Crisp footsteps were heard on the wet grass, as the creak of the rusty swings rang through the night.

 

“You’re not even the least bit bothered by that?”

 

“The swings? Not at all. They are a staple of our childhood, Dahyun. Don’t disrespect the swings like that.”

 

“Oh my god, Chaeng. How many times do I have to tell you to let go of the past?”

 

“As many times as I’ve told you to enjoy the past and what it gave us.” Chaeyoung replied back smugly.

 

“Whatever.” Dahyun sat on one of the swings to sit down and swing with Chaeyoung. When she swung along with Chaeyoung, the sound only got worse, but Dahyun ignored it for the sake of Chaeyoung. “Remind me again why we decided that this is our designated hang out spot?”

 

“Well for one, nobody comes here anymore since they abandoned it years ago. Second, this playground is right in between our houses so it’s perfect for distance. Thirdly, we always hung out here when we finally became friends.”

 

“I wonder why we were never friends even though we always went to the same school. We would’ve loved each other from the moment we saw each other in that kindergarten classroom. You are my soulmate after all.”

 

Chaeyoung blushed. “Yeah...Do you not remember what happened through the years? We hated each other from day 1.”

 

“You’re lying.”

 

“I am not! Listen, we were in Mrs. Hwang’s class…”

 

……….... 

 

 Rambunctious kids ran amok in the classroom as it was lunchtime.  

 

A five year old could be seen painting on a kid-sized easel. The painting appeared to be a very funky version of a strawberry. As she added more of the color red to further make it pop, another kid ran up to her.

“What’s that?” A pale girl asked.

 

“Strawberry.”

 

“It looks ugly.”

 

Chaeyoung looked at her in offense. “It’s pretty!”

 

“You could make it even more prettier like this.” 

 

The pale kid dipped her hands in green paint and as she was about to place her finger to paint, she tripped over her own shoelaces and smeared her hands all over Chaeyoung’s painting. “Oopsie.”

 

As Chaeyoung looked on at her painting, she started to tear up. The other girl looked at her and saw what was about to happen. “No,no please don’t cry.” Unfortunately her mistake was that she forgot that her hands were covered in the paint. When she went to wipe away Chaeyoung’s tears, she accidentally streaked it all over Chaeyoung’s cheeks.

 

Dahyun saw what she did and panicked even more. “Oh no. Look! Look!” Dahyun, out of apology, also proceeded to run her hands all over her face. “See? It’s okay.”

 

By now, Chaeyoung was letting on wails of anguish at the fact that not only was her precious painting ruined by the likes of this girl but she also put paint all over Chaeyoung’s cheeks.

 

“What is going on over here?!” Mrs. Hwang demanded.

 

“She started it!” Chaeyoung let out.

“Is that true, Dahyun?”

 

Dahyun put her hands behind her back and started shying away into the corner. “...No....”

 

“Let me see your hands.” Dahyun shook her head. “Dahyun, show them to me.” Dahyun slowly brought out her hands to display the damage she did to show her teacher. “How many times are we going to do this, Dahyun?! There’s always something up with you every day. You know where to go.” Dahyun brought her head down in shame and walked to the time out corner, now known as the Dahyun spot by how many times she’s been there.

 

After Dahyun’s timeout was finished, the school day had already finished. Everyone had already been picked up by their parents, excluding Dahyun and Chaeyoung.

 

“Dahyun! Come here!” Mrs. Hwang demanded. “Apologize to Chaeyoung.”

 

Dahyun quickly came over and faced forward towards Chaeyoung. Dahyun looked up at her teacher and innocently asked, “Why?”

 

“Why? You ruined her painting and put paint all over her. She deserves an apology.”

 

“Why?” Dahyun repeated again.

 

“You are really getting on my last nerves here, Ms. Kim. Apologize or I’m going to talk to your parents again.”

 

“I didn’t do anything wrong! I wanted to make her painting prettier but I slipped! She started crying and I wanted to wipe away her tears but I forgot there was paint on my hands! I promise!”

 

“Go sit in the corner until your parents come back. Clearly, you’re not understanding anything.”

 

Dahyun, knowing she couldn’t do anything, simply went back to her corner and sulked.

