4,000 Miles Away ♡ Lee Felix

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╰┈➤ New Friendship  ೃ⁀➷✧.*

"I'm sorry."

Those were the first words Lee Felix ever spoke to me. And from that day forward, he always came up to me and asked how I was doing. I usually told him that I wasn't doing well and that I was still very sad. He would just nod and pat my shoulder. It was as if he wasn't expecting me to change my answer, he was just asking because he genuinely cared and wanted to know. Because he knew that my feelings mattered.

I felt cared for.

So I hung around him more. I felt at ease and important around him so that's where I grounded myself — by his side. He happily accepted me. I don't really know how long it took, but at some point, we started hanging out outside of school. I had come home from school every day and told my mom about a boy who comforted me when the other students had stopped. I came home telling her about a friend I had made.

My mom immediately recognized this as a good sign for me so she contacted Felix's mother and they started planning days we could hang out after school. She only wanted the best for me, especially since my father's death and the fact that she'd have to work later hours. So I would say, with the exceptions of my dead father and the absence of mom, things worked out well for me.

Felix's parents didn't mind allowing me to stay at their house on days my mom got home late. We both were content with eating pizza rolls and watching Pokémon on the TV. If you couldn't tell, we were easily entertained. That was until I got fidgety and wanted to go to the backyard. Felix and I had made it a ritual to play with the sprinkler after watching our dose of Pokémon. And after that, we went to his piano.

How I loved watching him play the piano.

He tried to teach me and I was able to learn a bit. I grew to love it and whenever I felt fidgety, I found the piano. I felt like I was getting rid of all my energy and stress by playing. I loved playing his piano so much that my mom saved up enough money and bought me one the following Christmas. It was beautiful, truly. Felix taught me how to play Christmas carols and those were all I played for four months.

It seemed as though everything was going right for a while, even without my dad. But one weekend his parents — my grandparents — flew in from South Korea. It had nearly been a year since my father had died and I hadn't seen them since the funeral. They came to see their only grandchild.

They expressed that they felt my mom was keeping me from them and that it wasn't fair. My mom argued that she didn't have the time to make a trip because of having to work so hard. Then, my grandparents suggested that mom allow me to go back to Korea with them for a month. Just one month in the summer.

Mom agreed.

I was so upset. Yes, they were my grandparents and I loved them both, but what was I going to do without Felix? And what was he to do without me?

"Mom! He's going to be stuck at his house watching Pokémon by himself! He's going to play with the sprinkler all by himself. How sad is that? What is he going to do all alone? And who's going to listen to him play piano?" I tried to persuade.

My mom shook her head, chuckling, "Felix will be perfectly fine on his own. It'll just be a month. It seems like a long time but it's not."

And so I went to South Korea, back to Busan. Back to where my life began. It was strange to return without either of my parents, to say the least. But I guess I kind of got used to it. The first time I went with my grandparents, I was sure that I'd be lonely without anyone my age — specifically Felix — to talk to. I spent the first two days lazing about, worrying for Felix. Finally, my grandpa took me to the window one afternoon.

"Do you see that little boy out there, Eun Joo?" he pointed. A small boy was crouched on the ground with toy cars and trucks in his front yard. "Every day that boy comes out and plays by himself. Maybe you can go out and see if he wants a friend?"

With reluctance, I drug myself all the way outside until I was standing before him. He stopped playing and looked up. Curiosity and confusion filled his face and he got on his feet, dusting himself off.

"Who are you?" he asked, his head tilting.

"I'm Eun Joo," I answered, "I'm visiting my grandparents this month. I don't have any friends here. Do you want to be my friend?"

The boy nodded and grinned, his dimples showing, "I would like a friend. Let's play."