The Trio Born in June

20, 21 and 22 of june. Those were the days that Park Eunchae, Hwang Hyunsik and Yoon Byeol were born, respectively. Though the latter was born a year later.

Fascinated by how close the kids' birthdays were, their parents, who were already acquainted, decided to hold a single birthday party for them every year, which minimized costs and made the three only children childhood friends.

It wasn't a surprise that the three of them got along well since their parents often spoke about which playground they would choose to let their kids play or even the school they would attend.

Running around the streets, playing pranks on the adults, and using their imagination to spend the time was the usual day to day life of the trio. They shared a dream of being as close as their parents in the future. Owning a house together in Daegu was their most innocent and earliest wish.

But, like most things in life, their friendship had to come to a stop eventually.

When the older two were 14 and Byeol, 13, Eunchae's parents decided to move to Seoul.

Between the tearful farewell in the winter of '08, their parents made a promise to soothe the children, "Soon you all will be reunited so don't cry, ok? Think of this as a temporary goodbye."

After a while of mourning due to Eunchae's departure, soon enough, the two boys were back to their usual friendship. But, yet again, another goodbye closed in as Hyunsik's family also moved to Seoul, less than a year later.

Since Byeol strongly believed their parents words when Eunchae left, he wasn't too shaken by it.

On the other hand, Hyunsik was devastated. Almost like when he got a bad grade, which to the trio's knowledge, failing to meet his parent's expectations was Hyunsik's most dreadful nightmare.

"Come on, you cry baby we are too old for this now, your parents are waiting for you!" Byeol soothed, patting his friend on the back.

That led to Hyunsik's final mental thread snapping and sending him forward to hug Byeol.

"Don't you dare replace me... us. Eunchae and I will be waiting for you," Hyunsik sniffled.

After a moment of silence in that embrace, Hyunsik finally said, "I have something to tell you."

"What, what is it? C'mon our parents are looking this way, you're embarrassing me," Byeol argued.

Hyunsik pushed him away and looked straight into Byeol's eyes. If he didn't know Hyunsik, he'd probably have cursed him out to stop staring at him that way, that it gave him goosebumps.

"Nevermind. When you get to Seoul, I'll tell you," Hyunsik said calmly.

He gave Byeol no time to curse at him or demand to know what he was about to say. He just ran and entered the car, waving at Byeol's family as the vehicle slowly disappeared into the road.

"What the hell was he going to say? I have to note this down to ask him when we move. God… I hope it won't be long," Byeol thought.

It did take long. After almost four years of waiting, Byeol was almost losing hope of reuniting with his friends.

However, with a lot of hard work and a strike of good luck, his dad got a job in Seoul as a police officer. Hearing the news, Byeol couldn't help but say thanks to every god possible… and to his dad, of course.

Getting settled in a new house and meeting new people was Byeol's last concern. He could meet people eventually, and this was his new home anyways, so might as well get used to it now.

After the post-puberty clarity about his personality, Byeol noticed that one of the few things that never changed was his fondness for his childhood friends. So, the only thing on his mind that left him a little anxious was seeing Eunchae and Hyunsik again.

The night before his first day of school in Seoul, he found it hard to relax.

"Will I be able to act the same way around them? What if they forgot about me? What if they've grown so close to the point of not wanting me around them? I mean, I haven't changed much as far as I'm concerned, I'm still the same person, I guess… but what if they find me boring or if I'm unable to keep up with their conversations and…"

The "what ifs" inside Byoel's mind were interrupted by a knock on his door. His mother entered holding a tray with a steaming cup on top of it.

"Why are you laying down with the lights on?" she settled the cup at his nightstand. "Here's some tea. Get some sleep soon, won't you?"

Byeol smiled, and with that, his worries were suddenly gone.

"Thanks, mom," he replied.

"Good night, love you!" she sang out as she exited his newly furnished bedroom.

He grabbed the cup and blew on it before taking a sip.

"I hope Hyunsik isn't more handsome than me now though, that would be a bummer."

Morning came and Byoel only lost to his father at getting ready in the morning. Two whole hours before classes began, Byeol was already urging his parents to take him to school.

"If you're so anxious just walk there, it's not that far!" Byeol's father sighed before taking a sip of his coffee.

Byeol's eyes suddenly lit up, like he had a grand realization. Sat side by side at the kitchen table, his parents exchanged gleeful looks, probably thinking how adorably naive their son could be.

As Byeol fixed his uniform in front of the mirror, a sharp clicking sound came from behind his bag. He looked at the little silver keychain dangling from his bag's zipper and smiled fondly.

A few years ago, Eunchae bought three identical keychains from a family trip to the mountains and gifted her two best friends. That tiny mountain was one of Byeol's first ever gifts.

Back then, the trio always put the keychains to show on their bags and Eunchae would pridefully announce their friendship to other kids while showing it.

As for how it was so well maintained after all this time, Byeol could only hope it was because of the material it was made of. Otherwise, he would have to face the reality he was just a tiny bit obsessed with taking care of it.

"I'll be off then," Byeol put on his shoes in a hurry. "Have a good day!"

Just a minute later, he opened the door again, "Forgot lunch."

He grabbed the square container by the sink and left for his first day.

As he approached the street where the school was located, Byeol realized that going by bus would be a much less exhausting way of getting to school.

The only thing that kept him from doing so, between his tired sighs and attempts to straighten his bag on his back, was the fact that he was completely clueless when it came to Seoul's bus routes.

Yes, sure, he could have asked random people on the streets about it, however, he wanted to save his first few words for Eunchae and Hyunsik.

Well, technically Byeol had already spoken to his parents so he had already "lost", but as he told himself later on: "My parents don't count since I need to speak to them. Strangers, yeah, I won't speak to strangers.''

He made a mental note to fervently ask his two best friends to teach him the bus routes.

Through the mild sweating and tiredness, he finally could see the place he would spend the last years of high school in.

He crossed the street along with students with the same uniform and found himself at the gate, staring at the grandiose building before him. Compared to the other schools he went to, that one was massive and there were many more students arriving early than he imagined.

"They must really take studying seriously," he thought.

Not that he wasn't the same, in fact, he actually loved studying and learning new things.

Of course some subjects were boring and as a any other teenager, he didn't like studying until his butt started hurting and his eyes watering. That was just too much.

Crazy people did that, crazy people.

Besides, maybe the early birds were just in the same situation as Byeol, anxious and at loss of what to do with themselves.

Byeol noticed some students stare at him as they walked and finally realized that standing still by himself at the gate was a little strange.

When he was about to move, someone carefully grabbed his shoulder.

And with the eyes of pure excitement, the person asked,

"Byeol?!"