On the following Monday, Byunghee entered the gate and looked around for Seungho. He entered the common building and searched for Seungho near the blocks. He wasn’t there. He checked the painting area, the sandpit, the cubby house and the swing set. Seungho wasn’t in either of those places.

Byunghee grew worried. What if Seungho was sick or he got lost on his way to preschool!

He spotted the four boys he made friends with on his first day playing with the Lego across the room. Maybe they know where Seungho was?

He made his way over to the other boys, stopping in front of them.

“Hi” he said, trying to get their attention.

The eldest boy looked up at Byunghee, the others continued to build stuff out of Lego.

“What do you want?” he questioned.

Byunghee scratched the back of his head “Umm… have you seen Seungho?”

The boy shook his head “I haven’t seen his scary dark circle eyes today”

“He’s not scary” Byunghee retorted, before turning around and going to look for Seungho elsewhere.

The other boys still didn’t like Seungho. Byunghee was beginning to think that those boys were actually the mean ones.

As Byunghee went back outside to continue his search, he saw Seungho struggle to enter the gate on his own.

Byunghee excitedly bounded over to the entrance and took Seungho’s pillow, which was giant in comparison to Seungho and Byunghee.

“I thought you weren’t going to come” Byunghee said, as they both headed inside to the bag racks.

“Of course I will come” Seungho said.

Byunghee beamed and put Seungho’s pillow next to his backpack which now hung on the rack.

“I’m excited! When we get to my house let’s play with all my toys!” Byunghee rambled on, obviously excited for his first sleepover.

Seungho laughed a little at his friend’s excitement. Seungho was excited too. It was also his first sleepover party.

“Let’s go play in the sandpit! I want to dig a really deep hole!” Byunghee suggested, and the two made their way outside together to the pit of sand.

~~~

After preschool Byunghee waited out front with Seungho for his mother to pick them up. Seungho tightly held his pillow, which covered his whole body.

“Mom!” Byunghee shouted as he saw his mother walking towards them.

“I’ll carry that for you” she said, as she noticed her son’s friend struggling with his pillow.

Seungho looked up at his friend’s mother as she took his pillow.

Byunghee’s mother just smiled at the boy softly, Seungho smiling a little bit back at her.

“I’m Byunghee’s mother. You can call me mom too” she said, as she walked the two boys to the car.

“Okay” Seungho said “I’m Yang Seungho”

“It’s nice to meet you Seungho” she smiled as she helped her son and his friend into the car.

As she started up the car Byunghee suddenly drifted off to sleep beside Seungho. Byunghee’s mother noticed this and started to talk with Seungho.

“Do you like going to preschool Seungho-yah?” she asked, trying to begin a conversation.

Seungho looked and Byunghee’s mother through the car mirror and nodded “I like it, it’s fun” he said eventually.

“That’s good, isn’t it?” she commented “Are you excited to sleep at Byunghee’s house?”

Seungho nodded again “I am” he said, showing a slight smile this time.

“Don’t worry about Byunghee, I’m sure he’ll be awake and energetic by the time we arrive home” she said, noticing that Seungho was looking at Byunghee “He falls asleep sometimes, he can’t help it”

Seungho nodded in understanding and looked out the window at the scenery passing by.

Byunghee’s new friend sure is nothing like Byunghee’s old friends.

~~~

“Byunghee-yah, you need to wake up, we’re home” Byunghee’s mother said, softly shaking her son who remained in the back seat of the car.

Byunghee’s eyes fluttered open as his mother shook him.

“Did I fall asleep?” he gasped, trying to get himself out of the car “I didn’t mean to fall asleep”

Byunghee’s mother lifted him down from the car, Seungho was already standing on the pavement beside Byunghee’s mom.

“Come on! I want to show you my room!” Byunghee announced before taking off inside, Seungho struggling to keep up with his friend.

Byunghee’s mother shook her head, grabbing Seungho’s forgotten pillow and backpack from the car before heading inside herself.

As Byunghee ran up the stairs, Seungho tagged along and entered Byunghee’s room. The later of the two, gathering a bunch of his toys and piling them in front of Seungho.

“These are my toys” Byunghee said “You can play with any of them that you want”

Seungho looked down at the pile, the amount of toys overwhelming him.

“I also have this, and this, and this” Byunghee said, adding more stuff to the pile “Which one do you like?”

Seungho thought for a moment before waddling over to the small television in the corner, pulling a video game out of the cabinet underneath the tv set.

“I want to play with this” he decided, sitting in front of the PlayStation.

Byunghee went over to Seungho, plonking down beside his friend.

He took the racing car game from Seungho, putting the disc into the machine and taking one of the controllers, passing the other to his best friend.

The two played the videogame for about half an hour before Byunghee’s mother poked her head through the door, letting them know it was time for dinner.

They both quickly finished the game they had started and made their way down stairs to the kitchen.

They both sit at the table as Byunghee’s mother places the meal in front of them, as well as many side-dishes.

Both Byunghee, Seungho and Byunghee’s mother begin to eat the meal. Halfway through his meal Byunghee pouted and pushed away his plate slightly.

“I’m full, I can’t eat it anymore” he whined, pouting at his mother.

“You have to at least eat the vegetables” she lectured.

Byunghee shook his head “I don’t wanna”

Seungho interrupted, “Thank you for the meal” he said as he finished the meal, the plate clean from food.

