Do you remember the day we met?

Right to the finest detail that you probably don’t and perhaps refuse to recall, I do.

Like the fact that you had your forehead and left knee covered in bandages, and one tooth missing at that time because you fell from the tree while trying to retrieve your friend’s kite, for example. You avoided me for a whole week even though I was new in the neighbourhood and we were in the same class. I was already coming to a conclusion that you didn’t like me, but then once your wounds healed, you brought your lunch box and came to sit with me at my table, smiling and grinning and introducing yourself like it was my first day there instead of my eighth. You were still missing one tooth but you looked just as pretty.

Do you remember our first fight?

My dad’s job always brings him and his family to many places. Just three years after I came, I had to move away again. You avoided me for a whole week just like when I first arrived because our moms said no to you coming with us and I said no to us running away to that place with flower beds by the beach you saw in the television. In the end you only spoke to me when I promised to write you letters every day.

Do you remember?  I did, every single day.

I have lost count of how many letters I’ve written you, but I am pretty sure this won’t be the last, because I will keep writing to you even when you’re next to me, even when there’s nothing left to say.

They say we are a mismatched couple because you have such big round eyes compared to my small crescent eyes, but you just laughed it off with your hearty giggles that I love the most.

Thank you for making Im Hyunsik the happiest man in the world by saying I do.

Happy anniversary, Ara.