CHAMPION | NCT

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CHAPTER ONE

“Remember,” warned Baba. ”Head straight to grandma’s house.”

Just like every year, I spent my birthday at Grandma’s house. But the celebration itself wasn’t the wildest ride; the journey to it was. Several miles were what my feet needed to travel. Although I was already quite used to it, it was not an easy destination. Especially that my birthday’s on the third day of January, where the breeze of the air howled the coldness of just-passed winter Christmas.

Grandma’s house was small, but it was enough for my friends and me to squeeze our self in. The moment she welcomed me to the door and greeted me with a kind smile, I forgot about the wintry snow piled up on top of my hood or the shoulders of my cloak. Like magic, they got melted by the warmth of Grandma’s smile.

“How old is my little Sooji now?” she said as I leaned forward to place a cold kiss on her wrinkling cheeks.

“You guess,” I challenged, closing the door right behind me.

Grandma flashed me a crooked smile and answered right away, “Eight?”

I pouted at the answer that I received.

Noticing the frown on my face, she asked “What’s the matter?”

“I’m 10 years old already!” I told her and pretended to be sad.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, holding the small of my back to drag me towards the dining table. “Pardon me, my dearest darling. Old age tend to forget things.”

“But you still remembered that it’s my day,” I smiled at her. “That alone is enough. You’re not that forgetful at all for your age, Grandma.”

Almost an hour passed during that night, but there were still no visitors who arrived. The party poppers were left untouched on the table. The cake that Grandma baked was beginning to get soggy. The balloons were starting to float on the ceiling, but neither Grandma nor I bothered to retrieve it back down. I regularly glanced at the clock on the wall, counting each seconds and minutes that passed. I didn’t notice that the hands on top of my lap were balled into a fist, wondering why none of my friends had arrived yet.

“Do you think they’re stuck in the storm?” I asked, urging myself to be calm.

Grandma glanced at the window, where snow was starting to form a miniature hill on the windowpane. “This is not a storm. The wind is just strong, but there’s no storm.”

Then why has no one come yet? , I asked inside my head. Or maybe they just forgot that it’s your birthday today, genius.

I will myself not to worry too much, that I don’t mind at all if my friends forgot about this date’s event. It’s not so bad if Grandma and I were the only two celebrants; it meant more cake for me and her.