Chapter 3
Most of Jin's flashbacks are set in the past around the time he and Yi were around 10 and 11 years.
Around 10 pm Jin was inside his bedroom unpacking his clothes from his suitcase he had lied on the floor. He removed a few small piles of pants out of his suitcase and lied them on his bed, then took the next pile of shirts and placed them next to the pants. Jin yawned as he picked up the next pile, afterward he placed them on his bed again, followed by a bunch of socks. Jin yawned again this time covering his mouth, therefore he took out a pair of red sneakers out from his luggage and from under his bed he had two large drawers, which he pulled back one after each other, then took a look on the Interieur, which contained several pairs of shoes, a few half-full perfume bottles and a few white sheets hidden under the shoes. Jin puffed at the mess he had left in the drawers, then took out two pairs of shoes placing them on the ground next to each other.
Behind him on the door appeared a tall woman with a white blouse and black pants.
"I saw a few weeks ago into your drawers and I left them like that. Maybe you should see, if you could give any of the shoes away to your cousin or for donation" The mother suggested.
"Yeah sure mom, there are some that don't even fit anymore," Jin said picking out a pair of converse shoes, which were a little smaller than the other shoes. "And I might check these perfume bottles in there. I don't remember having them in here"
"I go see if I find a bag for it" The mother of Jin announced walking away while the teen kept looking inside the drawer for more objects he wouldn't need. He picked out a drawing, which had two stick figures drawn on it one of them wearing blue pants and a gray shirt while the other character wore a red t-shirt and knee-length jeans. The characters resembled a younger version of Jin and Yi, then Jin smiled as he realized that this drawing was done by Yi when she was younger. Jin turned the sheet around to see a note in capital letters on the corner of the sheet.
"Promise me, we will always be friends no matter what happens."
Under the comment with a dark blue color, there was a shorter sentence, which Jin recognized as its own handwriting when he was shorter due to the calligraphy be a little less legible than Yi's. "I promise" He read on the sheet, then smiled at the sheet and sat down on the floor gazing at the drawing, then lied it on the bed and looked down at the drawer at the shoes he had in there. In there he came across a small envelope with a couple of photos, which he took out so see all of them, were from the past as he was a child.
"I think mom could need them on her photo album," He told himself placing the envelope back on the bed, afterward he took a bottle of perfume out and a pair of shoes out then noted far behind the drawer was a small, beige-colored envelope under a shoe, where it had hanzi characters on it and Jin reached his arm into the drawer to grab the envelope then he saw the letter had written Yi's name on it. Jin widened his eyes as he remembered what kind of letter it was and had a flashback of his childhood together with Yi.
A younger Jin dressed in a tang suit consisting of white pants and a red shirt stood in front of the door of an apartment near his, then the boy knocked on the door waiting for someone to open the door. The door was opened by a young woman with a ponytail, which looked around, then moved her eyes down to see the young boy standing in front of her.
"Yi your friend Jin is here," The mother told looking into the living room to see Yi sit in front of the dinner table along with her father and grandmother playing Mahjong.
"Hey, Jin!" Yi greeted excited to see her best friend, while the father waved at the young boy, that entered the living room heading to the table to meet his friend.
"Hey Jin, we were playing Mahjong together. Are you interested to play with us?" The father of Yi offered the boy, which shrugged his shoulders.
"Okay"
"Can I and Jin go play outside, when we're done with the game?" Yi asked gazing at her father, which nodded at the daughter.
"Of course you two can" The father answered. "As long as you two behave"
"Of course dad" Yi answered holding her right arm behind her back crossing her middle and index finger together.
After the match, the two kids ran out at the sidewalk in front of the apartment racing together passing between the people, that were walking against them upwards laughing together.
"The last arriving at the playground is a rotten fish" Jin exclaimed jokingly observing Yi follow him, soon she managed to overtake him quick and leave the boy far behind surprised."Whoa"
"Come on Jin or we won't get the chance to make it to the big swing"
"I know!" Jin hissed keeping up with the girl, then they got approximated to a small park, where a few kids were present running around playing tag and two women sat on a bench observing the kids run around.
