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.⋅ ۵♡۵ ⋅.
1) He's her first real friend.
Wonyoung sits at a park with colorful balloons and streamers strewn across the trees, a birthday gift from her cousins who couldn't make it. A paper hat sits lopsided on her head, and she looks around, feeling the down turn of her lips.
Her mother forgot again.
It's a normal occurrence, anyways.
Wonyoung doesn't mind.
But as she watches the other kids play, she feels something tiny in her chest constrict, like barbed wires dragging across her heart, and it blooms into a disgusting feeling.
Her mother... forgot her.
Here in the park, just freshly turned five, Wonyoung feels a sick feeling of resentment rear its ugly head. None of her classmates could come either, and her own mom couldn't make it.
Or wouldn't, but Wonyoung would rather not think about the implication of that.
She sits there, a heavy feeling in her chest as she watches the kids run around, playing tag. She wants in.
She has cake.
They might let her join.
But she doesn't move.
No one ever really likes her in the end, anyways.
So she sits there for a few more minutes, legs swinging, looking at the droopy frosting on her cake, sky blue and pale pink, and thinks she might cry. There are balloons, bright and glittery, so she grabs one, and holds it. Holds it tightly so that it's the only thing that doesn't leave her and fly off.
And then, she hears something behind her. Wonyoung doesn't feel like turning around because she doesn't want to get her hopes up. Turning around and not seeing her mother's face would break her, and her birthday was supposed to be a happy day. A celebration of birth, not a funeral of her mother's dreams.
But the sound is incessant, and some courage rises into her.
If her mother could forget her, screw it, she was going to turn around and make her regret it. Make her mother realize that she doesn't need her to live, to be happy.
So she turns around, determination in her veins, and her world is suddenly on standstill.
It's a boy around her age, shy, wide eyes, and has a mole on this nose bridge. He just looks at her, and stands very still. She stares at him too, wondering if he's going to say anything.
"Is it your birthday?" He finally asks.
Wonyoung studies him. "Yes." She clenches the balloon tighter.
