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One of Snežana’s favorite stories to tell about Bojan is of the first booth he set up on their street corner to try and make money so he could buy some cool shoes he wanted. He’d seen another kid’s booth selling lemonade and thought he could definitely do that, especially if it got him some spending change! His first three attempts at making lemonade are all varying degrees of unsuccessful and eventually, his mother gently steers him towards something a little less destructive of her kitchen. He’s seen a kissing booth in a movie one time but seeing as how he didn’t really want to kiss a bunch of strangers, he eventually settles on setting up a hugging booth instead. He finishes the booth with his dad’s help - the older even springing for some balloons to help draw attention - and eventually, he‘a left with only one problem.
“Mom, Dad - I don’t know how much to charge for my hugs!” young Bojan laments.
“Well, to me your hugs are priceless,” his mother tells him.
“That’s not very helpful,” young Bojan pouts.
“Well, what do you think is fair market value for hugs?” his dad asks.
“I don’t know what that means,” young Bojan whines. One economics lesson later, his dad’s advice has the opposite of its intended effect on his son. “But dad,” young Bojan frets. “If we’re able to establish an amount of money that hugs should cost, I’ll always have no money because I always want to hug people!” After thinking about it a little more, young Bojan proposes, “What if I make my hugs free? Then nobody could start charging money for hugs and I could get so many more hugs!”
Soon, with the help of his parents to finalize his sign, young Bojan is set up at the end of the street with his shiny new hugging booth. His first customers of the day are his best friend, Martin, and Martin’s mother. Soon, word has spread and by the end of the day, young Bojan has given out dozens of free hugs. “That was WAY better than some stupid shoes!” he declares. Bojan’s Free Hugs booth runs the entire week and by the end of it, his heart is so full of affection he feels like it has grown ten sizes. So appreciated is his free hugs booth that it becames a summer tradition in their neighborhood.
His eventual graduation to a kissing booth a few years later, however, is somewhat less successful.
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The first year Bojan attempts a kissing booth he’s 12. His parents humor him - including (after two days in and no customers) helping him revert back to the hugging booth. He tries again at thirteen and yet again at fourteen, finally seeing some success when on the first day a pair of girls from his school stop by and gift him with a pair of cheek kisses. High on his success, he adds a small charge the second day and immediately, all interest dries up. He reverts on day five to not charging again (to no avail) and his parents are certain he’s going to give up on the idea eventually. They’re surprised when at fifteen he resolutely puts the Free Kisses booth back up and immediately, another boy shows up and though they didn’t kiss, he does spend the entire day keeping Bojan company. The boy returns the next day, more nervous this time, and it takes Bojan all morning to work up the courage to plant a kiss on the boy’s cheek. They stare at each other for a moment in surprise, Bojan’s face just starting to fall when the boy leans in and gives him a quick kiss on the lips before shyly running away. Bojan closes the booth early that day then spends all afternoon remaking his sign. The next day, the boy is late and Bojan spends what feels like a lifetime fretting that he won’t come - but show he does, and the smile Bojan’s own pulls from the obviously still nervous boy tells his parents all they need to know.
“I updated my sign!” Bojan greets, proudly pointing at the new charges.
The other boy glances then does a double take at the sign, frowning dejectedly at what he sees. “A million for a kiss?” he asks. “I can’t afford that!”
“Well,” Bojan asks innocently. “What’s your plan for how you’re going to pay me back for yesterday’s kiss?”
“Yesterday’s kiss?” The boy panics. “It said they were free, yesterday! You can’t just change your mind and charge today for a kiss yesterday!”
“No, I said ONE kiss was free,” Bojan clarifies. “And you got two!”
“The first one shouldn’t count!” The boy protests. “You kissed me, not me kiss you!”
“Hm, in that case, maybe it’s me who owes you the price of a kiss.” It’s Bojan’s turn to frown. “But I don’t have a million to pay for it, either!” They stand in dejected silence for several minutes before Bojan sneaks a quick kiss. “There!” he declares. “I’ve paid you back something worth a million!”
“But that’s two kisses from you and only one from me,” the boy points out slyly. “Does that mean I owe you this?” He doesn’t give Bojan room to reply, just steals another kiss of his own.
“But the first one was free,” Bojan points out, already leaning in. “So now I owe you this.”
“If your first one was free,” the boy points out reasonably, “then shouldn’t my first one be free as well? Which means I owe you this…”
It’s hours later and no further customers that Snežana calls the pair inside for lunch, which they reluctantly agree to. They continue stealing kisses in the name of paying one another back until it’s time for the boy - Kris - to go home for dinner. It’s of no surprise at all to Bojan’s parents when he declares the kissing booth season closed early and skips off the next day to go meet Kris.
The kissing booth doesn’t make its return for another decade when as a joke, Branko pulls it out of storage to set it up at their wedding reception. It looks exactly as they remember it with one, small change.
“Kisses: 1 Million or 1 Forever,” Kris reads. “Now that I think I can finally afford!”