Cha Sunwoo thought that it was going to be another boring day at his dull work place, that small, coffee house, located at far end of a road, where its existence was only known by few of their regular customers.

He wasn’t exactly sure what position he had in the coffee house. Some said, he was a barista, who prepared and served the coffee drinks to the customers, but, he would also be working behind counters, greeting and taking their customers’ orders. Maybe he was a bit of both, but he didn’t mind – for at least, he would get more bonus allowances from his stingy employee.

His everyday working routines allowed him to do practically everything that he wanted to do. He would start off the day by coming as early as 8 o’clock in the morning to run the operation hours, he could get a short nap in the afternoon, sleeping behind the counters, and he was even able to drink as many cups of coffee as he wanted to. Well, not that his employee allowed him to, but his free times and the ever so same old routines, gave him the green light to do so.

The customers weren’t many for a small, isolated, coffee house like them. Most of them were in their middle age, and whenever they came to the place, Sunwoo would put on his best future son-in-law image to entertain them. He would dance his squirrel dance and he would crack the stupidest jokes that only older generations would know. It was probably a part of his customer-service-routines, but he was genuinely happy when he did that.

The customers were like the breezy winds to his dry, summer-like surroundings. They tickled his heart and gave him life.

That afternoon, he was sitting behind the counter, about to fall into a nap, when he heard a sudden ring from the shop-bell, which was attached to the door, to alert the customers’ entry. The sound startled him; he wasn’t expecting a customer to come at this hour. In fact, none of his customers would come at afternoon, for that – he was sure.

He stretched his back, adjusted his favourite cap on his blonde-hair-head and quickly got on his two feet to greet the customer.

“Hello, welcome to…”

Sunwoo stood a little froze, as his bright talking tone, abruptly came to an end. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Three years have passed and now, she was standing right in front of him.

“Baro oppa?” The girl blurted out first.

“Bb-bomi?” He mumbled back.

Their eyes met. That very moment took them back to their memories that were kept closely to his heart and memories that he refused to let go.

-------

“Oppa? Why does the moon look so small from here? I read a book, and they said it’s big.” The little girl blurted out one night as she lay on top of the vast, green field, with the night view as her companion and a boy lay right next to her. The boy rested his head on his hands, while the girl comfortably put her head on top of his chest.

“Who says that the moon is big?”

“A book. And my science teacher told me so too.”

The matter of fact was, Sunwoo had no idea whether the moon was big in size or small – not that he had any care for it either. He was never really good at studying and he had no interest in that too. Sports were his and he was an athlete, one of his school’s best athletes.

“Well, the moon is definitely big in size. But it looks small from here. Do you want to know why?”

“Why?” The girl asked, while nodding her head a little.

“To me, the moon is like a dream. Remember how our teachers always tell us to dream big and to chase after our dreams?”

“Yes?” She felt more curious.

“A moon is also like that. A moon appears to be small from here, so we can see it clearly, and believe that it is reachable. A moon is like a dream, it would always be big, but if we try hard, we could achieve whatever we dream for.”

He was not a man of witty words, but for some reasons, his explanations made sense to her.

-------

As years passed by, the two children grew up and become the best of friends. Sunwoo was only a year older than her, but he treated Bomi, as if she was a child. He was protective of her, although, at times, he would make fun of her; he would buy her foods and steal her foods away; and he would always make sure to walk her home every evening, no matter how tight or busy he was with his sports training schedules.

Their closeness was misunderstood by many, but none of them seemed to bother to clear the misunderstandings. They were perfectly fine with each other’s companions. To Sunwoo, Bomi was his favourite cap of all his collection of caps, and to Bomi, Sunwoo was the ‘Angry Bird’ to all of her collection of Angry Birds. In fact, she was the only person in the entire world that was allowed to call him by the name of ‘Baro’.

Everything was perfect, until puberty struck.

Sunwoo noticed how his best friend grew up to become such a pretty young girl. Her hair was getting longer; she started to use make-ups to school and she abandoned her ‘Angry Bird’ bag pack for a girlish handbag. The thing that bothered Sunwoo the most was the fact that Bomi decided to join the school’s dance club. Sunwoo was indeed well aware of Bomi’s talent in dancing, but the thoughts of her dancing passionately with other guys, were somehow a little too much for him to contain. In short, he hated it and he was jealous, although he kept denying it.

“Can you just quit the dance club?” Sunwoo blurted out one evening, as they walked home together.

“Huh?” Bomi stopped at her tracks and looked at him in confusion. It was the first time Sunwoo had said something in regards to her interest towards dancing.

“I hate seeing you being d by those male dancers.”

“It’s not groping. It’s call dancing, mind you.” She retorted back, a little hurt with her best friend’s harsh remark. He was supposed to support her, not belittling her passion for dancing. And for once in those many years they had spent, that was their first ever serious argument, which led to at least two days of awkwardness. But of course, no arguments were valid enough to break their friendship bond – so in the end, reconciliation would always be the final answer.  

-------

He never really knew when did his feelings for Bomi started to grow. He was always fond of her; like how he thought she was cute, like how he would pinch her nose when she wasn’t looking and like how he always wanted to spend his weekend at arcades with her. He always thought that, that was the kind of feelings that two best friends would have with each other, but then, he started to doubt himself.  

