Decided to post today because it's my Ddiddi's birthday <3 

*Flashbacks are put in Italic

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Yaebin was born in the US and she had lived there ever since then. The young Kang Yaebin neither knew how to speak Korean, nor she wanted to learn how to speak and write in that complicated language. She would rather spend time playing with her dollhouse than being privately tutored by a Korean teacher. At least that is until she met Kim Minkyung when she was 5 years old.

In the summer of 2003, Yaebin’s father decided to bring her back to visit her hometown of Jeju Island for the first time, during his business trip in Korea for a week. Yaebin was always like a dynamite, full of energy, positivity and happiness, when she was in the States, but due to language barriers and cultural differences, once arrived in Korea, she had become so much more quiet and introverted. She didn’t really interact with anyone else beside her dad. Little Yaebin didn’t understand anything people around her said, so she was really afraid. And little Kang Kyungwon was her biggest fear. Well, that was pretty much her first impression of the short-haired girl.

Yaebin was 5 and Kyungwon was 6 when they first met. To be honest, Kang Kyungwon didn’t really like the smallest Kang at the time. The foreigner was too quiet for someone who loved to be loud and shouty and talkative like her. They had had a few playdates together when Yaebin had to stay at Kyungwon’s house, because her dad had to visit Seoul to do some business deals but he didn’t want to make Yaebin feel even more overwhelmed with this new culture, so he let her stay with his older brother’s family.

Most of their playdates were just Kyungwon playing happily with her group of friends, while Yaebin sat quietly in the corner of Kyungwon’s bedroom and played with her favourite Barbie doll that she had brought with her all the way from the States. Kyungwon had lots of friends. She brought several different people over to her house every day to play with her. None of them wanted to approach and talk to Yaebin, because Kyungwon had already told them that she couldn’t speak Korean, and just like Kyungwon herself, those kids also wanted to only play with someone that they could interract verbally with. And also, Yaebin's odd dirty blonde hair somehow frightened them and made them feel the need to keep a proper distance from the girl.

Except for one.

It was a typical hot summer day. Yaebin finally gave up on trying to get people to play with her, instead, she decided to go to Kyungwon’s backyard to play with Kongie, a cute little puppy she found when her dad and her went to fetch some cookie and cream ice-cream for her at a nearby ice-cream shop a few days ago. The sunrays were burning her skin, streams of sweat kept running down her face and chest, but she didn’t mind them at all. This was so much better than staying in that room where no one talked to her. She was relieved that verbal communication is not a must in a human-dog interaction. Kongie had been running around to play catch with Yaebin for an hour now, and the puppy finally decided that it was time to take a short nap.Yaebin didn’t mind, she enjoyed watching little Kongie’s occasional snores anyways. She was contentedly combing Kongie’s fur with her fingers when she felt a dark shadow hovering over herself. Looking up wondering what had happened to the clear blue sky, she wasn’t expect to be greeted with a pair of big and round foxy brown eyes. The small-but-looked-like-she-was-a-bit-taller-than-her girl stood there, observing Yaebin’s action as if that was the first time she saw a human came in contact with a dog. The stranger at first seemed to hesitate, but then she kneeled down to touch Kongie’s nose. Kongie, with his eyes still closed and was in a deep nap, stuck out his tongue and whatever it was that made his nose itchy, which happened to be that little girl’s finger. The girl let out a small giggle when Kongie’s tongue touched her skin, which happened to make Yaebin unconsciously let out a small laugh too. She quickly looked over to where the sound came from and Yaebin immediately went quiet. Her cheeks were painted with this pink-reddish color of embarrassment.

The foxy eyed girl raised the corner of her lip to form a small smile, she also held out her hands expecting Yaebin to do the same. And she did.

“Annyeonghaseyo!” (Korean)

The foxy eyed girl greeted her politely. That was literally the only Korean phrase she understood. Yaebin then nervously replied, almost like a mumble,

“Hello.”

“Oh, so you’re the foreign friend that Kyungwon has been talking about. Nice to meet you!” (Korean)

Yaebin didn’t quite understand what the other person was saying, but seeing the girl’s smile grew bigger and bigger as seconds passed by, she felt at ease. Maybe finally she could make a new friend.

“Minkyung. Kim Minkyung” The little girl said while pointing at herself. Minkyung was smart enough to know that there was no use for her to speak long sentences in Korean to a foreigner, so she tried to simplify her words.

‘So that’s her name’. It sounded so pretty to Yaebin.

“Kang Yaebin.” Yaebin replied with a small smile, two dimples slowly appeared on her chubby pink cheeks.

“Nice to meet you Yaebin ah. Let’s go inside and play! It’s too hot out here.” Minkyung complained without caring whether Yaebin would understand whatever she had said or not. She then dragged Yaebin inside the house, with two hands firmly held Yaebin’s left hand and pulled her forwards. ‘So Koreans liked dragging people around then’, little Yaebin thought to herself.

The rest of the day was history. Thanked to Minkyung, Kyungwon finally accepted and initiated a conversation with Yaebin. The three of them happily played with each other in that afternoon. Minkyung was a lot more patient than Kyungwon. Whenever she wanted to say something to Yaebin, she would transfer her words and thoughts into the little doodles in her sketchbook. They communicated with each other through Kyungwon’s colorful half-broken crayons.

Minkyung didn’t want to leave at all when her mother came over to pick her up. She kept whining and pouting all the way from Kyungwon’s house to her house. Her mom had to promise to drop her off for another playdate tomorrow at the Kang’s mansion. She couldn’t be more happy upon hearing those words coming out of her mother’s mouth.

Little Minkyung was so eager to go to Kyungwon’s house and to play with that little girl again. She got up so early in the morning which surprised her mother, since it would normally take a really long time, and numerous naggings from her mother, for Minkyung to be completely awake. One thing for sure, she was not a morning person. However, she was greeted with disappointment when Kyungwon told her that Yaebin’s dad had returned and picked her up last night. They had both gone to the airport very early in the morning to catch a flight and went back to the US.

After Yaebin’s departure, most of their playdates were held at Minkyung’s house, because every corner of Kyungwon’s house made she miss the smaller girl. And that would sadden her for days.