Jisoo’s hands were tightly clinging to the material of his mother’s pants as hid behind her legs, not wanting to move from her reassuring presence, even when the teacher came up and introduced herself.

But no matter how scared he was, he couldn’t help from occasionally peeking his head out from his hiding place, curiously taking in the sight before him.

Jisoo was in awe at the colourful paintings scattering the walls, the abundance of toys littering the floor, and the noise of all his new classmates saying goodbye to their parents.

Saying goodbye to their parents.

That was the idea Jisoo didn’t like.

Jisoo had already put up a fight this morning; refusing to wake up, eat breakfast or get ready for school.
He was a shy kid, but a smart one. He knew what school meant.

Starting school meant his mum would leave him. And he’d be all alone.
Jisoo’s mum crouched down to her son’s height and gripped his chubby hands tightly, "Don’t worry, you’ll have lots of fun and make lots of new friends.”
“But I want to stay with you,” Jisoo replies, his lip starting to quiver and his eyes beginning to shine with tears.
"I'll be back as soon as it's home time. You won't even miss me; look at all the toys!”

 “Mummy, don’t go!” He wailed, the tears lining his eyes began to fall as he rushed to bury his wet face into her chest.

Jisoo’s mother looked around, worried about her son’s reaction, but was relieved the see a few other parents in the same situation.

“Shh, shhh. It’s alright. I’ll be back before you know it,” his mother soothed, wrapping the boy in a hug as she patted down his hair and whispered reassurances into his ear.

After a minute or two in his mum’s embrace, Jisoo’s cries had resided to sniffles and deep breaths and his mum saw this as an indication that it was time to leave. Jisoo panicked but after crying himself dry, he was unable to create anymore tears to cause her to stay. 

And suddenly, after only one more hug, she walked out the door with “See you after school! I love you!” being the last thing she said before disappearing out of sight.

 

At being left alone, Jisoo wandered aimlessly, eyeing off the toys and avoiding his classmates until he was startled by the loud ringing of the bell.

“Good morning class!” His teacher sings in a cheery tone, “Come sit on the mat and we’ll introduce each other!”

Jisoo waited until some of his classmates had already started to make a circle on the floor before waddling over – his black hair, messy from his refusal to get ready earlier, his shirt tucked into his too high shorts and the light up shoes that he loved dearly, even though they only lit up every 10th step, velcro’d on his small feet.

Jisoo listened intently, his neck straining as he lent forward, trying to hear everyone’s introductions and worrying for his turn.

An energetic boy named Soonyoung was a couple of places in front of him, and Jisoo was still staring in amazement at the boy’s confidence when it was his turn.

“Who’s next? The boy in yellow?”

Jisoo snapped back to reality and realised the teacher was talking to him.

He stammered out a quiet, “Hello, my name is Jisoo,” with his eyes never leaving the floor.

“Ji-?”

“Jisoo,” he repeated a little louder, his ears turning red at the attention.

“Nice to meet you, Jisoo,” the teacher beams, as Jisoo further hides his flushed face.

The introductions continue and Jisoo zones out, fidgeting with the little decorations on his shoes, hoping that by the time everyone had said hello, it would be time to go home.

But as Jisoo soon learnt…5 year olds don’t have very good judgement of time.

 

Only 20 minutes had passed once the small class had all introduced themselves, and then they were encouraged to go play and make friends.

Jisoo made a beeline straight past the building blocks, which were already a popular attraction with most of his class, and instead headed straight to the empty colouring table.

He busied himself, sorting through the boxes and boxes of colours – itching to start drawing the dragon from the book he read last night.

Jisoo’s tiny hands were wrapped in a fist around a red crayon, clumsily controlling the crayon as he added the finishing touches to the fire erupting from the creature’s mouth.

He was so enthralled by his work, that he never noticed the boy hovering around him until:

“Is that Charizard?!”

Jisoo jumped at the stranger’s loud excitement, the crayon going careening from his grasp.

“No…” Jisoo shyly answers, looking up at the owner of the voice.

The boy was a lot taller than Jisoo, who was often mistaken for a boy half his age, and his bright smile lit up a round and rose cheeked face. Jisoo recognised him as the confident boy during introductions, Soonyoung.

“What one is it then? That Pokemon doesn’t look familiar and I know nearly all of them,” Soonyoung said in a rush of breath.

His excitement didn’t slow as he bounced into the seat next to Jisoo, to only jump up straight away as if the seat was lava and not colourful plastic.

“His name’s Smaug. He’s from a book and he’s a lot scarier than Charizard,” Jisoo answers as Soonyoung leans over to study the drawing in more detail.

“You’re quiet,” Soonyoung observes, as Jisoo ducks his head in embarrassment.

But without even giving Jisoo time to answer, Soonyoung was talking again – his rambling slowly making Jisoo more excited than nervous.

“Who would win in a fight then? Charizard is super strong!”

