Chapter 12

Five year old Lee Taemin was, to say the least, ecstatic. It was his first time ever to go somewhere without the presence of his very overbearing umma and appa. It took a lot of persuading on his part for his mother to let him go to the park his classmates at recess were talking about. He overheard them spazzing about how 'awesome' and 'fun' the place was, and he just had to see what all the fuss was about.

So there he was, holding on to his nanny's hand, grinning widely at the place that felt like a piece of heaven on earth. He was a tad intimidated by the number of strangers around him and the loud screaming of the other children, but with the intimidation held a little bit of excitement. He could almost feel his newfound freedom in the air and the childhood that he could finally possibly have just by being there.

He never had the chance to actually be a child; to do the things he wanted to do as a young boy. He had always wanted to play and pretend to be one of the Knights of the Round Table, to jump around their furniture pretending the floor beneath was molten lava, and to play around with neighborhood kids and be called to go home before dawn by his umma. But none of it ever happened.

He was always locked up inside their mansion, being kept safe from the 'dangers of the world'. Whenever he did get the chance to escape the premises of their household, it was always because his parents wanted to drag him off to their formal parties, bragging to their business associates about how he is the brilliant heir to their careers. But aside from that, his other responsibility as the child of two high profile individuals was to carry the image of the perfect son: exemplary grades, talented in almost all aspects, and amiable – to name a few. (though he did not quite excel in the last category. He was a very shy child, and his parents were partly to blame. What would they expect from a boy who was so kept hidden from the world?)

So Taemin took this chance to become the child that he was supposed to be. He was going to run around, he was going to ride the swings until he feels like he can't take it anymore, and he was going to roam free. Yeah, that's what he'll do. He was still a bit scared because of the unfamiliarity of the environment, but he was going to make the most out of this.

He was just about to release his nanny's hand when he saw a small figure sitting under one of the autumn trees. From afar, he could see that her shoulders were shaking, her knees were pulled up against her chest, and her head was buried in the comfort of her own arms -- as if she was trying to hide herself from the world. And it was almost as if she was... crying?

He found this bizarre. Why would anyone be crying in the place he thought to be the happiest in the world?  As a child who didn’t know the importance of minding his own business, he overcame his usual shyness and let his curiosity get the best of him as he approached the trembling girl.

“Why are you crying?”

Taemin was standing in front of the girl, thoroughly curious. The girl slightly jumped at the sudden sound of Taemin’s voice and looked up at him with puffy red eyes, a clear indication that she had been crying for quite a while.

“Who are you?” She hicks before saying, “Umma told me never to talk to—” Her voice hitched after she blurted out the second statement; as if she remembered something she didn’t want to. “Nevermind, just go away.” And she slipped her head back into her arms, resuming her silent sobbing.

Taemin stared at her. He didn’t say anything for a while and then walked away. The girl heard the soft rustling of the fallen leaves on the ground and she wasn’t sure if she was relieved that the only company she had for a moment had left. But then she scoffed. She was used to people leaving. That’s all they ever do, anyway.

“Here.”

She raised her head up for the second time. What greeted her was an ice cream cone with two rather large scoops of vanilla ice cream placed neatly on it, a small hand holding it out for her. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I asked the ice cream man to pick.”

She tilted her head slightly to see who this ice cream angel was. It was the same boy a while ago. She didn’t have the energy to turn him away again, so she settled on hesitantly taking the treat from the unusual boy. When the ice cream was out of her line of vision, she got a good look of the boy, and saw that he was widely grinning at her. He also had an ice cream cone in one hand.

“Why are you crying?” The same question had to be asked, because Taemin was really very curious.

“Am not.” But the sniffling of her nose and the strain in her voice and her swollen eyes proved otherwise. And the way she was looking at the ground, looking at anything but him, showed that she wasn’t being very honest.

Taemin sat beside the girl on the ground at a comfortable distance, “Lying isn’t very good, you know.”

Save for the screaming of the other children and the creaking of the swings, silence surrounded the two kids sitting against the autumn tree. They were quietly indulging in their cold treats when the absolutely-not-crying-girl spoke up.

“M-My umma and appa don’t want me anymore.” She was staring straight ahead at the families playing around in the park. Taemin turned his head to her, not understanding what she meant by that. The girl could see Taemin’s look of confusion from the corner of her eyes, but she just went on. “They said they’ll come back for me and take me home, but I know that’s not true.”

Her voice was hushed and sad, and it made Taemin sad as well. He didn’t want to hear the girl talk like this anymore and make her remember the very thing that made her as sad as she was at the moment, so he stood up and put his hands on his hips, his ice cream cone long forgotten and thrown to the ground. “Let’s go!”

She looked questioningly up at him, having no clue what the boy was planning. “Where?”

