# Chapter 12
Doha tried hard to erase his discomfort as he unpacked his meager belongings in the second-floor room. His possessions were limited to just a few worn-out clothes for 8-9 year old boys obtained from a neighbor and some favorite books.
Light streamed well through the window, making the room pleasant and warm. Even though it was the smallest room in the house, it was still larger than the single room where his father now lived alone. In that place, the three of them couldn’t lie down to sleep side by side, so his father would place tiny Doha on his chest to sleep. Jaei’s parents had offered to give separate rooms to Doha and his mother, but Doha’s mother had declined. She said one room was enough since Doha was still young and small.
After unpacking, his mother applied a cream-type moisturizer to Doha’s cheeks. The thick moisturizer smelled like baby formula. Doha had sensitive skin and his cheeks would often become rough and chapped in winter. However, people couldn’t leave alone a white, chubby-cheeked child with red circles on his face. They would kiss him saying he was cute or poke him with their fingers, making the already red areas even redder.
It often hurt and stung, but the owner of those red cheeks didn’t particularly mind people touching him. It was fine as long as they didn’t bite off his cheeks and steal them away. By dismissing it as nothing serious, he had eventually worsened his condition.
“Go play with Jaei and have fun. Eat something delicious together too. You need to become close.”
“Okay. I want to eat chocolate together.”
“Good. And since Jaei gets startled easily, take good care of him. If a pigeon appears, hide Jaei behind your back, and when walking, try to have Jaei walk on the inside. But don’t go out to where cars are passing by. Can our Doha do that well?”
“Yes. I can do it well. Doha is friends with pigeons. I don’t get scared even when I hear car sounds.”
His mother patted Doha’s bottom with an expression that said, “I believe in you.” Doha had always been a reliable son to his parents since he was 0 years old. But in truth, he was a theatrical child who could unhesitatingly tell white lies to people he loved.
Right now, since his feelings toward Jaei weren’t good, he had no confidence at all in following his mother’s instructions, but because he loved her, he had issued a blank check of promises. Anyway, he intended to try his best to get along well with Jaei. If he failed despite his efforts, so be it. He had learned from TV that the process was more important than the result.
He put on his backpack containing a gift box for Jaei and bounced down the stairs. Jaei, who had already finished preparing to go out, was waiting for him on the first floor wearing a thick long padded jacket. Doha fastened the buttons on his worn, frayed gray coat that he’d inherited from an older boy next door and strode toward Jaei.
Jaei seemed to have completely forgotten about the eggplant namul incident from earlier, as he was smiling brightly with his pretty face. Since he appeared genuinely happy about being able to go out with his new friend, Doha decided to tear down the wall he had carefully built between himself and Jaei. However, the moment Doha approached right next to him, Jaei pressed his soft nose firmly with his palm and said:
“Oh, it smells.”
Doha, who had been about to hold hands with Jaei as they went out, hesitated and stepped back. None of the adults saw this scene. And Doha thought it was fortunate his mother didn’t know about this. Ryu Doha was a gentle child who rarely got angry, but that didn’t mean he was a stuffed doll that couldn’t be hurt. He felt like he might burst into tears from the upset, but thinking of his mother, he somehow managed to hold them back.
With tears welling up in his large eyes, he left the house. Walking much faster than Jaei, he buried his nose in his coat and sniffed to check the smell. Though it was old, it had been taken to the dry cleaner’s yesterday, so there wasn’t any strange smell at all. Since he had also taken a clean bath in the morning, a nice fragrance was emanating from his body and hair. Then what on earth had made Prince Jaei’s precious nose uncomfortable?
Snow from the previous night had accumulated on the road. Doha walked steadily forward, looking only ahead with both hands in his coat pockets. Jaei, who had planned to share a pair of gloves with Doha—each wearing one—hold his hand, and show him around the neighborhood, couldn’t easily grab Doha’s hand as he kept moving farther away whenever Jaei approached. Doha seemed somewhat angry, so Jaei couldn’t easily speak to him either.
Right now, Jaei was on edge about the smell coming from Doha. The sweet fragrance that hadn’t been there during lunch earlier was now wafting from his chubby cheeks. Could it be the scent of lotion applied to his face?
When he had smelled this earlier, his sense of smell had been irritated, making his nose sting, which was why he had rubbed the bridge of his nose with his palm, but it didn’t mean he disliked the smell. It was a milk bread scent that suited Doha well. With that smell, it was as if Doha had become a round bread made of milk. If possible, he wanted to take a bite out of those cheeks.
So, if Jaei were to properly express what he had wanted to say to Doha earlier without any omission, it would have been, “Oh, it smells delicious.”
There continued to be no conversation between the two until they passed through the residential area and reached the road. Jaei, who had been sneaking glances at Doha’s face, which showed no intention of speaking at all, summoned the courage as a native of Haesung-dong to address the outsider first.
“Doha, let’s go see our school.”
“Are we allowed to go in?”
“If the door is open.”
