Summer 2000

The beginning of a new millennium. The summer of 2000 came, and along with it came a new exciting holiday to Jeju Island! I remember Omma and Appa planning the holiday with Taecyeon Oppa’s parents. By then we were almost inseparable.

We went everywhere together at Jeju, Taecyeon oppa even tried to teach me how to ride a bike. I remember him getting angry with me and constantly teasing me, calling me a pabo because I just couldn’t pick up riding a bike. Our parents found it highly amusing and whenever I went to tell on him, Omma would just laugh and say how adorable.

Back then I got over our petty little fights easily, Oppa always apologized. His line was always “Mi Young-ah, don’t cry” and then he would hold out his hand to grab mine and everything would be ok again.

He would never directly say sorry. It seemed like sorry didn’t exist in his vocabulary. When we were younger he would never say sorry and I would get even angrier at him, but now I understand oppa more. It was just one of those things, just like how I can’t ride bikes.

Looking back on that summer, it was really quite eventful. My first holiday with oppa, my first time going to Jeju, my first kiss too. That’s right, my first kiss. Taecyeon doesn’t remember anymore but I do, because to a girl, that’s something unforgettable. It meant very little to me at the time, it was only later when I started high school that I realized what a first kiss meant.

The kiss wasn’t magical or anything like they described in movies. It was simple and insignificant. It wasn’t meant to happen, there were no intentions for a kiss, purely an accident. Serendipity is what I call it now. Taecyeon oppa made me climb trees with him that summer. I was always a scaredy cat so I only managed to climb up, when it came to getting down, I froze. By the time oppa had climbed down, I was still up in the tree. I remember oppa told me to jump, he said he’d catch me and I trusted him.

What a little fool I was, I jumped and fell on him. He didn’t catch me at all; he just made a softer landing for me. That’s when it happened. Our lips accidently touched. Me falling on him earned him a twisted ankle and a week of no play. I felt terrible and oppa was angry at me for a whole week. That’s probably why he never remembered the kiss. That week after Jeju was the longest week I had experienced at that age. I remember feeling really down, but he came around in the end.