“If you don’t hurry, I’ll leave you behind!”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Would!”

“You’ll get lost, Ji.”

“I would not!” He looked around the dense forest that surrounded both of the boys, and pointed to the east. “My house is back that way!”

“We walked the opposite way, Jiyong.” Youngbae reminded him, gesturing toward the way they were walking. Jiyong just ignored him and walked toward the destination he was planning on reaching.

Youngbae sighed and rushed forward to keep track of his friend, making sure to not lose sight of the bright yellow shirt through the shrubbery in the park.

The boy was older than Jiyong only by months, but the younger still liked to have adventures that usually resulted in both of them getting lost. . Once, when they were seven, Jiyong had dragged Youngbae out when his mother had gone to the store, leaving them both to be ’babysat’ by Ji’s sister, when Jiyong said he wanted to show Bae two puppies that he had seen on the way home from school. They’d sneaked out, which wasn’t really hard considering Jiyong’s sister was locked up in her room blasting obnoxious pop music. By the time they had reached the small dogs, it was almost dark, they were all the way across town, and the mother of the pups was waiting. That had lead to Youngbae gaining a two inch scar on his leg and a painful, scary journey back home.

Jiyong’s mom and sister were almost hysterical by the time they got back, and when Jiyong ran through the door of the house, yelling about how Bae’s leg was bleeding so much, and Ji’s mom had been more afraid by her son’s over reaction than anything. 

Youngbae’s mom had given him a long lecture about how he should have made sure he and Jiyong had been safe, and he shouldn’t have let Jiyong talk him into walking all the way across town. Ji had been in the background while he was being scolded and bandaged, sniffing and wiping tears that were still streaming down his puffy face. Youngbae’s older brother, Hyeonbae, tried to reassure the little boy that it wasn’t his fault, and he too would have tried to convince Ji, if he wasn’t trying to whimper at the stinging feeling of his mother cleaning out the dog bite.

Their mothers were worried sick every time they left the house, and it took a while before Youngbae could convince them that he could watch Ji, and they didn’t need their older siblings all the time. Even with the convincing, they were still scrutinized like they would cause destruction in every path they walked together, because Jiyong plus Youngbae equaled trouble—supposedly.

He’d given in again, but Youngbae was relatively sure the younger boy knew where they were going; but even if he didn’t, Bae knew this park like the back of his hand since he had lived by it all of his life, and Ji when he was five and moved here with his family. The two had been attached at the hip ever since.

Jiyong let out a sound of victory a few yards ahead, knocking Youngbae back into the present. Catching up, he took in the sight of Ji standing by the small river that passed through the middle of the park. They had discovered the stream by accident three summers ago, and had spent a good week being annoying kids, making a dam out of sticks and rocks to make a bridge across the river. Jiyong had come up with their own Territory Game, pretending that both of them had to make sure the other didn’t get across the river and onto their land. Fighting with stick-swords, one of the boys had to get to the other side of the dam, and who ever did first got the last pineapple popsicle from Ji’s mom’s refrigerator. Youngbae usually lost on purpose because he knew pineapple was Jiyong’s favorite, and he didn’t mind losing all that much. He just didn’t tell Jiyong that.

Now, three years later, the two eleven year olds looked at the old stream that had changed a bit since the last time they had been here. Their dam no longer blocked the flow of water, but their sticks and rocks were on the bottom of the riverbed, making a few of the larger boulders stick up and create slippery steps across to the other bank. Youngbae was actually surprised some of the park supervisors hadn’t come I and removed the dam for the…safety of whatever wildlife occupied the forest, but apparently nature had adjusted itself, making it so the river’s current could cover come the amateur blockage made by two eight year olds.

“Ah! Look at our dam!” Jiyong shouted, not very loudly, but loud enough to call attention to the fact that he was upset.

“It wasn’t that great anyway,” Youngbae said gently, and he could tell Ji knew that too. The dam wasn’t a good one, and they really hadn’t expected it to last this long anyway.

“Bet I can still make it across…” Ji stated.

Youngbae tensed, already sensing a bad idea. “Ji, the rocks are completely wet, look at them.” Jiyong did. “There’s no way you can get across without falling in. And you’ll fall in and start crying and I’ll have to come in and—”

Apparently, that was exactly the challenge Jiyong needed, as he walked right over and boldly stepped onto the closest rock that started the walk way across the stream.

Why did he have to be so stubborn?

“Jiyong! You’ll really get hurt, come back!”

“You’re not my mom, Bae.” The younger boy muttered. “Calm down, God…” He held out his arms, trying to keep his balance and watch his feet.  

Next step. “Ji…”

And another. “Jiyong.”

Youngbae stood on the other side watching Ji when suddenly he lost balance. His foot twisted, and he fell backward into the water. All of his instincts told him to go rush to his aid but he was trapped on the other side of the river, unable to do anything but watch his best friend land on his side in the river.

The current wasn’t an issue; in fact, Jiyong was only half wet from the amount of water that traveled in the stream. But Youngbae was more worried about the fact that his friend was in a fetal position, clutching his right leg and seemed unable to make a facial expression other than total pain.

