Jongdae’s tiny fist rapped on the door before Mrs. Kim opened the door, wiping her hands on her apron. “Hi Jongdae.” She smiled warmly at him and ushered him into the house.

“Hi Mrs. Kim!” Would Minseok be able to make gingerbread houses with me?” He asked. She gazed at the eight year old and patted his little head. The woman didn’t get the chance to say anything before Minseok flew down the stairs with a grin. Jongdae’s best friend’s black floppy hair bounced up and down when he quickly hugged his friend. Jongdae leaned down to whisper something into Minseok’s ear and the shorter made a sound of excitement.

“Can I Mom? Pleeeease?” She pretended to think about it for minute.

“Yes of course.” opened the door for them and they ran out to the lawn to Jongdae’s house next door.

They sat at the dining table with their gingerbread house box in front of them. Immediately they dove into building part without the directions. 30 minutes later, pieces of candy were littered around the table and sagging gingerbread house sat between the two of them. Minseok and Jongdae the frosting off their hands and proceeded to dump piles of gumdrops onto the roof. Jongdae’s mom said to not eat too much candy before lunch, but Jongdae secretly fed his best friend the liquorice bits. They spent the rest of the afternoon eating the gingerbread house and playing Go Fish.

xxx

A few days later at school, all the third grade kids lined up to be picked for a game of kickball at recess. They all stood in the shade of the tree overhanging the playground and crossed their fingers, hoping they’d be picked on the same team as their friends. Sehun and Baekhyun were picked as captains. Sehun of course picked Minseok first, as he was the best kicker in their grade. The ending teams were: Sehun, Suho, Minseok, Yixing, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Jongin and Jongdae.

They began to play when Sehun’s team chose the outfield as their starting position. Minseok had a small frown on his face from being on the opposite team as his best friend, but quickly forgot about the situation when it was his turn to kick. Of course the ball went over the fence and he dashed across all the bases. The other team in the background whined before chasing after it. Once everyone kicked on Minseok’s team, the kids switched places. Jongdae kicked fourth in line, a hard straight shot into the gap of kids, and his team mates cheered for him as he ran around the bases and held out their hands for high fives when he came back. When he returned to home base, Baekhyun jumped up and squeezed Jongdae, slapping him on the back with a grin. Minseok stood in the outfield, watching their little interaction. He thought he felt his eye twitch.

When the game ended Minseok made sure to smother Jongdae in a hug and ruffle his hair, making sure Baekhyun could see. Baekhyun looked very confused. As they walked back into school, Minseok’s gut felt weird, but he didn’t know why or why he was acting like this. He just squeezed Jongdae’s hand harder.

...

The last friday before winter break meant three things: pajamas, movies and snacks. The students in the homeroom crawled under their desks with their friends and blankets cocooning them. Soft crunches of popcorn and candy filled the room as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer played from the SmartBoard in the darkness of the classroom. Jongdae and Minseok were of course curled up to each other with applesauce and juice boxes. Rudolph had just returned Clarice to her father after escaping the Bumble, when they kissed under the mistletoe. Instantly there were groans of ‘ew!’ and ‘oh my god they’re kissing’. Jongdae giggled and made an ‘ew’ sound with the rest of the kids. The teacher had to remind them to be quiet and continue to watch the movie.

In the last few minutes of class, a cluster of boys crowded together with their backpacks. The conversation was about the movie, but mostly about the kissing scene.

“That kiss was so gross!” Yixing said and stuck his tongue out. Minseok, Jongdae and the other boys laughed at him.

“When do you think you’ll have your first kiss, Yixing?” Kyungsoo teased. Yixing scrunched his face up “Not soon, that’s for sure.”

xxx

Jongdae fell back on Minseok’s bed with a graphic novel in hand. Minseok was laying in the opposite direction reading a comic when he put the paper on his chest and stared at the ceiling for a minute. He looked at Jongdae.

“Jongdae?”

“Yeah?” He averted his eyes from the page to glance at Minseok.

“What do you think it’s like to kiss another person?”

Jongdae scratched his arm and said, “probably wet or something. But I guess some people like it.” He looked lost, then his eyes widened and he stared at Minseok. “Have you?” His mouth jaw dropped and he sat up.

“No! No, I haven’t yet.” Jongdae visibly relaxed and said murmured an ‘oh’. He sounded sort of crestfallen so Minseok blurted out a thought lingering in his mind.

“D-do you want to practice on me?” He instantly wanted to take the words back, but he desperately waited for Jongdae’s response for some reason.

Jongdae laughed and laid on his back once more.

Silence. “You’re funny, Minnie.”

Minseok’s heart tightened, which added to the list of symptoms of the unknown feeling he’d been feeling recently. He put a weak smile on his face and laughed like oh course he was kidding and that he wasn’t imaging Jongdae kissing him. Minseok was quiet the rest of the afternoon.

xxx

“We’re moving.” The words hung in the air of the doorway. Minseok huffed from his run to Jongdae’s house to tell him the recent news. Jongdae’s breath caught in his throat and he slowly drifted his gaze down to the carpet. “We’re moving to the States in three weeks.” Jongdae began to blink rapidly and he moved to brush his eyes when Minseok stopped him with a tight hug. Jongdae rested his cheek on the top of the shorter’s head and sniffled.

The next three weeks couldn’t have passed any faster. Each day seemed put more weight on Jongdae’s shoulders, and he tried to smile and act like nothing was affecting him whenever he saw Minseok but inside he was suffering.

Jongdae’s mother opened the door to Minseok’s knocking. “He’s upstairs,” she said with a tight smile.

The younger boy was sitting on his bed, crying into his pillow. When he woke up he looked outside and saw the moving trucks loading in the street in front of Minseok’s house. The inevitable day had come. Jongdae was too sad to go downstairs and to bid his best friend off, so he sat in his bedroom and clung to his pillow. Suddenly he heard the front door open and the thumping of feet running up the stairs. It had to be Minseok, Jongdae thought.

Three seconds later his best friend burst into the room, hair wild and eyes jumpy. He said nothing, but slowly approached Jongdae on the bed. Minseok walked closer until he was right in front of Jongdae. Jongdae didn’t say anything, the silence spoke for itself. Minseok leaned closer, close until Jongdae suddenly felt something warm was on his lips. It was soft and foreign, and Jongdae didn’t know what to do with himself but he didn’t jerk back. Just as soon as he felt it, it vanished. Suddenly Minseok was backing away from him with a strange look in his eyes.

“Bye, Jongdae.” He turned around and ran out of the room, down the hall and into the street where his parents were waiting for him to say his last goodbyes. Jongdae stood frozen for a second and then realization hit him. That was a kiss. Jongdae was just kissed - for the first time. By his best friend. He leapt off the bed and started to sprint downstairs after him. He reached the porch when the trucks began to drive off down the street. Jongdae tried to run and keep up, yelling at the drivers to stop but his voice was drowned out by the rumbling of the cars. He was left on the sidewalk by himself with no explanation to what just happened.