Sunmin hoisted her backpack onto her shoulder and boarded the Hakwon bus after the big kids. Her brain was still fuzzy from attempting to speak English for a whole hour and reciting the entire alphabet backward. As she navigated the narrow aisle while hauling her shoe bag, she looked around for a seat. The only available seats were near the back door where the big kids sat. More kids were boarding the bus, though, and in the chaos of shifting and shoving children, she got pushed right into one of the empty seats next to a big middle school kid.

        Sunmin self-consciously looked around, surreptitiously glancing at the groups of big kids who were ignoring her. She was silently eavesdropping when a voice called, “Jung Sunmin!”

        It was Daehyun. “Dae” as in the character for big. And indeed he was big; he was taller than anyone in her third grade class and he was also the class president. Sunmin didn’t like him much. During the class election, she had promised clean classrooms. Daehyun had promised an ice cream party if he was elected. He was almost unanimously chosen; Sunmin became the vice president. Their class had never gotten that promised ice cream party, but somehow no one seemed to remember except Sunmin.

        Daehyun was standing in the aisle, clutching the metal pole with one hand and the other looped into the strap of his shoe bag. He grinned when she turned, made his way towards her, and gratefully collapsed on the seat across from hers.

        “You go to this hakwon, too? What class?” He asked.

        “I just started few weeks ago. I’m in the upper class,” Sunmin replied, a little smugly. Daehyun always seemed to beat her in every subject; only recently did she find out that she easily topped him in English.

        “Wow. Really? I think I’m just bad with languages. I was also having trouble with the Chinese characters in school. How does our teacher expect us to pass level six by this year?”

        Sunmin thought he was just making excuses. He was plenty good at Chinese characters. He always finished the worksheets earlier than any of their classmates while also balancing the job of writing down names of kids who were fooling around. If anyone in her class was going to pass level six, it was Daehyun.

        “So have you always gone to this hakwon?” Sunmin asked.

        “No, I also started a few weeks ago. Do you think anyone else from our school goes here?” He and Sunmin looked around in union.

        There was no real way to tell if anyone went to Bundang Elementary because they didn’t get a uniform until middle school. But as their eyes wandered, Sunmin spotted a girl dressed in a caramel colored uniform, with red ribbon and a matching hat: A Girl Scout. She spotted the little green tag on her sleeve that indicated the Scout went to their school.

“Hey, hey, look! A Girl Scout from our school!” Sunmin excitedly whispered to Daehyun. Sunmin had always wanted to become a Scout, which required one to be smart, physically fit, and respected. Unfortunately, spots were available only to second term third graders, which was still month away for Sunmin. She couldn’t wait until she became a Girl Scout; they were the only elementary school students who wore uniforms, and she had always loved to watch their orderly marches and sophisticated salutes.

Sunmin leaned towards Daehyun and eagerly whispered. It turned out that Daehyun wasn’t interested in the Scouts, so Sunmin spent the whole ride persuading him that being a Scout was the best thing that could happen in Bundang Elementary. Soon, he was nodding along, and together, they formed plans to join as soon as second term started.

It was just turning dark when the bus arrived at Sunmin’s stop. To her surprise, it was Daehyun’s stop, too. She climbed out after him and waved to the driver as the door creaked shut.

Their stop was right in front of Seohyun Middle School, with a small convenience store across the street. Seeing the store, Sunmin fingered the crisp 1000 won bill tucked in her pocket. She pointed the store out to Daehyun and pulled him inside the crumbly place. She then eagerly scanned the shelves and selected a package of candy coated with big, colorful sugar crystals. Daehyun chose a pack of bubble gum. They paid the old woman behind the counter and walked out.

“Heahy, doh you want to tryb walkin through dob Midlle Scoolb?” Sunmin asked through a mouthful of candy. Realizing she sounded unintelligible, she chewed and tried again, “Sorry. Do you want to try walking through the middle school? Seohyun? It’s a shortcut, I do it all the time.”

That was a lie. Sunmin always wanted to try walking in the school’s gigantic yard at night but normally chickened out and took the sidewalk instead. Now that someone was with her, it would be less scary.

“Sure, we are going to go to this school in four years anyway,” Daehyun cheerfully replied and took the lead.

