childhood friendship #1

The Hedge

Chapter 1: Twin Monuments

The Jihun and Min estates glared at each other across Maple Hill's manicured divide - twin monuments to a blood feud older than the boys inhabiting them. Yoon's family occupied a brutalist concrete fortress bristling with biometric scanners, its angular lines reflecting his father's reputation as the tech mafia's most ruthless data broker. Across the thorn-ridden barberry hedge, Seojun's ancestral Hanok compound with its curling pagoda roofs housed three generations of traditionalist crime lords currently losing territory to Yoon's cyber-savvy clan.

The two mansions stood like opposing forces, each reflecting the contrasting world of their inhabitants. Yoon's world was one of cold, sterile technology, a place where security and control reigned supreme. Seojun’s world was steeped in history and tradition, a haven of whispers and shadows, where loyalty and power were intertwined.

"Never speak to them," Yoon's mother had warned, French-tipped nails digging into his shoulder as black SUVs rolled past the rival property. "Those backward thieves would skin you alive to access Father's blockchain networks."

Yoon's family had just moved into the city beside Seojun’s house, a strategic maneuver designed to increase pressure on the aging crime lord family. Both families were incredibly wealthy, their vast fortunes fueling the animosity between them. Yoon and Seojun, despite their young age, were already caught in the crossfire of this ancient feud.

The twin mansions of Maple Hill stood as frost-coated sentinels separated by an ornamental hedge, their leadlight windows glimmering like jeweled eyes in the perpetual twilight of old money. Six-year-old Yoon pressed his nose against his third-floor bedroom window, breath fogging the cold glass as he watched servants polish marble floors in the silent theatre of his gilded cage. Homeschooling meant his world existed in monochrome - leather-bound textbooks, his mother's perfume lingering in empty hallways, the metronomic click-clack of his tutor's fountain pen.

His life was a carefully constructed illusion of wealth and privilege, yet it felt empty and suffocating. The only hint of color came from the world beyond his window, a world he was forbidden to explore.

Then came the rustle of crimson curtains across the divide.

A boy with blacked hair and a crooked grin appeared, pressing a notebook against his window. Neon marker bled through the page: HEY NEW KID! Yoon's trembling fingers sketched a reply in crayon, initiating their first clandestine conversation across the chasm of topiary and propriety.

This small act of defiance, this shared moment across the hedge, marked the beginning of a journey that would challenge the rigid boundaries of their families and forge an unlikely friendship.

A red colored crayons written on the paper: HELLO, I am yoon how about u? The writing crooked and wrong spelled as a kid.

they started writing on paper sending texts and messages to each other, they became childhood friends and talked every day on paper.

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