It is the summer of 1995, Taeyeon is six and Leeteuk is seven.

[A/N: She only starts to call him Leeteuk at the age of ten, so now Leeteuk is referred to as Jungsu.]

The little girl would always come back from school at two in the afternoon. By that time Jungsu would have been waiting for her by the road, holding a tiny milk caramel sweet in his palm.

The first time he mustered the courage to begin doing it was pretty early in the year, when his mother had given him an idea.

“Jungsu-ah, you know that girl that lives next door? She’s a nice girl. You should do something for her once in a while. Maybe say hi every day after school or something.”

“But umma, she never does anything for us.” He had replied, clearly finding the suggestion quite ridiculous.

“See, Jungsu,” she had said, “sometimes you have to take the initiative. You wanted to be friends with her right? And she’s a lovely girl; you might be best friends in the future. You’ve got to take the first step.”

Jungsu scoffed, turning around and walking back to the living room to watch his favourite television programme. As he watched though, his mother’s words rang in his head, and he just couldn’t get them out.

Later in the day, when his mother was not around, he went to the kitchen and found a packet of sweets. It was a huge packet, yet nobody ate them, and it was stored in the lower compartments, so no one would notice if he took some. He contemplated the idea carefully, weighing his chances. Would his mother scold him for taking sweets without permission?

But then again, if that happened he could just counteract it with her own statement that he had to take the initiative. Five minutes later, he’d come to a conclusion.

Over the span of the next few days, he observed what time she came back from school. Sometimes it would be one fifty-five, sometimes two oh-five, sometimes two o’ clock sharp. He decided that if he waited there at two, he would see her almost every day.

The first time he did it, he was dangerously close to running back to the house the moment he heard the girls footsteps along the path, along with the sound of her bag hitting against her small back. But Jungsu stayed still, reminding himself that he was doing this because he wanted to be friends with her.

“T-Taeyeon!” He stammered, calling out in her direction.

The girl turned, stopping in her tracks, facing him. She smiled.

“What is it?”

He held the sweet in his palm and bit his lower lip as he walked towards her. Taeyeon, confused, tilted her head and watched him.

“I have something for you.”

“Really?” Her eyes widened, grinning.

“Yeah. Do you like sweets?”

Taeyeon nodded vigorously. Jungsu broke into a smile, holding out his palm and opening it, and there sat the milk caramel sweet, wrapped in silver paper, slightly damp from his hold on it. It wasn’t very big, but the girl took it and immediately hugged it.

“Thank you!” She said gratefully.

“You’re welcome!” He replied, satisfied.

And then, before she could say anything more, he turned and walked back to his own house. She watched his back retreat into the home and she unwrapped the sweet, revealing a rich, golden piece of candy. She’d never seen milk caramel sweets before.

So this is what they look like,she thought as she popped the sweet into .

As she chewed, the candy melted in , and she felt like she could eat it all day. When it was swallowed, she felt emptiness, as if something she really loved was taken away from her.

Will he give me the sweet again tomorrow? She wondered, shrugging and going back into her own house. I hope he will.

And as expected, Jungsu would be waiting promptly at two in front of his house, waiting for the enthusiastic girl who would be hopping down the path, always looking forward to that same milk caramel sweet. On days that he wasn’t able to wait for her, she would find it taped to her mailbox, with a note that said, For Kim Taeyeon. Sometimes, there would be a smiley face too.

Soon they had grown used to the sweets, and every time they met up they would begin talking about things. Things that ranged from homework, to stories, to friends—anything in general that they knew, they would share with each other.

It was over those sweets that they grew closer day by day.

Mrs. Park found out the week after he began doing that, but said nothing. At two in the afternoon, when Jungsu was awaiting her arrival, she would be standing by the windows and watching them talk to each other happily for about half an hour a day.

And as both children grew older and fonder of each other, she couldn’t say she regretted telling her son that it was good to take the first initiative. 

When you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done.