In Seoul, South Korea, in a small neighborhood, a little ten year old boy named Ryeowook looked outside his bedroom window, down at the other neighborhood boys playing together. Sighing, the brunette turned back to his room and pulled out several books from his shelf before curling up on his bed and opening up one. As he began to read, Ryeowook heard a knock on the door, before it opened up, revealing a woman to the brunette. “Hi mom,” Ryeowook said.

          “Ryeowook sweetie, it’s a nice day out, why don’t you go outside and play with the other neighborhood kids?” his mother suggested.

          “Mom, you know the other neighborhood boys don’t like me,” Ryeowook reminded as he buried his head back in the book. “They think I’m weird.”

          “Honey, you’re not weird, you just have different interests than the other boys. You should at least try and make one friend before school starts back,” his mother stated.

          “Mom, I have friends, remember?” the ten year old Korean asked.

          “Ryeowook, I mean I want you to make a friend that isn’t imaginary,” his mother clarified.

          “Don’t call them imaginary, it hurts their feelings,” Ryeowook requested.

          “Ryeowook, please promise me that you’ll at least attempt to talk to the other neighborhood kids,” his mother responded.

          “Okay,” Ryeowook sighed before feeling his mother run a hand through his hair.

          “Why don’t you go outside and get some fresh air? You can tend to your little garden if you want,” his mother replied. “Just please remember to put on your sun-hat so you don’t get sunburned on your face.”

          “Alright,” Ryeowook agreed as he jumped up and rushed downstairs. The little ten year old Korean retrieved his gardening tools and sun-hat from the garage before walking out to the front yard where his small garden was. Ryeowook loved flowers, which was one of the reasons why he was picked on by the other boys. Instead of wanting to ride bikes, play sports, or even videogames, Ryeowook always chose his flowers over everything else. “Hey little guys and girls,” Ryeowook said to his flowers as he knelt down in front of the pink, purple, and white plants and slipped his gloves on.

          As Ryeowook started to search for any wild weeds growing amongst the flowers, a group of boys walked on the other side of the white picket fence that lay in front of him. “Hey flower boy,” one of them mocked.

          Ryeowook nervously looked up and saw the neighborhood boys, Kyuhyun, Heechul, Shindong, Kangin, and Siwon standing over him. “Hello,” Ryeowook muttered.

          “Whatcha doing, playing with your only friends?” Kyuhyun asked.

          The other boys laughed as Ryeowook felt his cheeks heat up as a blush peaked his face. “I’m just making sure they’re taken care of, that they have enough water and food,” Ryeowook informed.

          “Well here,” Heechul replied as he dropped an ice cream cone over the white fence, directly in the middle of Ryeowook’s flowerbed. Ice cream splattered all over the soil and flower petals as Ryeowook’s mouth dropped open in shock. “There, that should be enough food for your flowers to eat on for a few days.”

          The neighborhood boys laughed at Ryeowook again before they ran away yelling “Stupid flower boy!”

          “Make some friends you weirdo!”

          “He’s probably gonna grow up and be a little queer!”

          Hearing the bullies yell those hurtful things, Ryeowook began to silently cry as he picked up the ice cream cone and tossed it into the trashcan before picking up his tiny spade and began to unearth the flowers. “I’m sorry guys, but I have to fix your beds,” Ryeowook muttered to the flowers as he placed them gently in a pot.

          Ryeowook picked up his till and began to fix the soil, he heard someone say “Hi.”

          Looking up, Ryeowook saw a raven haired boy standing on the other side of his picket fence, leaning against the white wood planks. Ryeowook had never seen this boy before, so he wiped his eyes and asked “Who are you?”

          “My name’s Yesung, I just moved into the house down there a few days ago,” the little raven haired Korean boy informed, pointing down the road to a house. “What’s your name?”

          “Ryeowook,” the brunette said quietly.

          “That’s a nice name,” Yesung replied.

          The little Korean smiled before saying “Thank you; I’m ten, how old are you?”

          “Ten and a half,” Yesung responded. “So what are you doing?”

