Someone's Memory

I cried a lot when I was little. My parents, who were corporate executives, were people who didn't even have an interest in how to look after me. Every weekend when kindergarten was closed, perhaps it was inconvenient for them to have me at home, because they would hand me a ticket as if they were doing me a favor and send me off to the amusement park.

Until I was 7, I liked being alone. I didn't care about the amusement park or anything else.

"I hate everything..."

Whenever the bodyguard next to me suggested I ride something, I would glare at him, and eventually, they stopped talking to me, allowing me to be alone.

Was the amusement park too big of an event for someone like me, who didn't have a single friend even at kindergarten? Even in that sanctuary for children, I just huddled in a corner. I thought I'd be alone like this until I died. Or rather, I thought it might be better to just die.

Then, someone spoke to me.

It was a boy my age who spoke to me. He readily reached out his hand, asking to play together, even to me, who only spat out irritable and thorny words.

That boy was kind. Very.

For some reason, just talking to him a few times made my heart melt, and for the first time in my life, I felt a sense of fulfillment that I had never received even from my parents. Moreover, before I knew it, I was following right behind him.

He was different from other children. He didn't look at me as if I were strange for being alone, and after hearing my story, he even promised to be my first friend.

Since there weren't many rides two seven-year-olds could take at the amusement park, he led me to a ride called the carousel.

When I was alone, I didn't want to know about rides. I hated this place that felt like the polar opposite of my unhappy life, as it only magnified my misery. Furthermore, the boy told me that the carousel wasn't that fun and that the dangerous-looking rides for adults would be much more exciting. But...

"I'm happy..."

I definitely felt happiness for the first time in my life that day.