“Age ain’t nothing but a number
right?” he asked me, changing the subject.
I thought about it for a while and nodded.
“Since I’m older than you by two
years, that makes me your oppa,” Ji Won
said to me.
“Yup,” I answered, smiling.
Ji Won smiled back. “I love you….”
I felt my heart my heart filled with a bubble
of love but then Ji Won continued talking..”as
a dongsang.” My bubble bursted. This was
not what I had expected him to say.
I stared at Ji Won with wide eyes. I knew it
was pretty forward of me but I had to ask. “Y…your….dongsang?”
I managed to stutter out. Ji Won looked back
at me with his puppyish eyes and smiled. He
nodded his head gently. Have I been reading
all his signs wrong?
“So what do you say?” he asked.
“Want to be my dongsang?” Even though
it was breaking my heart, I had no choice but
to agree. I nodded.
“Yes, I want to be your dongsang oppa.”
“Good,” he said.
Ji Won nodded and reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a small silver knife. I stared
at him with wide eyes.
“Ji Won, what are you going to do with
that knife?”
He asked, “Do you trust me Mina?”
I nodded my head without hesitation. I trusted Ji Won with
my whole heart. He smiled at me. “Good. Lower the
back of your shirt.” Ji Won pulled the back of my
shirt down. Then he used that knife to cut me.
“Ow!” I screamed in pain but he continued anyways.
He carved a small ‘E’ onto my shoulder blade.
My back was bleeding and he bandaged it for me.
Then he handed the knife to me. “Here. Engrave your
initial ‘M’ too cuz I don’t want to use
the same last name as your mom.” My hand trembled
as I held the knife. I didn’t want to hurt Ji Won.
“Go ahead. Don’t worry, I can stand the pain.”
I engraved an ‘M’ onto Ji Won’s back.
I was surprised because he didn’t let a tear drop
or cry out in pain. I bandaged him and he acted as if nothing
had happen. When it was over, he held me close.
I held onto Ji Won tightly as if he was going to leave
me. I know he only thinks of me as his little dongsang but
it feels nice holding him like this.
As Ji Won held onto Mina, his smiling face instantly turned
sad. He wanted to say ‘Mina, I love you as a girlfriend’
so she would be his forever but he couldn’t. He wasn’t
the type to admit his feelings.So he figured the scarring
was not an engravement of his brotherly love to Mina, but
his promised symbol as a soulmate to her forever…
