Oct 4^th 2008

Thirteen year old Kata woke up in a strange place and instead of her own bed she was lying on a hard tarmac. Confused, she looked around and stood up. The place didn’t look like any familiar place near her home or actually it didn’t even look like any place in Finland. The solitary street had graffitis on walls and the houses looked way different from home.

Kata started to walk along the street wishing she’s find someone who could tell her where she was and maybe even tell her a way home. She didn’t have any idea how she had ended up in the place for her last memory was that she had gone to sleep in her own bed and the next thing she knew she had waken up on a tarmac in a strange place where there seemed to be nobody at the time.

After walking a while looking around her seeming lost Kata felt someone twitching her sleeve. She looked next to her and saw about ten year old boy who, like her, was Asian and extremely cute and who asked: “noona, are you lost?” Kata frowned because even though she had understood what the boy had said, he had spoken Korean instead of Finnish. After a short silence Kata replied in the same language. “Yeah. Where am I and why are you speaking Korean?” The boy looked at her surprised and answered: “Is noona stupid? We’re in South Korea, Seoul. Today is October 4^th 2004. What is noona called? My name is Jung Ilhoon. It’s my birthday today. I’m 10 years old.” Kata stared at the boy for a while wondering if she should believe him or not, finally ending up believing his words and murmuring to herself “How the heck am I in Korea and even stranger, how am I four years in the past..?” Luckily Ilhoon didn’t hear her murmuring and Kara replied. “Sorry. I think I hit my head. My name is Kata Siren, but my Korean name is Bang Sunha. Happy Birthday! Why aren’t you celebrating your b-day?” The boy pouted sadly and answered, looking down. “My mommy and daddy are working and my big sister is at her friend’s place. Why do you have a foreign name?” Kata smiled compassionately at the boy and answered “I live in Finland, so that’s why I have such a name. Well if you don’t have anyone to spend your b-day with, will I do? Though I don’t have any money, but we can stroll around and go to a park for example.” Ilhoon nodded happily and took Kata’s hand guiding her to the nearest park.

The twosome spent the day playing and while they were swinging in swings, Ilhoon asked “noona, how old are you?” Kata slowed down and answered smiling: “Thirteen.” Ilhoon also slowed down and said smiling widely “My sister’s thirteen, too. I’m sure you’d become real good friends.” Kata nodded slowly and thought to herself that would probably not happen.

After swinging for a while more Ilhoon jumped away from the swing and said “Come. Let’s go to a place.” The girl jumped from the swing too and followed the young boy. Soon the two of them came to a photo booth and Ilhoon said “I know how to get photos from this machine for free. Come, I wanna be in the same photo with noona.” Kata nodded and went to the booth behind the younger one. Ilhoon was tapping for a while until a content smile appeared on his face and numbers from 10 started to flash on the screen. Ilhoon moved behind Kata who was sitting, and he said to the girl “Smile and make cute faces.” The older laughed a bit and started, after Ilhoon, making different expressions from cute to silly.

After the photo shoot the twosome waited for the photos and Ilhoon handed over half of them to the girl saying “Memories from this day. I think I should be going home. It’s 6pm already. My parents must be worried already. Bye bye Sunha noona.” Kata waved at Ilhoon and looked at him go until she didn’t see him at all.

Before Kata had time to think how to get back to her own time and her own home, she felt weird pulling force behind her belly button and in the blink of an eye she was in another place. Kata recognized the hall of their house and instantly ran to seek for her mother. After finding what she was looking for and asked her mother “Mom, mom mom, what date is it today, and which year?” Her mother looked at her child wondering, until she replied “October 4^th 2008 and it is 6am. What are you doing awake at this hour? Isn’t your school starting only at 9am?” Kata shrugged her shoulders and went to her own room intending to sleep a bit more, until she remembered the photos that had been in her hand the whole time. She looked at them smiling and wondering how everything had happened and if she’d again one day meet Ilhoon.