Jisoo began to explain to the boy all he knew about Smaug. He started off quiet and hesitant but by the end he was excitedly explaining the story – his whole body animated as he retold the adventure.

“Woah, that was so cool!” Soonyoung exclaimed once Jisoo had finished, “You should tell me more!”

“I don’t have anymore, my mum’s still reading it to me,” Jisoo told the boy through the grin that spread across his face at the compliment.

“But tomorrow I’ll have more,” Jisoo says quickly when he sees Soonyoung’s face drop.

“Yes! Tomorrow!” Soonyoung beams, “I’m Soonyoung and we’re going to be good friends!”

“I’m Jisoo.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow Jisoo!”

“Bye,” Jisoo says, but Soonyoung was already out of earshot by the time he’d said it.

 

Jisoo turned to see Soonyoung race back to the building blocks and the large cluster of classmates that was crowded there. He flopped down right at the heart of the group, next to a long haired boy, and started talking animatedly.

Suddenly, Soonyoung’s head whipped around as he pointed right at him and Jisoo couldn’t divert his eyes quick enough before both the boys had caught him staring.

Soonyoung waved wildly, and obviously didn’t think much of it, but the other boy remained expressionless, looking like he was deep in thought.

Jisoo hesitantly waved back before quickly turning his back to them, pretending to be once more highly invested in his drawing.

A loud laughter broke out behind him, and he further ducked his head, his nose almost grazing the paper. His ears turned red and he was too terrified to look back.

Jisoo wondered what they were laughing at, whether they were laughing at him?

He wanted to believe that Soonyoung was too friendly to be making fun of him, but now he wasn’t sure…the boy he was friends with didn’t look very nice.

But now Jisoo was curious, he wanted to know more about this long haired boy.

When he could, he would sneak looks at the boy who was forever surrounded by kids, and who seemed friendly with everyone except Jisoo.

It was like watching a horror movie; he was intimidated but couldn’t look away.

Jisoo was too shy to contemplate trying to talk to the boy, or even approach him – not even letting himself join his classmates at the building blocks.
Instead, he simply chose to watch.

 

On the second day, after making sure to not zone out during roll call, Jisoo learnt that the long haired boy’s name was Jeonghan.

As soon as they were dismissed for play time, Jisoo fell into the same cycle as yesterday.

Jisoo gawked at Jeonghan in a fashion that was common to all ages, but was never as blatantly obvious as a curious child.
The only time he wasn’t watching, was when Soonyoung came bounding over to the reading section to ask if Jisoo had more of his dragon story.

Jisoo nodded, happiness welling up inside him that Soonyoung was still excited about his story.

“Wait!” Soonyoung yelled and raced away, with Jisoo being left in confusion.

Soonyoung came back only a second later however, but this time, with Jeonghan in tow.

The boy was looking back at the building blocks wishfully, but as he turned to Jisoo his wishfulness quickly turned into curiosity.

“Jeonghan also wants to hear a story!” Soonyoung exclaims, jumping into a bean bag on the floor.
Jeonghan laughs at his friend and then jumps down beside him.

“Soonyoung wants me to hear a story,” Jeonghan corrects, “I wanna play.”

Jisoo was surprised. He’d assumed Jeonghan must have been loud to gain the attention of so many kids, but he was actually quiet like himself.

“Stories can be fun,” Jisoo says warily. He was comfortable talking to Soonyoung, who was always so eager, but Jeonghan looked like he didn’t want to be there.

Soonyoung wiggled in his beanbag, “Tell us! Tell us!”

“Okay…” Jisoo started up his story again from where he’d left off yesterday. His voice was quiet, and he felt nervous again in the presence of Jeonghan.

He kept paying specific attention to the boy, trying to gage his response. Luckily, Jeonghan quickly seemed engaged in Jisoo’s words and Jisoo felt the tension in his body evaporate, relaxing into the story.

Jeonghan had closed his eyes and laid his head on Soonyoung, all the while still nodding along and reacting with sounds effect.

When Jisoo had reached the point of the story where his mum had sent him to sleep, with the promise of more tomorrow, he said exactly the same thing to the boys in front of him.

“That’s it?! But, what happens?!” Soonyoung demands, beginning to squirm again in his chair – seeming to forget that Jeonghan’s head was resting on him.

Jeonghan didn’t protest however, and Jisoo looked at him questionably.

“He’s sleeping,” Soonyoung explains, only now thinking to drop his voice.

“Did he not like it?” Jisoo asks, his mouth dropping into a pout.

“He did, but he just always sleeps…”

“So, you really don’t know what happens next?” Soonyoung asks again.

“I don’t know?! But I think…”

Jisoo and Soonyoung then began trying to guess where the story could possible lead from there – with Jisoo shushing them every so often, and making sure that Jeonghan was still peacefully napping.

 

On the third day, Jisoo’s mum was shocked to see him so excited for school. But he couldn’t wait to tell the next installment of the story to Soonyoung…and hopefully Jeonghan.

