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FRIDAY, 20 APRIL 2012
it was late in the night. going out would be a dangerous thing to do. but nine year old hwasung isn't scared of it. it's just her neighborhood anyways.
her little foot brought her to the neighborhood park. where there are slides and swings. where in the day time children will play and run around. where children around her age hang around while playing and laughing.
she sat at one of the swing and pushed her body a little so that the swing would started to swing. it was slow at first and then hwasung keep pushing it until it gets faster and faster.
a smile crept into her face. she love this feeling. it makes her feel like she's flying. it makes her feel free.
then the swing started to slow down and eventually it stopped. hwasung looked up to the sky and saw the stars. there aren't a lot of them. but at least she can see more of them here than from her house window.
then she started to count the stars. hwasung knew she wouldn't be able to count the amount of it. but she still does it. she wants to look at the stars for a long time.
and then she looked at the moon. it was beautiful. hwasung remembers a fairytale about the moon that says a goddess lives in the moon. it makes her wonder, doesn't she feel lonely? living alone in the moon?
hwasung's neck started to sore from looking up too long. so she looked around the playground to see if there's anything else she can do.
so she approaches the slides. she climbed the stairs and slides down. hwasung giggled. it's weird. playing at the playground in the middle of night alone, she's so weird she thought.
but she still continued to play them until she's tired. so she decided to just walk around the playground. then her eyes caught a long tube. where kids like to crawl inside. a perfect place for hiding while playing hide and seek.
so she crawl inside. then she stopped midway. she brought her legs together, her knees to her chest and then buried her face within them.
and then she start crying. all of the tears she's been holding back falls. she started to get hiccups from too much crying.
hwasung just wanted to be free. she just wants to be like any other kids around her age. she wants to play, she wants to laugh freely, she wants her parents warmth. just like any other child.
"are you lost?" a voice suddenly said.
it made hwasung jumped a little out of surprise. she lift up her face and quickly wipe out the tears from her face. then she looked to her right and saw a boy around her age peeking from the end of the crawling tube.
"why are you crying? are you lost?" he said with a worried expression on his face.
hwasung shooked her head slowly. "no," she softly said. her voice is hoarse from too much crying.
"then why are you crying?" the boy asked. "it's nothing," hwasung replied and the looked away from him.
"liar," he said in response. then hwasung could hear some rustling sound, when she looked, turns out the boy was crawling into the tube as well. "if someone is crying then you're either happy or sad," he said while trying to find a comfortable position to sit and talk. "and i believe you're sad."
then he took out something from his pocket. turns out it was a lollipop. "here, candies always makes things better," he said while handing hwasung the lolly.
hwasung shook her head, "my mom would be mad if i eat candy late at night."
the boy snorted in response, "she won't as long as she doesn't know."
