What does happiness means to you? My kind of happiness came to me in a blink of an eye when I didn’t even expect it.

I was just a normal boring quirky kid, the one the other kids always avoids. Yeah, being a foreigner always has its up and downs, I don’t mind most of the days but I just can’t stand it when someone stare at me and talk about me like come on I can hear you and I understand what you’re saying. And I think I’m losing my point here. Ehem, the point is, I am mostly alone with no ‘best’ friends that I am close with, and being alone feels kinda good to me too.

And then he came, and made my black and white life becomes more colorful. The story begins when a new kid moved in to my area and entered my school.

It started out like any other days, just a normal morning with no motivation to get up from bed, washed up, and go to school. The school is always the same, noisy, crowded, full of laughter where I ain’t part of. Then our homeroom teacher came in with an announcement.

“All right everyone, I know it is in the middle of the semester, but we have a new transfer student from Jeju, I hope you’ll be nice to him,” Says Mrs. Han, “Come in, introduce yourself” she says to the shy looking boy.

“Hello, I am Boo Seungkwan, nice to meet you,” Says the chubby looking guy shyly. He was so shy, his voice kinda trembles as he tried to not use Jeju accent. The other kids already starts murmuring and whispering to each other. I looked at the boy and our eyes met, he smiles to me so I smiled back.

“Keep quiet kids, I know you’re excited but save it for later okay, I’m going to check your abstention first. Now, Seungkwan, you can sit beside Hansol over there, there’s the only empty seat, I hope you’ll befriend with everyone soon.”

“Thank you Mrs. Han,” He says as he walks to the seat beside me. “Hi, I’m Seungkwan.”

“Hello, my name is Hansol,” I awkwardly answers. ”Um, I hope we can be good friends,” it was really awkward from my point of view but he keeps smiling that cute smile of his. As Mrs. Han ended her session, it’s basically free time for everyone since there’s still an hour till next class. Seungkwan was being crowded by the other kids who want to get to know him. I don’t really like the fact that our, I mean my, space is getting crowded. I keep taking small glances to Seungkwan and he always smile to me when he notices. With that short amount of time, I know that Seungkwan is a kind bubbly and cheerful kid that you can’t help but to like him.

He fit just fine in our class; sometimes he talks a little bit of accent and everyone just think it kind of cute. So yeah, he’s getting friends already as I can see.

They were talking, Seungkwan and the other kids, then he turned to me and say “Can you show me around the school? And where to eat at lunch?”

I haven’t even answer his question, then some other kid says “Why bother asking him? He’s a loner, he likes to be by himself only, we don’t even know where he goes at lunch,”

Seungkwan puts on a troubled face, the others were laughing when I could only look at the book in front of me, and then the bell rang and everyone goes back to their seat.

I mean, they’re not entirely wrong, I do like to spent my time alone, but they didn’t have to put it that way, right? Anyway, I noticed Seungkwan is taking glances at me with the same troubled face. He then starts talking to me again.

“Is it true? Do you rather be alone? Would you mind to show me around the school and eat lunch together? I mean I didn’t want to trouble you, but I really like you, and I think you are a nice kid.” He says very quickly.

“It’s not that I always like to be alone..” I answers shyly. What kind of guy says he like someone the first day they met? His face begins to light up a bit.

“I mean, I do like it sometimes, and it just because I’m used to be alone… so, yeah, I don’t mind to show you around the school.”

“Really? You promised right?” He smiled brightly. “Let’s start with eating lunch together!”

“Um.. about lunch… Actually, I brought a lunch box…”

“It’s okay, I guess we can try cafeteria some other day. I brought myself a lunch box too,” He says, “We still can eat together. I’m curious about where you go every lunch, they say you disappear.”

The bell rang again, never knew time could passes by this fast in school, usually it feels like it takes longer than this. It’s lunch time, and the other kids starts asking Seungkwan to eat together, but he refuses politely until they’re gone to the cafeteria.

“So,” He turns to me, “Will you be taking me to your secret place then?” He asks with such bright twinkling eyes.

I slowly takes my lunch box bag, it’s feels kinda weird, but I just can’t helped but to like him too, “Okay, I’ll take you there.”

We got up from our seat, I swear some of the kids that are still in our class look shocked about the fact that I’m going with someone. We small talks and I showed him a little bit of the school that we passes by.

It’s not exactly a secret place, like, everyone must have gone to this spot too, I like to eat my lunch at the rooftop of our school as it is feels more quiet and calm.

“Wow, so this is where you’ve been going for lunch? This reminds me of my old school in Jeju, I like to eat at the rooftop too since I can feel the breeze and see the beautiful sky.” Says Seungkwan excited.

“But this is still not exactly my spot, come here I’ll show you,” I take him to the corner of the rooftop where there’s a small garden. “I made this little garden, that’s why I tend to eat here as I have to take care of the garden too. The school allowed me to make this since this is not a bad thing.”

“You’re really cute Hansol-ah, I didn’t know you like to garden?”

Cute, he says I’m cute. Am I blushing? Why do I feel hot?

“Y-you’re one to talk, you’re cute too you know. And we literally just met today, so there are a lot of stuff you didn’t know about me and a lot of stuff I didn’t know about you too.”

“Well then, let’s start to get to know each other more today” he smiles.

This feels like the first time I actually feel comfortable around someone, we talk and we talk while we eat our lunch.

“Why are you always alone?” He asks innocently.

“There’s no reason actually, I just feel more comfortable this way. As you can see, I don’t look like the typical Korean. People find it hard to get close to me, and I tend to drift myself away too. Don’t you feel weird with me?”

“No, you look cute and handsome, I really like the way you look, I wish I could be that handsome too you know. Well, I wouldn’t say I’m ugly, but I’m not exactly handsome either, I look fat.”

“What? No! you’re not fat, in fact I like your cheek, you look so cute and bubbly and everyone can see that you’re a nice kid. It is easier to approach you than me.”

“Well, I guess everyone has their own plus and minus, right?” he says, “Will you promise me something?”

“What is it?” I asks.

“Promise me, that you will not be alone anymore. Promise me that you’ll be with me and we’ll be best friends forever.”

It came in like a wrecking ball, I had never had someone say this kind words to me. I never felt lonely before, well not really, but now, with him, I feel like, I would want to be with him and not be alone anymore. A smile came across my face as I answer, “I promise,” we made pinky promise and the bell rang as a sign that the lunch time has ended and it is time to go back to class.

We go back to our class laughing and smiling. And now, I find my source of happiness. Him. Boo Seungkwan.