Another winter morning;

The sky was slightly gray, the sun hid behind the clouds, and the winter chill was just enough to keep your warm body at a good temperature.

“Mommy can I go out and play today?”

Your mother smiled at you, “You’re only 9 years old honey, you can’t go out there by yourself.”

“What if Pieris came?”

“Honey, Pieris can’t protect you.”

You threw a tiny tantrum at your mother. Being 9 at the time you didn’t realize how silly how silly you were by having an imaginary friend. You grew up to believe it was normal at that age.

“But mom~” you whined to her.

“Why don’t you play with that new boy who moved in down the street? He seems nice.”

“But he’s a boy~!” you continued to whine.

“Oh really? Then what is Pieris?”

“Pieris is a moth!”

Your mother was surprised and fascinated by your interest, “a moth? Why is he a moth?”

“Because moths are pretty and nice to me. Especially Pieris. He’s very strong and has a big heart!”

She smiled as she faced the other direction, getting you a plate of hot, buttermilk pancakes with a nice glass of milk. She knew that you were very fond of Pieris, but she wasn’t happy with the fact that you couldn’t make any other friends in your school, or just any real friends in general. As she handed you your food, she said, “I’m sure there’s other moths or people out there who are just as good.”

You groaned.

“And besides, you could be like Pieris one day right? Why don’t you start with the boy across the street? It’d be good for you. And maybe you can introduce him to Pieris.”

She did have a good point.

“Ok ok. But can I finish this first?”

“Of course honey. And then I want you to go over there and say hi. Make a new friend. There’s always room for more.”

You slowly ate your pancakes because you were taking up as much time as you could so you wouldn’t have to see that new boy. But then again you were hungry.

After you finished the food, your mother saw how unexcited you were but she kept bringing up good enough reasons to persuade you to meet him. You hopped off the chair and your mom wrapped you in some warm clothes.

“Now be nice ok? He doesn’t know anyone here. So he’s probably really shy.”

“I don’t know anyone either..”

“Well you can both start somewhere.”

She opened the door for you and watched you walk across the street in slight disappointment. You looked back once you were in front of his house and you mom mouthed a “go on!” with a smile spread from cheek to cheek. You took in a deep breath, walked up onto the front porch and gently knocked on their front door. No one answered after a few seconds so you thought it’d be ok to walk back until you saw your mom tell you to knock again. So you did, and no one answered it, once again. You threw a pout and decided to turn around and start walking back until a couple of loud footsteps heading towards the door with a mumbled, “I got it!” following it. The front door quickly opened and a young boy was standing there nearly out of breath.

“Hi.” he said with his hand on his knee.

“Hi.” you said back.

And then it became awkward. The two of you didn’t know what to say after that so you just said,

“Bye.”

And walked back home.

“No wait!” he called out to you.

But you remembered that your mom told you to just say hi. You knew that she didn’t literally mean to only say hi but that was your excuse to just stay in your solitude of a room. The boy watched you walk back into your house and gave up to trying to get to you, until he had another plan.

You took off your jacket and your mom worriedly asked you, “What happened? That was so fast.”

“You told me to just say hi.”

“___________, I meant that I wanted you to make a conversation, to actually say more than just hi.”

“But I did.”

“Oh really? What else did you say?”

“I said bye.”

You mom internally face-palmed herself.

“Well, I still want you to make friends with him.”

“Why him?”

“Because he’s new around here. You could be his tour guide.”

“But mom~”

“No buts honey. Except for yours going back and being nice to the boy.”

You gave in and opened the front door, being slightly surprised at who was there.

“What the-”

“Hi,” it was the boy from across the street.

“Did you follow me here?”

“I.. I just wanted to um..” his head started to drop

You looked at your mom, confused on what to do, she gave you a smile and you knew what that meant.

“My name is ___________.”

He looked up from the ground with his face red, “Oh! My name is Jung Daehyun!”

“Well it’s nice to meet you Daehyun.”

“You too..” he shyly mumbled.

Your mom happily came into the conversation, “Hi Daehyun, I’m __________’s mom. Welcome to the neighborhood.”

“Thank you ma’am.”

“Would you like to come inside? It’s cold out there,” your mom invited.

“Mom!” you shouted.

But you were overruled, “We’re going to be good people and let him into our home ___________.”

You made a grumpy face and stormed off to the comfy couch you love sitting on, especially since you were about to play Super Mario Bros. Your mom however, asked Daehyun to come inside and play with you while she made the two of you some hot mocha. You played your game in first player mode, attempting to ignore Daehyun as he tried to get cozy next to you.

“Whatcha playin?” he asked you casually.

“Super Mario.” you said as you jumped on Goombas and Koopas.

