1. Jeno was ten when he realized that some smiles are blindingly brighter than the sun.

 Jeno was a sturdy child with black hair, fair skin, and a kind smile that crinkled his eyes into tight little crescents. He was loved by his teachers and he had an astounding desire to consume all knowledge presented to him, always hungry for more.

However, Jeno had never really had a friend to call his own. He was timid and reserved for a ten year old, often shying away from interactions due to his fear of rejection. The boys in his class had attempted for the better part of the year to befriend him, inviting him to play soccer and such, but Jeno could not find it in himself to accept. The girls in his class would look at him and giggle; however, they never approached him with a proposal to converse, instead choosing to admire him from afar. All in all, Jeno was alone, but really, he didn't mind.

Monday was like any other day, until all of a sudden, it wasn't. For the class, the teacher, Mr. Suh, arriving slightly late was nothing new as he claimed his car often broke down, but the small figure that trudged in after him was.

The boy was, for lack of a better word, pretty. His rich brown hair was slightly curled and fluffy on the top of his head, cheeks puffy with baby fat, and eyes beautifully curved in an almond shape. A yellow plaster was haphazardly slapped across his left knee, and his smile seemed to be plastered to his face in a similar manner.

Jeno felt an urge to know his name, he wanted to know the boy beyond his practiced smile that seemed to tremble slightly under the scrutiny of others.

Mr. Suh prompted the boy to introduce himself. A soft spoken voice with a slight nasal ring stated with a sense of familiarity, as if said many times before, "Hello, my name is Donghyuck Lee. I have just moved into town. Please take care of me."

Jeno found himself smiling lightly, deciding that the pretty name suited the boy. Donghyuck was instructed to sit beside Jeno, as the teacher told him they were happy to have him join their class.

During lunch, Jeno for the first time in his life, turned to the new boy and, feeling like he should make a good expression, presented an outstretched hand like he had seen his mother do, "Hi, I'm Jeno Lee." 

The boy's eyes widened at his address, grabbed his hand to shake, and broke out into a beaming smile, "Jeno, huh… Let's be friends. I like your pencil case."

"Oh, you like One Piece too?" Jeno asked, hopeful that he had something in common with the intriguing boy. Donghyuck took his question in stride and answered animatedly.

Their friendship sprung easily and they slipped into a routine of inseparability. They ate lunch together, and played on the grass during recess, cooking up wild, fantastical narratives to act out each afternoon.

Donghyuck was sweet and kind. Softer than most boys his age, he became an easy target for his peers. It started with comments ridiculing him for wearing a pink sweater to school, then questioning his disinterest in sports, and finally teasing him for his gentle, delicate voice and demeanour. Jeno was not privy of the harassment that Donghyuck was facing, as any mocking was done when he was not around. His classmates knew that he would come to Donghyuck's defense, and Jeno was not physically weak by any means.

What first started with taunts and mockery, evolved one day into a physical altercation. Donghyuck was walking home alone, as Jeno happened to be stuck after school helping with the planning of a can drive that he was volun-told to join. Donghyuck felt it before he saw it, and the side of his head began to throb. A loonie sized stone had hit his head right above his left ear. Giggles were heard from behind him as he slowly turned around to face the perpetrators. Two boys from his class stood together snickering at him.

"Hey, where's your knight in shining armour now?" the taller of the two called out. Donghyuck clenched his fists, eyes pooling with tears as he turned heel to march away, but was stopped when a voice called out.

"Honestly, dude, Jeno deserves better. I can't believe he rejected us to hang out with a dumb baby like hyuckie," the shorter boy spoke harshly, a mocking lit to his voice when he called out Jeno's nickname for Donghyuck.

"Yeah, Jeno must be stupid to befriend someone like Dongtwat", the taller responded. Donghyuck's shoulders shook with a sob, and he took off running away as the boys called after him, “crybaby.”

Jeno was supposed to visit Donghyuck after school to marathon One Piece together; however, when he arrived Mr. Lee told him that Donghyuck appeared to be feeling ill, as he had gone to his bedroom as soon as he got home from school and had not emerged since. Jeno smiled sweetly and asked if he could check on Donghyuck, wanting to make sure the other boy was okay. Mr. Lee smiled in return and shrugged, "He's all yours bud."

Jeno skipped up the stairs, taking two at a time, walked down the hall, and stopped at the first door on his right.

"Hyuckie, I'm here," he called out, "can I enter?" Jeno was met with no response and so he opened the door quietly, thinking the other boy was asleep.

He was met with what he supposed was Donghyuck's sleeping form, so he paced towards the bed, and gently called out the brunette's name. No response, but the blanket moved slightly. Jeno, taking that as a sign, slowly peeled back the blue comforter on Donghyuck's bed and was met with two doe eyes staring up at him. Tear tracks were the first thing that caught Jeno’s attention and he frowned.

"Hey, Hyuck, what's the matter? Are you really that sick?" he asked, concerned. Donghyuck's lower lip wobbled in response.

