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"Is everything ready, now?" 

"Yes everything's inside my bag now!" Ha Rion answered the middle aged woman enthusiastically, fixing the straps of her delivery bag. She was the dispatcher for today's delivery and she was glad to be paired with a hardworking girl such as Rion. 

Indeed, she was the best at their work. 

"I'll be going now, Aunt Hyemi!" the younger hollered after picking the invoice pad on top of the counter. 

"Oh, sure thing!" Aunt Hyemi answered back, leaning away from the computer screen for a while to send the young girl off. "Be careful on your way!" She waved and Rion responded with a 'thumb's up' not at all turning back around to face the old woman and out the door she went. 

Aunt Hyemi shook her head, laughing lightly. "That girl, really."

Right after graduating from high school, Ha Rion ended up applying for a delivery services job after the family business went bankrupt to tend to her needs. She gave up the idea of applying for college and just opted to just work and help her parents sustain their cost of living, her dreams crashing down along with her the moment she was hospitalized. 

Pushing the double doors open, with the chimes sounding atop her head, The twenty-two year old girl stopped abruptly on her tracks when she saw who was there just outside the delivery shop. 

Her heart stopped beating and her once wide smile dropped as her eyes turned glassy. 

It has been years since she last saw him but the ache in her chest was still the same, if not doubled.

She felt tears pricking her eyes when he smiled awkwardly at her, letting out an embarrassed "How have you been?" And because she doesn't want him to see her breaking down and cry, she tipped her chin upwards in a bragging manner before continuing on her tracks, ignoring his greetings as she left him behind. 

Stomping away from the Shop, Rion's vision of the ground became blurry because of the tears but she forced herself to draw nearer where her bicycle was parked. 

She was fine now, so why does he have to come back all of a sudden? 

While pedalling away, she didn't spare him a glance at all. 

She wasn't expecting Kim Hongjoong would appear in front of her after seven years of absence. 

He wasn't there when she needed him the most so why is he present now that she's fine and better? 

He should just stay with his newfound friends.

✳✳✳

Ha Rion met Kim Hongjoong when they were in second grade, as someone who doesn't have a dream. At first, the girl was so appalled with the idea of him not wanting to do anything in his future. 

Like, is someone like that really existed? 

Whenever the subject Personality and Development is at play in school, young Kim Hongjoong would stand in front and say that he doesn't have any dream. 

Due to this, she was always so hesitant to hang out with him, thinking that he was a weirdo. But then, after one faithful event that happened in the playground, Ha Rion's view in this matter changed.

Drastically. 

2006

"Will you be okay, going home on your own?" Mrs. Ha asked her only child worriedly through the phone. Unfortunately, the mother was supposed to meet up with some clients in their pastry shop so she wouldn't be able to fetch her daughter as they were a very valuable business partner. Another, her father was busy with the company so bothering him is a big no-no.

Ha Rion has been waiting for her mother for almost two hours now and she's starting to get bored as her earlier Playmate's had already left the school premises. 

So now, she was sitting inside the principal's office timidly and as a hyper young child, staying put is hell for her. So for the next hours, she convinced the faculty to call her mother and ask for her consent to go home alone. 

Not that it was dangerous walking alone in daylight. Besides, the neighborhood is full of nice people so Rion was affirmative she would get home safely. 

"Yes, I will!" eight year old Rion jumped up and down in excitement. That familiar voice of her mother sounding like that means she's close to giving in. "I know where the spare key is! I'll ask Mr. Jung for it!" She added. 

She heard sighing from the other end of the line and Rion looked up to the faculty member who raised her brows at the cute little girl. "Alright. But be careful on your way, alright? Go straight home," Mrs. Ha added the last sentence sternly.

"Yes I will!" She chirped. 

And so, Ha Rion's journey of going home started with her yellow umbrella beside her. She deliberately walked from one street to another, crossing the roads like a good pedestrian and walking by the side of the road carefully, jumping off puddles that the rain left behind.

 She was very much focused on her quest of going home until she reached the huge playground on their neighborhood. 

She stopped by the side if the playground, her eyes full of curiosity. She has never been to a playground before unless she's with her father. She never knew how it felt like to play along with other children. 

Go straight home. 

Her mother's warning rang inside her head and young Rion gulped audibly, feeling nervous as hell. She shook her head, she shouldn't disobey her parents or she will surely get in trouble. 

But then, right after thinking that, joyous shrieks from children sliding down and running at the playground reached Rion's ears and she paused, eyes bulging out of their sockets. 

Soon, she found herself running towards the entrance of the playground her hands on the air as she laughed hysterically, showing her toothless grin.

However, getting inside the playgrou