The Big Bang

In the same way the Big Bang started the universe, meeting Seunghyun for the final time made Daesung start living.

In early July 1996 when Daesung was 7, he moved 86 miles south east of Incheon to Daejeon where he first met Seunghyun. When he arrived with 2 suitcases and a tape player, he expected for his life to be different but it was much the same as before.

Making friends wasn't easy for Daesung. Back in Incheon he had only one friend, his best friend, that he probably wasn't going to speak to again after leaving. Now in Daejeon, he found that no one liked the skinny agitated boy that sat on the same swing at the park just by his new house, while listening to the same H.O.T tape his sister had let him borrow over and over again, every single day. None of the parents encouraged their child to go play with him, none of the children were curious about the new boy. No one bothered to go near the boy that never spoke.

In late July while Daesung tried to make out shapes of animals from the clouds in the sky, a tennis ball flew into his vision and landed straight onto his lap. His head whipped round to see who threw it at him and a short chubby boy running away from him caught his attention. Daesung wasn't bothered that the ball had been thrown at him, he was more bothered that taking the ball, in his eyes, would be stealing so he jumped from the swing to follow the boy. Even after shouting for him to stop several times, the boy continued running across field next to the park towards a woods nearby. Daesung's parents told him to never go out of sight of the house and he knew if he stepped inside the woods that his new home would disappear behind the trees. He was also told not to follow strangers.

That day he ignored both those rules.

The boy continued running even when the ground became uneven but Daesung tried to keep up. Ten meters into the woods Daesung tripped over a tree branch and the shriek he let out made the boy stop running.

"Are you okay?" He panted

"My knee really hurts" Daesung cried taking harsh breaths each time he tried to get himself up "Why didn't you stop?"

The boy cautiously started to walk closer to Daesung.

"You were going to yell at me, weren't you? For accidentally throwing the ball at you." He stuttered squatting next to Daesung but still keeping a good distance

Daesung rolled onto his back and propped himself up on his elbows.

"I wanted to give it back to you." He stated

"Oh... sorry." The boy apologised reaching over and taking the ball from his hand "Get up, you need to walk off your sore knee."

With the support of a tree stump, Daesung stood on his feet again.

"My name's Seunghyun, I'm 8." He introduced himself

"I'm Daesung, I'm 7."

The boy cooed the name 'Daesung' to himself. The same way he always saw his parents do when they met someone for the first time, Seunghyun held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you"

Nervously Daesung shook it, no one had ever offered him a handshake before and he certainly didn't expect his first to be from an 8 year old boy. Everyday that summer they met on the woods. After two days they were sharing secrets, after a week they were calling each other best friends and after 30 days Seunghyun disappeared for the first time.

Daesung had no idea where he went nor did his parents believe Seunghyun existed. They believed he was a character made up to stave off Daesung's loneliness in his new surroundings. Yes, their son went out everyday but he never bought his friend home or spoke about what they did. He just came back covered in mud every day.