Yi stopped at the entrance of the park, waiting for Jin to arrive, afterward the two entered into the park and Jin ran at the swings stopping in front of a blue and black-colored nest swing, then held it on the other side waiting for Yi to climb up at the chair and take a sit.
Jin got up at the swing, then placed his right foot on the floor pushing himself and Yi forwards on the swing, then Jin stood on the swing as the nest swung back, then he pumped forward swinging forward with the swing. He watched Yi lean her back on his legs enjoying the wind, that went on her face due to the swinging.
The two friends walked home together home from school chatting.
"My aunt comes to visit us today with Peng, my little cousin" Jin mentioned. "You have met him already, right?"
"Oh yeah, I remember him" Yi responded. "He found last time my dad's violin in its case and thought it was a guitar and tried to play on it"
"Ah, I remember your dad told me that once" Jin mentioned starting to laugh. "Too bad I wasn't there"
"It was funny, really" Yi mentioned walking beside Jin on the sidewalk, soon approaching the entrance to their apartment. "Are you going to do your homework right now?" Yi asked making Jin shrug his shoulders.
"Maybe a little later. Maybe Peng wants me to play with him"
"Hey we could play together with him" The raven-haired girl suggested, then Jin thought about her offer and nodded.
"Yeah, I could ask him" The boy answered. "He sure will like the idea"
"Great, will you call me or should I pass by?"
"I pass by" Jin answered opening the door for the two to enter into the building.
Later in the evening, Jin appeared on the roof together with the little boy Peng in his arms entering through the exit at the roof.
"Boy, you know I can't always carry you stairs up. Your legs are healthy" Jin told his little cousin placing him on the ground, then closed the door behind him looking around to see Yi pull out from the shack from her father an empty vegetable box along the ground passing by the boys, then she stopped.
"Hey guys….and hey Peng, how are you?" Yi asked passing her hand over the short hair of the four-year-old. "Remember me?"
"That's Yi, the girl we played with once last time, remember?" Jin questioned the boy, which nodded a little shyly around the girl.
"Hey I've got a ball in there, maybe we could play all basketball together. You're interested?" Yi offered the boy, which rolled his eyes up at the older cousin, which nodded at the child and Peng looked at Yi nodding shortly.
"Good I will get the ball, in the meanwhile Jin can place the box somewhere up as the basket" Yi suggested earning a nod from the friend.
"Of course" Jin answered picking up the box, bringing it to the other side of the roof placing it on a cement platform, from where they could see the entire city.
Yi walked out from the shack with an orange basketball, then she showed it to Peng, which had his hand inside his mouth and Yi went down on her knees to have eye contact with the boy.
"You have to play like that. You hit with the ball like this on the ground, then you have to run with the ball while hitting on the floor like this" Yi explained the boy getting up on her feet and run around the boy, which observed her afterward Yi ran towards Jin, which smirked and extended his arms wide to protect the goal from the girl.
"My opponent, which in this case is Jin has to protect the basket, so I won't score any point" Yi mentioned trying to pass beside Jin, who moved closer to the girl blocking her. "There's also this if you stop you gotta pass your ball to one of your group, cause you're not allowed to run again after you stop, but since we're only three, we skip that rule and play one by one," Yi told Jin's cousin, then watched Jin jump against her and Yi threw the ball up in the air and Jin looked up in the air and held his arm up in the air along with Yi trying to catch the ball, then it hit both of their hand and it felt down on the ground jumping at Peng's feet.
"Come try it out" Yi suggested. "We promise we won't make it hard"
"Or better you two against me" Jin suggested making Yi giggle.
"Are you sure you can take us?" Yi asked unsure about the idea of the boy.
"We'll see," Jin said taking the ball from the feet of his cousin, then started to dribble away from Yi, followed by Peng which followed slowly the two friends at the platform, where the goal had been marked. Jin stopped and saw Yi standing in front of him blocking the sight to the box, then Jin threw the ball over Yi's head and the ball hit the side of the box and fell down on the ground, then Peng picked the ball and looked up at Yi, which stood in front of Jin blocking him away from the cousin.
