Stronger Together AOUAD

Chapter 1 - Moving In

3rd Person's POV
(This happened when Chae Rin was 11)

Kang Ae Ri had finally managed to move all of her furniture into her brand-new Apartment, hand in hand with her daughter Chae Rin the two entered their new home.
You see, she is a woman who has just lost her husband 2 months ago, he was a police man who died during a night shift when a robbery occurred in a shopping near their home.

Kang Ae Ri decided for the best to move places, and so she packed all of her stuff and decided to move to a quieter place, having found an apartment not too far from a hospital where she found a job and a school which Chae Rin would attend.

As the two settled in moving boxes around and putting things in place a knock is heard at their front door and Ae Ri goes to open it greeting a man, a little older than her and a little girl with him, introducing themselves Ae Ri finds out the man's name was Nam So Ju whilst his daughter was On Jo, Chae Rin creeped from around the corner hearing the commotion and smiles upon seeing a girl her age introducing herself.

The little girl's mother invites in the father and daughter duo asking them for dinner which they gladly accept and the 4 spent the night talking about themselves and their own lives.
"Dad, me and Chae Rin are the same age!" On Jo excitedly told her father, who chuckled, a smile present in his face.
"Is that so? Then you two can be friends" He said to which the two girls smiled with a nod and linking arms.
"She's my new best friend" Chae Rin claimed, the adults laughed while the girls were happy to have found each other.

As the night came to an end, the parents finally decided to end dinner and go to sleep, the girls were very sad to say the last but excited about a tomorrow promised to be filled with games and a new play date. And so, that night they each went to sleep and when they woke up they both smiled at the memory of a new friend.

The next day the two met after lunch and played outside their building apartment at the local park, funny enough On Jo found the kid who was supposedly her best friend, a boy called Cheong San whom she called for and introduced to Chae Rin.
From that day onwards the 3 became unseparable, always one behind the other as if they were the 3 musketeers.

As the three grew closer and closer, there still seemed to be not a single day when the 3 didn't meet or when they'd be mad at each other, the three often hung out at each other's houses and even more often at Cheong San's parent's restaurant where the friends would study or just simply eat.
Due to both Chae Rin's and On Jo's parents professions, the two were especially close as each of the parents had a routine and would care for the other when needed, having the joke of the two being actual siblings grown.

When the 3 got into high school they were happy to have been placed in the same classroom and although it did cause a little separation as each made their own friends the musketeers were still as close as ever, leaving everyday together, returning together and studying together.
With these new friendships came a few very important ones, for Cheong San came Su Hyeok and Gyeong Su, for On Jo came I-Sak and for Chae Rin, well... there was Nam Ra who she wanted to get close to, although she really wasn't, but she was included in her friend's friend's group, and she was happy with that.

Every day was already a routine for Chae Rin, she would wake up, sometimes, if her mother wasn't at work she'd have breakfast with her and afterwards go out her door and alongside Cheong San would knock at On Jo's door and wait for her outside.
Once outside, the three would play rock paper scissors and decide who had to carry their backpacks, often times Chae Rin just chose to carry her own, whilst in others she enrolled in the game.
Once in school, she would head to her seat which was besides Nam Ra and greet her with a smile on her face, which Nam Ra had never returned, however she did reply, and they did talk at times.

During lunchtime, she often sat with On Jo and I Sak, others she would go and bother Nam Ra who would just be quietly eating alone, and so, Chae Rin would sit with her in a comfortable silence eating, a small smile tugging at her lips as she liked that she was not shooed away.