I was never a fan of goodbyes. When I was a child, I would wail frenetically when either one of my parents would leave the house. I had always associated goodbyes with loss—something that we could never get back or relive. Although goodbyes were temporary, such notion hadn’t occurred to me at such a young age and I was fairly certain that no amount of comfort could ever ease my troubles. Thus, my parents wisely ascertained to utter the words ‘see you later’ whenever we had to part ways. It worked pretty well and I thought I would naturally grow out of that phase, but sadly, I still couldn’t deal with it better. And I never really became skilled at doing it the right way either.

So for someone who wasn’t particularly fond of goodbyes, I thought I did one hell of a good job in holding back tears. How I did it was beyond me because even before we set foot in Anyang, I could already feel a lump forming in my throat. It still hadn’t sunk in that those three months that I found to be too long a time at first would be over in a few hours because we breezed through those three months like a streak of lightning.

So here we were, standing in front of the children one last time before we let the final curtain fall.

I cleared my throat and donned my brightest smile, trying to suppress the sadness. “Since this is our last day together-“

“Awww noooooo!” the kids’ unified objection cut me off.

Bum grinned at them even though I could sense a trace of gloom behind those dimples.  I pouted and smiled gently. “Oh, you guys. Please don’t make it harder for me. You’ll end up making me cry,” I teased them a bit. “As I was saying, Bum and I want our last activity to be something fun. We wouldn’t want to end this day on a sad note, right?”

They all nodded cooperatively.

“Then what are we all waiting for? Let’s get the ball rolling!” Bum exclaimed enthusiastically.

To mark our final day, Bum came up with a simple but meaningful activity. Although three months wasn’t exactly long, it was enough to build a lasting bond with our mentees so he suggested a game called ‘Changing Character', which he thought would reflect the friendship formed. As the name insinuated, each participant would reenact a certain persona. The catch? They would be impersonating each other. However, we emphasized that it was meant to be nothing but clean fun, and none of it should be taken neither seriously nor personally in order to prevent any form of offense or resentment. Bum and I had decided to exclude ourselves so as to let the young ones shine, but we didn’t stop them from mimicking us had they wished.

Boy, did it turn into a huge laugh fest! As I had predicted, Dong-chul snagged the spotlight for his spot-on impersonation of Mi Young. The young girl, who was known for her perpetual penchant for food, looked beyond mortified when Dong-chul went so far as to sketch a gigantic cake on a piece of card board and acted as if he was scarfing down the entire thing. Being the good sport that she was, she let it slide but gave him a run for his money when her impeccable performance became the new crowd favorite. She sat on a chair while flipping her phone and gasped in an overstated way as her before she covered with her hand, both of her eyes bulging. She then pretended to make a call and incessantly spilled the latest and juiciest gossip. Without a doubt, it turned out to be a harmless jab at her best pal, Yeo Seo, the town’s proclaimed ‘gossip queen’.

When it was Yeo Seo’s turn to take the stage, she got some kind of rod on the corner. She tilted her head from side to side and cracked her knuckles fiercely.  

“Yeo Seo-yah! This isn’t the ‘Real Men Female Soldier Special’! came Dong-chul’s snide remark.

Yeo Seo’s face contorted as it turned red with fury, her eyes glowering at Dong-chul, who looked every bit dumbfounded. She clenched one of her fists while raising the rod at Dong-chul.

“YAH!” she yelled, “Have you ever been beaten by a selca stick before?! Do you want to die?!”

My mouth hung open as I froze while trying to ignore all the stares. Suddenly, Bum broke into uproarious laughter that everyone followed suit, much to my chagrin. But staying true to my word, I smiled widely at Yeo Seo and applauded her terrific act.

“Well done, Yeo Seo! I taught you well, huh?” I told her, which made her blush adorably. “You make me proud,” I added with a wink.

The rest of the kids had a go at it, adding up to some serious laughs. The last one up was a pubescent boy called Chan Ho.

“Before I begin, may I ask Yeo Seo to take the stage with me?”

“W-why me?” Perplexed, Yeo Seo stood up unwillingly from her seat.

“Just play along. You don’t have to do anything,” he said as he got two empty chairs and placed them in front. “All you have to do is sit back and relax.”

“O-okay,” Yeo Seo replied uneasily before sitting down on one of the chairs.

Chan Ho claimed the other seat, but he turned it backwards and straddled it. His arm rested on the edge of the chair while he placed a hand under his chin. Slowly, he moved his gaze to Yeo Seo, who appeared to be painfully anxious as she shifted her gaze intermittently. Chan Ho stared at her lovingly, which caused her to shyly take a peek at him before looking the other way.

“Eh, what on Earth is this? I don’t get it!” Mi Young whined. Soon, the other kids expressed their frustration over the confusion they had to put up with. Sighing, Chan Ho stood up and slapped his palm on his head.

“Aish. Didn’t you guys get it? I was imitating Bum hyung!”

Bum stared at the young boy as his eyes grew bigger. “M-me?” he asked, pointing to himself.

“Yes, hyung. I was trying to act out how you look at So Eun noona. I’ve seen you do it a few times,” Chan Ho stated frankly.

The kids threw each other meaningful glances while I tried to keep myself calm.

Bum had his usual cheeky grin on his face. “Aren’t you making me out to be a creep, Chan Ho-yah?” he asked as a joke.

It was Chan Ho’s turn to smile. “Of course not, hyung. I was just showing what I see.”

Bum coughed softly into his hand. “I wasn’t even aware of it myself,” he laughed nervously, “but thank you, Chan Ho-yah. It’s cool that you thought of me.”

“That’s because I think you’re the man, hyung,” he said while making a fist bump gesture. Bum responded by giving him the thumbs-up.

“Okay,” I interjected while taking the initiative in applauding, “That was one heck of a performance, you guys! You all did awesome!”

“I think it would be safe to say that with a little bit more practice, you guys are ready for the real thing,” Bum added.

The kids, who seemed please to hear our praises, exchanged high-fives.

Together, we all feasted on our final meal while sharing stories and laughter, which I hoped would not be the last. Thank heavens Jae Hoon was nowhere in sight. I still hadn’t gotten over the provocation he put me through last time, but I’d rather keep my focus on more important matters.

After that, the kids received the tokens we prepared, a synthetic mini trophy formed like a shooting star. To our pleasure, they couldn’t hide their exhilaration by pretending to wave to the crowd as they struck a pose with their faux award in hand. In return, Bum and I each received a beautiful handmade frame that contained our group photo taken during the Christmas party.

We started packing up our stuff despite how I wasn’t the least bit ready to call it a day. Even though we stayed a bit longer than usual, I wanted more time. No, I needed more time. When we finished, Miss Han called everyone to take a last group shot. We gathered closer to each other, looking very much like a real family.

“Hana…dul…set…” the ahjussi motioned with his fingers, “Say ‘kimchi’!”

Our photo looked fantastic, with all of us flashing our pearly whites. Bum and I then took turns taking selcas with each of the kids.

To my great sadness, it was time for the imminent goodbye.

“I don’t know how we co