          “Fixing my flower bed, the other neighborhood boys spilled ice cream all over my plants on purpose,” Ryeowook explained as he continued tilling the dirt, trying to remove the melted remains of the dairy product from the flower bed.

          “Well that wasn’t nice,” Yesung replied.

          “It’s okay, they just think I’m weird because I’m a boy who likes to garden,” Ryeowook muttered.

          ‘You’re a boy?” Yesung asked in a surprised tone.

          Ryeowook looked up at the raven haired Korean in front of him and stated “Of course I’m a boy.”

          “No offense, but you don’t look like a boy,” Yesung said as he looked Ryeowook up and down.

          “I’m just femininely built, thank you,” Ryeowook sassed before turning back to his flowers.

          Yesung smirked. “You’re very sassy for someone who’s not a girl,” Yesung responded. When Ryeowook didn’t respond, Yesung asked “You wanna go play or something?”

          “I can’t, I’m working with my flowers,” Ryeowook declined.

          “If I help you with your flowers, will you hang out with me?” Yesung offered.

          Ryeowook paused and looked up at Yesung. “You wanna help me with my flowers?” he whispered.

          “Yeah,” Yesung casually replied.

          “You don’t think I’m weird for liking flowers?” Ryeowook wondered in a surprised tone.

          “No, I think it’s kinda cute,” Yesung revealed slowly, kicking a rock across the sidewalk in a shy manner.

          Ryeowook felt himself blush for a second time as he giggled quietly. “You can help if you want,” Ryeowook agreed. “Come around to the driveway and I’ll open the fence gate for you.” Yesung walked up the driveway and watched Ryeowook unlatch a little gate for him before he stepped in Ryeowook’s front yard. As they knelt down in front of the flower bed, Ryeowook said “I’ve got some extra gloves if you want to borrow them.”

          Instead of taking the gloves, Ryeowook watched Yesung plunge his bare hands into the soil. “That’s okay, I like dirt,” he declined as Ryeowook dropped his jaw.

          “What are you doing?” Ryeowook asked as he observed Yesung dig his hands through the soil. “Don’t you want to use a spade so your hands don’t get dirty?”

          “No, it’s cool, I’m looking for something anyways,” Yesung informed.

          “Like what?” Ryeowook inquired.

          “There’s one,” Yesung stated as he pulled a small wiggling worm out from deep in the ground. “Wanna touch it?” Yesung asked as he held the worm out to Ryeowook.

          The brunette Korean boy backed away. “No I don’t wanna touch it, get that thing away from me please,” Ryeowook requested.

          “C’mon just touch it, it won’t hurt you,” Yesung pleaded, moving the worm closer to Ryeowook.

          “No Yesung, I don’t like little serpent creatures,” Ryeowook said.

          “Does that mean I can keep it then?” Yesung wondered.

          “What?” Ryeowook asked in a surprised tone.

          “Well I collect bugs and worms and things like that, and this guy will be perfect for my collection,” Yesung explained as he let the worm wiggle around his palm.

          “That’s weird,” Ryeowook responded.

          “Says the boy who plants flowers,” Yesung retaliated.

          The two looked at one another before they laughed quietly. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. Sure, you can keep the worm,” Ryeowook stated. “Okay, now that we have the ice cream all out of the dirt, we can start putting the flowers back in. Can you dig some little holes for me?”

          “Okay,” Yesung agreed as he began to dig openings for the flowers with his fingers.

          Ryeowook gently set each flower back in the freshly spread dirt before he and Yesung both patted them down in tightly. “Now we have to water them,” Ryeowook said, picking up his little watering can and showering each bloom with a splash of water. “There, much better.”

          “Look, there’s a ladybug,” Yesung noticed.

          “Where?” Ryeowook asked.

          “Crawling up your arm,” Yesung informed.

          Gasping, Ryeowook held his arm out and pleaded “Get it off me, please Yesung, get it off me.”

          Yesung smirked before carefully picking up the ladybug. “Come here little dude, you can crawl on me if you want,” he said to the tiny creature as the lady bug began to crawl on Yesung’s arm.

