prologue; 

 9 years ago... 

“Mark, are your things ready?” His mom asked. Mark nodded. “Now, me and your dad are just going to buy some things before we leave, okay?” Mrs. Tuan said as she crouched in front of Mark, who was sitting in his bed. “Don’t go anywhere, okay? Don’t try to fool your aunt just to escape. Is that clear, Mark Tuan?” Mrs. Tuan said with a stern, but still, caring voice. “Okay mom,” he answered as his mother planted a kiss on his forehead before calling her husband, Mr. Tuan to head to the nearest mall in Busan.

As soon as Mark lost sight of them, he grabbed his walkie-talkie (in case they might found out that he escaped, they can contact him) and quickly went out of his bedroom. As he was about to take a step on the stairs, his aunt caught him. “Where do you think you’re going, Mark?” His aunt said, raising an eyebrow as Mark gave him a sheepish smile. “I’ll just… go get some cookies! I’m kind of hungry.” Mark said as he rushed downstairs, going to the kitchen. He opened the fridge, took the box of cookies and shook it- he knew that his aunt was still up beside the stairs, listening if he did get some cookies. As he placed it back and closed the fridge, he slowly peeked at the stairs, checking if his aunt was still watching over him.

 When he was now sure that there was no sign of her, he approached the door, he suddenly stopped. ‘Aunt might hear the sound of the door’, he thought. Just then, he thought of a solution. He went to the living room and the television. As the static was gone and cartoons were already flashing, he set the volume a bit higher so that it will overlap the sound of the doorknob cracking and creating a thump. As he was now in front of the door, he couldn’t keep off the smile from his face as he slowly opened the door, and closed it. He waited for a few seconds just to see if aunt noticed it- but luckily there was no ‘mark-tuan-come-back-here’ scene that happened. When he was now outside of their house, he took a deep breath, before running to one of his favorite places- the playground.

Panting, he took a break first. He looked at his surroundings and thought that he’s already close to his destination. The playground was nowhere to be seen if you would look from his house,  but it’s just a bit far from his home, just covered by some tall houses and buildings.  As he inhaled and exhaled, he continued to run again, until after a few minutes he already arrived. As he scanned around the whole place, he said to himself that he will surely miss this when he goes to L.A.

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a bunch of noisy kids beside the slide.

“Hey! Give me back my doll!” a girl of same age with Mark shouted to the three boys who were obviously bullying her. “What did you say again, ugly-brat!?” The boy with a big belly said to the girl. “Give us your food first before we take it back.” The other boy, who looks like malnourished, added. “But my mommy prepared it for me! It’s not yours!” The girl whined. “Huh, who said it was yours!? It’s ours now.” The tallest one of them said as she snatched the girl’s lunch box, leaving the girl in complete dismay.

Mark couldn’t help but feel mad towards the three. He thought that he should so something.

“Hey! Give me back my things! I said give me-“

“Hey, give her that back.” Mark suddenly jumped into the scene. He continued to walk towards them and he spoke again. “I said, give it back to her.”

“Huh? Who are you? Why are you messing with us, huh?” The fat kid said, totally annoyed at Mark’s presence. “You want to fight with us?” The thin one said, trying to flex his baby muscles. “Who are you, by the way? Why are you joining in here?” The tall one said to Mark as he stepped closer to him.

“If you don’t give her that back, I’ll call his father.” Mark warned them,  showing his walkie-talkie with a smirk on his face.

“H-hey, he’s got a phone! L-let’s get out of here!” The fat kid said as he dropped the doll, and ordering the tall kid to give the lunch box back to the girl. The expression of the tall kid was quickly shifted into a frightened one, as he also quickly dropped the lunch box, and together with his friends, ran away from them, as if they were running for their lives, totally falling for Mark's lie.