"Try it out Peng," Yi asked the boy, which looked at the box and threw the ball at the box, which passed over the box landing on the platform rolling a little forward stopping nearly at the edge of the roof.
"I'm going to get it" Yi warned placing one leg on the roof, then Jin pulled the girl by her belly back, tripping on his feet falling along with the girl on the ground. "Hey!"
"Not so fast" Jin mentioned jokingly, then got hit by Yi's elbow on his chest. "Hey!"
"Maybe you should have let me go" Yi mentioned with a smirk, which Jin copied.
"You really seem to enjoy to banter around with me, hein?" Jin asked furrowing his eyebrows, watching Yi chuckle.
"That's what best friends do all the time"
"Well we're the only ones so far I know" Jin mentioned seeing Yi shake her head playfully. Yi noted above Jin's hair Peng standing on the platform running towards the ball, that lied on the edge of it setting Yi in panic.
"Your cousin!" Yi shouted shrieking Jin, which saw Peng grab the ball, then freeze as he looked down at the deep.
"Peng wait!" Jin shouted jumping up at the platform along with Yi, then Peng looked back at Jin and stepped in midair, shrieking as he lost his equilibrium and Jin jumped in the air landing on his belly sliding close to the edge to catch Peng by his arm.
"Yi help me!" Jin cried, then Yi crawled beside Jin trying to reach to Peng's other hand with hers. "Take his hand, I'll try to reach his other hand" Jin suggested watching Yi grab Peng's arm, holding them close to Jin's. "Got it?"
"Yes!" Yi yelped trying to pull the rather chubby boy up, with difficulty.
"Hold on Peng" Jin warned trying to grab the other hand to pull him up, while he shook with his legs in panic. "Calm down Peng, your big cousin has got you" Jin tried to comfort the boy. "Yi, do you think you can hold Peng on the other hand, while I try to pull him by his back?"
"I'll try" Yi answered grabbing Peng's other arm as Jin slowly reached it to her hands.
"Don't worry Peng, everything will be okay" Jin mentioned to comfort the boy, then placed his arms by the waist of the boy. "Hold still" Jin ordered the boy trying to pull him up. Jin warped his face as he wasn't able to pull the boy, then he placed his left hand back on Peng's arm and the right arm on the edge of the platform, slowly placing his right leg next to the platform leaning down with his stomach on the ground and placed his hand back on the back of the boy, followed by the other and tried to pull the boy up along with Yi, slowly managing to get the boy up.
"Keep going, Yi!" Jin cheered for the girl.
Back at the other side of the room the door was shut open and the father of Yi had appeared looking out, then he stared in shock as he saw Jin and Yi on the edge of the roof with Peng.
"Yi, Jin!" The father shouted running towards the platform.
"Daddy, we need help!" Yi shouted watching her father appear and pull Yi away from the edge and the two had managed to pull Peng up at the roof with the help of Jin pushing Peng from his body. Jin suddenly lost his balance on the right side of his leg and he waved with his arms like a bird trying to equilibrate.
"Jin, watch out!" Yi screamed in shock and her father approached quickly at the boy and managed to catch him by his shoe, which unluckily slipped off from the foot.
"No!" The father shouted seeing the boy fall down hit with his elbow on a bamboo pole of a framework that stood beside the building slowing him down and crashing with his back on the metal sheets forming a roof for the levels under it. "Jin?"
"Daddy, is Jin okay?" Yi asked looking down at the roof, where the boy lied with a painful expression on his face.
"Go bring Peng out of here, I'm going down at him" The father mentioned.
"But…."
"Please don't worry about Jin. He will be okay" The father assured caressing the girl on the face.
Jin sat on his bed looking at his gypsum around his arm filled with names and several little drawings made with felt-tip pens. Jin looked at his night table, where he had his school case and he opened it taking out a blue pencil, afterward looked at his plaster to look for a free spot to drabble something in it.
Someone knocked on the door, then Jin looked at the exit of his room to see his friend Yi on the door with a sheet on her hand.
