"Hey you! I'll race you down the slides!"
Heejin hesitates as she looks down at the unfamiliar girl climbing up the playground's rock wall to her left. The stranger, for a five-year old, is relatively tall, wearing a red t-shirt and had a piece of mulch in hair that was spilling sloppily out of the ponytail it was in.
Heejin's first day of kindergarten has so far been sunny and bright, but filled with intimidation from other more sociable kids in her classroom. For the most part, she'd kept to herself.
But now it was her first recess, and classmates were running around with each other, squealing and giggling together. Heejin was wandering the school playground aimlessly without any companions.
The girl in the red shirt flops onto the platform recklessly. She bounces back up immediately and pushes past Heejin, running up a steep structure of green and purple steps.
"Come on, don't be a baby!" The girl yells, nearing the highest platform of the jungle gym.
"I'm not a baby." Heejin insists, her bottom lip popping out into a pout. She slides her little hands down her bright pink shirt to make sure no dirt was on her. She looks up, eyes wide at the sight of the two gigantic orange and blue double slides that loop around each other.
(Well, gigantic to her. She was only five years old and still struggled climbing onto her couch sometimes.)
"It's fun!" A different, brighter voice says from behind her. Heejin turns around to see a girl dressed in a fluffy yellow sweater and sneakers bounding up the steps, her hair equally as messy as the girl at the top of the slide, hair clips hanging on by mere strands.
"The slide is bigger than me," the girl in yellow says, meeting Heejin with a smile, one of her front teeth missing. "But I still got on and I'm OKAY! Hi! I'm Hyunjin!" She gives Heejin an encouraging thumbs up.
"I'm Heejin." The little girl in pink says, her tone soft and almost inaudible in comparison to Hyunjin's energetic borderline screams. Heejin's 5 year old brain did the math for Hyunjin's slide ideology. Hyunjin is smaller than the slide, but she still got on and seemed unharmed . It was a very convincing argument for a kindergartner. However, Heejin remains cautious.
"But... You're taller than me." Heejin points out and Hyunjin's eyebrows furrow as she takes in this new information. Hyunjin was no taller than an average kitchen counter, but Heejin's observation was true nonetheless.
Hyunjin gasps dramatically, a whistle accidently sounding out because of her missing tooth.
"I HAVE A PLAN!" She yells. "I'll just go down the slide with you! 'Cause we know I can do it. So you'll be safe!" Hyunjin says, her eyebrows crinkled and determined, nodding her head in affirmation of her gameplan. The little girl in yellow holds out her hand for Heejin to take. Heejin thinks carefully about the idea, letting gears shift in her mind.
"Come on! You guys are so slow!" The other girl without a name yells down, a daring and teasing tone in her voice bellowing down the stairs as she continues to wait.
Heejin takes Hyunjin's hand and together they run up to one of the double slides.
"She wants to make sure it's safe, so I'm going with her." Hyunjin says, scooting herself behind Heejin so her legs were around the smaller girl's waist. The warmth of their bodies together is foreign, but comfortable.
