I first met him when I was just 12. In our first year of junior high. Lee Byunghun is the name. Everyone was so annoyed with him. I didn't know why but seems like everyone was avoiding him. Even the teacher didn't have much patient. Not because he was a brat that always did something bad, nor he was super stupid that he didn't get good grades. It was something to do with his habit of throwing tantrums when his needs were not fulfilled, or sudden burst of tears in the middle of class. He was acting way younger than he was. I wasn't quite fond of it either, I thought it would changed, since we were still junior high students anyway. He was just getting mature quite late than the others. But when I found out that we entered the same highschool, it was clear for me that this small kid wasn't changed at all, it was like the soul of 7 years old kid trapped inside him.

He was quite more reserved and probably came to understand that people didn't like him. So he just usually talked to himself between breaks. Everyone called him freak. I was no different actually, being the tall, skinny... and with this face of mine... I stood out everywhere I went. I had some close friends but at times I also couldn't take their jokes. Sometimes things were just too tiring to be repressed. When I wasn't indulge myself in the presence of others, watching Byunghun talked to himself was a fun thing to do. I secretly wanted to talk to him, but I was too scared... I didn't want to be judged and called a freak too. What is a freak anyway... aren't we all? This thing we called life, isn't it weird in the first place.

One time I watched Byunghun ate his lunch in gentle Spring sunlight, he smiled to the window as the curtains swept down his face, he closed his eyes and said; "It's a great time to hang out by the sea". As I turned my eyes on him, and opened my mouth to agree, he opened his eyes and talked to the empty space in front of him; "Right, Hiroshi?". He talked to Hiroshi of course, his imaginary friend, I guess... I inhaled deep. I was about to cheerfully said "Let's go!" to him. But well, he might love Hiroshi's presence more.

Our small town was on the seaside, but it wasn't Jeju, it was quite remote and not particularly scenic. But I liked it that way, it was quiet and refreshing. When I biked on my way home one day, that was when I spotted him eating popsicle alone. He was looking at me like a little child as always, but I just ignored him. Then there was the popular gang blocked my way out, held back my bicycle with their big hands. They wanted money of course, and making fun of my face was amusing for them;

"Hey fishy, why didn't you throw yourself to the sea? go back to your home"
"Isn't it sad to see mirrors in the morning"

HA HA HA.

In other circumstances maybe I'd just talk back about how my face was still a much better trade for girls instead of their brains, but that time around, I found someone who represented my thoughts better; Byunghun jumped off his seat across the street and bit one of the guy's shoulder from the back. I was quite shocked to watch him doing that, these guys were twice of his size, since everyone was in athletic club (surprisingly). One guy threw him away with a single blow and I just took his hand and put him on the back of my bicycle, running away before it went really wrong. If there was something I mastered during my school days, it had to be agility. I heard his sobbing voice through my shoulder, he held them tight and whined about his hurt back. We stopped at a quite sea side and I asked him if he need to go to the hospital.

He just cried louder while holding his spine. I was worried to death.

"Yah, i-if that really hurt I'll call a cab~!", I tried to reason.
"I don't want to go to hospital", he sulked and pouted. Tears still flooded from his eyes.
"Why did you bite him?", I asked.
"Hum... I hate him. I always did that every time he bullied me", he said.
"Eh??", I just looked at him quite puzzled. He wiped the tears from his little eyes. He then lied down on the sand.
"Byunghun-ah...", I called him hesitantly.
"Umm?"
"I don't know", I chuckled. "It's just weird that we saw each other for all this year and yet, we never really talked".

"We talked now", he got up and looked at me. He played the sand beneath his feet with his hands and about to taste it.
"Yah! what are you doing!", I tossed his hand away.
"Nnnng", he started sobbing again.
“I-it's sand! it's dirty! Don't eat it", I exclaimed. God, even my 7 years old nephew knows that sand isn't food.
"You hurt mee", he sulked to the ground.