“Is it fun?”

“Yeah, it is.”

Your focus was trapped in the game, not really paying any attention to Daehyun at all. Then your mom came over with two cups of hot chocolate with whipped cream on top; she also added a hint of vanilla and cinnamon which was her little secret.

“Here you guys go.” she said cheerfully.

“Thank you _________’s mom.” Daehyun grinned with his two front teeth missing.

“Thanks mom.” you droned.

“__________, why don’t you let Daehyun play?”

You groaned, “Fine.”

Pausing and saving your game file, you handed Daehyun the controller after letting him play as Luigi (2P).

“How do I play?” he asked.

“You press B to jump and A to shoot fire.”

He kept pressing A but his character shot nothing, “Why can’t I shoot anything?”

“You have to get it first.”

“How do I get it?”

“You have to jump hit a block and get the flower.”

“I’m jumping but there’s no flower.”

“Hit the special one.”

“That’s a mushroom not a flower.”

“You have to keep playing and find it.”

“___________, why don’t you drink your hot cocoa?” your mom advised when she saw how annoyed you were getting.

You took a sip and your mom leaned in to your ear and whispered, “Be nice __________. If Pieris is nice why can’t you be?”

“Who’s Pieris?” Daehyun asked.

“He’s my best friend!”

“Where is he?”

“Right here!” you said as you looked over to the recliner on your right.

Daehyun saw nothing and thought you were joking.

“Is he real?”

That broke your 9-year old heart.

“Of course! And he’s much better than you!”

“I don’t see anything!”

“Maybe he’s hiding because you’re stupid!”

“__________!” your mother yelled.

You groaned again and stormed off into your bedroom, making Daehyun feel unwanted and your mom disappointed.

“I’m sorry Daehyun.. she doesn’t have any real friends. I don’t see Pieris too but that’s because he’s from her imagination.”

“What’s an imagination?’

She smiled, “It’s when.. you think of something, when you dream about something.”

“So… I have one when I’m sleeping?”

“No sweetie, you can have it right now. Like.. I am imagining.. __________ coming out of her room and being nice to you.”

“Is it real?”

She smiled even bigger, “Sometimes, but what you do can make it real.”

He grinned brightly, “Ok. Then I’ll be back.”

He took a sip of his drink, ran out of your guys’ house and back to his. Your mother watched him quickly run into his house and felt debateable about closing the front door. He hastily ran back out of his house and back to yours with something in his hand.

“What’s that for?”

“It’s for __________. I feel like she could have it. My mom has a lot.”

“Oh that’s wonderful!” she smiled.

“This is one of the last ones. I think _________ should have it.”

Your mother smiled, “well you can go and knock on her door, and if she’s mad, it’s ok.”

Daehyun nervously but happily walked over to your door and knocked a few times until you yelled at him to go away. He didn’t have to throw a tantrum at you so instead he tried to open your door, but you threw a pillow at it.

“Go away!”

“__________..! I.. I got you something.”

You always liked it when you received gifts, so you moved your defeated body to the door and shyly hid behind the crack you opened.

“What do you want?” you said with a sniffle.

“Are you ok?” he asked worriedly.

“Why do you care?”

“Because I think you’re really really cool and I want to be your friend.”

You pulled the door open a little more and wiped away the tears that were falling from your puffy eyes.

“Really?”

“Mhmm! That’s why I got you something,” he smiled.

“What.. what is it?”

He pulled a beautiful and big flower in a pot from behind his back and held it in front of you.

You were amazed by such a beauty but the skeptical thoughts ran through your head.

“Don’t you want to be someone else’s friend?”

He chuckled and grinned, “You’re the only friend I want.”

You felt warmth in your chest and carefully took the gift from out of his tiny hands and held it tightly in yours. You gently carried it around your room until you found a perfect spot to put it, right next to your bedside, where you were able see it every time you woke up. When you walked back to him, you felt very shy for some odd and unknown reason.

“Are you ok?" Daehyun asked as he tried to look at your face that was towards the floor.

“Yeah.." you replied with a mumbling tone.

“Can we play?”

“To-together..?"

“Isn’t that what playing is?”

“Ok.."

He grinned brightly, “can you teach me how to play?"

”.…."

“_______..?”

You faked a big smile, “ok!"

He grabbed onto your hand and you immediately felt warmer, then he dragged you to your couch and sat right by your side. He grabbed the controller and handed it to you politely, “I will watch."

You took the controller and slowly played the game. The game was a lot more difficult than earlier and you couldn’t figure out why. It was the same level, you knew what monsters we’re coming up and what items you were supposed to get.

“Is that the flower?" he asked.

“Uh.. Yeah. Why don’t you play?" you offered.