Mark let out a small chuckle as he put his walkie-talkie  back into his pocket, and picked up the girl’s belongings. “Here,” He handed it to her. “T-thanks,” the little girl was shy, as she blushed a little bit at the boy. “I’m Mark.” The boy said as he shook hands with the girl. “Ark?” the girl asked, confirming if she heard it right. “No, it’s Mark. M-a-r-k. Mark.” “Yeah, that’s what I said. So you’re Ark?” The girl said with a smile. Mark let out a sigh, thinking that he should just let the girl off. “I’m Hani.” She said again, with her eyes twinkling, completely not paying attention to what she said. Mark couldn’t help but feel his heart skipped a beat when the girl smiled.

--

“Huh? You’re leaving TODAY?” The little girl was astonished, as Mark told him of what was his parents’ plan, as they were now sitting on a bench. “Yeah. It’s kinda sad. I can’t leave my friends here.”  Mark replied, his voice sounding a bit frail. “Here, eat this.” The girl offered him a piece of her rice cakes. Mark accepted it and thanked the girl. He was not hungry though, but the girl offered him it so there’s no way she could refuse to it. “You should eat this while it’s hot, or else you won’t enjoy it.” The girl informed him as she noticed that Mark wasn’t eating it. “A-ah, okay,” Mark nodded and stuffed the whole rice cake in his mouth. As he finally chewed the rice cake, it took him a few seconds before he realized that he would choke- and yeah. He did choked. “W-what’s happening to you? Did you eat all in one bite?” The girl was shocked again and offered him her bottle of milk that her mother prepared for her. “You shouldn’t eat rice cakes like that. You should take only a half-bite, Ark.” Mark once again choked because of his name once again mispronounced. Suddenly, his walkie-talkie suddenly talked.

“Yi En Tuan! Where did you go again! We’re already leaving!” said his dad. He took it out from his pocket and pressed the push-to-talk button. “I’m here at the playground. I’ll be going back there.” Mark said as he released the push-to-talk button. “You little kid-“ his dad seemed a bit annoyed. “Forget it. We’ll just fetch you there. Over.” “Okay, over.” Mark replied as he looked at the girl. “Will I ever see you again?” The girl suddenly asked, which made Mark’s heart flutter. It was the first time, in his life, being asked like that by a girl. Well, it was even way more mind blowing for him because he's still young and he's already been experiencing these kind of things! “U-uh… of course! But, you have to wait.” Mark tried his best not to stutter. “How long?” The girl asked with her lips forming into a frown. “I don’t know. Maybe ten years?” Mark didn’t really know how long are they going to be there. His parents just said that after he finishes junior high, that’s when he’ll come back to Korea to finish his studies.

Suddenly, a car honked and Mark knew it was his parents.

“I guess I’ll be going then.” Mark sighed, obviously sad. Suddenly, he thought of something.

“Here, take this.”  Mark handed to her his walkie-talkie. The girl was surprised at his sudden action.

“Meet me again, after ten years, okay? And take this with you.” Mark smiled at the girl; and the girl smiled back at him. The car honked again, and at this time, he quickly ran towards the van. Just as the van was about to leave, Mark heard a voice shout: “Aaaaark!” it was the girl. He opened the window and saw the girl waving at him, bidding goodbye. “Byeeee Aaaaaaark!” The girl said, still waving at him. He waved back and said, “Byeeeeee-“ ‘ What was her name?’ Mark thought. Oh well, there’s no time for asking. He waved again and smiled, and as the car started moving, they still waved at each other, until they couldn’t see each other’s faces anymore.

As Mark went back into his seat, his mother glared at him. “Who was that, Mark?” Her mother almost sounded like teasing her son.

“Just a newly found friend, mom.” And as he said those words, he knew that he lied- to her mom and to himself. He knew that, for him, she wasn’t just a friend, she was a special someone.

Someone that he will meet again after a long, long time.

Until one time, unknowingly, that day came.

The day that he came back.

 author's note 

So, here is it guys! Thank you for reading up to this part. haha. You may find it weird that it was 9 years ago but Mark said it 10 years. Well it's not a mistake and you'll pretty much understand why as the story progresses.  I hope that you liked it, and if you want to stay tuned for my next update, subscribe! If you loved it, then upvote! Well, upvoting is not a must for me. But it can really help me while I write this story. :) Also, comment your thoughts or feedback down below- I would love to read them.

So, I hoped that you liked it and, once again, thank you so much!