"Hey Yi" Jin greeted the girl, that entered into his room slowly and stopped in front of the boy.
"Are you angry at me?" Yi asked making Jin furrow his eyebrows in confusion.
"Huh, why should I be angry at you?"
"Well… because of your arm" Yi mentioned. Jin shook his head, then tapped with his good arm on the bed signaling the girl to sit down on the bed, which the girl did.
"It was an accident. I'm the one, who lost the balance"
"I thought on that day, that you had died" Yi confessed getting sad about it, then Jin placed his hand on Yi's to comfort her.
"I know and I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad, but I'm great now. I just have this gypsum around my arm for the next weeks. I'll be fine"
"That sounds good" Yi mentioned making Jin smile and roll his eyes down, then see his pencil he had taken out before from his suitcase.
"Would you like to sign your name on the gypsum?" Jin asked gazing at the girl, which looked back at the face of the boy. "Here this spot here is free" Yi smiled at the boy and grabbed the pencil, then used it to write down her name on the plaster.
"Cool," Jin mentioned watching Yi look up at the boy's brown eyes smiling, making him smile courteously at her. Yi held her sheet up looking at it, then she showed it to the friend, which took a glance at it. "What is that?"
"It's a gift for you," Yi said watching Jin grab the sheet to look at it and recognize himself and Yi as stick figurines on it.
"Cool," Jin complimented it, turning the sheet around to see Yi's message.
"Promise me, we will always be friends no matter what happens."
Jin smiled and picked up the pencil of Yi to write down on the sentence the words "I promise"
"Yi no matter what happens, whether it's my fault, your fault or anything else, that could prejudice our friendship. There is no way our friendship will be broken. Never. I will always be your best friend in the good and the bad times. And you know why?" Jin asked making Yi shake her head. "Because we've been the best friends since the preschool. We're neighbors and we have always been in good terms just like brother and sister."
"I really wish I had you like my brother"
"Me too," Jin said with a chuckle, making Yi smile excited and place her arms around him for an embrace, making Jin chuckle and wrap his one free arm around her back. "Sorry, I only work with this arm at the moment" He mentioned making Yi laugh.
Jin knocked on the door, then it opened back and he met Yi's mother.
"Morning Jin, are you excited for your first day in high school?"
"A little nervous about the new people and teachers but it's not gonna be a big deal,"
"You two will do fine. You're both together there" Yi's mother mentioned earning a nod from the preteen.
"Yes and this time we're not in the same class again, we will see each other in the breaks only"
"Well at least that"
Yi walked out of her bedroom carrying her backpack with her and passed beside her mother.
"I had forgotten the case in my room" Yi mentioned. "Did dad already leave?"
"I think he went to get something from the basement"
"Okay, can you tell dad goodbye from me? " Yi asked earning a nod from her mother, afterward Yi gave her mother a peck on her cheek, then gazed up at the face of the friend. "Shall we go?"
Jin nodded and followed the girl the stairway down, then on the way they crossed Yi's father and Yi gave the man a hug.
"Have a great day darling" The father wished hugging the girl tightly making Jin smile at the sight of it. "I will miss you a lot"
"Me too dad" Yi confessed smiling at the man, then she ran the stairs down, then Jin walked the stairs down waving at his friend's dad and the man grabbed Jin by the shoulder stopping him.
"Uh did I do something wrong?" Jin asked looking at the man.
"No, I just wanted to ask you to do me a favor"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Will you make sure Yi gets to see this letter at her 16th birthday?" The man asked shoving his arm into the gray dress jacket taking out a beige envelope with Yi's name on it. Jin looked at the envelope a little bewildered then he took the envelope and put it in his backpack.
"Is it so special that I need to keep it?" Jin asked earning a nod from the man.
"Yes, I think it's the most suitable moment. It was for me though"
"Alright, I'll pass it to her on her 16th birthday, into her locker or her bedroom. I'll see that in the future" Jin explained earning a nod from the man.
"Thank you, Jin. You're a good boy" Yi's father pointed out at the boy, which smiled a little abashed.
