Her hair was pitch black so of course, the right color to use was black. Her eyes were big and dark brown, so rounded circles colored in brown would do. Her skin was quite fair, so the cream-colored crayon was the fittest option among all 12 crayons inside the case.

Park Hyemi, the kindergarten teacher, passed by Seungwan’s side and stopped to check on the progress of her drawing. The girl usually drew very colorful and interesting images in class. This time was not the exception.

“Oh, is that a princess?”

The teacher tried to guess after recognizing a yellow crown over the head of a long black-haired girl dressed in a pompous white dress.

Seungwan nodded, focused on coloring the brown boot of the shorthaired character who was holding the princess’s hand.

“Are you that pretty princess, Seungwannie?”

Miss Park was ready to follow up with a question about who her prince was after the anticipated confirmation.

Seungwan shook her head.

“No, Miss Park. I am the knight. My hair is brown and short. See?”

She put a finger on her drawing showing the haircut of the aforementioned character.

“Ah.”

Miss Park was unable to formulate a thought for a few seconds.

“A knight, so who is the princess?” She finally dared to ask.

“The princess is Joohyun!” Seungwan answered in a heartbeat, flashing her toothless grin.

Any question left in the teacher’s mind was put in the backburner, and she just patted the girl’s head in return.

“Keep going, darling.”

Two weeks had passed since Seungwan met Joohyun for the first time. Jongdae was still resentful about what his cousin did to him and had not gone to her house to play again. Moreover, he had not approached Joohyun either. For sure, Seunghee could not be happier about that.

Joohyun fulfilled the promise she made to the younger girl. She had visited Seungwan six times already, and played with the Son sisters for hours. Hide-and-seek; tea parties; Barbie and Ken dolls at the ball, the fashion show, rock concert, among other games. They also watched a couple of movies, one of them a fairytale classic, which happened to be Seungwan’s favorite, and the reason behind her recent drawings in class.

Miss Park was quite impressed by the girl’s imagination.

“Your daughter has a talent for storytelling through illustrations, Mrs. Son. Her sense of continuity in these… 30 drawings is remarkable.”

She handed the drawings to Seungwan’s mom - who stared at them - mouth ajar.

“She’s a… brave knight with snake venom immunity, which comes in handy because she intends to rescue a princess who is kept captive inside the highest tower of a cursed castle infested with snakes, very venomous snakes. In the end, she is successful in her quest, as you can see in the last few pages, carrying the princess in her arms as she steps on the countless snakes, fearlessly; and then, riding her white horse through the forest. And once they reach the princess’ home, the rescued one rewards her knight with a kiss.”

Mrs. Son listened to the teacher’s interpretation of her daughter’s sequential drawings, and with each passing page, a satisfied smile kept growing on her face. She thought, perhaps her youngest could become a prolific writer and illustrator if Seunghee happened to decline the offer for something science-related.

“Mrs. Son? Hmm, may I ask you who Joohyun is?”

Seungwan’s mother frowned at the random question.

“Joohyun? She’s a friend of my daughters. Goes to school with Seunghee. Why?”

“Because… she’s the princess in Seungwan’s story.”

The memory of her daughter refusing her kiss on the cheek because that girl kissed her there came back, and Mrs. Son wondered why.

--

Two months later, Joohyun and Seungwan had grown in chains even more. Seunghee sometimes asked herself whether her school friend liked her sister more than she liked her.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Son sensed that the girl was very lonely. She had talked with her husband about the possibility to invite her parents to eat at their place, a barbecue, for example. He agreed, but the opportunity seemed distant. The girl’s progenitors seemed quite secretive and reserved. They did not oppose her daughter befriending the Son daughters but had no intention to socialize with the family any further than the regular greeting when either of them came for the kid. Everything Mrs. Son could learn about Joohyun’s family was where they lived; that her father was a chemist and her mother was a housewife.

“Do you have to leave already?”

Seungwan was sad it was 7 p.m. again, which meant playtime was over and Joohyun had to go back home.

“No, tonight Joohyun will stay at home with us, Wannie,” Seunghee answered before her friend could.

“Really?!”

Seungwan was so happy that she jumped in excitement and hugged Joohyun by the neck, their cheeks pressing against each other.

“Yes, my mom gave me permission to sleep here tonight.”

“We have a guest room, but you can sleep in our room, too. If you want, of course.”

Seunghee gave her friend the options available, but Seungwan rushed to say,

“You can sleep with me, my bed is big!”

That night, Seungwan was so happy to have Joohyun lying next to her, she feared to close her eyes, then open them and realize the girl was no longer there.

At some point, Joohyun woke up and noticed the girl was still awake.

“Seungwannie? You can’t sleep?” She whispered in the dark.

Seungwan shook her head, “I wish you live with us. We could play together every day.”

Joohyun moved closer to the girl and hugged her tightly. “I also want to be with you forever.”

Seunghee just listened to the girls’ conversation in silence, thinking about it.

One sunny afternoon, Mr. Son took his girls and Joohyun to the usual park to play for a few hours. The place was a preferred spot for family picnics, cycling and as kids’ playground because of the various equipment, including the classical swing, seesaw and the castle playground with a slide. The girls first had a blast in the sandbox building a mini-city. Then, played in the castle for a whole hour, their role-playing was too much fun to stop it earlier.

“How about you are Sleeping Beauty and I’m the evil witch who puts a spell on you,” Seunghee suggested much to her friend’s surprise. “Then, Seungwannie is Prince Philip who has to defeat me first before climbing inside the castle to rescue you.”

She expected her sister to get excited about the idea, and she was right.

Joohyun was supposed to stay inside the mini tower pretending to be asleep, but she could not resist the temptation to look at the sisters acting as if they were in the middle of an epic magical battle. She laughed heartedly at the scene.

