Though the students in class were good people, they never really considered Minho as their friend. Instead, they considered him the little guy that they would have to help.

For the duration of sixth grade, Minho only had one friend.

Well, if you can call him a friend...

Kim Kibum.

Minho had been friends with Kibum since the fourth grade, always being in his class and living in the same neighborhood. However Kibum wasn't such a good friend and quite frankly, Minho's parents didn't like Kibum so much.

Kibum was always disrespectful, having been a Korean born in the states. His parents had been born in the states too, so that was two generations of being raised in America.

Since Minho was a first generation in America, it's only natural that the two were very different.

Minho was a good friend. Kibum would get sick easily, so whenever he didn't come to school Minho never failed to drop off Kibum's homework.

Some days, Kibum was nice and would play with Minho. Other days, Kibum wasn't so nice.

Most of the time at school, Kibum would only come up to Minho if he had a question. Most of the time, he spent time with the more "popular" crowd. He would act mean like them, and apparently the "populars" didn't like Minho so much just because he was young.

Minho's mom often speculated her son was bullied at school, but Minho was very oblivious to that fact and often thought that kids being mean was just their personality and they would outgrow it. One day at the bus stop, Kibum had called Minho stupid on his way off the bus, and Minho's mom heard it.

- Minho, you should stop being friends with that little Kibum.

- Why mom? He's my hyung~

- He called you stupid, friends don't do that.

- It was probably just a joke, it's fine mom~

Minho was a naive child indeed. He continued going along with this on-and-off friendship he had. Minho's mom could only sigh and think that Minho was just very good natured to tolerate this, which he was, but he was mostly unaware that this was what bullying was.

In movies, bullying would be dunking kids heads in toilets, and being beaten up. None of this ever happened to Minho, so he just assumed that what Kibum did wasn't bullying.

To Minho, Kibum was Kibum. His friend.

But to Kibum, Minho was the gum stuck on his shoes. He wished he could get rid of him sometimes, but other times he could use him to stop himself from falling.