          “You let bugs crawl on you?” Ryeowook wondered.

          “Yeah, it tickles,” Yesung responded. “C’mon, now that we’re done, you promised you’d play with me.”

          “Okay, a promise is a promise,” Ryeowook confirmed.

          “Let’s go over to my house, I’ve got lots of cool stuff in my room,” Yesung offered.

          “Alright,” Ryeowook agreed.

          Yesung led Ryeowook out of the yard and back to the driveway where his bike was. “Get your bike and we can ride over to my house,” Yesung said. He noticed Ryeowook’s reaction and asked “What, do you not have a bike?”

          “No, I never learned how to ride one,” Ryeowook confessed.

          “It’s okay; you can ride on the front of mine if you want. Just sit here in between the handlebars,” Yesung explained.

          “Please don’t let me fall,” Ryeowook begged as he slowly climbed onto Yesung’s handlebars and held on.

          “Don’t worry I won’t,” Yesung promised, placing his hands on top of Ryeowook’s, holding the brunette steady. “Here we go.” Yesung began to pedal his bike down the sidewalk as Ryeowook nervously held on. “See, isn’t this fun?” Yesung asked.

          “I prefer a safer method of travel honestly, but I suppose it’s enjoyable for the time being,” Ryeowook responded.

          A few minutes later, Yesung drove the bike into a driveway at the end of the block. “We’re here,” Yesung announced as he slowed the bike down to a gradual stop. “C’mon, you can see my room.”

          The raven haired Korean boy led Ryeowook inside to the back of the house where his room was. Walking in, Ryeowook audibly gasped; Yesung’s room was filled with glass jars containing bugs, frogs, turtles, anything that crawled, Yesung had one or more of. “You weren’t joking when you said you collect bugs,” Ryeowook said.

          Yesung pulled the worm he’d taken from Ryeowook’s flower garden out of his pocket and dropped it in a jar of dirt containing other worms. “Yeah, it feels like at times they’re my only friends. People think I’m kinda weird cuz I collect this stuff,” Yesung explained.

          “It’s okay, people think I’m weird because I like flowers,” Ryeowook replied.

          “We could be weird friends if you wanted,” Yesung said.

          “Really, you’d wanna be friends with me?” Ryeowook asked.

          “Yeah, I mean I think you’re pretty cool,” Yesung admitted, rubbing the back of his neck shyly.

          “Thank you, I think you’re pretty brave for letting all these creatures live inside your room,” Ryeowook said. “I’d love to be friends with you.”

          Awesome, so what do you do when you’re not playing with flowers?” Yesung wondered.

          “I like to read,” Ryeowook stated.

          “I’ve got some books over here you can look at if you want,” Yesung offered, walking over to his desk and picking up several books. “C’mon we can go read them on the porch swing.”

          The two Korean boys sat outside on the porch swing and opened up the first book. “This is interesting,” Ryeowook declared as he flipped the pages.

          “It’s pretty much just about bugs. My grandparents got it for me when they found out my interest in bugs. It’s pretty advanced though, I mean there are words in here that only kids in high school would know,” Yesung explained. “Like this word.” Yesung pointed to a word he didn’t know on the page.

          “This word is ‘micro-organism’,” Ryeowook informed. “It’s a big word that pretty much just means germ or bacteria.”

          Yesung looked at Ryeowook with awe. “How’d you know that? Are you like a genius or something?” Yesung asked.

          Ryeowook blushed and giggled quietly. “No, I’m not a genius, I just read a lot. That’s kinda another reason I don’t have many friends,” Ryeowook explained.

          “Well you’re very smart, I wish I was that smart,” Yesung complimented.

          “Thank you, most kids call me a nerd or a dork, but you’re the first to ever call me a genius,” Ryeowook replied as the two grinned at one another. “You’re very nice Yesung.”

          “Thanks, you’re pretty cool yourself,” Yesung admitted.

