right Eunbi-ah?” Her mother smiled at her. She just nodded lightly and clung on her mother more tightly.

“Don’t worry Eunbi-ah~ Eunha is a nice girl. She won’t scare you.” The male neighbor finally spoke as her wife called out for the aforementioned girl.

“Eunha, come out here. I want you to meet our new neighbors.”

“Yes, mom!” A soft high-pitched voice answered, followed by rushing footsteps. The little girl quickly ran from her room toward the door. Seeing the unfamiliar adults standing in front of her parents, she quickly bowed at them and greeted them politely. “Hello. My name is Jung Eunbi.”

“Hello Eunbi, it’s nice to meet you.” Eunbi’s mother greeted as she softly pushed Eunbi forward to meet the new girl. “And this is our daughter, Eunbi. I hope you and Eunbi can be friends.”

Eunbi wouldn’t let go of her mother’s dress, burying her head deeply to the cloth. She was too shy to face the newcomer so she tried her best to avYahd eye contacts. Few seconds passed and nothing happened. She thought the girl had left already so she turned her head around, only to be surprised by a smiling face that was only an inch away from her. She jumped backward and hid behind her mother again. The raven haired girl giggled and offered her hand to the girl.

“Don’t be scare. I won’t bite. I’m Jung Eunbi, but you can just call me Eunha since we have the same name. Let’s be a friend, Eunbi-ah.”

The little girl gave the shy girl her radiant smile, making Eunbi’s shyness fade away. Slowly, and hesitantly, she reached out for Eunbi’s hand, and softly took a hold of it. For the first time, Eunbi knew how soft and warm a person’s hand could be.

From that day, Eunha and Eunbi always played with each other at the park. At first, Eunbi was still shy toward Eunha. But eventually, Eunha managed to get rid of that trouble and got Eunbi to talk to her more. That time, she knew that Eunbi was one year younger than her and she hadn’t gone to school. Eunbi looked confused as Eunha told her about how a school look like and how many friends she could make. Influenced by Eunha, Eunbi, for the first time, asked her parents to let her go to school. At first, her parents were hesitant when they knew she was intelligent enough to go to middle school at her age. But she convinced them to let her study with other children in her age, and of course to study with Eunha. Therefore, in the end, Eunbi’s parents allowed her to go to the same school as Eunha. They thought Eunbi would make more friends besides Eunha and became more social. However, they were wrong.

Eventually, Eunbi became the target of the bullies in her school because of her nerdy appearance. She didn’t get any new friends and yet she got bullied. However, she didn’t say anything about the situation to her parents. The only one who knew about it was Eunha. When they played together at the park during weekends, Eunha asked her why she didn’t tell the adults that she was bullied in the school. And why didn’t she fight back?

“If I fight back, they’ll bully me more. And if I tell my parents, they won’t allow me to go to school anymore. And I won’t be allowed to see Eunha-unnie anymore.”

That was her answer. Eunbi couldn’t say anything else and kept calling her “SinB”, a mystery. That nickname stuck with her for the rest of her life. Eunha called her SinB because of her blank poker face most of the time. No one would ever know what was happening inside the genius’s brain.

Eunbi didn’t change much until a year later. During a Sunday morning, Eunha and Eunbi were playing at the usual park near their houses. It would be just another ordinary day if Eunbi’s bullies didn’t show up and picked on her again. Those boys were in the same grade as Eunbi. And physically, Eunbi was smaller than them so she became an easy target to bully. Moreover, Eunha was popular among her school for her bunny-like look, her princess aura, and her friendliness. Therefore, seeing Eunbi was with Eunha, the bully boys wouldn’t let her go off so easy. They insulted her in front of Eunha; when they received no resistance from Eunbi, they just kept saying more bad words toward her. Eunbi looked down, completely ignored them. Until…

One of the boys took a hold of Eunha’s hand as she was defending Eunbi. The boys insisted Eunha to go play with them, forgetting about the weakling Eunbi. And of course, Eunha rejected. However, the boys kept asking her, pulling her arm more violently; eventually, they hurt Eunha. The girl cried painfully but it seemed that the boys didn’t buy that. Seeing Eunha’s tears, the usually quiet and cold girl felt her blood boiled in anger.

“Let her go. Don’t you dare to hurt her!”

