Yong Hwa's eomma went inside his room to wallow because her son's bedroom was the coolest among all the rooms in the house. Yong Hwa came in, bringing along a box of goodies for her.

"Eomma!" Yong Hwa greeted with his toothy grin.

Eomma got up from lying on the bed and hugged her son tight. Though grown up, she still treated him like a baby.

"What has nae Yong Hwa brought for me?" she smiled.

"Dumplings," he said.

Eomma got up and took the box. As she walked past him, she knocked over some pile of books from his bedside table, and came down his books to the floor.

"Omo, mianhae, nae adeul (my son)," Eomma apologized.

Eomma helped him arranged his books, but one piece of paper fell off from among the pile. Eomma picked it up and saw a photo of a little girl. She got pensive as she looked at him.

"Why do you still have this?" she asked him. "Didn't I  tell you to throw it away?"

Yong Hwa's hurt surfaced from his eyes. He snatched the picture away and told her he was not throwing it.

"This is the clue to my first love," he said. "I will be waiting for her. She will come to me."

Tears fell down his eomma's eyes, "Neo....neo nal yaksokhaesseo! (You...you promised me!)"

"Joesonghaeyo, Eomma," he replied, his voice quivering.

"You are hopeless," Eomma said, tears stinging her eyes.

Yong Hwa looked at his disappointed eomeoni exiting the room with the box of dumplings. Tears fell down his eyes as he lay on his bed to stare at the photo.

It was the photo of his first love, the memory that he had kept in his planner. Only his eomma knew of it, and none of his friends knew.

Flashback

Yong Hwa was only six that day, and he and his classmates were playing near the creek beside their school. His mother came to fetch him from yoochiwon (kindergarten), and they came home together.

At home, he was playing with his mother's purse to get some money when he came across a picture of a little girl around his age, and he smiled when he saw the picture.

"Eomma, nuguyeyo?" he asked.

"Molla," Eomma said. "I just saw the kid's picture near the garden of your school, and I just picked it up because it was a waste to lose such a pretty picture."

Yong Hwa looked at the girl in the pic. She was wearing a colorful frock of all tints of pink, and her hair was curled like Goldilocks. He vowed that he would try to find her.

Years rolled on, and though he had some crushes during primary grade, he still considered the pink girl as his first love. When he reached high school, he got even more rebellious to the point of coming home occasionally to look everywhere for her with all crude means. He tried to ask police officers to help him, but his appa told him to stop his nonsense. It came to a point when he was so obsessed that he began stalking a girl he thought was the girl in the pic, and when he found out it was not the girl, he starved himself to death. His hyungs tried to talk to him out of it, but he would not budge. Finally, his eomma cried and threatened to tear up the picture. Yong Hwa shed his tears and begged not to tear the picture, and he promised to stop thinking of her. Eomma also told him to throw the picture, and he promised. Eomma believed him that he would keep his promise.

Even as he grew up and got to college, he was still thinking of that girl in the picture, and he was longing for her every single day.

End of flashback

"Nan...neol gidaril geoya (I'll...wait for you)," he promised as he let tears fall down again.

He brought the picture to his lips and gave the little girl's image a kiss.

"Eonjena...neon nae cheot sarangiya (You will always be my first love)," he whispered.

~~~~