          Just then, the two Korean boys heard Ryeowook’s mother calling for him from down at his house. “I have to go home now,” Ryeowook said as he stood up and set the book down on the swing beside Yesung.

          “I can give you a ride on my bike if you want,” Yesung offered.

          “Okay,” Ryeowook quietly agreed. The raven haired Korean boy jumped on his bike and pedaled it back to Ryeowook’s house as the brunette rode on top of his handlebars. When they reached the opposite end of the block, Ryeowook hopped off of Yesung’s bike and entered his yard before leaning against the white picket fence and looking at the ten year old Korean. “Thank you for wanting to spend time with me today. I really appreciate it.”

          “No problem,” Yesung replied. He watched Ryeowook start to walk towards his house before calling “Hey Ryeowook.”

          “Yes?” the brunette asked as he turned to face Yesung.

          “You wanna hang out tomorrow?” the raven haired boy wondered.

          Ryeowook’s eyes widened. “S-sure,” he excitedly confirmed.

          “Awesome, I’ll come by in the morning around eleven, see you then,” Yesung said before riding back to his house.

          Ryeowook ran into his house and upstairs to his room before sitting down on his bed and looking at the two stuffed giraffes that sat against his pillow. “Guys, you’re never gonna believe this; I made a new friend today,” Ryeowook informed as he clapped his hands. After a moment of silence, Ryeowook said to his giraffes, “No, this one is a real boy. His name is Yesung and he just moved in down the street. He’s really nice and he doesn’t think I’m weird.” After another moment of silence, Ryeowook added “Yeah, he’s a little strange, but it’s okay. Yesung thinks I’m smart and cute, and he wants to hang out with me again tomorrow, can you believe that?” Another second of silence passed in the ten year old boy’s room before he turned to one of the giraffes and said “No need to be sarcastic Charlotte. I’m gonna go take my bath now; I’ll see you guys later.” Ryeowook stood and hurried into the bathroom before starting his bath.

          The next morning, Ryeowook yawned and stretched as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Looking over at the clock on his bedside table, Ryeowook found that it was 9:28 a.m. Smiling, Ryeowook climbed out of bed and got dressed before walking into the bathroom to comb and straighten his hair, and brush his teeth. Heading downstairs, Ryeowook found his mother sitting on the living room couch. “Mom is it okay if I go over and play at my new friend’s house today?” he asked.

          “You’ve made a new friend?” his mother inquired before taking a sip of her tea.

          “Yes, he just moved in at the end of the street; his name is Yesung and he’s my age, and he doesn’t think it’s weird that I like flowers,” Ryeowook informed.

          “Oh that’s great sweetie,” his mother congratulated, giving the ten year old a hug. “Of course you can play with him, just as long as you be home by dinner.”

          “Okay,” Ryeowook agreed.

          After eating some breakfast, Ryeowook walked outside and knelt down in front of his flower bed. “Good morning little ones,” he said cheerfully.

          As Ryeowook gently grazed his fingers over the petals of a flower, the other neighborhood boys came up to the fence. “Hey flower boy,” Kyuhyun greeted in a sarcastic tone.

          “Talking to your flowers like a weirdo?” Heechul asked.

          “I’m just making sure the dirt is still packed in tightly,” Ryeowook informed.

          “We can assist with that,” Heechul offered before the boys jumped over the white picket fence.

          “Y-you can’t be inside the fence, this is my yard,” Ryeowook said as he stood up.

          Heechul pushed Ryeowook down and threatened “Why don’t you make us leave?” They rolled Ryeowook onto his stomach and held him down as Heechul picked up a handful of dirt and rubbed it harshly against the little brunette’s face. “Eat the dirt you freak!”

          The neighborhood boys laughed before hearing someone yell “Hey, leave him alone!”

          The boys turned and saw Yesung sitting on his bike on the other side of the picket fence. Ryeowook looked up and muttered “Yesung.”

          “What’d you say to us?” Kyuhyun demanded.

          “I said leave my friend alone,” Yesung repeated, climbing off his bike.

          “You gonna make us?” Heechul wondered.