He shot her another one of his grins and took her hand to pull her up. Her ice cream cone flew out of her grasp as well, but that was the last of her concerns, since she was practically being kidnapped by a kid her age.

“Hey! Where are you taking me?!”

“Over there, of course!” He pointed to the far side of the park’s playground where families were happily playing. He made sure that his fingers were still laced with the girl’s because he didn’t want to let go since he was pretty sure that she would run away if he did.

He was beginning to drag her toward the playground when she tugged at his hand, as if trying to pull them back. Taemin raised his eyebrow and the girl whispered quietly, “Not there…”

Why? Taemin wanted to ask. Everyone liked the playground. Well, he wasn’t sure about everyone, but Taemin was certain that he would really enjoy hanging from the monkey bars or spinning on the merry go round. He shifted his gaze from the girl to the playing field, trying to figure out what was so bad about it. The rides looked like fun, there were many children to play with, and there were even parents running around with… Oh.

He understood. She didn’t want to see other kids having fun with their parents when the thought of her own parents not wanting her anymore was lingering at the back of her mind. It would hurt her too much. Taemin’s five year old mind had her figured out, and he didn’t know how that was possible, since they’d only met just minutes ago. What’s more curious is that he didn’t know why cheering up this random girl seemed to matter so much to him; but it just did.

“Eh, nevermind. Who needs the playground? We can go somewhere else.” The formerly crying girl smiled gratefully at him, albeit still a bit shy in his presence.

They spent the rest of their afternoon going places around town, with Taemin’s nanny always following close behind them. They visited almost every toy store, candy shop and ice cream parlor available – in walking distance of course. The boy didn’t want to use the limousine they had used to go to the park, because he didn’t want to have a reason to let go of the girl’s hand, still afraid that she’d run away if he did.

But running away was the farthest thing in the little girl’s mind. She was having such a great time with her new friend that she almost lost track of time. That is until dawn approached and the nanny accompanying them reminded the two children that it was time they returned to the park. At first, they were both very adamant on continuing their adventure around town, but they eventually gave in and reluctantly slugged back.

The swings emitted quiet creaking sounds in the eerily silent park. Just this afternoon, the place was roaring with energy and children’s loud shrieking. The only two children present in the park sighed contentedly. This was more like it.

“You know…” The girl was looking down shyly as she addressed Taemin while swinging back and forth, clinging to the swing’s chains, “you never told me your name…”

“Oh, right!” he laughed at himself for forgetting the simplest of things, “My name’s Taemin!” He held out his hand to her, as if it was their first time to meet.

The little girl timidly laughed at her new friend’s ridiculousness, but she replied, “I’m Jinri… But my friends call me Sulli…”

“Then I’ll call you Sulli too!”

There was a comfortable silence that consumed them once again, and Sulli was once again the first to initiate an action. She didn’t know what pushed her to do it, but it felt right.

“Take this.”

Taemin had been inspecting his feet as he was winding back and forth in his swing, but he turned his attention to her right away when she spoke. She was holding out a white string bracelet, its strings criss crossing each other in a repetitive pattern. Taemin noticed that it looked somewhat new, so he had to ask, “Don’t you want to keep it?”

“Nuh-uh,” she shook her head and continued, “When umma gave this to me, she said it was because I was the specialest person in her life.” She grabbed Taemin’s hand softly and placed the bracelet on his small palm, “So now I’m giving mine to the specialest person in my life.”

The boy clasped the tight bundle of strings in his tiny hand. He didn’t know what to say; all he knew was that he felt very attached to the girl beside him, regardless of the brevity of the time they had known each other. So instead of saying anything, he smiled gratefully at her for the token he had just received. She smiled back, but Taemin still wasn’t convinced that he had done a good enough job on cheering her up.

“Sulli… Whenever you’re sad, just go here, and I’ll be waiting for you, ‘kay?” She raised her head with furrowed brows and a slight frown, not quite believing that the boy meant what he said. He had a serious expression on – or rather the most serious expression a child could try to pull off— and grinned shortly afterwards. “Or, you can always just think of me, and then maybe you’ll feel better?”

Once again, she had to laugh at Taemin’s ridiculousness. But she still nodded in promise to what Taemin said, because knowing that someone wants to be there for her when nobody did anymore gave her comfort. Taemin laughed with her, but was abruptly cut short by the nanny calling him from a distance, telling him that it was time to go home.

He frowned. He didn’t want to go back home. He wanted to stay with his new friend.

"Your nanny’s calling you,” He knew that Sulli was talking to him, but he stared straight ahead because it would just make him sadder if he looked at the face of the person he’d be parting with. “Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you too!”

That was all Taemin needed to hear to be content enough to drag himself back home.

Sorry it took so long for me to update! I hope this flashback makes sense, haha. Comments are very much appreciated!