When he met Luhan for the first time he was only seven years old. At that time Minseok already sat at the Han River for a few hours and cried. He didn’t really remember why, he only remembered that the rain was pouring down. The cold raindrops fell curatively on his small, shaking body, rolled over his face and mixed with the salty tears which obscured his view. Sobbingly he listened to them hitting the wet asphalt, sounding like tiny steps wandering around restlessly.
Tip, tap, tip, tap.
Suddenly the steps became louder and when he looked up he saw a boy his age approaching and looking at him with his big, deer-brown eyes. The rain had his clothes completely soaked and small droplets trickled down from his hair.
He stood there for a while, until he suddenly sat down beside him and stared at the river. Many minutes passed and they just sat there right next to each other without changing a single word. All of a sudden the stranger stood up and ran down to the river. He didn’t come back for a long time and Minseok already thought that he would never come back, until he suddenly stood right in front of him again just as unexpected as he appeared for the first time, holding out his hand.
Minseok looked at him a litte confused, then he looked into his hand in which there was a big, blazing red pebble stone. The boy sat down beside him again, then he put the pebble stone in Minseok’s lap and remained silent.
After a while it got dark and Minseok knew that it was time to go home. He took the pebble stone in his hand, turned back to the boy and waved him goodbye before he disappeared.
The next day he went to the same place again, hoping to meet the stranger again. In his trouser pocket he kept the pebble stone which he held firmly in his hand.
When he arrived at the Han River, the boy was already there and collected other pebble stones. When he saw Minseok, he smiled broadly and indicated at the small heap of stones which he had spread out on the asphalt.
From that point on they met every day after school to collect pebble stones together, but never changed a single word.
Minseok could still remember the day that this had changed. At that time they sat side by side on the ground and examined their collection. Suddenly the boy lifted a finger and pointed at himself.
"Luhan", he said.
„Lu … han?“,Minseok asked a little confused.
The boy started to nod.
 "Luhan", he repeated.
Minseok  smiled and indicated at himself as he said: "Minseok".
The following days Luhan tried to talk to Minseok over and over again, but in a language that Minseok couldn’t understand. So they agreed quietly to communicate without any words again.
In the course of years they had become best friends. In the interim Luhan had learnt Korean and now they didn’t go to the Han River to collect pebbles after school, but went to the rehearsal room to practice dance moves. In their youth they always had a dream that kept them together: becoming K-Pop idol.
While their classmates bowed over their books in the evening, they sweated in the dance hall, nothing else around them than the dusty air and the hard beats which resounded from the walls. And when all the others signed up for universities, they signed up for a SM audition.
Minseok liked to think back to the day they were both accepted. Luhan received his letter first and called him tearfully, loudly sobbing.
“What’s wrong with you?” Minseok asked anxiously.
“I… I was accepted“, was the mumbled answer and Minseok could hear how Luhan tried to avoid another sobbing.
„But… that’s awesome!“, Minseok shouted excitedly.
„Yes …“, Luhan answered, „But still… you know: without you I won’t go!“
Some hours later Minseok also received his confirmation letter. The times of hope and fear were over now.
There followed times of training and sweating. The trainee time was indeed no easy time.
However, they also mastered this. Together. When one of them had a hard time and was planning to give up, the other one had even more strength and encouraged him by reminding him of all the years in the dark rehearsal room in which they had worked towards this moment.

The moment when they were informed that they would soon be in a group was almost even more relieving than the moment they were accepted into SM. But when they found out that they should be in different sub-groups they protested until Minseok was also in Exo-M, although he was Korean. From that moment on their whole life changed completely. Training, vocal coaching, language courses, concerts, fansigns, interviews and above all one thing: rules.
But that wasn’t the only thing that changed. Luhan was now more often with the other members of their group and Minseok didn’t really know what annoyed him about that. They always had friends together but that never bothered him. But suddenly he caught himself more often furtively peeking at Luhan when he laughed extremely loud because of a joke of Chen, who was Korean as well. God knows why he was actually in Exo-M but he was annoyed by that. Just like everybody annoyed him who came too close to Luhan.
Now he was lying on his bed after another long training session, squeezing his head into the soft pillow. He inhaled and exhaled slowly, absorbed the sweet scent of the washing powder and tried to calm down. Without any success. What was wrong with him? He tried to remember whether he ever felt this way before but didn’t come to a result. Spiritlessly he rolled on to his back and pulled his blanket over his face. Something was bothering him about the scent of the washing powder. It was too sweet, too pungent, too different. It smelled way better at home. The food tasted better there as well. And actually everything had been better there anyways. But he didn’t care as long as he could be with Luhan. Luhan… There it was again. This weird stitch in his chest that he never felt before. Maybe he should see a doctor if it won’t go away soon. What a pity that he couldn’t speak Mandarin yet. But Luhan would definitely go with him. Luhan… Ouch.
Suddenly the door opened and Luhan appeared in the room. He had changed a lot. He had become taller, his skin had become even brighter and reminded Minseok of a porcelain doll, flawless and fragile. His lips were rosy, his eyes sparkling. During their time in Exo, Luhan had a lof of different hairstyles. Right now his hair was light brown and a strand fell over his forehead, so Minseok constantly felt the urge to it out of his face because it was covering a part of his perfection.
“Hey”, Luhan said smiling while sitting down on his bed, “Already tired?”
Minseok pulled away the blankets so that Luhan could understand him as he answered: “Well… you can’t blame me for that after such a long day, can you?”
“No”, Luhan shook his head, “We really had a long training session today…”
Nobody said a word for a while. Luhan stared into the distance and Minseok was wondering what he was thinking. Since they both became idols they barely had time for each other. During the day they were busy and in the evening they usually crawled into their beds deathly tired and fell asleep immediately. Sometimes he was wondering what would have happened if they hadn’t been accepted into SM... Would they go to university now? Or would they spend more time together?
“Hey, Minseok…” Luhan began.
“Yes?”, he answered and looked at his friend.
“Could it be… that… you don’t feel so good lately?”, Luhan asked cautiously, but scrutinized Minseok that much that he had the feeling Luhan wanted to read his mind.
Minseok stared at him with a puzzled look and asked: „Why do you think that?“
„I don’t really know“, Luhan answered, „We’re friends for a pretty long time now… and you aren’t as much with the others as before. You’re always in our room… We worry about you.”
“We?!”, Minseok asked confused with a bit anger in his voice.
“Yes… The others worry as well. Maybe…  you don’t like the life of an idol?”
„What do the others even bother?“, Minseok countered and was surprised at how petulant he sounded.
Luhan opened his eyes, but didn’t say anything. Minseok cleared his throat.
„It’s just…“, he started insecure, „They don’t even know me… So they don’t know how I feel too, right?“
„But I do“, Luhan said and looked Minseok deep in the eyes again, „And I realize that something’s wrong with you“
“Everything’s ok”, Minseok insisted and tried to smile, judging by Luhan’s expression he wasn’t really successful.
“But you really changed a lot…” Luhan answered, “Chen thinks so too!”
“That guy again…”, Minseok mumbled into his blankets, but Luhan heard him.
“Are you jealous?!”, he shouted as dumbfounded as if someone just told him that the earth was flat.
“Hey, just because we’re idols now and I also like the other members, doesn’t mean that changes something about our friendship. You will always be my best friend. You know that, don’t you?”
Yes, he knew that. But did he want that?
„I know…“, he said silently, rolled on his back and closed his eyes, „I’m tired… Good night.“
“Good night, Minseok”, Luhan whispered, turned off the lights and went out of the room.