You Are Home [Hwang2Shin]

CH. 10

School has started up again -- proper school, as opposed to the catch-up classes you took over the summer -- and you're still the smallest kid at Pinks Middle School, but you've never felt so grown up.

You're in the sixth grade now and some of the other kids sprouted up over the summer -- Gemma Wilkins grew at least three inches, and all of her friends are sporting training-bras. The other girls seem to be envious of their new curves, but you don't mind.

Change, you've found, is a double-edged sword, and you're happy that it's passed you by.

Haewon Oh -- your best friend, next to Sunoo -- hasn't hit her growth spurt either. Like you, she doesn't care, so when the other girls sit in a circle at recess and talk about boys, the two of you skip out to the field to practice cartwheels and round-offs, pretending you're Olympic gymnasts.

You like Haewon a lot, even though you're pretty different. She wears basketball shorts nearly every day -- even in the winter -- and she's better at football than most of the boys in your grade.

At first, you didn't get along. Haewon's loud and blunt and she was briefly your sworn enemy after she told on you for puking in the bushes that day last year. You vowed to never speak to her again, but when you returned to school a few days later she ran up to you, clamped two hands on your shoulders, and demanded to know if you were feeling better.

Kindness, you're realizing, takes many forms.

You and Haewon have been fast friends ever since. It didn't take long for you to find out that Haewon lives around the corner from Yeji and Ryujin -- three houses down from Maya. You played in each other's back yards a few times over the summer, and she's the only kid from school who's been in your treehouse.

Toward the end of summer her parents invited you, Yeji, and Ryujin over for dinner, and that's when they hatched the plan to have you and Haewon walk to school on your own.

School isn't far from your house -- just a few quiet blocks -- but Yeji always walked with you last year. At first it made sense, since you were new to the area, and even after you learned the way she continued to stroll beside you.

It was nice -- you love spending time with Yeji -- but when Haewon's mom suggested that the two of you are old enough to get to school on your own, you sat a little taller at the dinner table. Haewon clasped her hands together and begged, batting her lashes at her mom, but you just looked at Yeji and Ryujin with wide, hopefully eyes.

Ryujin smiled at you and Yeji tried to hide a grin against Ryujin's shoulder. "That's fine with us," Ryujin said, never looking away from you. "If it's okay with Yuna." You nodded emphatically, biting your bottom lip as you smiled, and Haewon squealed.

"Our little girl is growing up," Yeji said, hand pressed over her heart. Haewon's parents chuckled, like it was a joke, but Yeji reached behind Ryujin's chair to cup the back of your neck, and you knew it wasn't.

On the first Friday of sixth grade, someone else joins you and Haewon on your walk home. You notice him first -- the tiny black and white kitten at your heels. When you point him out to Haewon she stops in her tracks, gasping in delight as she bends to pet him.

He doesn't have a collar or tags and, no matter how many times Haewon tells him to stop wandering so far from home, he trails behind you. You don't look back when you and Haewon part ways at the corner of your block, but when you hear her disappointed sigh you know he's following you. Your smile hurts your cheeks.

The kitten follows you up the walkway to the house, and when you open the kitchen door he weaves between your legs, nearly making you trip, and a giggle ripples through you as you stumble inside.