Everything inside of me gets very still. His confession has rendered me speechless. I had no idea. The silence in the air, doesn’t feel right. I don’t want him to think his words were caught by the wind and tossed away. I say, “I felt the same.”

He turns to me. His eyes are bright. So many questions fill my mind. Why was that a bad summer for him too? What was going on in his seventeen year old life? I wait for him to say more. In teaching I have learned that too many questions can cause a vulnerable person to shut down. I don’t want that to happen now. Finally he speaks, “My best friend was killed in a car accident. I was devastated. My parents thought it would be best if I had a change of scenery so they sent me to Korea.” His voice drops, “At the time I was so angry and hurt that no one gave me a say, like I was a baby. I hated my parents. Now, I know my parents were doing their best to help me. They were both working and couldn’t keep an eye on me. Granny and Gramps could. My parents were right, I didn’t need to be alone that summer.”

A memory flits through my mind. Seventeen year old Hae-in is mowing the yards. His face glistens with sweat. His nose is red. I am watching him from Auntie Ji An’s front porch. He sees me. A tear slides down his cheek. He brushes it away and smiles.

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Beside me, the current Hae-in shoves his hands in his pockets. He tells me, “You were so cute, and still a kid. I wanted to be a kid again. I didn’t want to be seventeen. I wanted it to be before everything went wrong. I wanted my friend back. Having you randomly pop up every day helped me more than I can say. Every time you smiled, a little of your light seeped into me.” He lets out a slow sigh.

In this moment it means so much to me that I was of some help to him. I say, “Thanks for telling me that. I was worried that I was a total nuisance.”

“Nope you weren’t. You were a friend to me that summer.” His eyes hold mine. At the time, I didn’t even know I qualified as his friend.

Of its own accord my hand reaches for his arm. My hand slips around his bicep. This could make things suddenly awkward, but I don’t remove my hand. I tell him, “Thank you for being so kind to me then and now.”

The light in his eyes softens. He says, “You are welcome.” He takes my hand. I like the way his callouses feel. I like the strength of his blunt fingers. He places my hand in the crook of his arm. I am steadied. Slowly, we make our way to the edge of the pier. The water catches the beams of the lighthouse. The waves crash against the pilings. A stray thought flits through me mind. It is night, I am by the water and I am with Hae-in. My thirteen year old dream has been realized.