Standing Next To You

In Changsan elementary school in the year 2005, a group of six and seven years old were crouching and playing pogs* on the ground.

(A/n:* - a circular piece of paper with a cartoon character. Used by children to play with. It looked and used the same as Menko)

Their laughter echoed throughout the hallway.

"I won! I won!"

A little girl with a single bun tied in a single piece of straw grass laughed heartedly. She was wearing an overlarge shirt that reached her knees. There was a print of a politician's face on her shirt. She was wearing slippers made of straw grass and a tattered cloth bag. Her sheepish smile showed her two missing front teeth.

She quickly picked up the pogs that her little playmates placed as a bet for that round. She carefully put the tower of pogs on her cloth bag and patted it nervously like she was hiding a precious treasure. She was afraid these little rascals would cry and try to get back their lost pogs.

As expected, one of her playmates cried.

"Sangyun! You are cheating! How come you never lost once? I have no more pogs! Give it back to me!"

A little girl in a flowery dress and wearing a colorful plastic bracelet cried. She reached out to little Bei Sangyun, trying to get back her pogs.

Bei Sangyun's little face scrunched. "No! You lost! So these are now mine!"

One of the boys who was wearing a white shirt and printed brown shorts was in tears as well. He had lost half of his pogs to Bei Sangyun. "Sangyun! You are cheating!"

Bei Sangyun teared up as well. She was wrongly accused!

"I did not! I am just good!"

"Wahhh! I don't have pogs anymore! Momma won't buy it for me! Give it back!" The girl in a flowery dress tried to fight Bei Sangyun.

Bei Sangyun hugged her cloth bag. She won't give it back!

A game is a game!

"I won't!"

"No!"

"You cheater!"

The group of kids kept ganging on Bei Sangyun. They pulled on her shirt while trying to get the cloth bag from her arms. Her tied hair loosened and someone even pulled on her hair. She even heard a tearing sound coming from her shirt.

Bei Sangyun's eyes turned red. But she did not let go of her cloth bag.

Why these kids were angry at her? Because they lost to her? Then they shouldn't play with bets to begin with!

Bei Sangyun looked left and right while thinking of ways to get out of this situation. If her shirt was torn, her grandma would surely spank her.

She then happened to see the little girl's plastic bracelet.

Her eyes lit up.

"Fine, I will give your pogs back!"

The children immediately stopped crying and pulling her.

Bei Sangyun's big eyes were bright, "If you give me something in return."

The children blinked. "What shall we give you?"

Bei Sangyun pointed with her little mouth toward the little girl's bracelet. "She can exchange her bracelet to get back her pogs."

Bei Sangyun had seen that bracelet in the market with her grandma before. As a young girl, she also liked colorful and pretty things. But her grandma doesn't have pennies for other things. Food had to come first.

She was lucky that she found two abandoned pogs in the classroom and joined the game with her 'rich' classmates. After her winning streak, she became the person who had the most number of pogs in the room. She felt like she was the richest student here.

So getting the bracelet should be easy now.

The little girl looked at her bracelet. She had five more bracelets with different colors in her closet back at home. But she liked this one the most.

"No. It's pretty. I won't give it to you."

"Even if I doubled the number of pogs you lose to me?"

"!!!"

The little girl was tempted. But then seeing her bright-colored plastic bracelet she felt indignant. She shook her head.

Bei Sangyun then decided to bring out all her pogs. She counted them with the numbers she had recently learned. "Two...four...six...eight..ten.." She counted by twos.

Her classmates were amazed that she could count fast without confusing the numbers. They only knew to count to one hundred. But they couldn't do it in twos like what Bei Sangyun was doing. Some were even stuck counting at twenty.

After Bei Sangyun counted all of her pogs, she started counting again and separated the pogs by fifteens. She lined them up like a tower.

Counting took time, but the children were not bored and were entertained by her counting. Especially, after seeing the tower of pogs in front of them, their eyes were sparkling.

It was like they were seeing a pile of gold.

"I have six towers! Each tower has fifteen pogs." Bei Sangyun doesn't know yet how to multiply. But she was always brought along by her grandma whenever they went to the market. Thus, she learned how to count fast and divide them in this way.

She felt proud seeing the six towers that she had gained after playing all afternoon. Too bad though, she had to exchange them for something else, or else her classmates might not want to play with her anymore.

She pointed at the first tower. "You can have this if you trade with your bracelet."

The little girl in the flowery dress looked at the pogs with desire. The tall tower with 'fifteen' pogs was very tempting. She touched the smooth surface of her bracelet.

Should she get it? She was torn! She did not want to lose her bracelet but she wanted to get back her pogs!

Bei Sangyun see that the little girl was still contemplating. So she divided the second tower in half and added it to the tall tower of the first one.

"How about this? You can have this much. I am being generous."

The children gasped.

"I want that! You can have my pencil!"

Bei Sangyun heard that and her eyes sparkled.

Her pencil was very small and it has no eraser. If she made a mistake on her paper, she had to erase her error using her saliva. But that would make her paper look dirty. So Bei Sangyun was always careful to not make mistakes in her writing.

She knew that this boy's pencil was taller and the eraser on it wasn't even used. Because the boy had a separate eraser and he owned many pencils that all his pencils seemed like brand new. If she had his pencil, she would also have her own eraser!

Another boy raised his hand.

"You can have half of my pad paper! I want that!"

When Bei Sangyun heard that her eyes practically saw stars!

Half of the pad paper was still plenty. If she got the boy's pad paper, she doesn't have to ask grandma to buy her one!

This was good!

Bei Sangyun counted her mind how many towers of pogs she had to part with to get a pencil and paper.

When the little girl in the flowery dress saw that many of their classmates were eyeing the towers of pogs, she finally made up her mind.

"I'll take it. " She took the bracelet from her wrist. She closed her eyes tightly as if parting with her bracelet was akin to losing a part of her skin. She handed it to Bei Sangyun reluctantly.

Bei Sangyun felt that the bright bracelet was not good in her eyes anymore.

"You lose your chance. I don't want your bracelet anymore."

!!!

When the little girl heard that she cried.

"Waah!" She felt that her bracelet wasn't good anymore since it was being looked down upon by others.

"I don't like it anymore!" She threw the plastic bracelet and cried while running away. She would just ask her Papa to buy her brand-new pogs!

Bei Sangyun looked at the cheap bracelet.

Nobody picked it up. After all, it was an object that had been thrown away.

Bei Sangyun stared at it for a while before she traded her two towers to her classmates for a pencil and a pad.

A while later, little Bei Sangyun took the bracelet and wore it.

"Pretty..." She smiled while admiring the bright bracelet on her wrist.