10 YEARS AGO

Yoonmi laughed as she climbed up the tree, trying to coax Jimin to do the same, but he wasn’t able to keep up. Whenever she looked down to make sure he was still there and hadn’t fallen off, she could only see his unruly hair past the leaves.

“Jimin!” she shouted, “It’s going to be really embarrassing for everyone to find out you can’t even climb a tree.”

“Shut up!” Jimin swore as he missed the branch for his leg. “It’s not normal for people to climb trees as fast as you. You’re like some nature defying weirdo.”

Wrapping her legs around the branch, Yoonmi flipped upside down so she’d be able to see Jimin as he struggle to make his way up. She tried to stay stern as she spoke, but she doubt anyone would take a girl swinging upside down from a tree seriously.

“Just so you know, girls don’t like being called a nature defying weirdo,” she pointed out.

“And just so you know, when I said I wanted to speak privately, I didn’t mean climbing up this tree,” he snapped back.

“Fine,” Yoonmi snipped, annoyed that he seemed so much more impatient and short tempered than usual. Grabbing the branch so she could up right herself, Yoonmi started to climb down the trunk of the tree before she felt a hand on her calf.

“Hey,” Jimin sounded apologetic as he looked up at her. “I didn’t mean it like that. Can we just sit and talk on the branch you were just on?”

“Are you finished being a little sht?”

“Are you done with being a little btch?”

Still fuming, Yoonmi obliged begrudgingly and scooted over on the branch so Jimin could sit next to her. He’d been having a growth spurt the past year and before when they sat side-by-side, she would be taller than him, but now he was at the height where she could just lean into his shoulder to rest her head if she wanted to.

She felt a little nervous with him sitting up in the tree. She had heard her best friend, Sojin, saying something about how she was sure Jimin was going to ask her to be his girlfriend, and though Yoonmi liked Jimin, she felt short of breath and the climb from the tree had left her sticky with sweat - not how she wanted to look when she imagined this moment.

“Yoonmi.” Jimin looked almost as nervous as her and his knuckles turned white from how hard he was clutching the tree. “God, we’re high up.”

“You were never scared of heights before,” she said.

“When you’re a little taller, things look a little different.” He let go of a breath he’d been holding. “Things change when we grow up.”

Sweat started to line her hands and Yoonmi twirled a piece of her hair between her fingers, tugging at it so that she would have something to do. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I like you,” he blurted. Jimin’s face flushed a deep red and he inhaled unsteadily, as he waited for the words to sink in.

“Yeah?” Yoonmi let her hair fall to cover her face as she swung her legs, feeling self-consciously shy around Jimin all of a sudden. Was her white shirt stained with sweat now? Were there wet spots? Were her shorts too short? Should she have worn earrings today so she’d look more like a girl?

“I’m not saying it again,” Jimin grumbled, his face still bright with embarrassment.

“Do you really like me?” Yoonmi probed. “Like really really like me?” When Jimin didn’t answer her, Jimin felt uncharacteristically brave because she took his hands in hers. “Prove it.”

He was looking at their intertwined hands like it was something he couldn’t believe he was seeing, let alone feel. Clearing his throat, he spoke to their hands instead of straight at her. “How?”

“Jump.” She stood up and because Jimin was much taller than her now, she was able to do so holding his hand with him sitting. “Jump down with me.”

“Are you insane?” Jimin looked sick at the thought of jumping out of the tree he had so much trouble climbing. “We’ll break our necks! How does jumping out of the tree prove anything?”

“Then I’ll jump without you.” She dropped his hand and took a deep breath before taking a step and waited to find the ground. As she leapt off, she felt something grab onto her, holding as tight as possible as they both shouted, falling down onto the grass and tumbling down the hill.

Automatically, Jimin wrapped his arms around her, holding tightly until they reached the bottom of the hill. Once they did though, he didn’t make a move to let her go and she didn’t feel like she wanted to move.

“You jumped.” She felt stupid pointing out the obvious but she felt she had to say it out loud for it to be real. “You didn’t want to but you did. Why?”

“You always end a lot of your sentences with ‘why,’” Jimin commented. “Why, why, why Yoonmi?” He seemed to come back to his regular self now that they were no longer up in the tree. “I jumped because you asked me to.”

“Is it really that simple?”

“Sometimes it is.” Jimin’s brow furrowed as he searched her face for something. “I’ve known you for a very long time, Song Yoonmi,” he whispered.

“I’ve known you for just as long, Park Jimin.” He was hovering over her and Yoonmi took the opportunity to tap his nose and make a face. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because things change,” he repeated what he said earlier. “And I wanted you to know.”

“To know that things change or that you like me?”

Jimin leaned in, pausing only to brush her black hair that was stuck over her lips before closing the distance. “That I’ve always liked you.”

Yoonmi shut her eyes tightly, remembering when Sojin told her that her own first kiss with Youngjae was wet and a little gross. But when Jimin kissed her, Yoonmi forgot what Summer told her – Jimin didn’t kiss her the way Sojin described Youngjae’s kiss.

The kiss was soft but sure, and Yoonmi felt that all first kisses should feel like the one she was experiencing right now. Something about the way Jimin kissed her made her feel as if this was something he had thought about for a long time and best of all, it made her feel safe, like there wasn’t anything in the world that could take away the simple pleasures of being in love for the first time in your life.

After he pulled away, eyes bright with a mixture of fear and excitement, he leaned onto his side like he wasn’t sure what to do next.

“Jimin.” Yoonmi took his hand and they both their backs to watch the clouds float by. The perfect, bright blue day for her to finally catch the boy she’d been waiting for. “Promise me that if we fall out of love, you’ll tell me.”

“I said I liked you, not love,” Jimin clarified quickly.

“Oh my God, you don’t have to sound so defensive,” she scoffed. “Fine. Promise me that if you stop liking me, you’ll tell me. You won’t leave me waiting because you’d never leave me behind.”

“I promise.”

Jimin meant to keep that promise. He did, but things changed when they both turned sixteen.

So much can change in two years. So much can change a person in two years.

Jimin ran and left behind everything he owned, leaving behind the one
person he promised he wouldn’t.