Jaei led him to Haesung Elementary School, where they would both be enrolling soon. Jaei, wearing warm furry boots, started walking ahead. Following behind Jaei, Doha secretly wiped away the tears that had pooled in his eyes with his sleeve. And along with the wiped-away tears, he also brushed off the hurt that Jaei had given him earlier. After all, since they had to get along, he couldn’t keep sulking.
Because it was winter break, there wasn’t a single footprint on the schoolyard where snow had accumulated. Jaei laughed cheerfully as he stepped on the untouched snow, making a crunching sound. Doha, wearing worn-out sneakers that, like his coat, had been obtained from the neighbor’s older son, followed the path that Jaei had already trodden.
Jaei passed the horizontal bar and swept away all the snow that had piled up on the bench in front with his gloved hand in one go. Meanwhile, Doha hung from the horizontal bar with his bare hands, but his hands got cold, and he soon dropped down. He naturally headed toward the bench and sat next to Jaei.
“Ah, right. Do you want to eat this?”
Remembering the gift he had prepared for Jaei, Doha opened his bag and took out a rectangular box.
“This is a present. My favorite chocolate.”
“Wow, thank you so much! I like chocolate too!”
Receiving an unexpected gift, Jaei was extremely happy and stomped his feet. He took off his gloves and opened the box, reaching his hand inside. Yesterday, Doha had emptied out his piggy bank where he had been saving his pocket money and had carefully selected various flavors of chocolate—original, cookie cream, strawberry, mint, and more—and put them in a pretty box for Jaei. It was a gift he had put his heart into.
However, the tragedy began when Jaei’s hand, which had gone into the chocolate box, happened to pick up a mint-flavored chocolate. With a happy face, Jaei unwrapped it and popped the chocolate into his mouth, but after chewing just twice, he couldn’t hide his contorted expression and spat what was in his mouth back onto the wrapper.
“This tastes strange…”
Doha glared at Jaei with his kind eyes wide open. The 8-year-old Ryu Doha’s patience, which was larger and wider than that of an adult, finally revealed its bottom. In his life of 8 years—short or long depending on how you look at it—this was the first time he had been so angry. He truly disliked this child named Lee Jaei. Leaving his bag on the bench and standing up, Doha walked through the snow with angry steps and said:
“Want to have a snowball fight?”
“A snowball fight?”
While Jaei was closing the lid of the chocolate box and putting it in the bag, Doha, emitting hot fire from his two jet-black pupils, tightly packed snow into a round ball with his bare hands. Jaei reached out his hand to give his removed gloves to Doha. But at that moment, Doha, who had speedily formed a snowball, threw it at Jaei’s face.
“Aack!”
While Jaei was squeezing his eyes shut and brushing off the cold snow, another snowball flew at him. From then on, Jaei began to be helplessly overwhelmed by Doha. Snowballs flew continuously, hitting Jaei’s head, face, and shoulders. Soon, snow poured down over Jaei’s head. Doha was gathering snow with his bright red bare hands and sprinkling it on Jaei’s head. Becoming a white snowman, Jaei flailed his hands and feet and shouted:
“Stop it!”
“You’re mean. You’re a bad kid.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t like you. Go tell your mom I bullied you. I’m going back to my dad anyway.”
Leaving Jaei behind, Doha clutched his bag to his chest and turned around, stomping his feet as he walked across the playground. From behind, he could hear Jaei crying loudly, “Waaah.” Hearing the heartbreaking cry that could make one’s throat hoarse, Doha also burst into the tears he had been holding back. He bawled loudly like a fool as he retraced his steps. It was a bit embarrassing to cry like this on the street.
After completely stopping his tears and drying them sufficiently, Doha returned home and confessed all his honest feelings to his mother. If the relationship was already irreparably damaged, it was better to admit the truth as soon as possible and find a better solution for each other.
“Mom, I want to go to Dad. I don’t like Jaei. He’s really mean.”
However, his mother, who held Doha’s reddened hands to her chest, did not agree with those words.
“Did Jaei bully you? Why would he do that? He’s not the type to be mean just to you.”
“No. He even spat out the chocolate I gave him, saying it tasted strange.”
What had critically hurt him was when Jaei said he smelled, but he didn’t mention that incident aloud because he thought it would upset his mother.
“Doha must have been hurt. But do you think you might have misunderstood Jaei when you first met him?”
After hearing Doha’s testimony about his bad child experience, his mother gently caressed his small, pitiful back and spoke kindly.
“Jaei came to me earlier and apologized for not being able to eat the eggplant. He said he was very embarrassed that he couldn’t eat well like Doha.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Jaei often throws up when eating food or smelling certain things. There are kids like Jaei. He doesn’t do it because he wants to. He was born that way. His body has a hard time.”
Having experienced Jaei first for the past four years, his mother shared her own experiences and informed Doha that there was no malice in Jaei’s actions. But that alone wasn’t enough to fully repair Jaei’s image that had been completely shattered within Doha.