“Why can’t you be more like your friend Seungho?” Byunghee’s mother teased “He eats his meal well”

Byunghee pouted even more at his mothers’ comment.

~~~

After eating, the two children went back to Byunghee’s bedroom.

Byunghee pulled out a colouring book and crayons out of the box stowed away under his bed.

‘Let’s colour’ he said, putting the book in front of Seungho.

Seungho nodded in agreement, taking the red crayon from the pile of crayons sprawled in front of him.

He began to colour in between the lines, his gaze not moving from the paper.

‘Wow, you’re so good at colouring in between the lines!’ Byunghee exclaimed, grabbing his small hands around a blue crayon and colouring the same picture.

Byunghee couldn’t stay in between the lines; he found it too difficult.

Seungho stopped colouring for a moment, leaning over the colouring book and gently grasping Byunghee’s wrist. He was guiding Byunghee’s hand, helping him colour inside of the lines.

‘See? It’s not that hard; you just have to keep your wrist more still’ Seungho suggested.

As Byunghee practiced colouring on his own, Seungho took out the snacks he had taken from preschool earlier that day.

As he began munching on them, Byunghee looked up.

‘Seungho-yah, can I eat a snack too?’ he asked.

Seungho was tempted to ignore him and eat all the snacks for himself. However, as he looked over to Byunghee, he couldn’t ignore such a hopeful face.

Wordlessly, he handed over one of them to his friend.

~~~

As Byunghee’s mother set a mattress on the floor for Seungho, the two of them packed up the video games and crayons, settling into their bed and mattress respectively after the room was clean.

‘Goodnight you two’ Byunghee’s mother said, kissing Byunghee on the forehead and tucking Seungho in properly down on the mattress ‘Sleep well’ she said.

She switched out the lights and closed the door, leaving the two boys alone in Byunghee’s room.

Byunghee let out a small yawn, he could feel himself already beginning to drift off to sleep. However, just before he did fall asleep, he felt a sudden dip in his bed and a warm body was suddenly curled up against him. Seungho had snuck into his bed with him. He smiled before finally allowing himself to be consumed by the sleep.

As Byunghee’s mother went to check on her son and his friend before she herself went to her own bed, she shook her head at what she saw, chuckling a little to herself a little before closing the door again and making her way to her bedroom.

~~~

2 Years Later

‘I’m excited to go to the big school next year’ Byunghee said with a big smile on his last day at preschool.

Seungho smiled back. However, his smile didn’t seem so sincere.

Byunghee, too happy to notice, continued to build up the tower of blocks.

‘Aren’t you excited?’ Byunghee questioned, accidentally knocking the tower over with his foot.

‘A little bit’ Seungho replied, automatically picking up the blocks and helping Byunghee start over.

‘Only a little?’ Byunghee asked ‘Why not a lot?’

Seungho smiled again, this time trying to look more genuine.

‘Okay, I’m a lot excited’ he answered.

Byunghee cracked another smile.

‘I hope that we will be in the same class’ Byunghee said ‘I heard there is no naptime at big school, that’s good because I hate naptime’

‘I hope so too’ Seungho replied.

Truthfully, Seungho was miserable. He didn’t want his time in preschool to end. This was because he knew of Byunghee’s mother’s plans. He overheard a conversation on the phone last week when he was playing at Byunghee’s house. From that, he knew that after preschool, Byunghee would move back to Changwon to attend big school there because his mother had a job offer. It broke his little heart to think that he would probably never see Byunghee again. But he had to keep a brave face for Byunghee, Seungho didn’t want to see him upset.

~~~

About a week after the last day of preschool, it was finally time for Byunghee to return back to his home town. It seemed to Seungho that Byunghee didn’t understand that they might not see each other again.

Seungho thought it was good Byunghee didn’t know. Byunghee didn’t deserve to be sad.

Byunghee’s mother asked if he wanted to accompany them to the airport, and of course he accepted. He wanted to be with Byunghee as long as he possibly could.

As the two of them sat in the back of the car on the way to the airport, Byunghee slept. He was leaning his head against Seungho’s shoulder.

Seungho wanted to stay like this forever.

As Byunghee’s mother parked the car, she got out the luggage from the trunk. Seungho and Byunghee, who had woken up from his sleep, got out of the back seat and followed Ms. Jung into the airport. It was big and exciting for Byunghee.

‘Are we going into the sky?’ he questioned, seeing planes take off outside the glass windows.

‘Yes, we will go up very high’ his mother said.

‘Why can’t Seungho come?’ Byunghee whined.

Seungho looked down to the ground and sighed. He wished he could go too.

‘Because Seungho’s family live here in Anyang’ Byunghee’s mother tried to explain.

Byunghee smiled ‘it’s okay, I will see you when I get back’

Seungho looked up and nodded, forcing a smile.

‘Flight 74 is now boarding. Please make your way to the gate’

‘That’s our flight Byunghee’ his mother said ‘Say goodbye to Seungho’

Byunghee waved goodbye to his friend.

‘I will see you later Seungho-yah’ he said.

Seungho chewed his bottom lip. He didn’t know what to say, he couldn’t think of the words. So, he opted for just waving back.

As Byunghee held his mother’s hand and walked towards the gate, he turned back to find his friend in the crowd.

When he did, he was shocked at what he saw. His best friend was crying. Yang Seungho, who he never saw cry once, was standing in the middle of an airport rubbing the tears in his eyes with his chubby little hands. Byunghee felt afraid. He was afraid that he was wrong about seeing Seungho again soon. Would he ever see him again?

A/N It took me a while to write this second chapter because of university and stuff and I’m too lazy to check over this or anything like that. But please enjoy it ^^