Jimin and I were always best friends. Well we're not the kind of best friends that are friends since childhood like what you found in teen novels. I have no childhood friends since the neighbors that live in my street either are a sweet elder couple, have no children, or have children but their child is like still a baby or already a senior high-schooler when I was just a kid. At school I used to got along well with everyone, and kinda have no specific best friend.
That was my life up until my 4th grade in primary school, when suddenly news about perverted uncles spread around school. Parents were going crazy and so did the school. Parent meetings were oftenly held in my school to discuss about the issue. We kids are now equipped with emergency whistles to school, and were taught to run if a stranger approaches. My school finally came up with a solution: to make the students go to school and go home from school in groups according to where they live.
As I said, I have no kid my age in my street. So my parents got kinda paranoid and started finding out if there is any kid going to the same school with me living nearby. After days of searching, they finally found the Park family. The Parks had just moved in and resides a block away, and more imprortantly the Parks have a little Park Jimin who is on my age. Since their house is closer to the school, we agreed that I will meet Jimin infront of his house every morning before walking to school together.
On my first day of meeting him my mom accompanied me to his house. We waited in front of his house for like ten minutes, but he hadn't show up. My mom decided to knock on their door. Mrs. Park seems to be in a hectic situation opening the door for us. "Oh my, good morning Mrs. Lee and little Jinhee. I'm very sorry that we kept you waiting, but my Jimin won't stop crying after I told him about those perverted uncles. He was too scared to get out from the house," she said sounding tired and a little stressed. Sounds of a little kid sobbing and whining could be heard coming from the kitchen.
What a crybaby.
"Jiminnie, come here. Your friend is here!" Mrs. Park approached the kitchen, trying to bring out Jimin. The house suddenly became quieter, the sobs and whines stopped and sounds of Mrs. Park lecturing Jimin could be heard. I couldn't really grasp the words but some of them were
"stop", "infront of a girl", "shouldn't cry", "will like her",and "pretty".
Jimin blowing his nose then could be heard.
Yuck, this kid.
Mrs. Park then returned to us on the living room, this time bringing a frowning Park Jimin looking like a mess with tear stains on his cheeks and a little red nose. I guess I should be the one initiating introductions with him then..
"Hello, my name is Lee Jinhee. Let's go to school together!" I said giving him my widest smile while offering a handshake.
"P-Park Jimin. Hi." he said as he took my handshake, he was looking down and being all shy.
Our mothers decided that we should really leave now if we don't want to be late for school. Jimin was a little hesitant at first but then agreed. After bidding our goodbyes to our mothers, we left for school.
After about 3 minutes walking in complete silence, I noticed that he was still afraid. This kid is starting to get on my nerves...
"Yah." I said.
He stayed silent but looked at me.
"You don't need to be afraid, I'll protect you from those ahjusshis*," I said with a little scolding tone.
He scoffed.
This kid is really something. I thought trying to hold my temper back.
"Don't be silly, boys are the ones who are supposed to protect girls. I'll be the one to protect you."
His answer startled me. I felt a little churn in my stomach and stayed quiet at his answer.
We continued walking until we reached our school.
Everything went out well and as planned for the first week. We started getting to know each other. Jimin's timidness started to fade away. He is actually pretty cute and fun. I learned that his friends called him ddochi, since he looked like a little puppy. I disagreed to it though, and told him that I thought he looked like a dinosaur. Since then he always wanted to wear a dinosaur costume for Halloween.
One evening we were walking home from school.
"Hey, remember when I said I wanted to be a dinosaur for Halloween?" he asked.
"Of course, why?"
"Well if I dressed up as a dinosaur for you, you should dress up as a tooth fairy for me." he said giving me a 'toothy' smile.
"But you wanted to be a dinosaur yourself, and why a tooth fairy? I wanted to be cool mummy!"
"It was because you said I looked like one! You'll look cute and smaller than me as a tooth fairy!" he pouted, trying to convince me. I looked at him and realized that I was a little taller than him and understand his reasons while holding my laughter.
A chuckle accidentally escaped my mouth as I answered "Okay then, but I can't shrink myself though!"
"Now you're even laughing at me, you're so mean Jinhee-yah. I'll just wear my mom's high heels then." he said by making a face.
I can't help but laugh at his ridiculous statement. I kept laughing at him but all he did was stare at me.
"What's wrong, Jiminnie?"
"H-hey, don't you think that ahjusshi has been following us for a while now?" he said, his voice shaking as he spoke.
I slightly turned my head and saw a figure of an uncle not too far behind us.
Jimin grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
"When I say three, run." he whispered, looking straight to my eyes.
I nodded silently.
"Three, tw-" his countdown was stopped abruptly since I suddenly pulled him, running.
We ran like crazy.
"YAH JINHEE, I HAVEN'T EVEN FINISHED MY COUNTDOWN!" he said while running.
"YOU TOLD ME TO RUN WHEN YOU SAID THREE, BUT YOU STARTED YOUR COUNTDOWN FROM THREE YOU PABO!!" I yelled at him, still running.
He stayed quiet for a while. He then realized his own stupidity and started laughing at himself, his eyes almost closing from his laugh.
"YAH JIMIN-AH DON'T CLOSE YOUR EYES WHILE RUNNING!" I scolded him.
But then my stomach felt ticklish thinking of his stupidity and I started laughing with him.
We ran down the street while laughing hand in hand.
We're quickly getting nearer to his house. In a second, we stopped in front of his house panting, being totally out of breath.
"Hey kid!"
a voice of an old man could be heard calling to us.
We froze in our place, it was the uncle from before.
As he got closer to us, our knees shook and were unable to move.
All we did was tighten our grip to each other's hand.
I suddenly recognized his face, he was our school's gardener ahjusshi. Why was he following us?
"Aish kid these days are so tiring! You, Park Jimin, dropped your lunch box earlier and I was only trying to return it to you. But all of a sudden you two started running like gerbils!" he explained while catching his breath.
We stayed still with our mouth hanging open from the fact we had just learned.
"J-joisonghabnida** ahjusshi, we thought you were the perverted ahjusshi who roamed near this area.." Jimin explained, getting his lunch box from ahjusshi's hand.
"Ayy, what are you talking about. That freak has been arrested two days ago by the local police." he said with a slightly annoyed tone. We stayed quiet for some time, trying to recover from all the sudden information.
We then apologized to him and said our thanks.
After he left, the sky was already dark. I looked at Jimin's direction, my eyes meeting his.
We stared at each other's eyes for a while.
A second later, the silent air was torn from the sounds or our laughter. We were clutching at our stomach and we fell to the ground. Laughing at what just happened, with our gaze directed towards the stars.
We weren't childhood friends. We're perverted-uncle-surviving friends.
_______________
* = uncle
** = apologizing in a formal manner
Author's note:
Dropping in another flashback-y chapter!
Meanwhile present-day Jinhee is still on her lunch break, lol u_u
I should really progress the present story though, but this kind of chapters are also necessary.
Please support this rookie author by commenting, voting, and sharing this story. It seriously means a lot! :')
Jimin's sweet eyesmile on the media for everyone <3
Until the next update!
- wangkongbean -