By the time Wonshik got into kindergarten, the two had grown practically inseparable.

Wonshik liked to behave like he was the older one between them, and in a lot of cases, it indeed seemed like he was a lot more experienced than Taekwoon.

It happened so in an afternoon Taekwoon and Wonshik spent at Wonshik’s house, biking. Wonshik had got a new bike from his visiting grandmother some days before, and now he was riding it with a wide grin on his lips and his eyes glinting happily.

“Woonie, do you want to see what I learnt?” Wonshik asked, pushing the pedals backwards, slowing down next to Taekwoon.

Taekwoon looked up from the chocolate bar he was munching on, standing on the pavement with his left leg supporting him and his bicycle he was half-sitting on, and nodded.

Wonshik chuckled and turned around, moving away from Taekwoon, speeding up. He was going too fast for Taekwoon’s liking, but he was already out of earshot for normal volume, so Taekwoon didn’t say anything. A moment later, Wonshik slowly let go of the handlebar with both hands, his arms lingering in the air, and he was laughing so loudly Taekwoon could hear it clearly.

It didn’t last long, only until the front wheel of Wonshik’s bike encountered a stone, making it turn away from its track, and causing Wonshik to fall off with a loud scream.

Taekwoon was horrified. He dropped the chocolate and jumped up on his own bike, hurrying to Wonshik as fast as he could, finding his friend still lying on the pavement, crying and holding his left knee to his chest. Taekwoon shoved his bike to the side, crouching down next to Wonshik, and looked at his face to see if there was any injury on his head–something his mother did every single time Taekwoon fell off his bike. His head was all right, though, the helmet still intact, but his trousers were torn above his knee, the skin bloody and dirty, and Taekwoon suddenly felt like passing out, but he stayed strong.

He stood up and ran towards the house, bursting in and telling Mrs Kim to come out right now, going back to Wonshik immediately to provide him emotional support by holding his hand.

Some minutes later, they were back in the house, Wonshik sitting on a chair while his mother cleaned his wound (a long scratch), Taekwoon standing by them, watching the scene. When Mrs Kim was done, she looked at Taekwoon with what seemed to be surprise in her eyes, and then smiled, hugging him and telling him “Don’t cry, Taekwoonie, he will be all right!”, making Taekwoon realize that silent tears were streaming down his face.

It only took Wonshik’s injury a few days to heal enough so that he could show it off, telling his classmates in kindergarten that he had been bitten by a wolf. Taekwoon didn’t say anything; didn’t want the smirk on Wonshik’s face to turn into a frown, so he went along with the story, nodding when Wonshik asked “Right, Woonie?”, confirming the tale.

As a favourable consequence, a girl in Wonshik’s class let a suddenly popular Wonshik play with her, and Wonshik did so with much delight. Taekwoon retreated into a corner, resting his chin in his palm, not paying too much attention to the puzzle he was playing with, watching Wonshik and his newfound girlfriend act like a married couple until their break was over and they all returned to their respective classrooms.

It went on like that for a week.

Wonshik didn’t even talk to Taekwoon in kindergarten anymore, let alone doing anything else with him, instead, he stayed with the long haired girl, whom Taekwoon–much to his own surprise–had grown to strongly dislike. He took revenge; hid the girl’s favourite doll in the bush behind the swings, pulled her hair whenever he passed by and ran away right after, and once he even smeared wet sand on her frilly dress, lying that it was an accident when asked about it.

He grew tired of being mean to her quite soon. One day, however, while he was sitting in the grass, playing with his toy car without much enthusiasm, he noticed a small hand and another car nearing his own. He looked up, noticing Wonshik next to him, the younger racing his car against Taekwoon’s, and when Taekwoon stopped, Wonshik only smiled at him and continued like those seven days of loneliness had never even happened in Taekwoon’s life.