30 The Promise... (2)

Mia, Jina, and Jun came to the playground area, 2-3 blocks away from their houses.

When they arrived, they saw some children were standing below a tree.

"Let's go play with them.", Mia said and started to walk towards them.

Leaving Jun's hand, Jina ran towards her sister, and then she held her hand walking.

When they went closer, they saw that the children were gathered around a boy, who was a year or two older and all were looking at something in his hands.

'What are they doing?', Mia thought.

"Wow!", one of the boys exclaimed.

"This is awesome! I've watched this on T.V. This is just like that.", said the other boy.

"My dad got me this.

When he went to Seoul, he bought this for Me.", the boy who was holding the thing said proudly.

"You are really lucky.", a girl said.

When Mia and Jina went closer, they saw the boy was holding a remote-controlled racing car in his hands.

"This is the newest version! And it is very expensive." The boy smirked.

"..Hey, don't touch it!", he scolded a boy who was trying to touch it.

"Hello everyone.", suddenly Mia interrupted them.

All of them turned back and looked towards her.

"I am Mia and this is my sister Jina. And that is Jun.", she pointed towards the boy who was coming towards them very slowly, with heavy steps.

"We wanted to play with you all." And she smiled.

The boy, who had the car in his hands, came forward.

"We haven't seen you here before.", he said.

"We are here to meet our Nana, Sung Areum.

And he is our neighbor's grandson."

She said as Jun came and stood beside her.

"Oh! So you are Sung grandma's granddaughters!", said one of the girls.

Mia nodded.

While they were talking, Jun's eyes were pinned towards the car in the boy's hands.

'It's SCX21! The same car, Papa got me for my 7th birthday…', he was thinking with his moistened eyes as he remembered his mother and father.

"So can we play with you guys?", Mia asked.

Suddenly,

"Hey! What are you looking at? Huh?", said the boy with the car, as he noticed that Jun was staring at it.

With his loud voice, Jun got startled and looked at him.

"This is mine. Don't look at it like that. I won't let you play with it.", he said arrogantly.

"I couldn't care less", Jun said plainly.

"What? What did you say?"

The boy took some steps towards him

Jun didn't say anything.

"This is the newest version of remote-controlled cars. SX21!

Do you even know that?" The boy said with his nose high in the air.

"It's S "C" X21! And it's not the newest version.

SCX23 has launched last month. So yours is two versions old." Jun said with his cold gaze staring at the boy.

All other children started whispering as they heard Jun's words.

The boy got furious. Taking long steps forward, he came in front of Jun and held his collar.

"What? How dare you?"

But Jun didn't say anything.

"Hey. Leave him." Mia came forward hurriedly.

The boy looked at Jun furiously and as he realized something, he said,

"Wait! You are Jun, Do Jun.

You are Kim Seong Ja grandma's grandson. Right?

Do you know him guys?", he asked other boys.

The others looked at him puzzled.

"Hey, you shouldn't look at other's toys like that, you know?" The boy said tightening the grip on Jun's collar.

"Hey, leave him alone…", Mia said and tried to pull the boy's hand away from him.

While Jina went and tried to pull the boy from the back.

But the boy was older and stronger than them. He didn't move at all.

The other children didn't know what to do, as he was a bully, they were also afraid of him.

"You are the one whose mother and father died in an accident, right?"

Jun, who was staring at him coldly for this whole time, looked the other way.

His eyes filled with tears in an instant.

Hearing the boy's words Mia looked at him shocked.

"My mother was telling my father, that only you survived in that accident." He continued.

Mia looked at Jun, who was looking down. A teardrop slid down from his cheeks.

"Hey..stop it!", she said to the boy.

But he didn't.

"So that's why you were looking at my car like that.

You were jealous because there is no one, who'll give you this kind of thing EVER.

You— AAAAAAAAAaaaaa"

The boy screamed and took his hand back from Jun's collar.

What had happened was, that when he was talking to Jun like that, Mia had grabbed his hand and bitten it with her all might.

She bit it so hard that a mark of her teeth was clearly visible on his hand.

He looked at her furiously.

But she didn't hesitate nor stopped.

She took one of her shoes off and started to beat him with it.

"Hey…hey….What..are you doing…Aaaa…Aaa…wait…", he was screaming.

"Don't – ever – talk – to – him – like – that-" Mia was shouting still beating him with her shoe.

"Aaa…I don't..hit girls…okay…so… Aaaa..stop…it…Aaaa", he was screaming trying to cover his head with both of his hands.

While others were just watching with their jaws dropped open, Jina on the other hand was clapping happily.

An old man passing by saw all this from a distance.

"Hey, What is going on there?", he shouted.

