I growled lightly as I felt a tiny body land on mine. Her little giggle escaped her lips, making me smile. I loved my little sister, Sujin. She's my everything and more. I would drop everything for her without a second thought. I opened one of my eyes while I yawned and stretched my arms above my head, peeking at her. I sighed as I heard my joints pop. She was sticking her bright blue tongue out at me while tugging at her pigtails, obviously she had a blueberry er, her favorite. "Where'd you get the er, Sujiin?"

"Mama gave it to me!" she screeched before she bolted out of the room, giggling all the way. I chuckled at my little sister. She was such a cutie. She can make the evilest of people stop dead in their tracks to let out a very big, "D'awwww! She's so cute!" Even I, who have lived with her since the day she was born, want to just hug her and kiss her and pinch her cheeks over and over again.

I got out of bed and headed to the kitchen where my Mom greeted my with a peck on the cheek and a delicious looking plate of chocolate chip pancakes and maple syrup. I was drooling over them before it was even set in front of me, and the second it was I ravaged it like a crazed animal. Mom laughed and sat down across from me, eating her pancakes slowly. "Today's the day, Donghae." She stated with both excitement and sadness hinting behind her eyes. "You've never been away from me for this long before," she sniffled.

I got up and wrapped my arms around her in a comforting embrace. "Don't worry Mom. I'll make sure to Call you whenever I have the free time. We both know how well this could pad my resume, and the better a resume the better chance of receiving a scholarship." I looked up to see her nodding her head in agreement and decided to continue. "I'm excited. I mean, of course I'm going to miss you and Sujin, but I've never been out of China. Now I'm going to an entire different country! To Korea, Seoul to be even more specific. It's just for a year, Mom."

"I know, honey, I know. It's just that I'm going to miss you so much!" She sobbed while throwing herself at me and crushing me into a tight bear hug. I hugged her back and then slowly backed away, looking at my watch.

"Mom, I don't want to cause any trouble, but I have to go shower and get changed so I have enough time to see my friends off before I leave for the airplane." She nodded her head and I made my way upstairs to my room.

My school gave us an option to go abroad with a foreign exchange program for an entire year. It would give us college credit too, which was just an added bonus for me, considering my family is next to dirt poor ever since my father died. That's not something I want to talk about though... Anyway, the second I could I applied for this program. I needed everything and anything to pad my resume and I've always wanted to see what it was like outside of my country. Luckily, I was one of the twenty students chosen to participate because of my amazing grades. Unfortunately, none of us would be in the same place in korea.

An hour later I found myself standing outside of my favorite park, dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt. I don't need to get dressed up for a long plane ride. This park was my sanctuary. I came here to think, to write, to read, to draw, to hang out with my close friends. I took a deep breath and slowly walked towards our maple tree, the place where we would always meet up. I was so excited, but I knew that I would miss my friends just as much as I would miss my Mom and baby sister. It's the only downfall to this entire program.

As the tree came into sight I saw my three favorite people start sprinting towards me. Luna reached me first, and tackled me to the ground in a bone-crushing hug. She was crying her eyes outs, Mombling how she would miss me. I looked up to see her boyfriend, Changmin. He was looking at us with sympathy in his eyes. I've known Luna since we were in diapers, and I know she's taking this hard. Changmin bent down slowly and gave me a quick hug saying how much he was going to miss me. He rubbed the back of his head and looked down apologetically, "I'm sorry, Donghae. I'm going to miss you so much, but I think I should go. The longer we stay here the more hysterical she gets!" I nodded my head in understanding and watched them walk away, slowly disappearing, Luna still visibly shaking from the loud sobs racking her frame.

I took a deep breathe then turned towards the last person standing there with me. I looked down at him as he looked up at me through his light blond fringe, a small smiling creeping onto both of our faces. He bounced up onto his tippie-toes to give me one last goodbye hug. I pulled away and tilted his chin up, slowly pressing my lips to his. I've only recently accepted the fact that I was gay, and it was all because of this boy.

Our lips moved in sync as one of my hands went to grip his waist while the other found itself resting against his cheek. Both of his hands came up to tangle in my hair. He sighed and pulled away slowly. No, I bet you're all thinking that he's my boyfriend. Let me tell all of you, Dongso is anything but. I want to say best friends with benefits, but that doesn't make sense. He's my best friend that I thank with simple pecks and kisses here and there. We have naturally been affectionate to each other, even before I started questioning my uality. Girls just never appealed to me.

He was the first person I went to when I was struggling with my uality. I knew he was gay, and I knew if I could trust anyone with my secret it would be him. He slowly helped me find myself, and I couldn't be more thankful. We would exchange a few kisses over time, here and there, more for comfort then anything else. Of course I was physically attracted to him, he was gorgeous, but we both agreed being a couple wouldn't work out for us. It would be to weird.

"I got to go." His voice broke me out of my thoughts. I looked down at him and pouted. I was an average height of 5 foot 10, and he was a measly 5 foot solid. I loved to about his height, because he always looked adorable when he was flustered. He rolled his eyes at me knowing that I didn't want him to go. "I'm already late for work," he complained. "They're going to shoot me if I keep them waiting."

"Ugh. I hate goodbyes. This !" I whined.

He chuckled and pulled me into another hug before backing away slowly. "I don't care about the rates. You have to call me. I'll help you pay for them if you need to. This is gonna be the longest year ever, Hae!"

I groaned at the nickname. I didn't like it, but if anyone had to call me it, it would be Dongso, and only Dongso. No one else has permission. End of story. Deal with it. I looked at my watch and my eyes slightly bugged out. "Oh, ! I'm late!" We both realized the time and bolted in our opposite directions. Well... that was a y goodbye.

Before I knew it I found myself sitting on the airplane, waiting for it to launch. I felt slightly nauseous, I hated flying, but it would all be worth it in the end. I closed my eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep, knowing that if I went to sleep instead of staying awake the ride to Seoul would go by slightly faster.