(Cho Hee's POV)

"Of course. How could I forget?" I was the first to speak. 

Mi Jin used to be gentle and kind. She was like me. She was sweet and friendly. She greeted every morning with a smile. But the first time I saw her she was crying. She was wandering the streets of our rich and quiet neighbourhood. It was the summer of grade 6. I was in our front porch, reading some books under the sun. Everything was quiet. Then, a second later, I saw a girl. She had long hair and she was wearing a white sun dress. Everything about her looked calm until I heard a loud sniffle. The girl burst into tears.

I hopped of the porch and made my way towards her. "Hey, are you okay?," I asked. My eyes were filled with concern. She looked at me with her tear stained eyes and then she ran away. I was puzzled but I waved it away without much thought. That night, I told my mom about her. "Oh, that must be the Kang's daughter They're our new neighbors. They just moved in two days ago. We should bring something to them, like a welcoming gift." The next morning, my mom sent me off into the neighbour's house.  She handed me a basket filled with all sorts of food. I felt like Little Red Riding Hood. 

We lived in a big neighbourhood. Each house was like a mansion and it took quite a lot of space so each house was far apart from each other. Mi Jin's house and mine were on the very edge of our neighbourhood. The first houses you were going to see once you enter our neighbourhood was ours. 

The walk to Mi Jin's house was tiring. It took me a full 10 minutes to get there. I rang on the doorbell. "Hello? Is anyone here? This is Kim Cho Hee, your neighbour." The door opened a second later. It was the girl from yesterday that opened the door. "Uh, hi," I said awkwardly. "My mom told me to give you this." I handed her the basket. She looked at me doubtfully. "I don't know. . . " 

Just then, her mother appeared behind her. "Um, annyeonhaseyo, Mrs. Kang. I'm your neighbour, Kim Cho Hee." I bowed. "Oh my, what a surprise." I handed her the basket, seeing that the girl won't obviously take it. "Thank you, Cho Hee. Tell your mother I said thank you. Why don't you invite her in, Mi Jin?" So Mi Jin's her name? I like it, it sounds pretty, I thought. 

I looked at Mi Jin. "You don't have to invite me in if you don't want to." I gave her a smile. Her eye's suddenly brightened up. She opened the door wider and smiled. "Come in." 

When I entered their doors, I gawked at how big and spacious their house was. Holy, their house is so nice. I bet it's even bigger than ours, I thought. Mi Jin led me to the couch in the living room and the tv. "Is there anything you want to watch?" I shook my head. "Not really. I don't watch tv." Mi Jin's eyes turned as big as saucers. "You don't?! Oh man, you're missing out!" I laughed. 

My mom continued to send me to Mi Jin's house day after day telling me to make friends with her. "I already am friends with her, mom. Besides, I'd rather stay here and read my books," I had told her but umma shook her head. "Then why don't you tell something about her?" I opened mouth to speak but I closed it right after realizing I had nothing to say. "Exactly, Cho Hee. Get out there and get to know her. And this time, be her best friend not just a friend." And with that, my mom pushed me out the door. 

I was in Mi Jin's house again. This time, she was giving me a tour of her house. When we finished the tour, we went to her bedroom. Her bedroom was pretty nice. Three walls were painted mint green while one wall was painted chocolate brown. The contrast looked really pretty. She had a queen bed on one corner. The queen bed had a gray frame and jade green sheets and pillows. Beside the bed was a white desk filled with colourful paper and there was a jar half-full with paper stars in one corner. In front of the desk was a huge window with tan blinds. On one of the walls there were floral paintings. All around the ceiling there were fairy lights hanging. I gasped in awe. 

"Your room is amazing," I said, my eyes shining. "Thanks, my mom designed it." I ran towards her bed. It was soft and it felt like I fell into a marshmallow. I sat down properly after a few seconds. I didn't want to mess up anything. "So. . . " I started. There was awkward silence. It was like this every time I went to her house. She would show me something cool then I'd fangirl over it then awkward silence. We were still both shy towards each other.

"Wanna eat?," Mi Jin asked unexpectedly. "Uh, sure." I had already eaten but I didn't want to decline her offer because I didn't want her to think I was rude. We made our way into the kitchen quietly. "Oh no, I forgot! Our chef went out to buy food supplies. Everyone else in the house is busy so no one can cook for us." Mi Jin was panicking. 

"It's okay," I assured her. "I can cook. Well, instant noodles that is. Do you have any lying around here?" Mi Jin nodded her head. "I think so. Let me check." She went inside their kitchen pantry and took out two instant noodles here. "Will these do?" I inspected them. "They're more than good enough." I smiled. 

She took out a pot for me to boil water in. "Here." I put water in the pot and placed it on the stove. "Now, we just have to wait for the water to boil." We waited for about five minutes but the water still wasn't boiling. "What heat setting did you set the pot to?," Mi Jin asked. "Uh, the lowest one." Mi Jin laughed. "No wonder it's taking so long. Here, let's put it on the highest setting. This way, we'd wait less." I agreed with her. 

A few seconds later, the gardener came in and asked for our help. We went outside and helped put soil into tiny pots. It was a dirty job but Mi Jin and I were enjoying it. We got caught up with our gardening job that we didn't even realize smoke was covering the kitchen. The smoke alarm start blaring.