Mia stopped beating and the boy who was beaten ran from there as soon as she stopped. He was so humiliated that he didn't even dare to look back.

As he ran away, the other children started clapping.

Mia was panting; she wiped her sweat from her forehead.

She looked at Jina, who was still clapping and laughing.

Then Mia looked, where Jun was standing, but he was not there.

She looked around, and she saw a small figure a bit far, running away from them.

"HEY!! JUN… JUN!!", she called but he didn't stop.

~

"Jina...", Mia said standing at the gate of their Nana's house.

Jina looked up at her with her big round eyes.

"You go home now. Okay?

And don't tell anyone what had happened in the park."

"Okay, Sis. I won't tell anyone.", and Jina giggled as she remembered how her sister had beaten that big guy.

"I'll go and bring Jun back home.", Mia said and started running towards the direction where Jun had gone.

But soon she realized she couldn't run much fast. As she looked down, she saw her shoe was torn with its sole hanging out from it!

~

Walking as fast as she could, Mia reached the river bank.

'He came towards this direction….but where did he go exactly?'

She started to look everywhere.

And she noticed someone was sitting on a branch of a tree near the river.

The tree was not so tall but its branches were spread in all directions.

And there was sitting Jun, on one of the branches, facing the river.

Mia ran towards him.

"Jun?", she called his name.

He looked down; tears were continuously flowing through his eyes.

As soon as he saw Mia, he wiped them hurriedly.

Mia went near the tree and started to climb it.

She tried, once, twice….but she couldn't climb.

Looking at Mia like that, a smile appeared on Jun's face.

'She just beat a bully a while ago and now she can't climb a mere tree!'

"Wait there..." Jun said and jumped down from the branch.

Mia went towards him.

"Are you okay?", she asked worriedly.

Smiling at her gently, he nodded.

'He smiled…Thank god….', Mia felt relieved.

"Are you..okay?", He asked.

"Huh?"

"I mean you just beat that guy…So…"

"I am absolutely fine! He just needed to learn a lesson."

"Thank you for doing all that…", he said looking at the river.

"Don't even mention it…

....Besides....How dare he say those words to my friend?", she said clenching her fists.

"Friend?", he looked at her with wide eyes.

"Are we not?", she asked him back.

He didn't say anything.

"Junaaa…"

He looked at her surprised as his Grandma and his parents were the only ones who have always called him like that.

"Don't ever feel alone and cry like before.

Your mother and father won't like to see you like that..." Mia looked above at the sky and continued,

"That's what my mom told me when my grandpa went to meet the god.

She said that he is looking at me from above there…", she pointed at the sky.

Jun also looked above, in the sky.

His eyes again got filled with tears.

"And besides, we are all here for you.

Your grandma, Nana, Jina, Me…."

Jun looked at her, a teardrop streamed down.

"So, don't ever feel alone…", Mia looked at him.

Jun quickly wiped his tears and nodded.

"And if anyone bothers you again, just tell me.

I'll beat them with my shoe, just like before, and protect you at all cost! I promise!" She held her tiny yet strong fist in the air.

Jun smiled and looked down at her shoes. He saw that her shoe was torn.

"Your shoe…It's torn…"

"Huh?...Yeah…Hehe.." Mia laughed goofily.

But Jun quickly removed his shoes and kept them in front of her feet.

"Here…Wear these…"

"What? No, it's okay…"

"We are friends, right?

You did all that for me and now it's my turn."

Mia couldn't say anything further.

She wore them and took hers in her hands.

"Let's go home.", he said.

"Hm."

And then Mia and Jun walked towards their homes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Back to the Spring break of 2004, where Mia and Jun were sitting on the hill lost in their memories….)

"Mia?" Jun asked looking at Mia who was still lost.

Coming back to her senses, she said,

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember the promise you made at that time?"

"Of course, I do." Mia smiled.

"I'll beat anyone who bothers you, with my shoe!!", she repeated her promise, laughing.

'I also want to make a promise now.' Jun thought to himself as he was looking at Mia sincerely.

'You protected me at that time and now I want to be strong enough to protect you.

I want to be the one who'll comfort you in your hard times.

I want you, to rely on me.

I'll be always there for you. Just trust me, Mia.'

Jun smiled at Mia, who was looking up in the sky and smiling.

"I promise!" Jun said.

"Huh?", Mia looked at him. "Did you say something?"

"N..No....It's nothing...."

"Oh, okay.

Should we go home now? I'm hungry."

"Hm. Let's go."

And both of them started to walk down the hill.

~

After spending two days at Nana's house, Mia and Jina returned to their home.

Promising each other, that they'll meet soon, Mia said 'Goodbye' to her favorite town, the places she loved to go with Jun, and to the people, who were very precious to her.