BLUEBERRY,

Park Sunghoon didn't seem to be joking when he suggested they be friends.

Juwon had run into the boy more than she had liked to and every time, Sunghoon acted as if his confession a week ago had never happened. He was awkward and bright at the same time and overall just a friendly person. So by their seventh encounter at the convenience store down the street of her apartment complex, Juwon had practically already told him her life story.

Sitting outside of the convenience store, Sunghoon's eyes widened in shock. "You have a child?!" Sunghoon asked. "Then what are you doing here?"

"He's not my real kid," Juwon spoke, taking a sip from her banana milk carton. She made a sour face, regretting not choosing the strawberry carton instead. "He was attending school as a foreign exchange student last year. One thing led to another, he didn't want to go back home and I ended up taking him in." She paused, "For the time being, that is."

"Are you even mentally stable to be taking care of him?"

"Y'know, Heeseung asked me the same thing," she said, chuckling. "No."

"Your life is more interesting than mine," Sunghoon said, opening a bag of potato chips. "You're taking care of a fifteen-year-old boy at nineteen."

"That's not interesting at all," Juwon said. "You literally spent ten years as a competitive figure skater — how is this more interesting than your life?"

"You do have a point," he smiled. Juwon scoffed, resulting in Sunghoon's laughter. "I think it's nice, though. You met him a few months ago and refer to him as your 'son.' It's cute."

"That's because he is my son," Juwon said seriously, finishing the last of her banana milk.

"What about the other one?" Sunghoon asked, eating his potato chips.

"Who?" she asked. "Heeseung?" Sunghoon nodded. "Heeseung's my friend. He has been for... seven years? Somewhere around there."

"You guys act like a married couple."

"Ugh, how dare you," she said, rolling her eyes playfully. They were silent after that and though Juwon had expected it to be awkward, it wasn't. In fact, she felt comforted by Sunghoon's presence.

"How did you meet him?" Sunghoon asked, breaking the silence. She turned to look at him only to find that he wasn't looking at her. Instead, his eyes were focused on the cars passing by. Juwon looked down at her empty milk carton and sighed, thinking back to her first encounter with Heeseung.

"He threw a stick at me," Juwon said nonchalantly. "I think we were still in middle school. I was at the park near our neighborhood and he happened to be there." She paused, "He took one look at me and decided that I was ugly." Juwon laughed to herself as all the memories came rushing in. "He said he didn't like my hair and my uniform looked weird. I thought he was going to continue to bully me after that." She sighed again. "Turns out his parents had divorced that day and he was directing his anger towards me."

"And then?" Sunghoon asked, invested in her story.

"He cried," Juwon said. "After saying all those mean things to me, he started crying. I thought I was the one who was supposed to cry." She laughed again and looked at Sunghoon. "To be fair, I was having a bad hair day that day, so I wouldn't blame him entirely." Sunghoon chuckled and Juwon continued. "I don't remember much after that," she said. "We just clicked, you know? Like when you meet your soulmate for the first time — not that he is my soulmate, of course."

Sunghoon stared at her, watching as her eyes lit up everytime she mentioned Heeseung. He smiled. "Sounds like you love him," he said.

"Well, he is my first friend," she said. Juwon sighed once again, leaning her back on the exterior wall of the convenience store and smiling softly. "Yeah. I do love him, though."

"It's nice to love someone like that," he said, extending his legs out on the concrete.

"Well you see, blueberry, Heeseung's just a loveable person. He's always been that way."

"Blueberry?" Sunghoon asked, confused.

Juwon pointed to his shirt, "There's a blueberry on your shirt," she said. Sunghoon looked down, staring blankly at the small blueberry on the collar of his shirt. He blinked.

"Huh," he started. "I didn't even know that was there."

"Now you know." The girl stood up from the ground, stretching. "I'm gonna go get another carton," she said. "I'll be right back."

"Okay," Sunghoon said. He watched her walk back into the convenience store and once she was gone, he sighed, looking down at his hands. Sunghoon thought back to the way Juwon had spoken about Heeseung, so lovingly. He smiled.

"I never had a chance, did I?"

• • •

seung the rat 🐀

juju tf away from me 👽
your phone privileges should be taken from you