“Thou shall face me first, oh Prince!” Seunghee exclaimed with an over the top ominous voice, while pointing her staff – a long branch she found lying on the ground – towards Seungwan.

“I don’t fear you, evil witch.”

The youngest wielded her sword – a curved twig – and then proceeded to ‘fight’ her sister. Soon, the latter fell on the ground dramatically, announcing her demise.

“I’ll have my revenge one day, young Prince.”

For a moment, Seungwan kneeled close to the fallen Seunghee, and stared at her unsure of what to do next, so her sister opened one eye and whispered,

“Psss, go up and kiss her.”

Seungwan blushed instantly, but did not hesitate to rush upstairs.

Joohyun was back in place, sitting on the floor, eyes closed and back against the wooden wall, waiting for her prince to break the spell. She sensed steps approaching her gingerly. She gulped the second she perceived the slightly agitated breathing of the younger girl and her shadow above her.

Joohyun raised her chin, and jutted her lips, waiting.

One, two, three seconds later, she felt the touch of Seungwan’s lips over hers. Fluffy and tender, yet quite brief.

“Wake up, please. Wake up.”

Joohyun fluttered her eyes open and met the other girl’s gaze.

“You saved me. You broke the spell.”

Her growing smile made Seungwan smile, too, and throw herself in the older girl’s arms in the cuddliest hug ever.

Seungwan’s heart was beating so loudly, it started ringing in her ear. She could hear Joohyun’s beating fast, too.

“Wannie, Joohyun-ah! Come down now! Dad will take us to eat ice cream!” Seunghee shouted from outside.

“Yay! Ice cream!” Seungwan screamed visibly excited.

She jumped up and grabbed Joohyun’s hands to help her stand up.

“Let’s go!”

--

Days kept passing, and Seungwan made a countdown for the day of her graduation. She could not wait to enter elementary school, where she would see Joohyun even more often.

Unfortunately, something happened that she did not expect.

“Joohyun is sick, mom. She has been looking very tired lately, falls asleep in class, and the last day she came, she fainted. Miss Kim took her to the infirmary. I tried to sneak in to see her, but they didn’t let me enter. They called her family and then her father came to take her away.”

“Oh, poor girl, this is terrible.”

Mrs. Son frowned and covered after hearing what her oldest daughter said when she mentioned the incident at home.

“Mommy, can we go see Joohyunnie at her house?!” Seungwan asked, fully aware that something was not right at all.

Her mother agreed.

Later that day, Mrs. Son and the girls paid a visit to the Bae family residence, located in an apartment building, 5 kilometers away from the city center.

“Which is her apartment number, Seunghee?” Their mother asked after realizing that there were no names next to the intercom buttons.

“408,” said the child after checking the address written in her notebook.

One call, two, three… ten attempts and nobody answered.

“She’s not there, mommy?”

Seungwan started getting worried.

“How weird…”

Her mother decided to call the janitor, who opened the door for them.

“Excuse me; does Bae Joohwan and his family live in this building?”

“Ah, no. Not anymore. They moved out of town a few days ago.”

“Did they say where? Left a contact number, anything?”

“No, ma’am. Nothing at all.”

The janitor’s words hurt Seungwan deeper than anything before. Deeper than the cut in her head when she fell down the stairs two years ago. The abandonment and desperation she once experienced when she got lost in a supermarket for hours paled in comparison. She felt that her whole world collapsed like a house of cards, and started crying, so loud and hard that her mother panicked after all her failed attempts to console her.

It took the child weeks to smile again. There was not a night when she did not shed a tear in her bed. It had to be a nightmare, she needed to wake up and Joohyun would be there. All her enthusiasm to graduate soon was gone, because the reason behind it was gone. Joohyunnie, her favorite person in the whole universe, was gone. Her princess disappeared as suddenly as she first came into her life. Joohyun was sick and Seungwan was not able to protect her the way she wanted to.

Weeks, months, years passed and yet the void was still hard to fill. Seungwan kept growing and her ability to introspect kept developing. Sometimes she wondered if Joohyun in her life had actually happened. Maybe she was nothing but a blissful dream. After all, her parents and her sister, even Jongdae, had long stopped talking about her. Where was she? Did she get better or worse? They did not care anymore. They moved on with their lives. Maybe it was better for her to do the same.

The memory of their innocent kiss was still so clear and vivid in her mind. Joohyun had to be real. She was somewhere growing up just as Seungwan was. The day would come when she would find her. She did not know how or when, but she would. She swore that in secret, and when it happened, she would not let Joohyun go again.

--

“Seungwan, are you ready yet?! Come down, we’re late.” Mr. Son shouted up the stairs.

“I’m coming!”

Thirteen years later, the Son family had moved places twice and now they were living in the capital city. Seunghee was already in her third year of university. She entered a prestigious school of physics abroad, while her younger sister was still living with her parents. Seungwan was about to finish high school. Before the end of the academic year, the annual school ball had to take place. She was getting ready to attend the event that evening.

“Hurry up, please.”

Her father was losing patience.

One last look in the mirror as she pushed her short cinnamon hair back. The wrinkleless grey polyester suit, white cotton shirt, and leather black shoes fit her small frame just right.

“I wish you could see me now. I wish it were you who I take to the dance.”

She lowered her gaze, lost in thought.

“Seungwan!” His voice got louder.

Seungwan rushed down the stairs.

“Sorry, dad.”

The man stepped back to look at his daughter’s frame in full.

“You look gorgeous, my darling.” He smiled proudly. “And dashing. You’ll surely impress your date and many other girls at the party.”

His words made her feel shy.

“Thanks, dad.”

“Time to go, honey. Don’t make your date wait any longer.”

----