With tears evident in his eyes, Kangin stumbled towards me and did one thing I never expected that night. He wrapped me in a warm embrace as he sobbed. I stood frozen for a while… but afterwards, I found myself hugging him back and comforting him. We didn’t need to say anything. I felt like I was pulled back in time when we were just kids and we would easily understand each other without the use of words. When he finally calmed down, I asked him if I could help him with his wounds and bruises. I believed it would somehow help him during training because he’d feel relieved of the previous pains and endure longer. Surprisingly, he nodded and smiled at me.

“Hey…” Kangin hesitantly said afterwards “can I… sleep in your bed tonight? I missed the scent…”

I did my best to hide a smile and pulled that I’ll-think-about-it look.

“If you don’t want to, it’s okay—“ he started off so I instantly nodded.

It felt extremely awkward between us. We’ve been the best of friends for years… and then for the last three years we became strangers again. I thought it would be easy to pull back those years… but I was wrong. It was extremely awkward. But I would take all the awkwardness in the world just to get back what we had. That night, I fixed my bed and made sure it was comfortable enough to give good dreams to a broken heart.

“Don’t think about the pressure of tomorrow,” I said as I tucked him in “you just take a rest and then you show them what you can do.”

Kangin smiled and nodded like a little kid. I smiled back and made my way to the study desk where I slept the first night when he unknowingly occupied my bed. But before I could leave, Kangin held my arm with a tight but gentle grip.

I felt like it was “Overnight Saturday” again. Back then, Kangin always spent the night in our house during Saturdays and we would play games and sleep on my bed. I could tell that he really missed the scent of my pillows. He had that smile that he always wore and I felt comfortable again. The only difference now was that we didn’t fit well in one bed like we used to. I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep that night because I was close to falling out of the bed, but when Kangin wrapped his arms around me, minutes later I dozed off too.

“Good morning…” I timidly greeted him when he woke up.

“Morning…” he greeted me back “I didn’t squeeze you much, did I?”

“I’m used to it,” I assured him with a smile.

He spent the whole day in training and I spent the whole day doing my usual duties around the camp. After my kitchen duties, I went back to the cabin. Minutes later, Kangin came in. I tried to read his face to get a hint if his training went well or not. After a few seconds, I didn’t need to. He ran towards me and hugged me tight as he happily jumped around.

“I WASN’T KICKED OUT!!” he shouted with joy “I’M STILL IN THE TEAM! I’M STILL IN THE TEAM, TEUKIE!!!”

The instant I heard him say the nickname that I wanted to erase, a smile found its way on my lips. Sungmin was right. The old nickname sounded better if it came from Kangin.

After that day, things dramatically changed. We started to talk to each other again. There was a lot of catching up to do. Every time that he would start to apologize, I would tell him that there was no need. All I wanted was to have him back… no need for formalities.

“KANGIN!” I shook him one day when the wake-up alarms blared up again “KANGIN DO I HAVE TO BEAT YOU UP EVERY MORNING JUST TO WAKE YOU!? I’M NOT YOUR MARTIAL ARTS COACH! WAKE UP!”

Kangin just stirred like always. I pulled out the pillows and prepared water again. Every night he slept on my bed, pulled me in with him and then gave me a hard time in waking him up in the morning.

“You used to wake me up in a different way…” he said eyes still closed.

“Oh just get up, we’ll be late again” I tried to pull him but he was too heavy. It gave me unusual chills when I recall the surefire way to wake up and so I tried other things just to avoid that.

Kangin snored and pretended to be fast asleep, but he was smiling.

“I already pulled the pillows and you’re already awake, so get up!”

“Teukie shut up! I’m sleeping here…” he said in a mocking tone.

“Fine” I said upon hearing that nickname from him again. I leaned forward, brushed up his hair and then kissed him on the forehead.

“I’m half awake now…” he opened his eyes and smiled at me.

“Oh real mature Kangin,” I shook my head ”we’re not kids anymore. You can’t make me kiss your forehead for at least ten times now.”

Kangin pulled off a puppy-face. I knew all too well that he wouldn’t get out of bed if I didn’t do what he wanted. I leaned in again and then kissed him again and again and again and again until he finally agreed to stand up.

“PREPARE FOR CAMP RACE NEXT WEEK!” came an announcement from the speakers which made me stop in the middle of my 13^th kiss.