“so i read about this thing in my storybook yesterday...” the little japanese girl spoke nervously in broken korean, playing with the hem of her floral dress.

 

“oh yeah? what’s that?” the even smaller korean girl replies, fixing her cap whilst attempting to find a comfier branch to lean on.

 

the two come up here to escape their problems, which unsurprisingly aren’t too drastic for a pair of elementary schoolers. 

 

to sana and dahyun, it’s their safe spot. where  their worries are left on the ground and animated stories are told, along with dahyun’s excessive joke telling.

 

(which sana must admit, are getting better).

 

they dont like thinking about the climb back down. sometimes it ends in tears, (mostly sana’s) and often it ends in solemn smiles and light laughter, knowing their little world is missing them already. 

 

this timeless oak had been around years before both girls were born. it had seen hundreds, if not thousands of people come and go through its lifetime.

 

but none were like dahyun and sana.

 

“i dont wanna tell you..you’ll laugh” 

 

her reddened cheeks making a stark contrast between the foliage and the setting sun, laughter bubbles in the younger girl’s chest. in her mind, she takes a picture of this cute, embarrassed sana.

 

“see you are already laughing!” the older shrieks, causing a couple of pigeons to take flight, due to such high frequency noise.

 

“sana-chan..i wont i promise” dahyun consoles, her giggles dissipating into the spring afternoon.

 

“really?” 

 

“i swear.”

 

sana scoots a little closer to dahyun’s branch, still with a flushed face and refusing to make eye contact.

 

she mumbles something inaudibly.

 

“what was that?” the korean girl brings her ear closer to sana, who she fails to notice is an even deeper shade of red.

 

again, she speaks at the same muted volume, making dahyun pull a face.

 

“sana-chan? i ca-“

 

“true love’s kiss!” the older girl breathes out, suddenly very interested in a patch of moss between branches.

 

after finally processing her answer, the smaller girl clamps a pale hand over .

 

she swore she wouldn’t laugh.

 

sana makes a sound similar to when dahyun first fell off her bike last summer. crying but not really.

 

“aya!~ you promised me!” she whines, shaking the younger’s shoulder lightly. not enough to lose balance.

 

“im not laughing! carry on!” dahyun quickly objects, pressing her lips together desperately trying to keep her resolve.

 

“no i changed my mind!” sana cries into her lap, looking genuinely upset for a moment.

 

dahyun’s entertained demeanour does a 180°.

 

“hey sana..im sorry okay? please carry on for me?..” taking off her own worn cap and placing it onto the older girl’s head. the gesture makes sana’s heart flutter.

 

“well um..the princess in my book was placed under a curse, she was asleep forever! and well, the curse could only be broken by true love’s kiss..” she speaks in an almost hushed tone, trying to explain the most accurately she could in korean.

 

dahyun picks one of her bruised, pale legs up to rest on the sturdy branch both are currently sat upon. head tilted, as if trying to understand the logic behind sana’s story.

 

“and did she ever wake up?” dahyun asks, honestly curious. 

 

“yes! a prince found the sleeping princess in the woods and kissed her, breaking the curse! isn’t that magical?” sana expresses with emotion, tugging on her mousy brown locks with excitement.

 

not wanting to put a dampen on sana’s radiant smile, dahyun silently starts to question how real this story is.

 

“but why would the prince kiss a stranger? you’re not even supposed to talk to them.” dahyun muses, absentmindedly picking at one of the newly formed scabs at her knees.

 

“well he knew they were meant to be together..” sana argues, silently pulling the younger’s hand away from the scab, holding it instead. 

 

the korean girl tugs on a few leaves next to her head, relishing in the way they shine under light, provided by the descending sun. bright. like sana’s eyes.

 

“it’s a nice story sana. i just prefer stories that are real.” the younger retorts, adjusting her specs with her free hand.

 

“it is real!” sana buries her head into the crook of dahyun’s neck, offended. “true loves kiss i mean..its real!" 

 

“sure sana-chan..whatever you say.” the korean adds in a defiant tone, amplifying sana’s annoyance.

 

the japanese girl pushes herself up and stares dahyun straight in the eyes. 

 

“i’ll prove it to you.” she utters in a determined manner, cheeks now becoming one with the purpley-orange setting behind her.

 

dahyun rolls her eyes in an amused fashion. mostly to break the intense eye contact they were sharing.

 

“how are you gonna do that? are you gonna find the characters from your stories and ask them yourself?” dahyun jokes, hating the way sana matched her own description of the princess so well.

 

“no.” dahyun’s cap shook on the older’s head.

 

“well then..” she gestured for sana to show her this ‘proof’, interested to see where this was going. she ignores the palpitations in her chest.

 

 

 

“kiss me.” the older girl ordered, closer to the younger than she remembered her being.

 

dahyun’s eyes almost popped out of her face and onto the grass a good thirty feet below them. she blinks.

 

she can feel sana’s breath on her cheeks.

 

“i asked you to kiss me.” the japanese girl repeats, this time a little less confidently. slightly more dazed.

 

the youngest of the two then runs through all possible problems this could cause in her head, and when she finds none, she presses her lips to sana’s, who welcomes her own with a squeak.

 

dahyun thinks that sana tastes like the sweetest fruit she’d ever had, and sana can taste chocolate and pine.

 

its chaste but sweet, and it sets off both fireworks and butterflies in their bellies, leaving both of their heads spinning.

 

both jolt when they hear a semi loud thud hitting the ground below, only finding dahyun’s brown cap buried amongst the grass beneath them. not her eyeballs.

 

sana squeaks at this, losing her balance just before dahyun holds her waist tightly, reassuring her with shaking hands.

 

they look at each other.

 

laughter is heard from both girls as they rest their foreheads together, with dusky lighting to illustrate their fairytale moment together.

 

as the younger girl was about to admit defeat, she was cut off once more with a flurry of sana’s kisses to her lips, rendering her speechless. 

 

unbeknownst to many, dahyun now believes in true loves kiss, as long as she was the prince, and sana was her princess. she also looks forward to more of sana’s stories everyday, 

 

from now until forever.