KimChi

• Isaac Serour, Grade 3, St Declan's Primary School
• Short Story
• 2022

Excellence Award in the 'National Treasures 2022' competition

This is a story about two kids who lived in Korea. There was a kid named Kim who lived in North Korea on the borders with South Korea. On the other side of the borders there lived another kid whose name was Chi. Kim and Chi were cousins, but sadly they never had a chance to visit each other. The reason why they were unable to visit is because both countries were not friends. Although the borders separated them, they were still able to see each other’s houses very closely.
Each morning Kim and Chi would run to the window as soon as they woke up to wave hello and they would do the same at night before going to bed. They couldn’t reach each other by phone, so Kim and Chi invented a paper plane to send messages to each other. They spent hours every day playing together and never had enough. One day Chi was digging a hole in front of his house and he discovered an unexpected surprise!!! Would that be for real! It looked like an old secret tunnel that no one ever knew anything about. The secret tunnel was so dark and scary.
Chi thought… ‘Maybe it’s not a good idea for a kid like me to go there on my own.’
But Chi was so curious to know where the tunnel led to. After some thinking, Chi decided to go back home and tell his parents about his new discovery. “OH MY GOODNESS IT IS KIM’S HOUSE” they shouted happily when they reached the end of the tunnel.
Chi ran impatiently to Kim’s door and knocked so many times, he could not wait to hug his cousin for the first time ever. As soon as Kim opened the door he couldn’t believe his eyes, Chi jumped on him and hugged him with happy tears. Kim and Chi’s parents said, “It’s not safe if anyone sees us here, we have to go somewhere safe where we can live together and never be separated again.” Kim shouted, “LET’S ALL GO TO AUSTRALIA.” Kim’s dad said, “That’s a brilliant idea, Kim.”
Both families made their way into the secret tunnel and went to South Korea, where Chi’s house was. A few weeks later, they were all ready to get on a flight to Australia. They travelled first class on Korean Air. In Australia they had a wonderful life, where they also met a lot of new nice friends like me. Both families managed to open their own Korean restaurant together and decided to call it of course: ‘KimChi’!