It was a very exciting day for E-Young's class today. A new person would be joining their class. They all gathered around the teacher.

"You have to be very nice to her. She can't speak Korean very well so please treat her well." Said the teacher. "Please go and play for a while, I don't want her to be scared by all of you."

So they all carried on playing as normal. Apart from E-Young of course. She didn't really have any friends. Everyone thought she was weird because one day she picked up a worm on the playground and chased people with it. The door opened and there was silence as the new girl entered. E-Young was fascinated by her. She'd never seen such a tall girl, apart from adults of course, she could see the girl was very shy and watched as she went to a corner to read a book. E-Young carried on playing by herself until the teacher came over to her.

"Hello E-Young. I was wondering if you would like to be friends with Kaeun? I noticed that you don't seem to talk any of your classmates, but I think it would be good if you could welcome Kaeun." Said the teacher.

"Okay teacher! I will talk to her!" E-Young chirrped.

E-Young walked over to Kaeun who was reading a book and stood in front of her for a while until Kaeun looked at her.

"H.. Hello.." Kaeun mumbled.

"Hello! My name is E-Young!" E-Young said, smiling. She sat next to Kaeun who looked at her shyly.

"My name is Kaeun... Why do you want to talk to me?" Kaeun asked. E-Young could hear she had an accent but couldn't quite place where it was from.

"I want to be your friend! I think you are very pretty and tall!" E-Young said.

Kaeun smiled slightly. "Thank you."

After talking for a while, E-Young found out Kaeun was from Japan.

"My parents.." Kaeun stopped, then thought for a while. "My parents were.. From here.. Long time ago."

"Is it nice in Japan?" E-Young asked.

Kaeun nodded. "Yes. It is very pretty. Good music. Lots of fun."

The two spent the entire day sat together in the corner talking. Kaeun even taught E-Young some Japanese, her favourite Japanese word was 'kokoro' and they decided to use it as a secret code to each other even though Kaeun knew that she was saying heart/mind over and over again.

A few months later the two were playing on the field outside.

"Kaeun, what is I love you in Japanese?" E-Young asked, picking some flowers.

"Well, there are two ways of saying it. There is when you really mean it and when you say it to someone who you have a crush on. The one where you mean it is Ai eru.. The one where you say it to someone you have a crush on is Daisuki." Kaeun said. "Why do you want to know?"

E-Young shrugged. "Could you write it down for me?"

Kaeun nodded. "After playtime."

So when the teacher called them back in, Kaeun got a piece of paper and wrote down on it '愛してる".

"What does that mean?" E-Young asked.

"It is Ai eru." Kaeun said, handing E-Young the paper.

When E-Young got home, she stuck the paper up on her bedroom wall.

Four years later when the girls were both eight years old, the two were inseperable. They knew everything about each other E-Young had even learnt Japanese after many long sessions with tutors and help from Kaeun and her parents. E-Young was starting to feel changes though. When she looked at Kaeun, she felt something new. She saw her best friend but felt some kind of affection for her. She tried to push the feelings back. Meanwhile, Kaeun did not notice anything.

The two were both talking in Japanese when a group of boys came over and started to listen.

"What language even is that? Is it a secret code?" One of them asked.

"It's Japanese." E-Young said.

"Why are you speaking that though? You're in South Korea." Another said.

"It's easier for Kaeun to understand." E-Young said, then she looked over at Kaeun who was fiddling with her hands.

"Why? Aren't you Korean, Kaeun?" The first asked.

Kaeun looked up and nodded. "But I was born in Japan."

The boys nodded then left. The two girls began to talk again but this time in Korean.

"What's wrong?" E-Young asked.

"Everyone thinks I'm weird because I speak Japanese.." Kaeun mumbled, sighing.

"It's not weird. They're the weird ones." E-Young said.

Kaeun nodded slowly. "I guess so.."

As time passed, they began to grow up. But E-Young's feelings never left. In fact, they got stronger. Puberty did Kaeun well, E-Young noticed that Kaeun was becoming more attractive and even though Kaeun did weird things, E-Young just loved her more. Today was the last day of school until summer. The two were now fifteen. They were at Kaeun's house studying for a test when E-Young closed her book and sighed.

"..What's wrong E-Youngie?" Kaeun asked, looking over at her friend.

"I can't think. I'm too stressed." E-Young mumbled.

"You have to study though, the test is tomorrow. Is your head hurting? Do you need to lie down?" Kaeun crawled over to the older girl who was sat on the floor.

"I need water.." E-Young said.

"Wait there." Said Kaeun. She went downstairs to get a glass of water. For some reason the tap wasn't working properly, but her parents weren't there so she decided she'd try and fix it herself by hitting it a lot. In the end the tap did turn on but ended up shooting water everywhere and soaking Kaeun. At least she had a glass of water though. Kaeun went back upstairs and gave E-Young her water. "Here. The tap kind of exploded on me so be greatful that I'm such a caring friend that I battled with a tap to get you that water."

E-Young laughed slightly, drinking the water. "Thanks, you're so brave, the tap must have been so dangerous."

Kaeun opened her wardrobe and pulled out some more clothes to wear. "I guess I'll have to explain to my parents when they come back." She started to her shirt and E-Young tried her best not to watch.

"K-Kaeun.. I think I n-need to step outside for some f-fresh air.." E-Young stuttered.

Kaeun pulled her shirt off and turned around. "No. You might faint and hit your head on the floor. Go to bed." She walked over to E-Young and picked her up and put her on the bed. She noticed her friend was becoming quite flustered. "..Actually, you don't look too good.. Do you want me to call your parents to come pick you up? We can always have a sleepover another time."

"I'll be f-fine.. It's just.. Really warm in here.." E-Young mumbled.

"Maybe that's because you're wearing a jumper." Kaeun said. "I told you to take it off earlier but you said no." She sat E-Young up and pulled off her jumper and hung it up on the door, then she opened the window. After a few minutes of acting like a mother she got dressed and noticed an improvement.

"I feel a bit better.. Let's carry on studying.." E-Young said.

So the two kept studying but Kaeun insisted E-Young stayed on the bed, but E-Young wanted Kaeun next to her so the two were squished together on Kaeun's tidy bed with E-Young's arm wrapped around Kaeun and Kaeun resting her head on E-Young. After an hour of studying, Kaeun got bored.

"I'm done with studying now." Kaeun said, yawning.

"Do you want to sleep now then? It's pretty late anyway." E-Young said, checking her phone.

She nodded and they both got their pyjamas on and crushed together in Kaeun's small bed. At around 3am, E-Young woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. She paced around the room.

"I can't hold these feelings in anymore.." E-Young thought to herself, looking at the sleeping girl. "I need her so badly... I guess if I kissed her now she'd never know.." E-Young creeped over to the sleeping Kaeun and pulled the covers away from her face. She stared at her sleeping peacefully, then leant in closer and kissed her softly. She closed her eyes and found herself clinging to the sleeping girl. She heard a small groan, when she opened her eyes she found herself staring into Kaeun's eyes. She pulled away quickly.

"..What are you doing?" Kaeun asked sleepily, sitting up. "Why did you do that?"

"It's.. I.. Oh god.. I don't know.." E-Young sighed. "I've ruined everything.." She curled up on the floor.

"What do you mean?" Kaeun asked, crawling out of the bed to her friend. "E-Young.. You haven't ruined everything.. Please tell me what's wrong.."

E-Young was thinking of their entire history. One memory stuck in her mind. She looked up at the younger girl.

"K..Kaeun..  Ai eru."