Daehyun was right; in four years, Sunmin, Daehyun and almost everyone in their third grade was going to attend Seohyun Middle School. They would wear the school’s dark green uniform with its brown emblem of a tree sewn onto the breast; Sunmin couldn’t wait until she was in 7th grade.

They crept through the huge black gate, down the ramp leading to the sandy yard, past the big swings and bars, and then across the gigantic yard. Although at first they tiptoed along, scanning for anyone who could get them in trouble, but their steps eventually grew less anxious. Sunmin stuffed her candy into her pocket and spread out her arms to feel and drink in the twilight breeze. The songs of cicadas were heavy in their ears. The sand underneath their feet was worn and soft; the empty middle school, dark and silent. Their heavy book bags didn’t feel so heavy anymore and they didn’t mind that their shoe bags were hitting their knees with every step.

Sunmin thought it was all very nice. She could walk through the yard forever, with Daehyun, chatting about the Scouts or middle school. When they were almost to the half-point, they exchange a candy for a gum.

“Sunmin, what’s your English name?” Daehyun abruptly asked. He blew a bubble and noisily popped it.

“Me? It’s Nelly. I’ve had it ever since the first time I learned English. What about yours?”

“David. Daehyun and David; sound similar don’t they?”

“Yeah.” She thought David was a very nice name. She had never heard it before; it was nice and unique.

Suddenly, both of them realized there were voices in the yard. In the distance, there was a group of students exiting the school building. Middle schoolers. Big kids. From what Sunmin could tell from the dim light, they were all girls, with Seohyun’s uniform and matching bob-cut hair.

Sunmin and Daehyun froze, and squirmed, unsure of what to do. They look so grown-up, Sunmin thought. At that moment, the older students spotted the two children in the dark yard, watching them with open mouths, and pointed in surprise. Sunmin and Daehyun ran. Giggling and panting and frantically chewing their gum, they sprinted out of the yard through the back gate and into the dark road.

They rested for a minute on a dusty steps leading to their apartment complex, trying to catch their breath, but burst out laughing again when Daehyun accidently swallowed his gum and when Sunmin got the hiccups. Finally, after the sky had gone completely dark, they brushed the dirt off of their bottoms and stood up. It was time to go home.

“Bye, Nelly Sunmin,” He called out in English.

“Bye, David Daehyun,” She replied.

At school the next day, Daehyun and Sunmin only waved and exchanged a covert smile, because a girl and a boy couldn’t hang out together without being made fun of.

She waited for the second term to start so she could apply for the Girl Scouts and wear pleated uniforms with Daehyun, who was going to join the Boy Scouts, and the rest of her friends who were equally excited about the Scouts. But she never got the chance. Days afterwards, her parents told her they were moving to America. Not for a long time, they assured her: only one or two years; Sunmin’s mom wanted to earn another master’s degree so she could become a full time professor like her dad. It’ll be a good experience, they said with a smile.

Sunmin bid good-bye to everyone in her class, and they said, see you again in two years! She was so excited she could hardly sit still during the plane ride.

The first shock she got was the name written on the passport: “Seon Min Chung.”: a stranger’s name. The second shock was the first day in an American school. Some kids had skin dark as wood while others had tall noses and eyes sunken in and yellow hair like hay. The third shock was what they called her: “Sei-on Min Chi-ong,” making the syllables sound sharp and unfriendly. She hated that name. So, a year after, she became Sara.

Sara Seonmin Chung.

A year passed quickly. Then the next year they moved to Manhattan. The second year passed in an even faster blur. Sara never became second place in America; she was always last in English: the subject she was best at, and first in math: the subject she had always hated.

Third year passed. Fourth year; Middle school. Fifth year. Sixth year. Seventh year; high school.

Every time she visited Korea, Sara felt like a Sara, not a Nelly. She hated passing by Seohyun Middle School or Bundang Elementary. She had forgotten about the Girl Scouts, but seeing the school gave her a dull ache. She hated seeing the girls in uniforms, arms linked, with identical bobs and glasses. Sara visited her old group of friends, who had made new friends and wore Seohyun Middle School uniforms. She didn’t see David Daehyun again.