I still remember the first time I met Sunggyu. I was barely four.

He was my neighbor, my best friend, and childhood sweetheart.

We didn’t hit it off right away. I had hated him because he was just a few months older than me and acted like he was way more superior. However, later on, we became inseparable.

Everywhere he went, I would follow him. Our families celebrated all our holidays together and even went on family trips together.

But all that ended when I was starting third grade. I was nearly nine. My mother and father told me that we were going to move somewhere far away because of Daddy’s work.

The day before our move, Sunggyu and I snuck outside the house into our joined front lawns.

We laid in the middle of the grass, and gazed at the stars.

“Soojin-ah, I have a present for you,” he said.

“Really, really? What is it?” I asked eagerly.

He gestured for me to hold out my hand. When I did, he tied a bracelet around my wrist. I inspected it curiously.

It was a neatly braided bracelet with sapphire blue beads woven into it.

“It’s a wish bracelet,” he explained.

“A wish bracelet?”

“If you lose it, then your wish will come true.”

I laughed. “That’s ridiculous, oppa!”

“It’s true! But you can’t take it off, or else the wish won’t come true. You have to wear it until it falls off by itself. And every time you think about it, you have to remember your wish.”

“Hmm...”

“Did you make a wish yet?”

“Mhmm!”

“What is it?”

“...If I tell you, will it still come true?”

“Of course! I deserve to know!”

I giggled and leaned close to whisper in his ear. “I wish to stay like this with you forever and ever and ever.”

“We will be together forever and ever and ever! When we grow up, I’ll go find you and take you as my wife! Then we can forever stay together!”

“Mhmm,” I murmured sleepily.

“And then we’re going to buy a biiiig house! Way bigger than this one right now. And we can have Appa and Umma come live with us. Your Appa and Umma too! Oh, and we’ll have dogs and cats and...”

He kept talking animatedly about our plans for the future while I drifted in and out of slumber. Before I fell asleep completely, I felt him lightly kiss my forehead and smiled.

We fell asleep happily that night, two little children lying in a makeshift tent, sleeping side by side.