He took the controller out of your hand and began playing a whole lot better than you were. You tried to get yourself together. What happened? Did he put something in the flower? Or were you just being weird? That’s what you thought and believed. That you were being weird. And that thought lived  with you for the next couple of years.

~~

8 years later:

“Yah! Jung Daehyun!” cried a voice from the hallway of your school building.

Daehyun was in a classroom during lunch time with a few other kids. You however, were the voice coming from outside the door. You twisted the knob and busted the door open, starting a loud and complicated scene. You pointed at him and yelled out his name again, “Daehyun!”

He looked up from his book with a blank expression and saw you charging towards him with your hands in fists.

“Oh-__________.”

“Daehyun did you take my phone today?”

“No.. why?”

“I know you’re lying to me. I see how your lips are.”

“Why are you staring at my lips in the first place?” he chuckled.

You groaned, trying to hide the fact that you were blushing, “That’s not the point. I know you used my phone today.”

“Prove it.”

You pulled out your phone and went onto your Facebook page. You shoved your phone in his face and made him read your latest status.

“I wish I brought toilet paper to school. My feels funny. I smell something gross. I shouldn’t be so mean to Daehyun, maybe he’ll bring me toilet paper.”

He laughed lightly, “I didn’t do that.”

“Then who else would? I don’t hang out with anyone else. And you know my passcode.”

“I don’t know, maybe someone who thinks you should be a lot nicer to me.”

You scoffed out of surprise, “Nicer to you? You should be nicer to me!”

Daehyun looked around the room and all the other students looking back at the two of you, “___________, keep it down, you’re making a scene.”

“So? This is our business not theirs.”

“Yeah you’re right.. it’s not like they’re looking at your or anything.” he laughed as he turned back to his book.

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean? Is my not noticeable?”

“I wouldn’t know.” he chuckled more.

“Yah, Jung Daehyun.”

He looked back at you, straight into your pearly eyes, “Yes __________?”

You froze up, he was a lot cuter than he was just a few inches ago when his face wasn’t so close to yours.

“Uh…”

He blinked cutely, obviously trying to make you feel funny inside.

“Freaking Daehyun… hmph,” you thought in your head as you turned away from his gaze.

“Um.. excuse me..” said a gentle and feminine voice out of nowhere.

The two of you turned your heads towards it and saw a delicate-looking girl with her hair as long as her hips and a shy personality seemed to be the first impression.

“Yes?” Daehyun asked her.

“Could you um.. help me with my studying? I hear that you’re pretty good at math.”

You dropped your jaw, “Daehyun? Good in math?”

But he ignored your comment and smiled at the girl, “Sure, I’ll try to help.”

She giggled happily and asked for him to follow her to the back of the classroom where her belongings were. You tried to ignore the two of them with your music playing in your ears and just doing what you could to distract yourself. As nosy as you didn’t want to claim to be, you couldn’t help but look back, but not obviously as turning your head around; you took out your phone and went to camera mode, switched it to the front camera and held it up high and level enough to see what the the both of them were doing. You knew you were being a bad friend by being all up in his business but a part of you couldn’t help it. After a little bit of getting mad at yourself for doing such and foolish thing, you decided to pack up your stuff and leave the classroom, not even saying bye to your friend. You had just .. left.

~~

After a couple times of walking and enduring school alone, you realized, Daehyun wasn’t around so often anymore. You didn’t get to really talk to him during class because of the recent amount of tests and quizzes that have been given out. You knew he was studying because he wanted to be a good student. You trusted your intelligence but also studied on your own time since that’s all you basically had now.

But once the tests were over, Daehyun still wasn’t around as often. You didn’t see him in the mornings because he always left earlier than you and you always had the tendency to oversleep. He was the one who knocked on your bedroom door or sometimes personally woke you up. Your mom was actually pretty cool with all that. But you had no clue on why.

You wanted to visit him since his house was across from yours, but every time you did, he wasn’t there, his older brother always opened the door for you, specifically for you.

“Oh. _________.” said his brother Daewon.

“Hey. Um.. is Daehyun here?”

“No, he’s out again. Is something the matter?”

“No, why would you say that?”

“You’ve been asking for him a lot lately. I’m just curious.”

“We just haven’t hung out in a while, that’s all.”

“How about.. we hang then? Just the two of us.” he offered.

You were taken back a bit, “Us? Uh.. sure. What are we going to do?”

He smiled, “Let’s hang out at the mall.. as friends?”

And you smiled back, “Sure. When?”

“Well..” he rubbed the back of his neck, “are you busy now?”

That kind of took you by surprise, “Oh.. um, not really.”

“Then lets go now.” he awkwardly laughed.

You gave back an also awkward laugh but went along with his idea, “Sure, let me just get ready really quick.”

