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twenty-two

[May 5th 2006]

click!

yeoreum distanced the instant camera away from her face, followed by a whirring sound after as she waited for the device to print the polaroid of the photo she just took a few seconds ago.

the 10-years-old girl smiled in satisfaction as soon as the polaroid was fully printed, grabbed it and then waved the piece of film in the air to get the final result.

once the polaroid was ready, yeoreum sighed in relief thinking how beautiful the photo of the eventful field of her school that she captured just now.

"mom is definitely going to love this!"

that day, yeoreum's school was celebrating the children day.

as yeoreum's school became the main venue of the event this year, students from other elementary schools were invited to join the celebration alongside their parents. together, they could enjoy the fun rides and games organized throughout the day.

despite of the bright and lively event, young yeoreum could be still found alone taking pictures around the place, with the purpose of showing them to her sick mother at the hospital.

"yeoreum?" a voice called for her.

"oh, jiyoo!" yeoreum waved her classmate a hello, which jiyoo returned her with a wave too. yeoreum continued, "have you been searching for me?"

jiyoo nodded. "yup! mrs. kim told me she needs your help in decorating the classroom so here i am sending her message to you,"

"alright. thanks for telling me, jiyoo." yeoreum flashed the latter a gratitude smile.

"by the way, why are you alone? aren't we supposed to be with our parents today?"

as expected...

she hesitantly replied, "well, you know... my mom's got a condition and is being treated at the hospital right now. i don't want to trouble her to come joining me for the event today."

"oh..." jiyoo's eyes downcasted to her shoes. "i'm so sorry to hear that..."

yeoreum immediately reassured the latter. "eh, uh, it's okay! i am fine with it, i still have next year to celebrate it with my mom. it just happens that i was a bit unlucky this year so please don't be sorry."

the two girls went silent for a minute after that, and yeoreum began to catch the awkward atmosphere growing between them.

"how about your parents, jiyoo? are they coming?" yeoreum threw a question, shifting the topic about jiyoo instead, and also trying to lift up the mood.

"my dad said they will come here around 12 o'clock," jiyoo glanced at her watch before she added, "there's five minutes left so i will wait for them—"

"jiyoo!"

the two girls startled as jiyoo turned her head to the source of voice calling her, which turned out to be her parents.

"mom! dad!" jiyoo squealed in excitement.

jiyoo and yeoreum then bid each other goodbye and jiyoo didn't forget to remind her classmate about the errand given from mrs. kim before she ran to her parents and joined them.

as jiyoo and her parents slowly disappeared from her sight, a pool of tears started to gather inside yeoreum's eyes without her knowing.

oh how she wishes she could experience something like any other children in the school were experiencing at the moment...

"come on, yeoreum. get yourself back together." yeoreum choked on her tears, quickly wiping them away. she stood up from her seat, adjusting her clothes and the instant camera that was hanging around neck while mumbling, "let's go to mrs. kim, shall we?"