          “No, but these guys will,” Yesung said as he pulled a jar out of his jacket and opened it up, throwing the bugs inside of the jar out onto the neighborhood bullies.

          The group screamed and ran off as they tried to brush the bugs off of them, yelling “You freak, you two deserve each other!”

          After they left, Yesung quickly rushed inside the fence and helped Ryeowook to his feet. “You okay?” he asked quietly.

          Tears slipped down Ryeowook’s cheeks as he nodded. “At least they didn’t destroy my babies,” he responded, glancing over at his flowers.

          “C’mon, I’ll help you get cleaned up,” Yesung offered as he placed Ryeowook on his bike and began to pedal back to his house quickly.

          Once they were at Yesung’s house, the raven haired boy grabbed his friend’s hand and took him inside to the bathroom. He picked up Ryeowook and set him on the countertop. Yesung picked up a washcloth that was draping over the bathtub side and wet it with warm water before gently wiping the dirt off of Ryeowook’s face. “Thank you for saving me,” Ryeowook whispered as Yesung wiped his cheek.

          Yesung smiled before replying “You’re welcome, and if those guys ever pick on you again, you tell me and I’ll throw another jar of bugs on them.”

          Ryeowook giggled before muttering “Okay.”

          “What would you like to do?” Yesung wondered.

          “Let’s go to the library and get some books,” Ryeowook said.

          “Okay, since we’re going a long distance, let me go grab my bike helmet,” Yesung responded as he helped Ryeowook down off the counter.

          “Alright,” Ryeowook replied, turning to fix his hair in the mirror while Yesung went to fetch his helmet.

          A few moments later, Yesung returned to the bathroom wearing a purple spiked helmet. “Ready to go?” he asked.

          Ryeowook faced Yesung, and gasped when he saw the helmet. “Ah, a monster!” he yelled before slamming the bathroom door shut.

          “Dang it, this always happens,” Yesung muttered to himself. He knocked on the door and softly said “Ryeowook, it’s just me.”

          The brunette opened the door slowly and inquired “Why do you have spikes on your helmet?”

          “I thought it’d look cool,” Yesung responded. “I didn’t mean to scare you, sorry.”

          “It’s okay, I’m just not used to seeing things like that; it’s very interesting though,” Ryeowook admitted.

          “C’mon, let’s go to the library,” Yesung said, taking Ryeowook’s hand and leading him outside. Ryeowook jumped up on the bike and held on as Yesung began to pedal them down towards the library.

          “Yesung?” Ryeowook asked as they stopped at an intersection.

          “What’s up?” Yesung replied.

          “Are we gonna be friends forever?” the brunette wondered.

          Yesung smirked and rubbed the top of Ryeowook’s head before saying “I hope so.”

          Ryeowook smiled. “Me too.”  

          *Seven years later *

           “Hey, what’d you get on number five on the history test?” Yesung asked Ryeowook as they walked up to Yesung’s house porch and sat down on the swing.

          “I got B,” Ryeowook stated.

          “B? Dammit, I got C,” Yesung responded as they began to swing back and forth.

          Ryeowook smiled and leaned his head against Yesung’s shoulder. “It’s okay Yesung, number five was a hard question anyways,” he encouraged.

          Yesung smirked before wrapping an arm around Ryeowook. “I’m just not as smart as you Ryeowookie,” the raven haired Korean complimented as he gently laid his head against Ryeowook’s.

          Later, while walking Ryeowook home, Yesung said “You know your birthday’s coming up in a few days. What’s something special you’d like to do?”

          “I don’t know, maybe just –” Ryeowook started. The brunette stopped abruptly and dropped his jaw when they reached Ryeowook’s front yard.

          “Wookie, what is it?” Yesung asked as he rubbed his best friend’s back. The brunette covered his mouth as he looked at his flower bed. The flowers had been torn from the ground, and trash had been discarded all over the dirt. Yesung could feel Ryeowook start to tremble so he pulled the brunette into an embrace and muttered “I’m sorry.”