He watched you head back towards and into your house while he did the same in his place. You were somewhat rushing and your mother obviously noticed.

“Where are you going __________?”

You kept your focus on your outfit, “I’m going to go to the mall.”

“You’re finally hanging out with Daehyun?”

“Nope,” you looked at your outfit in the mirror as you did a few poses, “his brother.”

Now, your mother was aware that Daehyun had a brother; his brother would come over every now and then and pick up Daehyun when it was time to go home or eat dinner. But when she heard that you were hanging out with someone else, she wasn’t sure whether or not she should’ve been happy that you were hanging out with more people or not.

“I’m going out now, be back later!” you replied to your mom as you rushed out the door.

And yet she was still confused.

You walked across the street to check in with Daewon.. and there he was, sitting in his car with the roof top down to let the sunshine, and you, in. He welcomed you inside his car, his beautiful and shiny car, then shined a smile at you, “you ready to go?”

You nodded happily to that.

He put his car in reverse and drove out of his driveway and through the streets of your neighborhood. He had some pretty good music playing also, music that put you in a great mood and made you feel a little better about not seeing Daehyun for a while. Daewon saw how happy you were and that himself pleasant with your reaction.

It wasn’t that long of a drive to the mall, but it was a fun one at least.

“Where to first miss?” he kidded around.

You smiled to his comment, “I don’t know, let’s just walk around?”

The mall wasn’t your favorite place to go to, a lot of things were usually expensive. Especially the good quality ones. So windowshopping was your best choice at the moment. You two shared a few laughs and learned a little more about each other than you knew before. He liked your choice of fashion, no matter how silly you felt in them. He even had offered to buy you a little bit of this and that. To which you had to say no to because you felt as if it was wrong. So instead he offered to buy you something to eat.

“You hungry?”

“A little. I want something sweet.”

“Ice cream?”

The sound and taste of ice cream sounded amazing as of that day, a sunny and somewhat breezy day of 75 degrees, despite the fact that it was an early winter. The two of you walked over to the counter of an ice cream parlor and you gazed at the beautiful and eye-catching colors of each flavor.

“Which one do you want __________?”

“I.. I don’t know,” you said still staring deeply into the glass.

Daewon saw you staring at (your favorite ice cream flavor) most of the time so he ordered two scoops of that with rainbow sprinkles and oreo cookies as toppings.

“Here you go,” the employee handed to you.

Daewon paid for your ice cream while you kept staring at it.

“You can eat it you know.” he joked.

“Oh! Yeah! But I want to take a picture first!”

You pulled out your phone and took a quick pic of your delight, but you saw someone who looked so similar to Daehyun in the photo. You ignored the coincidence then walked over to a table to relax for a little bit. You took one scoop of ice cream into your mouth and immediately felt paradise in the form of a frozen treat.

“This.. this is a great flavor.”

Daewon was happy with your reaction and just watched you eat your ice cream with joy.

“Did you want some?” you offered him after some time.

“No, it’s fine. I’m not really an ice cream person.”

You shrugged your shoulders and continued eating until Daewon spoke up after a few minutes of awkward silence.

“You know.. I can see why Daehyun talks about you a lot.” he said as you held a spoon in your mouth.

You looked up from your dessert and pulled out your spoon, “He talks about me?”

“Yeah, he’s been talking about you non-stop. Like.. at every chance he gets, he goes to my room and says something about you. Haven’t you noticed?”

“I don’t really live with him so.. no I don’t notice.”

“Yeah but.. don’t you talk to him?”

“Not since recently. Or well.. I guess a couple weeks isn’t that recent huh? But really he talks about me?” you asked eagerly.

“Yeah, I’m surprised you guys don’t hang out anymore. He’s like.. obsessed with you-”

You unintentionally interrupted by your coughing.

“Are you ok _________?”

You coughed a little more, “yeah, I’m just.. a little sick. That’s all.”

“Are you sure?”

But then you started coughing again.

“A little sick?” he pressed against your forehead with the back of his hand, “you’re heating up _________..”

“What are you doing to her?!” yelled from across the food court.

You looked up, still coughing heavily and saw a boy with the face of anger and betrayal.

“Why are you touching her? Why is she coughing so much?” he said as he walked forth.

“What are you doing here?” Daewon said abruptly.

“I should be asking you that. She’s sick isn’t she? What did you do?”

You looked up at the boy and yelled at him, “Go away!”

“But—”

“Go-” you coughed hard, “go away Daehyun!”

Daehyun felt his world shatter at the tone and hatred in your voice. He couldn’t make a single word even utter from his lips. All he did was watch you walk away with his brother while his heart sank into the painful memory you left to him.