Howon was thirteen when his family settled in Haean. Before that, he'd only known a life of drifting around aimlessly, with no place to truly call home. But standing in front of the small seaside cottage that day, he'd felt the first rush of overwhelming emotion, one that he could never - still can't - describe, but one that he'd feel for four years before it abruptly disappeared.

Joy. Howon felt joy, pure unadulterated joy, for the first time in Haean, standing in front of the quaint little house his family had decided to live in for the rest of their lives. He'd felt it again, but on a softer scale, when the neighbors had come over to greet his parents, a quiet boy in tow.

At first glance, Myungsoo didn't seem like much of an impressive person, but as they kept talking, throwing rocks into the ocean, Howon found that his new friend was more than he'd ever be. In fact, Kim Myungsoo seemed to already be so successful that Howon worried about his future life.

"Will you be able to keep up your streak?" he remembers asking, and remembers Myungsoo's laugh, the first time he'd ever heard it.

"Of course!" Myungsoo laughed like a child, though Howon supposes he was one, throwing his head back and almost falling over in his amusement. "And you can help me run my company!"

It was only later, when school started, that Howon realized that despite being class president, Myungsoo had surprisingly few friends. In fact, he only had one, and it was Howon.

Myungsoo himself hadn't seemed bothered by it. "I help people with their homework. It's fine, I don't mind being alone." But Howon figured that he must not like being lonely, and resolved to be the best friend Myungsoo would ever have.

---

He'd befriended Naeun in a slightly different way. Being awkward boys in middle school, neither Howon nor Myungsoo had enough courage to talk to the girls, especially the prettiest one. Everyone knew Naeun, yet no one knew her well. She was smart, she was pretty, she was kind -- she was perfect, and everyone was too scared of breaking through the illusion and discovering her flaws.

Everyone, that was, except Howon. He was the new kid, and despite Myungsoo's warnings, he had an excuse to blunder around the social circles to his heart's desire. In the beginning, his goal was just to make some new friends, preferably ones who would also get along with Myungsoo, but given that the cliques were already set in place, it was hard to find any loners willing to join.

But Naeun, she was a loner, as Howon soon found out. In art class, after carefully observing each group of friends, Howon noticed that Naeun mostly kept by herself, chatting occasionally to whoever sat next to her. From then on, he made sure to keep an eye on her, and suspicions confirmed, he reported these findings to Myungsoo.

"She's lonely because everyone wants to be her friend but no one wants to ask!" he exclaimed, clambering up to sit on top of the monkey bars. "Myung, she's just like us!"

More carefully, Myungsoo sat down beside him and let out a small huff. "Maybe," he admitted, running a hand through his hair. "But what if she doesn't want to be friends with us?"

"I do." The soft voice coming from below them almost caused Howon to lose his balance and topple off his perch. "Are you okay?"

Naeun was even prettier up close, with dark hair and sparkly eyes and a perfectly-sweet smile. In an instant, Howon felt a punch in his gut, but before he could react, Myungsoo leapt down, landing right in front of her, and held out his hand.

---

In a way, he supposes that was where it all started, when they'd first come together as a group of friends. Just him, Myungsoo, and Naeun, running around the elementary school playground after school ended, backpacks haphazardly strewn across a nearby bench. It was odd, now that he thinks back, how carefree they could be back then, with no one judging them. As they grew older, more and more adults began to comment on their relationship, on Myungsoo and Naeun, on how perfect they were together.

Too soon, too soon. Myungsoo and Naeun grew close, the pretty boy and the pretty girl, and by the time they were halfway through their second year of high school, it almost felt as if Howon was the outsider in this three-person friendship. No matter how much they reassured him that he was still the central pillar of their group -- "you brought us together!" -- after they started dating, Howon couldn't help the waves of resentment and bitterness welling up in his chest.

It was then that he had appeared, the ray of sunshine piercing through the darkest of Howon's night. Yamada Ryosuke, the new Japanese exchange student, waltzing into the first class of the day with a nervous but charming smile, and suddenly, time froze, and all that mattered was the shadows of the sunlight dancing on the new boy's skin, the subtle changes in the color of his hair as he brushed it out of his eyes, the small tug at the corner of his mouth as he sat down next to Howon, dipping his head in a gesture of greeting.

It felt like fate, and after class ended, Howon stayed behind, finding some ridiculous reason to linger until the classroom was empty, and it was just him and Ryosuke. Myungsoo and Naeun would be waiting outside, he knew, but for once, he didn't care. Instead, he approached Ryosuke, still sitting at his desk gathering his materials.

"Hi," he'd offered, and the smile Ryosuke had flashed at him, bright and genuine, was worth any amount of nagging from Myungsoo and Naeun. "I was wondering if you understood everything we talked about in class?"

"Yes, yes, I did." Ryosuke was much shorter than Howon, but his aura alone was enough to make up for the height discrepancy. "Please don't worry about me!"

Howon hadn't prepared another excuse to keep talking. Taken aback, he stood there sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, feeling the heat creep up his cheeks, as Ryosuke's bright eyes bore into his soul. "W-well... would you like to meet my friends? I mean, I'm not sure if you already have people you want to hang out with, but..."

"Of course!" 

How could he begin to describe Ryosuke? The faint crinkles beside his eyes whenever he smiled, the dyed brown hair that shone with gold in the sun, the way he talked to himself in Japanese when he was lost in thought, the small tilt of his head whenever he didn't understand something, the exaggerated way he responded to any news Howon brought him, the polite yet genuinely happy way he greeted everyone he didn't know, the confident yet humble way he held his head up...

He was golden, rainbow, every color of the universe and more, and Howon reached out and fell into his spell, the enchanting melody of cherry blossoms and warmth.