"Oh my gosh, we forgot about boiling the water!" Mi Jin and I panicked. We went back into kitchen to try and fix it but it was no use. The smoke was everywhere and it was hard to see anything. Mrs. Kang came out of the house along with a boy that seemed a little older than us. The smoke alarm had stopped blaring and they had opened every window and door in the first floor to air out the house. The smoke was so thick it had spread out into the living room and the dining room. 

"Who was boiling water?!," Mrs. Kang asked. Her face was really red from anger. I looked at Mi Jin and she looked at me. We didn't want to face the wrath of Mrs. Kang but we also knew we had to confess our mistake. We both raised our hands. "We did it. . ." We didn't know what to do next so we stood awkwardly next to each other. Mrs. Kang stomped her way over to us, her heels making angry sounds on the grass beneath her. 

"Do you girls know what could have happened if we hadn't caught this? You could have set the whole house on fire!" Mrs. Kang continued scolding us. Finally, her mom made Mi Jin walk me home and told me that we'd talk this over tomorrow. 

I stood on their porch while Mi Jin put her shoes on. Once she stepped outside, I started saying mean things to her. "It's your fault. You shouldn't have put the setting higher. You're so stupid!" Mi Jin fired back. "No, you're the one that's stupid! If you hadn't put the setting so low then we wouldn't have waited so long for the water to boil thus not resulting in me putting the setting higher." 

We continued to fire mean things to each other, one meaner than the other. Finally, the boy that came out with Mi Jin's umma stepped out of the house and stood between us. "It's both your fault, okay! Just try to accept it. You guys are so loud, my room's right above the main doors and I could hear you guys babbling things you shouldn't be saying." Then he went back in. 

I looked at Mi Jin and she looked at me. Then we burst out laughing and started slapping each other on the back as if we've been friends for a long time. "He's right. It's both our fault. Why didn't we realize it sooner?" Just like that, we suddenly became best friends. We continued to laugh all the way to my house. 

"Hey, thanks for today. See you again tomorrow?" 

"Yup, see you tomorrow." 

"Oh yeah, by the way who was that guy earlier?" 

"Why, you like him?" 

I felt all flustered. "Pffft no! I was just asking since he came out of nowhere." 

"He's my brother. He's two years older and he's in second year of junior high."

"Ah I see. Bye-bye!" 

The next morning, I went to Mi Jin's house again. I was surprised to see Mrs. Kang open the door. "Ah, Cho Hee, good morning. Come in, I'll call Mi Jin over." I blinked. Why is Mi Jin's mom acting as if nothing happened yesterday? My thought instantly disappeared once Mi Jin went down the stairs. She pulled me upstairs into the balcony. 

"Nice isn't it?" I nodded. "Then from now on, this will be our special spot. No one else allowed." I smiled at her. "Agreed!" We stood next to each other on the balcony. The weather was perfect. It wasn't too hot and a cool breeze was in the air. 

"Hey, since this is our special spot does that mean we can tell secrets here?" 

"Of course, that's what special spots are for!" 

"Then in that case, would you mind telling me why you were crying the first time I saw you?" Mi Jin looked away sadly. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I panicked. Mi Jin's eyes softened. "It's okay. You were ought to know anyways." She sat down on the floor and let the breeze carry her hair. 

"Cho Hee, I'm being bullied at school." She lifted up her sleeve and revealed to me a big, ugly, purple bruise. "See this? The first time you saw me it was the last day of school and a girl punched me in the arm really hard. I really wanted to tell my parents but I couldn't. I was scared." My eyes widened in fright. "Oh, Mi Jin we need to tell your parents!" I stood up but Mi Jin pulled me down. "No please don't! I'll tell them when I'm ready. Just don't tell them anything. Promise me, please promise me." Mi Jin was shaking. I couldn't handle the pain in her eyes so I just hugged her. "It's okay. I won't tell them." Mi Jin managed to say thank you in a hoarse voice. 

She pulled away. "You're my first and only friend, did you know that?" My eyes rounded. "Really?" Mi Jin nodded. "Everyone is afraid to make friends with me. They would only get bullied to once the bullies found out they're friends with me." My eyes suddenly saddened. 

"To be quite honest, you're my first friend too." Mi Jin looked shocked. "Really? I've always thought you were the kind of person that has ton of friends." I sighed. "I talk to a lot of people at my school but I don't really have friends. I'm always too busy studying to have fun with people in my year." Even at a young age, I was always told to focus on my studies. I took this too seriously and resulted to me having no friends. 

"Well then, it's a good thing we met!" Mi Jin exclaimed. I agree. 

"What elementary school do you go to," I asked. 

"I go to Kang Elementary School. You?"

"I go to Seoul Park Elementary School. That , our school's are different." 

"That's okay, we could always go to the same middle school."

"That's true." 

For the rest of summer, we did nothing but go to each other's houses and have surprise sleepovers, bonfires, movie marathons and other things best friends did. Summer was nearing its end and we had to go back to school soon. 

It was a week before school started for the second semester of grade 6 for both of us. Me and Mi Jin decided to go for a small adventure and go outside our neighborhood. 

That day was the day we met Lina. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey guys, naemiyoung here :3 This is my longest chapter yet hahaha. I hope you're enjoying this so far ^^ This  is only part two of learning about Mi Jin's and her best friends past. There's about 3 more so this might take a while lol. So are you guys getting an idea of how Mi Jin was before? 

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