She shouted and fought for the first time. She ran to the group of boys, landing fists and kicks on the older girls. For the first time, she used violence to solve her problems rather than talking. At the age of six, Eunbi had her first fight. And it was not for her safety or her pride. She fought for Eunha. She couldn’t take it when she saw her friend crying in front of her. So throwing away her reason, she fought for her precious friend. And of course, with a smaller body and weaker strength, she couldn’t match with four bigger boys and ended up getting beaten badly. The bullies only went away when Eunha threatened them that she would call her parents and caught them. When the girls were out of sight, Eunha quickly sat beside the lying girl and checked on her injuries. Eunbi hid her face under her bang, not wanting to face Eunha as she had failed to protect her. Eunha could only see her fists shaking and the ground was soaked by her tears. She never saw Eunbi cry before. Even though she couldn’t see Eunbi crying face because of her hair but the crystal drops were enough for Eunha to feel guilty.

“I’m sorry, Eunha-unnie… I’ll become stronger… so that I can protect you. I promise I’ll become stronger… I’ll protect you no matter what.”

That was her vow to Eunha. Even though Eunha told her that she didn’t blame her for anything but she couldn’t forgive herself. So she, once again, begged her parents to let her learn martial arts. Since that time, Eunbi built up her body strength and learned martial arts every day, in order to make herself stronger. Eventually, after a year of learning, no one dared to bully her anymore after she successfully beat them with ease. However, she wouldn’t stop training herself to become stronger since her goal, in the beginning, was to protect Eunha, not to take her revenge. Her friendship with Eunha grew stronger over time. They shared everything, from little secrets to bigger ones. They couldn’t be separated by anyone, except for destiny.

After Eunha graduated from elementary school, her family moved to Incheon due to her parents’ jobs. Hearing that, Eunbi was upset. But she still put up her smile in front of Eunha on the day of the Jung’s flight. In the airport, Eunha knew the other girl was sad about the fact that they wouldn’t meet each other anymore. She hugged the shorter girl and comforted her.

“I don’t want to leave you, SinB-ah. But I couldn’t help it. It’s my parents’ jobs so I can’t do anything about it. I’m sorry.” She said in a teary voice, calling the pet name that she used to call the younger girl. The special name that only two of them knew about it.

“It’s fine, Eunha-unnie.” The girl embraced Eunbi and patted her head lightly. “We’re always friends, no matter what happens. You told me that before, remember?”

“Yes, I do. I won’t forget that, ever.”

“OK… so… um… before you go, I have something for you…” The girl scratched her head shyly as she searched for something inside her pocket. Eunha looked confusingly at the girl until she pulled out a pair of necklaces; with a silvery bird that spreading its wings. ‘Eunha’ and ‘SinB’ was engraved on each of them. Eunbi took Eunha’s hand and put the bird with ‘SinB’ into her hand. “Here is my present for you. These birds are called lovebirds. They represent an eternal relationship, just like our friendship. I want you to keep one of them so we’ll never forget each other.”

Eunha stared at the necklace in her hand for a while. Then finally, she smiled dearly to Eunbi and wore it on her neck. Later, she embraced the girl tightly, letting her tears soak the blue T-shirt.

“Thank you for being my friend, SinB-ah. I’ll cherish this necklace with all my heart.”

Eunbi smiled weakly, trying to hold back her tears. She couldn’t allow herself to be weak in front of Eunha. They stayed like that for a while before Eunha’s parents called for her to leave. Reluctantly, Eunha let her go. But before she left, she quickly planted a kiss on Eunbi’s cheek.

“We’ll meet again, SinB-ah. See you next time.”

“Um. See you, Eunha-unnie.”

Eunbi bid her goodbye to Eunha and watched the girl disappeared behind the glass doors. She stood there, like a statue. She was lost and confused. For the first time, there was something that the genius Eunbi could not comprehend. The girl did not understand why her heart beat rapidly after that kiss on her cheek. She would never know until she was finally grown up.

Author's note: Yeah I know I still have like 2 other fictions needed to continue. I apologize for the late update. I'm currently in the middle of moving to another country for my job and my master degree so I don't have much time to write anything yet. For this fic, I only need to change the character's names and some minor details since I've already written this one years ago. I'll go back to update the other fics once I've settled down in my new home. This one is a small gift for those readers who are still waiting for my comeback. Once again. Thank you for reading.