A/N: sorry its been a while on this fic, been a little busy with life and that hiatus with IZ*ONE didn’t help, but now they’re back! SsamKkura has been blooming well this season, can’t wait to see what happens on Kkura’s b-day vlive lmao

Lots of time skips in this one, so we can get to the juicy stuff

/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/

Time skip: 2 years

2 years. 2 years that flew by like nothing. Its been 2 years since I met little Chaewon in my park. 2 years since I’ve managed to grasp a sense of self-happiness and social skills.

Little Chaewon was now 7. She had grown so much over the last couple of years, it always shocked me every week when she would visit, she would be a centimetre taller. She was up to my torso now; she could jump onto my back without me bending down anymore.

Chaewon was also smarter, asking me all these complex questions about the history of Korea and what it had looked like. She cried a lot less and talked a lot slower too. She was growing up so fast, I didn’t want to see it happen so quickly.

Meanwhile I still looked the same. Stuck at the age of 21, or at least, what looked like a 21-year-old. I’ve always wanted to age into a fully mature woman. I wanted to grow old with Chaewon because I was worried about our time together being too short. One day I would blink, and she would look older than me, maybe even forget about me. I was terrified at the thought of that.

Hence why her birthdays were a sore spot for me. I wanted to be happy for her, celebrate each year of her life. But all I could be reminded of, was her fragile mortality.

……………………

Chaewon laid her head in my lap, it was summer in the late evening, some breeze helped cool her off, but I could see the glistening skin as she sweated. We were underneath the biggest tree; the cherry blossom trees didn’t offer much cover, but I managed to block most of the sunlight with my robes as she was sleeping.

I traced her cute little nose with my free hand, booping it as I slid down the bridge. ‘’Chaewon-ah, don’t grow up, I like you how you are now…innocent and carefree…. I don’t want you turn out like the others. Humans are always so quick to change.’’ I sighed and looked away from her.

The sun was setting, and I would have to say goodbye again. 2 years and my heart still ache whenever she walked away because one day, I’m scared she might not come back.

Chaewon groaned and shifted in my lap so she could bury her face into my stomach. ‘’Unnie~’’ My heart swooned at her cuteness.

‘’Yes?’’ I ran my fingers through her soft hair, she wore it down today instead of her usual pigtails.

‘’I had a dream about you.’’ She mumbled. ‘’We were holding hands and we were running in a pretty field somewhere.’’

‘’Really? Was it nice?’’ I asked.

‘’It was really nice… Someday I want to go on holiday with you and then we can eat delicious food together!’’ She sat up, almost bumping our heads together if it weren’t for my quicker reflexes.

‘’I want that too.’’ I agreed. Realistically I knew I couldn’t, the most I could do was somehow make the park into something like a holiday. ‘’Chaewon-ah?’’

‘’Yes unnie?’’ She rubbed the sleep away from her eyes. I grabbed her hands and held them between my own.

‘’Promise you won’t forget me?’’ I looked into her eyes and held contact.

She laughed a little and cupped my cheeks, squishing them a bit. ‘’Unnie, how could I forget you! You’re my best friend! Like an angel.’’

I averted my eyes. ‘’You’re the only person who can talk to me, I’m scared one day you’ll get bored and leave me here alone.’’ I confessed. Maybe it wasn’t right of me to put such a burden on her when she was still so young but I’m selfish, I craved being around her so much.

She smiled kindly and pulled me into a hug. ‘’I promise I will never forget you. Even when I’m old and wrinkly, I’ll still come visit you here.’’

I rested my head on her dainty shoulders, pulling her closer. ‘’Thank you, Chaewon-ah. You mean so much to me.’’

‘’Unnie, you’re being so cheesy!’’

‘’You were being cheesy too!’’ I countered, poking her side.