2007: Aged 12

A boy, almost a teen, stared heartbrokenly as his parents and brother packed the last of their belongings to the car. His face was stained with tears and his usual joyful grin was nowhere to be seen. He clutched two necklaces in one hand and a piece of paper in the other, his fists clenching tightly as he felt an unbearable pain in his chest.

“Donghae”

The boy wheeled around to see his best friend standing on the pavement, his puffy eyes giving away that he too had been crying. Without a word, Donghae hugged Hyukjae knowing that unlike the other times he whined about letting him go, this time would be their last for a very long time.

“You’re not allowed to forget me.” Donghae sniffed his voice breaking as he attempted to speak coherently. “ Hyukkie, you’re my bestest friend in the whole wide world... and even though America is far away you have to write to me... otherwise I’ll be sad and then I’ll cry...and then you’ll be sad because you made me cry...”

“I promise... I’ll write to you” Hyukjae whispered, his voice laced with emotion. 

Even though he wished that he could stay in Seoul with Hyukjae, he knew that the sudden move to America was inevitable. He hoped that the other boy would wait for him to return so that they could be together forever. 

“Here” Donghae said ing the piece of paper forward. “It’s my new address... Keep it safe. “ 

Hyukjae gripped the piece of paper tightly and carefully put it in his pocket.

“What’s that?” He asked pointing at the other object Donghae was holding.

“It’s a friendship necklace” Donghae explained as he held up two chains one having a letter ‘D’ and a fish charm and the other having a letter ‘H’ and a monkey charm. “ The one with D is for you and the one with H is for me so we can always be together even when we are in different countries.”

They exchanged the necklaces without another word,both fearing that their time maybe coming to an end. Sure enough, after truckload of tears and promises to write and stay safe, Donghae was in the car heading towards the airport as Hyukjae stood watching his departure sorrowfully.