A best friend forever came – dropped onto him, really – at the age of twelve, in the form of a yelling-and-soaring-across-the-air-straight-down-toward-him Chinese boy.

Minseok had been lounging beneath a tree in their school’s lawn when a gangly boy fell from the lowest branches to him. He had not seen the boy before, the latter being concealed well by the foliage.

The falling boy’s body slammed into his, knocking the breath out of him. He let out a low, long groan of pain, while the other boy scrambled off his body. The kid’s hands fluttered in panic and helplessness as he muttered hysterically, “Oh my God. I’m sorry. Oh my. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Are you alive? What am I to do? I’m sorry.”

A while later, Minseok recovered to some extent; only a dull ache lingered in his body. He sluggishly pulled himself into a sitting position, the boy supporting him.

Minseok grimaced as he stretched, and the other kid howled in agony and guilt, apparently thinking Minseok was angry with him. “I’m sorryyyyyy!” He was surprised to see the other male’s beautiful eyes – they bore a resemblance to a deer’s eyes – b with tears.

“You haven’t done anything to be sorry,” Minseok said, rising to his feet, still wincing, and offering a hand to him. The boy took his outstretched hand and he heaved him up to his feet. He was glad that he had cushioned the boy’s fall; at least he was saved from getting injured.

Luhan was the boy’s name. He disclosed to Minseok that he had been playing hide and seek with some new friends (he was a transfer student and was, therefore, new to the school altogether). He had been hiding up in the tree because he did not know other places in the school.

Having a phobia with heights, he had been shaking with fear, regretting mounting the tree.

He had slipped from the limb he had been perched upon, and fortunately (for him), he had crashed on Minseok.

-*-*-

Luhan became Minseok's first seatmate. Before Luhan came along, he used to sit by himself at the back row of their classrooms. The boy also became the first to sit on the bench in the playground that has been his (and Jongdae’s) for years.

Luhan was a great babbler. He could chatter about anyth