His heart clenched, and he rushed forward to try and pull him up. He didn’t care about his shoes getting soaked, or his shorts getting wet; he had to get his friend out.

Wrapping an arm under the younger boy’s waist, making sure to avoid the rocked under him, and throwing Ji’s arm over his shoulder, he lifted him up and onto the bank. Luckily, Jiyong had always been as skinny as a pole and weighed about the same.

Grunting, he pulled himself up and settled himself beside his friend to catch his breathe.

Looking him over, Youngbae winced at the bloody sight that met him.

Jiyong’s right leg was slashed from his knee to ankle, blood seeping from the largest cut, oozing down his leg and staining his shoe, over Ji’s hand where he was clutching just above his ankle. It looked red and angry, but not exactly twisted or mangled. 

Looking away before he could feel nauseated, Youngbae stood shakily, knowing that it was his turn to help Jiyong get home this time.

“I told you that was dangerous,” he mumbled, not really talking to anyone even if it was aimed at Jiyong.

His friend just whimpered, obviously in pain and not going to respond with the usual bratty comeback. 

Frowning, he crouched beside his friend, looking him in the face, because Ji’s eyes were tightly shut and holding back the tears he knew he was holding back.

“Jiyong,” he said quietly, “I’m gonna move your hands, okay? You gotta let me pull you up so we can go back home.”

The boy shook his head in a jerky motion, biting his lip.

“Yes, Ji. I can’t do anything just sitting here. Your ankle could be bad and…” Jiyong’s eyes opened, watery and shining with agony. 

“Mom will k-kill me for g-g-getting hurt.”

Youngbae tried to smile gently back. “No, your mom will kill me for letting you get hurt.”

He shook his head, mumbling about how it wasn’t Bae’s fault, cutting off as more blood ran down his leg.

True enough, Youngbae thought, but decided not to say anything. He turned so his back was to his friend. “Get on my back; I can’t drag you all the way back home.”

Slowly, he felt two arms encircle his neck lightly, and he saw two bloody hands clasp in front of him, but he didn’t comment on the fact that the blood was completely gross.

“Make sure your leg doesn’t hit me, okay?”

“Okay…”

“One, two…” Lift. Youngbae thanked God again that Ji was so little.

Tucking his hands under Jiyong’s knees, careful of the right one, he gently adjusted the boy on his back and started toward home.

Jiyong’s chin rested on his shoulder. “Home’s the other way, Bae…” 

He smiled, because at least he wasn’t crying and he was actually being himself. Ji wouldn’t let this affect him so much. “Home is this way, trust me.”

After a while, when they were close enough to see the houses up ahead, Ji said, “We should go to your mom’s house instead…she won’t yell at me.”

“Maybe we can get Dami-noona to fix you up,” he teased, knowing his friend would do anything to avoid his sister.

“Ya! That’s not even funny! Dami would threaten to cut off my leg before she helped me.”

“You’re sister’s not that bad.”

“You say that because she feeds you every time you come over. She’s not like that when you’re gone, she always tells me she’d rather have you for a little brother.”

“That’s because I don’t go around not listening to friends who try and help you.”

“Shut up! I get it already… You can take Dami though…really. Hyeonbae-hyung is a way better brother.”

He laughed. “You can be my brother Ji. That way you can have Hyeonbae as a brother, too.”

“But that means I’d have to deal with you as my older brother, too…”

“And?” Youngbae knew Jiyong was kidding, but he played along.

“Who wants a brother like you? You always tell me not to do this, not to do that…”

“Want me to drop you and leave you here?”

“I love you, Bae!”

“Thought so.”

He didn’t talk after that, silent during the slow walk home.

By the time the two had gotten to Jiyong’s house, across the street from his own, Youngbae had only just realized that the boy was asleep on his back, hands hanging loosely and his head propped on his shoulder.

When Jiyong’s mother saw him, she frowned at the sight of her son’s friend being there to bring more news that Ji was hurt. But it was usual, and she just shook her head and motioned to lay him on the couch while she got the first aid kit.

Plopping down beside the couch, he watched Jiyong’s mother work and told her what happened.

“I’m worried every time he goes out now,” she replied after he was done.

“I’ll be there,” he assured. “He won’t die on my watch.”

She smiled, her eye’s smile getting more squinted. “I know, honey. You’re a good friend.”

“He’s a good friend, too, just… hyper.”

A laugh from behind them made Youngbae jump. Turning, he saw Jiyong’s sister looking into the room. “He got hurt again?”

“Now Dami…” Ji’s mother warned.

“Want a cookie, Bae? I have some from this morning.”

“If you save some for Ji.”

She chuckled and walked off, and Youngbae assumed she would go along with what he wanted. He leaned over and continued to watch Ji’s mother, and waiting for his friend to wake up so he could share the cookies and give him a pineapple popsicle to make him feel better. 

This was one the first time Youngbae hadn’t been the one who got hurt on one of Jiyong’s adventures, and he couldn‘t help but wish it was like it always was. He’d rather have another scar then see that face Ji made when he was in pain.