"I guess...and I think I should be going. Yi is down waiting for me" Jin noted seeing the father nod.
"And...Take good care of Yi," The father said with a quiet tune confusing Jin a little.
"Uh...of course!" Jin responded avoiding the strange comment of Yi's father, then he ran downstairs meeting Yi on the outside, which had been waiting for the friend.
"What took you so long?" Yi questioned the friend.
"He...uhm...wanted to ask me if I could take care of you...sort of...I didn't quite get it" Jin explained the girl which tilt her head at his answer.
"Okay, why would he say that?"
"I don't know. I didn't insist cause we were running out of time" Jin added earning a nod from the friend.
In the afternoon after school Yi and Jin had arrived at the door of Yi's family's apartment and Yi opened the door to encounter her mother sitting on the couch next to Nai Nai and two other family members from Yi's family, then Yi stopped and looked up at Jin confused, who also watched all the family members feeling down for some reason.
"What's going on?" Jin asked looking at Yi, which shrugged her shoulders, then entered along with Yi into the living room to see Yi's mother holding her hands in front of her face sobbing, making Yi look sad, while Jin behind her gulped worried about the circumstances.
"M...mom?" Yi asked slowly placing her hand on the mother's hands. "What's going on?" The mother looked up at her daughter with watery eyes, making Yi swallow hard, concerned about her mother.
"Your father is gone" The mother whimpered turning Yi a little sad while Jin got shocked about the message.
"Gone?" Yi asked bewildered. "How do you mean gone?" Yi asked not understanding her mother's message, then the mother broke down in more tears about the confession, then Yi looked at the other family members, which were as sad too about the situation.
"Your father passed away" The grandmother from the paternal side noticed shocking Yi, which stepped back.
"What?" Yi asked. "No, this can't be true….why…..what happened?"
"It's a complicated story…...your father….well…." The grandfather tried to explain, but his wife signaled him with her hand to stop, then glanced at her granddaughter.
"Your father had a heart attack and…..he couldn't make it"
"No, this…...this is not true….but he was alright, he…..no!" Yi cried falling down on her knees weeping. Jin watched Yi on the ground depressed about, what she had just heard from her family and he went down on the floor placing his hands on her shoulders, then she got up from the floor running out of her apartment leaving everyone back.
"Yi wait!" Jin shouted wanting to go behind her but was stopped by Yi's mother.
"It's okay Jin….She's…..going to be alright" The mother said in sobs, watching Jin sank his head down in sadness, then he felt how the mother placed her arms around him as if she was his son, followed by the boy to dig his face on her arm, starting to whimper too.
Jin sat on his bed placing the drawing next to the photos he had found before under his bed, then sighed at his memories from the past and passed his hand through his hair then kept his eyes on the stuff he had on his bed.
"Maybe it should have been better, if I had mentioned Yi about her father's behavior" Jin vouched picking the photos inside the envelope, then spread them on the bed looking at all the images taken in his childhood. One of them was an image of Jin and Yi on their first school day at the high school, which was taken by a school photographer. Jin had placed his arm behind Yi's back while she had hers around him and both were smiling happily at the fourth wall, making Jin smile soft remembering the good days his and Yi's friendship were over the top.
"No matter what happens, whether it's my fault, your fault or anything else, that could prejudice our friendship. There is no way our friendship will be broken. Never. I will always be your best friend in the good and the bad times," Jin's quote from his younger self ran through his mind, making the boy furrow his eyebrows making a serious face and take out his smartphone entering into the telephone list, sliding down to the end to encounter Yi's name, afterward he pressed on it to establish a call with her.
"Jin?"
"Hey Yi, can you meet me up at the roof?" Jin asked on the phone. "I need to talk to you"
"Sure, right now?"
"If possible" He answered. "See you there" He responded taking his phone off his ear, seeing the background switch back to his home screen, which was an image of a red car. "It will go fine, don't worry Jin," Jin said to himself getting up from the bed, then tripping on his suitcase as he was about to run towards the door, landing on the ground. Jin growled, therefore he got up on his feet again and left his bedroom leaving everything he found on the bed.