“Byul. Byul. Byul!” Kwon Byul flinches at Sehun’s call.

 

They had only just established their friendship two days ago after being neighbours for three months, and Byul has still yet to come to terms that she finally has a friend. Even her parents are surprised.

 

Sehun catches up to her, huffing as he pushes up his glasses. “Why do you walk so fast? I can’t keep up. Can’t you slow down?”

 

It takes Byul a second to form a response. That’s right, she now has a companion to walk to school with. Not that she forgot Sehun. Of course not. It’s just that, normally, she walked the whole fifteen minutes journey alone. She would always come across Sehun along the way, but never walk with him, but things have changed now.

 

“I’ll slow down,” she says quietly, unaware of what to do about the heat spreading on her cheeks.

 

Sehun grins, clasping tightly on the straps of his bag. “Great. Let’s go!” He exclaims and begins to walk with a skip in each step.

 

Had she really just witnessed that? Sehun is excited to go to school? Byul’s brow furrowed and not long after, her lips curved into a small smile. She had never seen Sehun so happy to go to school. Everytime she came across him, his head would always be hung low. Today was different. Sehun had a smile so wide that it bunched up the flesh on his cheek so high and it was infectious. Today, Sehun is radiating.

 

Noticing that Byul was not by his side to match his steps, Sehun halts and turns around. “Don’t just stand there! Come on!”

 

As though she was lulled consciously, Byul walks to Sehun, her eyes never leaving his’. The pits of her stomach was twisting in many ways she could not understand. The last time the same thing had happened, she was sent home from school from a bad case of food poisoning. However, this time it’s different.

 

In fact, it is odd that the weird sensation in her stomach inclined her mood and urged her to respond more to Sehun. She did not feel sick nor did any atrocious symptoms of food poisoning show up throughout the whole time it was present. No. Kwon Byul felt like she did when she first saw what the world looked like beneath her feet when she first rode a ferris wheel.

 

Kwon Byul marked today the happiest she had been insofar this year.

 

She made it a point to mark it in her journal that same night.

 

March 19 2007 marks the day of when winter’s snow is just about melting, yet Byul felt warm like a just-made cup of hot chocolates with sprinkles on top. She was sure that it had something to do with Oh Sehun, her neighbour of three months and friend of two days, who just overcame a traumatic experience with his mother’s bad hairdressing skills and the salad bowl and walked to school with her with confidence that shone as bright as the biggest star in a midsummer night sky.

 

Little did she know, March 19 2007 marks the day of the beginning of Kwon Byul’s first love.

 

 

Eight year-old Kwon Byul is still yet to understand the correlation between dating and one’s status quo. For one, she is too young and two, she is very picky about who to share her toys with. Just the thought of having to share her precious Nintendo DS with anyone aside from Oh Sehun angers her. Why should she have to? She does not need to have as many friends as Ahn Minhee to have a Nintendo DS and the last thing she heard was Minhee crying because one of her friends had heartlessly tore her new My Little Pony figurine leg off.

 

Sehun would not break her DS. Byul’s not quite sure about anyone else.

 

So when she finds a pack of the popular pens that smelled like fruits accompanied with an invite to Kim Jongin’s birthday party, Byul frowned at his neverending persistence to date him.

 

“Are you going to go?” Sehun pushed his glasses up higher.

 

He breathes with his mouth rather than his nose. Byul could hear him breathing before she sees him most of the time. It acts as a good indicator of who is around her.

 

Byul’s lips thinned, then she frowned. Sehun’s fidgeting fingers and his sudden nervousness to look her in the eyes says that he was not invited. “No. We’re going to look for a newt down by the river near my house on Saturday, remember?”

 

How could she possibly abandon Sehun on a weekend? She had seen him play with his dinosaurs in his garden way too often. Sometimes, he would even incorporate his Hulk figurine to smash down the angry looking T-Rex who would pick on his smaller dinosaurs. It did not look fun enough to keep him company throughout the whole of Saturday and Sunday. Byul thought that, if Sehun would like to, he can come with her and look for a newt down by the river in the glen when her parents take Hector out for a run. That sounded like fun. She could finally have a helping hand and Sehun wouldn’t be stuck in his garden with his figurines.

 

Sehun lit up at Byul’s reminder of their plans. He had assumed that she forgot because she barely mentioned it. In addition to that, who would want to hang around a chubby little kid who cannot play tag because he would always be ‘it’ due to his weight hindering his speed. Apparently, Kwon Byul did. “Yeah, we’re going to go find a newt.”

 

He wanted to question why Byul wanted to find a newt. Really badly. Oh Sehun found it a little weird that Kwon Byul wanted to find a newt. Couldn’t her parents buy her a newt from a pet store? Or couldn’t her older brother help her instead? Regardless, he agreed to her plans.

 

If she wanted to find a newt, then he will help her find a newt.

 

Besides, Kwon Byul was already weird for wanting to be friends with him in the first place.