This is freedom, Luhan decides as he zooms through the night air on his sleek black motorcycle. The wind pulls back his hair, blows his worries away. After years of saving up, he’d finally been given his own motorcycle at the beginning of his junior year. Finally, he was free, allowed to go wherever he wanted.

            Until a certain Oh Sehun came along.

            Luhan had tried to tell his mother it was a bad idea, but she’d insisted. Just give Sehun a ride to his middle school. It’s right next to your school, and he lives next door. It won’t take long.

            And since his parents had paid for half the cost of the motorcycle, Luhan reluctantly gives in, agreeing to give Sehun a ride to and from school every day. It’s troublesome, especially when Luhan has soccer practice, and he had to dash out of the school, pick Sehun up, and drive him back home. Then he’d floor the gas pedal on the way back, and still make it to practice ten minutes late.

            He argued with his parents every night. “Why can’t Sehun just ride a bike? It’s too much trouble for me.”

            That’s all he thought Sehun was—a troublesome kid.

            Sehun never said a word, so Luhan never tried starting a conversation with him, either. He’d get on the motorcycle promptly every morning and afternoon, sitting so close to Luhan there was nearly no space between them, arms wrapped around Luhan’s waist, chin on his shoulder.

            One afternoon, Luhan doesn’t pick Sehun up at all. His coach was mad because he was late for practice every afternoon, and his friends were teasing him about the little kid he had to chauffer every day.

            When Luhan got home, exhausted from intense practice, he’d forgotten about Sehun. Until his mom flung the door open, screaming, “What do you think you were doing? Making Sehun walk from the school all the way back here? It’s ten kilometers!”

            Luhan sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I had soccer practice.”

            “Then take him with you! He can sit in the bleachers.” His mom collapses onto the sofa and takes a deep breath. “Don’t you want to know why he can’t bike to school?” Luhan doesn’t answer, playing with his fingers absentmindedly, but his mom continues, “He has serious asthma problems. He waited for you for an hour, and then he started walking home. He collapsed halfway here. If someone hadn’t seen him on the streets, he could have died.”

            The next day, Sehun walks to Luhan’s school and watches his soccer practice. At first, Luhan finds it slightly annoying, but later, as the weeks pass, he gets used to it, and grows maybe a little fond of Sehun.

            After the practices, Luhan brings Sehun to a nearby store to buy ice cream.

            “Hyung-ah,” Sehun sighs one day as Luhan hands him an ice cream cone. “You’re so good at soccer.”

            Luhan hums absently, used to this comment from so many of his female fans. He slips his hands through Sehun’s and locks them together.

            “I’ll never be as good as you.” Sehun looks slightly sad, and Luhan laughs, ruffling his hair.

            “That’s okay. We can still play together sometime.”

            His eyes brighten. “Really?”

            Luhan smiles. “Really.”

            It’s slow and gradual, but soon the once-annoying brat eventually becomes an important part in Luhan’s life.

            Sehun still has a habit of sitting too close to Luhan, pressed as close to his body as he can possibly get, his breath blowing on Luhan’s neck.

            “Don’t you think this is too close?” Luhan asks one morning after Sehun gets on.

            Sehun burrows his head into Luhan’s neck. “It’s nice,” he mumbles.

            Luhan doesn’t say anything else, and starts the motorcycle’s engine. Because as much as he hates to admit it, it is nice.

            Soon, Luhan’s senior year comes to an end.

            “You’re going to college soon,” Sehun says, wrapping his arms around Luhan’s waist as they stand outside on the roof of their building. “You’re leaving me.”

            “I’ll visit every weekend,” Luhan promises.

            “You’d better.”

            Luhan smiles as he looks down at the city, watching cars and motorcycles zoom by. He and Sehun have become friends, somehow, over the years, and life couldn’t have been more perfect in a world of motorcycles and promising futures.