          “I know who did this, those bullies did it,” Ryeowook cried as he knelt down and picked up one of the fragile, destroyed flowers. “Even after all these years, they still can’t accept that I like flowers.”

          Yesung slowly knelt down next to Ryeowook and hugged him gently as the brunette continued to cry. “I’m sorry Ryeowook,” Yesung repeated. “You know I will always accept you.”

          “Yeah, you’re one of my only real friends,” Ryeowook muttered, leaning his head against Yesung’s as the raven haired Korean his friend’s hair. Yesung and Ryeowook had been close ever since their meeting at age ten. Yesung had protected Ryeowook from the neighborhood boys had helped Ryeowook toughen up a little, and Ryeowook had helped Yesung learn a gentler side of himself that he didn’t know he had. Ryeowook sighed before saying “I need to clean all this up.”

          “Why don’t you go inside and make us some tea and I’ll clean this up for you,” Yesung offered.

          “You sure?” Ryeowook asked.

          Yesung smiled at his friend before remarking “Yeah, I got it.”

          “Thank you,” Ryeowook replied as he stood up and walked into his house.

          After Yesung made sure that Ryeowook was inside, he threw the trash away that plagued Ryeowook’s flower bed and grabbed a plastic cup from the trashcan before picking up the scattered flowers and placing them in the cup. “I could probably find a good use for these,” Yesung muttered to himself. Before standing up, Yesung noticed a little worm crawling around in the earth and picked it up, remembering the day when he first met Ryeowook. “Hey little guy,” Yesung said to the worm as he let it crawl around in his hand and up his arm a little before setting it back down in the soil.

          A few days later, it was early in the morning when Yesung knocked on Ryeowook’s front door. The raven haired Korean observed his best friend answer the door, still wearing his pajamas and hugging a stuffed giraffe. “Yesungie, what are you doing here at seven thirty on a Saturday?” Ryeowook inquired as he rubbed his eyes.

          “Get dressed; I’m taking you somewhere,” Yesung requested.

          “Right now?” Ryeowook asked.

          “Yes, right now,” Yesung confirmed.

          “Okay, I’ll be out in a second,” Ryeowook said before heading back upstairs to change. A few minutes later, Ryeowook hurried outside and ran down the driveway and up to Yesung, who was currently sitting on his bike. “Where are we going?”

          “Hop on, I’ll show you,” Yesung said, hitting his hand against the handlebars.

          Smiling, Ryeowook jumped onto Yesung’s bike and held on as Yesung pedaled down the streets of Seoul. After about half an hour of cycling, Yesung stopped at the bottom of a hill. “Where are we?” Ryeowook wondered as he hopped off the bike.

          “C’mon,” Yesung requested, grabbing Ryeowook’s hand and pulling him up the hill rapidly.

          “Yesung, will you just tell –” Ryeowook started, but then stopped when they reached the top of the hill. Looking out into a valley, the brunette Korean teen saw a vast field of flowers lying before him; of the many colors that Ryeowook loved, purple, pink, yellow, white, even light blue ones. He dropped his mouth open and gasped excitedly. “Yesung, they’re beautiful.”

          “I thought you might like it, we can spend as much time here as you want,” Yesung said.

          Ryeowook turned and hugged his best friend. “You don’t know how much this means to me,” the brunette replied.

          “Wait, there’s one more surprise for you,” Yesung informed, pulling back from Ryeowook. From inside his jacket, the raven haired Korean pulled out a flower crown, causing Ryeowook to gasp and cover his mouth again. “I made this for you using this how-to book I found at the library. I used the flowers that the other guys destroyed and formed this crown for you.” Gently, Yesung placed the crown on top of Ryeowook’s head. “There, now you’re my little flower boy, happy birthday my Ryeowookie.”

          “Thank you Yesung,” Ryeowook whispered before Yesung took his face in his hands and kissed the brunette’s lips. After pulling away, the two Korean teens smiled at one another as they interlaced their fingers together and turned to gaze out at the flowers before them, watching the wind blow petals all around them.