 

Quickly, within minutes, Chaeyoung’s parents arrived. Mrs. Hwang briefed them on what happened today and they both sent a glare at Dahyun who shrinked into her seat. After that, Chaeyoung was brought out of the classroom by her parents, but not before Chaeyoung sent the killing glare Dahyun’s way that made her tear up.

 

………....

 

“You know I didn’t do that on purpose right?” Dahyun said.

 

“Of course you did! You put the paint all over me.”

 

“You were crying! What was I supposed to do? I was an awkward kid who didn’t know anything!”

 

“Okay! What about that time you sabotaged my sandwich in middle school?”

 

“You’re still hung up on that?! It was years ago, Chaeyoung!”

 

“There was peanut butter in there. I’m allergic!”

 

“Ugh, here’s how it went down.”

 

………....

 

Middle school lunch was always hell to deal with. You had the loud kids who don’t know what volume control is. You had the mean girls who think they’re better than everyone else. Then you had the nerds who were fresh meat for any apex predator lurking the halls.

 

Dahyun, by no means, was any of those. She always hung out in the music room but today was special. Today was the day she would finally ask Chaeyoung to the school dance. The plan was perfect. Sneak a note in the sandwich she made for Chaeyoung and confess to her how she felt about her and if she wanted to go to the dance. Of course, Dahyun didn’t know what type of sandwich Chaeyoung preferred so she went with the safer option. Peanut Butter and Jelly. She had always been meaning to mend things with Chaeyoung but every time she tried, she always messed it up so badly that she accidentally kept making Chaeyoung hate her more. It would be different this time, she just knows it! She even bought roses to give to Chaeyoung.

 

Dahyun managed to slip the original sandwich Chaeyoung had in her backpack in the class they shared while she was in the bathroom. Luckily for her, Chaeyoung didn’t take notice of anything wrong or study for anything that was amiss. 

 

Lunch quickly rolled around and the moment Dahyun had been preparing for had finally come. She grabbed the crumpled roses that had been smashed in her backpack and started walking up to Chaeyoung. Only, as soon as she took a bite of the sándwich, she started coughing. A couple of steps more into Chaeyoung’s direction and she started gasping for air and scratching at . 

 

Oh.

 

Oh no.

 

Chaeyoung was allergic to peanuts. 

 

Kim Dahyun gave the girl she has a crush on, a peanut butter jelly sandwich. A sandwich that she’s allergic to. Nothing can really go her way, can it?

 

For the fortunate or unfortunate Dahyun, Chaeyoung’s friend grabbed the emergency EpiPen she had in her backpack in case of things like this and quickly administered it to her. Chaeyoung was able to get her breathing under control and was quickly ushered to the nurses office.

 

Tzuyu, Chaeyoung’s friend, examined the sandwich and it’s content and noticed the note sticking out of it. Quickly reading it, she looked up to see Dahyun standing in the middle of the lunch table aisle with her clutching roses in her hands and knew who’s work this was. Tzuyu quickly alerted a staff member of the problem and pointed her way. Within seconds Dahyun was already being escorted to the main office for a punishment. As Dahyun looked back to Tzuyu, she saw the latter tear up the note she put her whole heart into.

 

Of course, Dahyun got into massive trouble. She was suspended for two weeks and was barred from any school activities, including but not limited to musical concerts with the school band and orchestra. It is what she deserved though.

 

Chaeyoung’s parents always hated her and quite frankly, she can’t blame them. As they collected Chaeyoung to take home, they saw Dahyun waiting in front of the principal's office and kept sending glances near the nurses office, they knew she was the cause of this. They, of course, sent her the infamous Son glare she has come to known and fear.

 

She saw the aftermath of Chaeyoung after the whole ordeal and to say she felt awful was the biggest understatement of the year. She would bore a thousand more glares from her parents if it means she didn’t go through any of this and that Dahyun wasn’t the cause of this. Dahyun could never willingly harm Chaeyoung ever. She adores her too much.

 

She will always be at fault for anything she does with Chaeyoung, so what’s the point? What is the point of trying to fix something that clearly refuses to be mended? She gave up.

 

………....

 

“Now here’s my question. What was the point of giving me that sandwich? Did it contain something that I was supposed to see or were you just being generous giving that sandwich to me?” Chaeyoung questioned.