"Ah... let me see your hand... did I hit you too hard?", I took his hand gently.
"Sorry, Byunghun-ah...", I his red hand. I didn't realize that I hit him that hard. He was still sobbing.
"Look, I have this healing power with my lips", I said.
"Really??", he opened his eyes widely.
"Yes. If I kissed your hand, your pain will be gone away", I put his hand closer to me and kissed it slowly while watching his reaction.

"Your lips are so soft", he surprisingly stated, still with his innocent tone.
"Now see, your hand isn't red anymore", I cheered him.
"Um~ It's warm~!", he giggled.
"Right?", I smiled at him. "It's not hurt anymore! I like your lips", he grinned at me.
"Yeah? it's good that someone like my lips... I don't even like them myself", I laughed.
"Why??", he asked me.
"It's... too thick?", I said and he shook his head.
"It's not?", I chuckled. Then he nodded as vigorously.

"I like it", he said short. That was the first time someone said that they like my lips. I still remember clearly how those child-like eyes sparkled when he looked straight at me, so clean from pretentiousness.
Then, as the wind blew on us, he suddenly hugged me tight and mumbled; "Can your lips heal any pain?".
My surprised self ruffled his hair and giggled; "Of course"
"I'm in pain but I don't know where", he whispered.
"It's not your back?", I asked while keep petting him.
"No", he shook his head.
"Hummm where could it be?", I playfully poked his belly.

"Aaang! don't", he giggled and released his hug. Then came the long pause as he kept his eyes pierced to mine.

"Kiss me...", I read his lips.

"Eh???", I felt the blood rushed to my head. My eyes went crazy examining every corner of his face, looking as clean as a newly born baby.

"Kiss me on the forehead like my mom used to", he smiled. Of course it's an innocent kiss on the forehead... I laughed hard at myself. I didn't know what was going on my head that time. So I landed a gentle kiss on his forehead and I was quite amazed about how the kid that everyone hates could be so amiable.

“Nielie~!”, he cheerfully called my name and hugged me once again.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore”, he whispered.
“Really?”, I asked after considerable time of wondering through his eyes.
“I like Niel”, he continued.

I didn’t know what was hurting him, or where it hurt. Even until now… But I was happy enough knowing that I could cure him from whatever pain he experienced. That evening I took him home and talked to his parents which were apparently his uncle and aunt-in-law. They said his parents died in a car accident when he was just 7, after that he didn’t speak for almost a year, when his condition gradually grew better it was clear for them that his soul stuck before the accident took place. He didn’t remember anything about it and didn’t able to grew up of it as well. What a lonely thing to happen to a person, I thought. His troubled actions when he was in junior high was not his mistake… Seeing shrink wasn’t much of a help too, said the uncle. It just made him repressed his memory and made him distrust people even more. The only thing that saved him is his retreat to his own little world.

Byunghun introduced me to Hiroshi right after. He said Hiroshi was a ghost trapped inside our school. Don’t ask me what happened with a Japanese ghost trapped in Korean seaside small town highschool… Byunghun explained me that Hiroshi was looking for his loved one, a beautiful Korean girl before the war destroyed our town. This Korean girl even had a name, she called Kwon. Kwon was shipped to Japan to work at her relative’s construction company before he met Hiroshi. And as you can guess, the families didn’t approve and so Kwon was sent back to Korea, leaving Hiroshi wandered alone. Byunghun said since Hiroshi didn’t find Kwon just yet he couldn’t go to heaven. Did he realize that Hiroshi was pretty much him, stuck in memory alone trying to find an exit door…

I had to play along with Byunghun about Hiroshi most of the time. Sometime it was down right silly, like how Hiroshi said he didn’t like the smell of seafood so I shouldn’t bring seafood as lunch anymore. What kind of Japanese who hates seafood, really? then of course later I learned that Byunghun didn’t like seafood himself. But I think I was already falling for Byunghun, so, no m