She had been hiding behind Auntie Sun-young the whole time, but finally she peeked out, held out her hand and said hello. I will never forget that day—the day we first met.
"I'm Kim Taehyung. I'm a year older than you, 11."
"I'm 10 years old, Kim Yeo-joo!"
Auntie Sunyoung was my mother's best friend since high school. She lived in a different area but moved to Seoul for work. By coincidence, she ended up living in the building next to ours. So, I started interacting with Kim Taehyung every day since I was in the third grade of elementary school.
"Here you go, eat this."
"Wow, Taehyung really has good manners."
Kim Taehyung was polite. And much more mature than kids his age. Even though he was 11 years old, an age where he prioritizes what he likes and what he wants to eat, he always put me first. When we ate together, he would put the meat on my plate first, and when we went out to play, he would hold my hand tightly and never let go. Adults praised him for that every day. Of course, I liked him too.
From that moment on, I had a crush on him, long and deep, with no deadline.
"I like Taehyung Oppa."
But Taehyung wasn't just nice to me. Looking at the girls in our class, many of them liked Taehyung. If he was this popular even among us, who were only a year younger than him, I couldn't imagine how popular he must be with girls his age.
"Hey, why do you always walk home from school with Taehyung?"
A year had passed since I started being with Taehyung, and as we entered our fourth year, more and more girls started to become jealous of me. Not only girls my age, but even the older girls in his grade would get jealous of me and often come after me. But I didn't mind that either. If anything, it just made me feel that I was special to Taehyung.
"Harin confessed to you? She's really cute and popular, isn't she?"
"Yeah, that's what everyone said."
"Hmm, what do girls like about you, Oppa? I have no idea."
"Huh? (laughing) Yeoju, didn't you like me too?"
I absolutely didn't want Taehyung to know my feelings. I wanted to be special to him. But what if he found out that I liked him like all the other girls? I felt like I'd just be all alone. So I deliberately acted all dramatic so he wouldn't notice...
"picture…?"
"You like me, don't you?"
Maybe it would have been impossible not to notice. I was always acting all lovey-dovey in front of Taehyung. I was stupid to expect him to not notice.
In other words, he knew everything from the beginning. To him, I was just like any other girl. That was unbearably frustrating for an 11-year-old me. I really wanted to be someone special to him...
"What are you talking about? I don't like you."
"They always act like adults and it all seems hypocritical."
After those words, we stopped visiting each other's houses. Taehyung looked completely shocked when he heard what I had said. But even that didn't sit well with me. I didn't like his attitude, which seemed to say, "Everyone likes me, right?" I definitely didn't want to become that ordinary girl.
So we had an awkward relationship.
"Congratulations on your graduation."
"Yes, thank you."
Time passed, and I graduated from elementary school. On graduation day, Taehyung showed up wearing his middle school uniform, looking even cooler than I had expected. I decided to go to a middle school a little further away, so my family decided to move. After the ceremony, we ate dinner together and exchanged final farewells.
"Take care over there. Don't forget about me."
"Yeah... you too."
"You never called me Oppa until the very end. I don't think I've heard that once since that day."
"Yeah, because it's embarrassing."
「……。」
Silence continued. Even though I knew that if things continued like this, I might never see him again, I just couldn't find the words to say.
"You don't really hate me, do you?"
Just as I was about to turn and start walking away, Taehyung asked me that. My heart skipped a beat. Could it be that he was still thinking about what I said back then?
I turned around a little and answered.
"Yeah. I've never hated you."
Taehyung smirked, and to this day I don’t know what that smile meant.
After that we parted ways and only occasionally heard about each other's situations through our respective parents, but we never had any direct contact or met.
And then five years passed.
.
.
.
"Oh no! I'm super late!"
On May 15th, I heard that the Teachers' Day event would start at 8am, so I set five alarms the night before. I missed all of them, and ended up oversleeping. I quickly put on my tracksuit and ran out the front door, and the moment—
「…？？？」
There was a man's face there that looked familiar, yet somehow different.
IN
"Hey, Yeoju. Long time no see."
The moment I heard that voice, I was convinced.
It's really Taehyung.
He was my first love and my last love.
It was an unexpected reunion - right in front of my house.