At age 10, boy meets girl for the first time

A little girl in a pink leotard is sitting on the curb, hair undone, ballet slippers carelessly strewn aside; her head bent, crying into her arms.

“Excuse me, are you okay?” a voice asks.

She looks up and sees a gangly boy her age, wearing a Batman t-shirt and kind of resembling a monkey.

She wipes her face with the back of her hands quickly. “Yes, I am.”

He gives her a small smile, “You were crying. Want to talk about it?” He has the clearest kindest eyes she has seen – different from all the other boys at her elementary school.

“Here. This always helps when I’m sad,” he offers her his strawberry milk sitting down next to her.

A giggle escapes her, “I thought monkeys liked bananas.” And then claps her hand over , “I’m so sorry. My mom always says I speak before I think.”

“It’s okay. All my friends call me monkey and it made you smile, right?”

Surprised she realizes that her tears have indeed stopped.

Contrary to what her mom has taught her, she thinks that maybe it’s alright to confide in this stranger.

“I was crying because my ballet teacher yelled at me and the girls in the class don’t want to be my friends,” she says in a small voice.

“Why?”

“They say that I dance too strong like a boy.” She starts sobbing again recalling the taunting faces and he looks around helplessly. 

He was sure the strawberry milk would make her happy. 

Panicking he gets up and starts dancing to an H.O.T song. He is really good and can even do Jang Woo Hyuk’s popping moves and she watches him rapt - her tears coming to an instant standstill.
When he finishes, she claps enthusiastically making him break into a shy grin, “So is dancing like a boy a bad thing?”

She shakes her head still looking awestruck.

“Do you think you can teach me?”

A/T: This is a story I wrote a while ago and re-reading it was quite an experience.. parts of it felt like they were written by someone else :D but revisiting it made me want to finish it and since I haven't been updating my other stories recently, this is a treat for you faithful subscribers. At least 19 chapters are completed already so I'll try to update daily!