Jisoo almost bounced into class, only saying a quick goodbye to his mum, and raced straight to the reading section of the classroom.

He sat down with a picture book, but paid no attention to the art work. This was nothing but a badly implemented disguise as he scanned the classroom, looking for either of the boys.

Jisoo almost leaped out of his seat when Jeonghan walked into class, but he was immediately surrounded by some other classmates and Jisoo’s excitement distinguished as if a match in water.

Jisoo hid behind the safety of his book, wondering if maybe Jeonghan didn’t care for the story after all.

By the time Soonyoung raced into class and straight up to Jeonghan, Jisoo was too shy to approach them. He supposed he would have to hide behind his book and wait.

This lead to Jisoo nervously surveying the pair the entire day, hoping they would catch his eye, but no such luck.

Jisoo looked around at one stage, to see Soonyoung still at the building blocks, but Jeonghan was no where in sight.

Jisoo couldn’t help the curiosity bubbling up inside him; there weren’t many places a 5-year-old could disappear to in a tiny and locked classroom.

He then began to stroll around the room, acting simply as if he was looking for a new place to play and not a possible missing classmate.

“Psst,” Jisoo suddenly hears.

Jisoo stops in his tracks and looks around – his light up sneakers turning in circles.

“Here,” the voice whispers, except he was still unable to locate the origin of the sound.

Jisoo’s sneakers continue in a couple more confused circles before:

“Behind the bookshelf!”

This last sentence was a lot louder than the past two whispers and Jisoo looked around nervously, worried that someone had heard.

With one last patrol to ensure that no one’s eyes were in his direction, he ducked down and peered behind the shelf.

And there he saw Jeonghan; in a triangle-ish shaped alcove between the two shelves, surrounded by pillows and a blanket from the “house” play corner.

“What are you doing?” Jisoo whispered.

“What?” Jeonghan asks.

Jisoo repeats himself once more, louder this time, to only be interrupted before he even had the chance to finish.

“Shhhhh, I’m hiding,” Jeonghan explains, “I want to nap.”

“You should nap too!” He continues.

“We have nap time later…” Jisoo says, with a quick look behind him to ensure no one had noticed him yet.

Even though no one had, Jisoo still pressed himself further against the space behind the shelf - he didn’t want to be caught and get him or Jeonghan in trouble.

“You can never have too much sleep,” Jeonghan states matter-of-factly, and Jisoo had to agree that he had a point. 

“Okay?” Jisoo agrees hesitantly, and Jeonghan pats the space beside him, just big enough for one reasonably small person.

Jisoo takes a deep breath and drops onto his hands and knees. His knees rub painfully on the floor as he squeezes into the tight gap between the shelf and the wall. For once, Jisoo was glad he had such a tiny stature – any taller and he doubted he’d be able to reach the alcove.

Jisoo felt triumphant by the time he flopped down next to Jeonghan, filled with relief that he hadn’t become stuck.

He’d reached the alcove relatively safely, apart from the slight tenderness in his knees which indicated bruises and and the quick bump to his head which had caused Jeonghan to break out into giggles.

Now that he was finally next to Jeonghan, he realised why it was the perfect place to nap.

It felt as if they were in their own world, it was hard to believe that they were separated from an entire classroom by only one thin piece of wood.

The space was big enough that Jisoo didn’t feel suffocated, yet it was small enough that he felt safely cocooned in the alcove’s cosy warmth. And it felt like a special place, a place that he wanted to be his as well as Jeonghan’s.

Jisoo lies down next to the boy, and stares up at the roof - the feeling of even being in such a space, making him drowsy.

“Where’s Soonyoung?” Jisoo asks.

“Shhh, Soonyoung’s too loud for nap-time. But you’re quiet,” Jeonghan hums, his eyes remaining closed.

This time, instead of feeling embarrassed at being called quiet, like he had with Soonyoung, he felt proud; from Jeonghan’s mouth, it sounded like an appraisal. 

Jisoo doesn’t try and make any conversation after that – instead following Jeonghan’s lead and closing his eyes.

After only a few minutes, he feels Jeonghan fidgeting beside him.

“Do you know any stories about stars?” Jeonghan whispers.

“Stars?”

“Yeah, stars,” Jeonghan repeats, opening his eyes for the first time since Jisoo had laid down. 

Jisoo turns his head to match the boy and meet his gaze, the request milling over in his tired brain.

“I know about Star Wars?” Jisoo finally answers.  

“What? Why are the stars at war?” Jeonghan asks curiously.

Jisoo then told Jeonghan about the wars in galaxies far far away, until the boy’s questions and comments made way for deep breathing. Jisoo’s words slowly trailed off as he also let himself drift into a dreamscape – where he dreamed of what he hoped was a new friendship.

Little did Jisoo know, it was more than simply a new friendship.

It was two stars, still light years away – blissfully unaware that their fates were now interlaced.