Sunwoo wanted more than that. He wanted to take her out on a date, he wanted to be able to hold her hands without feeling guilty; and he had no longer wanted to be just her ‘oppa’.

But he wasn’t sure if he was willing to sacrifice their years-of-friendships for a feeling that may or may not last longer than their friendships. Most of all, he was scared to lose her. He would rather be her favourite oppa that would always be there for her, than next to nothing. To him, she was his other half, she was his support system, she was his favourite cap and she was his moon.

“Baro-oppa?” She said, one evening, as the pair sat at a bench, eating on their almost melted ice-creams. Bomi was holding two popsicles ice-creams, with each ice-cream in her hands, whilst Sunwoo only had a small cone of ice-cream. He wasn’t much of a sweet-tooth person.

“Yeap?” He replied back, nonchalantly.

“”What do you think about me studying overseas?”

Sunwoo was taken aback with her question. No answer left his mouth. Only stares.

“My dance coach is offering me a two-year dancing course. And it’s in United States.”

For once, Sunwoo felt as if his world was shaken. The idea of Bomi being somewhere far away from him; had never really ran across his head, and if it did, he would quickly shrug it off. But this felt too real for him to even brain it. For some reasons, he felt betrayed and had a tiny bit of guilty, because as her best of friend, he was supposed to be happy for her, but he couldn’t and he wouldn’t. 

“So, are you going to accept it?”

-------

The biggest nightmare of his life was having to watch his moon walking away from his life to reach for her moon, instead.

Their farewell was sad, but it was even heart-breaking for him. She was crying in his arms, and he was broken inside. He refused to be fragile – he was the man, he was the oppa and he needed to toughen up – or at least, he thought so.

The two of them promised to stay contact with each other, to stay friends and to stay close. Like how they said, there would always be technology to rely to. For the first four weeks, they exchanged emails for 7 days a week, then, it became thrice a week, and as time moving forward, sending emails were no longer a priority for both, and eventually they became distant.

Sometimes, promises are meant to be just promises.

And sometimes, promises are forgotten.

So, Sunwoo, decided to move on with his life. He survived his senior year in high school; he applied for college and did various part time jobs to pay for his education. He left his dreams to become an athlete due to his ankle injury, but he devoted to reach it in a different way. If future was going his way, he would be accepted as a physical education teacher in a small sports academy.

Three years have passed; and now, she was standing here in front of him.

-------

Like good old times, the two friends decided to stroll along in the nearby park around the neighbourhood, reminiscing memories that were swallowed by time. They took a seat at a bench, facing a man-made fountain, accompanied with the sound of drizzling water.

“So how’s life?” Sunwoo, asked, breaking the somewhat long, awkward silence between them.

“Well, I’ve been a good girl.” She chuckled a little, shooting the same old, mischievous look that she had always had in the past. “How about oppa?”

“And I’ve been a pretty good boy too.” He replied, curving his lips into a smile.

“You don’t wear caps anymore?” She asked again. A few years back, she had always used of seeing him in caps, because according to him, wearing caps made him feel much confident about himself.

“And so do you with your Angry Bird’s collections.” He shot back with a sheepish smile this time. The little girl that he knew had grown up so much now. She looked sophisticated, matured and she became a young beautiful, lady.  

Again, awkward silence fell between them. If this was a few years ago, they would be playfully insulting each other, threw stupid jokes, poking each other’s cheeks and she would be telling him stories endlessly – that he would cover with his hands just to stop her from talking. And even if silence did exist, it was a comfortable one, the kind of silence that they appreciated.

“What brings you back here?” After a long silence, he asked again.

“My fiancé is having a dance performance here, so I’m basically just tagging along.”

The word fiancé tugged the deepest hole in his heart. What else had he been missing for the past years? And why didn’t she tell him about it? Was it because of the distance? Or just merely because, they have fallen apart? But none of the questions were delivered out from his mouth. He knew that, he was no longer in the position, to question her life. She was a grown up, and so was he.

“Fiancé? So, the little angry bird girl has a fiancé now.” He teased, ignoring his bittersweet feelings. “So, who’s the unlucky guy?”

“Ahh, oppa!” She said, with a sulky expression in her face. It was a habit of hers to pout and to hit his arm, when Sunwoo . “Well, his name is Lee Howon, he’s a dancer and I met him in United States, and…..”

For most of their conversations, she did most of the talking, but like a good oppa that he was, Sunwoo continued to listen. They talked about past, but mostly about presents. He then began to realize that he missed out on a lot of important things in her life – and a drenching fact, was the fact that, he was no longer the once, important oppa in her life. It wasn’t that long until her fiancé came to pick her up at the park. Sunwoo laid eyes on him and thought that he was a pretty good guy for her. He was well-build, soft-spoken and he didn’t look like those douches on streets. And she was all giggly too when she was with him. So, he was happy for her – or at least, he tried to be.

“Take care, Bbom-ah.” Sunwoo said, as they hugged and parted their own ways.

“You too, oppa. Let’s meet again sometimes.”

He nodded his head and signalled her fiancé with expression that people said only between men could understand. He then watched the happy couple from afar; as they slowly disappeared from his sight. He closed his eyes, looked up in the sky and let out a deep breath.

He was now able to move on and no longer felt haunted by the old memories.

You’re like a moon. So close and yet, so far.

p.s: I don't know what I'm writing. I'm sorry if this is not good enough

or if it wasted anyone's time to read it.

I .