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“These are my friends, Nonu! The ugly one with a monkey plushy is Jaejae, he is a crybaby but that's a secret!” Mingyu points at the oblivious Jaehyun who is silently climbing up the monkey bars. His orange monkey plushy tucked in his overall’s front pocket. “This is Eunwoo, the one holding the teddy bear. He is so nice, you gonna love him!” Eunwoo comes closer to them, smiling and waving his hand as he got closer.
“Hi!” He said politely. His voice is really nice, Wonwoo noted. Eunwoo was slightly shorter than mingyu with a mop of dark locks. His slim build had nothing on Mingyu’s slightly bulkier form, and his pale skin was a stark contrast to Mingyu’s golden tan. They were complete opposites or so to say. “My name is Eunwoo, and you are Nonu that Mingyu keeps talking about?”
“Hi,” Wonwoo said shyly, hiding behind Mingyu. His grip on his kitty plushy had tightened, eyes boring holes into the ground. Anxiety had already started filling his small body.
“Nonu, don’t be shy of Eunwoo, he once ate a gum he picked from the floor!” Mingyu said loudly, earning a smack from flustered Eunwoo. The poor boy was so red while accusing Mingyu of lying. Wonwoo found this scene comforting, so he stepped out behind Mingyu and extended his tiny arm. Eunwoo looked pleased and he shook his hand with vigor enthusiasm. “Now you are friends too! See, Nonnie, you have two friends already!”
“If Mingyu gets too loud, you can always come to play with me!” For a child, Eunwoo was extremely well-spoken. Everyone guesses, it’s the courtesy of his parents being an author and a poetess.
“Hey! He is MY friend!” Mingyu loudly exclaimed, pushing Wonwoo behind himself. The other just complied with being pushed around. Being friends with Mingyu made him get used to it.
“He-ya, Mango-face.” A lean kid with cute frog-shaped glasses had approached their group. He had an accent but it was pretty understandable. He was dragging a long-armed frog plushy on the ground. The face of a poor thing was dragged through the dirt, Wonwoo internally shivered. “Who’s that behind ya back?”
“That’s Mingming’s favorite Nonu~,” Eunwoo snickered. He smiled teasingly at the duo and proceeded to move towards the other kid. His teddy bear was hanging for its dear life as Eunwoo skipped towards the boy, holding the bear by its hand and swinging it around happily. Poor Teddy, Wonwoo thought. He clutched his kitty closer to himself and kissed its fuzzy head. Next to him, Mingyu loudly huffed and took the smaller boy’s hand in his own and demonstratively marched in the opposite direction. To be precise, towards Jaehyun, who, apparently, had scrapped his knee falling from the monkey bars. He is now sporting a bright Lightning McQueen bandaid. Wonwoo had a feeling that Jaehyun is a lot like himself. A quiet kid, who took great care of his belongings and probably very responsible, and mature. Mingyu was mumbling something under his nose. His long legs had nothing on Wonwoo’s shorter ones, so he was forced to almost run after the older boy. The playground was pretty empty today. There were some kids beside them playing by the swings and slide, he saw Eunwoo and the other boy go towards the seesaw. Jaehyun was all by himself. That made Wonwoo sad. They entered the sandbox and sat next to Jaehyun. Well, Wonwoo sat. Mingyu, on the other hand, slipped and fell on his bottom.
“Are you okay, Mingyu?” Jae asked, eyes full of concern.
“Yeah, yeah, I am ok. This is Nonu, Nonu this is Jaejae.”
“Nice to meet you, Nonu,” Jaehyun said, smiling sweetly at the said boy. His front tooth was missing and his chestnut hair fluttered by the light summer breeze. His eyes sparkled, and at that moment Wonwoo was mesmerized. He blushed furiously and hugged his kitty tightly.
“N-nice to meet you, too!” He squeaked shyly and quickly averted his gaze. Jaehyun just kept smiling sweetly, still oblivious of blushing Wonwoo. The silence that followed after would have been comical to an outsider: you see a toddler hiding their face in the kitten plushy, a sweet, oblivious, smiling toddler with cute dimples who can easily come off as dumb, and a very perplexed, overgrown toddler with bandaids covering almost all his left fingers, who is also happened to be scratching his head in pure confusion. They sat like that for God knows how long since none of them understood the concept of time. The bubble was broken when Mingyu turned around to face Jaehyun.
“Your tooth is missing.” He stated it with a serious tone as if it wasn’t noticeable.
“Oh? Ah, yeah, it fell off a couple of days ago. Thanks for noticing! Daddy told me to put it under the pillow and I got two dollars the next morning!” Jaehyun sweetly replied, looking as innocent as ever with his eyes smile, and dimples. “Oh! We match, Mingyu, you also don’t have front teeth!”
“How are we matching?! You are only missing one tooth, and I am missing two!” Mingyu whined, pouting a little in the process. He huffed and crossed his arms on his chest. Jaehyun laughed and turned to Wonwoo. He reached into his pocket and fetched a candy out. He extended his arm towards the smaller boy. Wonwoo cautiously looked at him, and then at still pouting Mingyu who demonstratively turned away from the dimpled boy. Jaehyun just nodded, encouraging him to take the candy.
“Thank you,” shyly said Wonwoo, unwrapping the candy.
“Daddy always told me to charm the pretty girls I like. You are not a girl but you are super pretty, and you don’t have any missing teeth!” Mingyu gasped dramatically as if he was stabbed in the back. Jaehyun was still smiling brightly. What’s up with him and this constant smile, does his face not hurt? “Let’s make a sandcastle, Nonu!”
“Hey, I am still here! And-and Nonnie is my friend, not yours, so go eat your boogers, crybaby!” Mingyu pushed Jaehyun a little too strong and made him hit his head on the border of the sandbox. The victim of the assault was quiet the first couple of seconds as if processing what happened and then started wailing loudly, holding his little hands to the injured spot. Mingyu paled and started frantically comforting and shushing his friend, simultaneously starting to cry himself. Wonwoo was extremely confused by what was happening in front of him. He didn’t understand why was Mingyu crying in the first place since he was the one hurting sweet, sweet Jaehyun? But that’s Mingyu there were talking about, he is always weird like that. Wonwoo got up and crawled to sat next to Jaehyun and half-hugged him, kissing his temple. The crying suddenly stopped and both older kids stared at Wonwoo in shock. The latter instantly reddened under their stares and tried to untangle himself but Mingyu was quick to tackle him down.
“I want a kiss too! That’s unfair, you kiss Jaejae and he is a crybaby! You don’t even know him so kiss me now!” Mingyu demanded loudly and that was the exact moment their parents caught, coming to the sandbox, startled by the cry. They came to witness red, teary-eyed, blushing Jaehyun, pouting Mingyu on top of flustered Wonwoo who was one step away from crying from embarrassment. The confusion was unreal but that didn’t stop Johnny (Jaehyun’s dad) and Mrs. Kim from taking a sneaky video of their kids.
Mingyu never got his kiss. Wonwoo did end up crying with roles reversed, and now Jaehyun kissed him sweetly. To Mingyu’s biggest dismay, three of them now have an arranged playdate at the Suh household.