"Hey, hey now, my little crybaby, what's wrong?" he called out, reaching towards the boy. However, Donghyuck suddenly shot up into a sitting position.

"Just that," Donghyuck shouted at him, "I'm a crybaby. I depend on you too much. I'm nice, not manly. I'm a wimp and you know it too. I- I'm a ." He spat the word out like it was poison.

Jeno waved his hands in panic at the other’s sudden outburst, "now who told you that? You are the sweetest person I know. If being kind to others makes you a , then I don't think that's such a bad thing. I like you just the way you are."

Donghyuck glanced up at him, with a look of consideration on his face, then whispered with resignation, "some boys in our class."

Jeno dropped to his knees beside Donghyuck's bed, stating as he placed his hands on the edge of the mattress, "Hyuckie, you are so special and sweet. Anyone who can not see that is stupid and doesn't deserve your tears."

Donghyuck coyly peered down at him, " you really think so Nono?"

"I know so," Jeno smiled at him, "now scooch over and let's get this Marathon started."

Donghyuck sighed and a bright smile split his sullen disposition as he sat swathed in the raven head's embrace. Jeno decided then and there that he looked nicest like this, all rosey with a brightness that rivaled the sun.

And if two boys came to school on Wednesday with split lips, followed by Jeno wearing a yellow plaster as if it was a badge of honour, no one talked about it.

2. Jeno was twelve when he realized that Donghyuck's eyes shine brighter than any star.

The summer of 2012 had swept by in a flurry of nothing momentous. Jeno and Donghyuck had wanted to earn some spending money for their weekly excursions to the arcade and bubble tea shop on Main Street, just a few blocks down from the bowling alley and adjacent to the mall.

They set out to advertise their able bodies in an attempt to find a job, placing posters around their neighbourhood that stated their availability to mow lawns and pull weeds, a necessity for the elderly in their vicinity. Eventually after a week waiting by the phone for a call, Jeno and Donghyuck had managed to land a humble gig, mowing the lawn for an elderly woman two blocks down, Mrs. Browyn.

Working under the sun had caused the summer heat to toast Donghyuck to a soft glow of warm skin, his cheeks often a permanent flush of pink and red. Jeno, the fairer of the two, tended to burn before any colouration appeared on his skin. He found himself glancing at Donghyuck, more often than not, jealous of his skin colour, wishing his skin would look as lovely from sun exposure. The boy seemed to be made out of sunshine and Jeno could not help but look at him as he struggled to uproot a dandelion.

"You know you could help," Donghyuck huffed and puffed, "I don't even understand why Mrs. Browyn wants these dandelions pulled, they're as pretty as the rest." He stated as he gestured vaguely towards the flowers planted along the perimeter of the woman's house.

Jeno swallowed roughly, and turned away to continue his own battle with some ground ivy. He laughed, albeit a tad awkwardly to knowledgable ears, and barked out, "only you Hyuck, it's a weed, doesn't matter if it grows or not, and I'm working on pulling my own plants."

Donghyuck glanced up at him through his rich brown bangs, as he blew at the hair partially covering his vision, "well you weren't a few minutes ago, you were just standing there wistfully." He stood slowly and rubbed at his back as he rose from his squat position. They were eye level now, as Donghyuck smiled softly at him. In warmth they had grown and still grew.

The rest of the day continued uneventfully, as they proceeded to dig in and attempt to tackle the remaining work, eager to finish for the day. The evening crept up on them quietly, only accompanied by the dying buzz of cicada bugs. Jeno had invited Donghyuck over for dinner, after feeling reluctant to part with the other boy. After eating, the boys decided that it was too nice to sit inside and ventured out of Jeno's bedroom window, shimmying onto the roof. As they settled down on the rough, scratchy shingles, the boys sat thigh pressed against thigh. Jeno glanced down, eyes observing the difference in their skin tones, marveling at the fullness and softness of Donghyuck's thighs compared to his own that were spry, and muscular. He stared as Donghyuck shifted beside him, thigh muscles visibly tensing and relaxing under his skin.

Jeno took in a deep breath, the heady scent of summer heat, freshly cut grass, and sweat that lingered on their skin, clouded his judgment and he impulsively whispered into the dusk air, "Sometimes I feel like a weed, like I don't have a purpose." 

Donghyuck turned to him sharpy, with some unadulterated sense of urgency, "Jeno, you can't possibly think… Jeno, let me tell you, my dad said weeds help with pollination, so in fact they have a purpose." He pressed with a need to make Jeno understand.

"But Hyuck, people don't see the potential a weed has, they don't want them," Jeno sighed out.

"But weeds still survive, even if people pluck them, pull them, or tug them from the earth," Donghyuck stated turning to face the rapidly setting sun, the sky melding into a cotton candy swirl. "And if it means anything, I want you, you're my friend." Donghyuck whispered out into the evening air.

Jeno’s heart thumped and stumbled in his chest, "Donghyuck, what if we can't stay friends forever, what if…"

"Nono, don't- don't say that, we can't not be friends, I won't let that happen," Donghyuck cut him off, slicing through his insecurity fueled tangent.

Donghyuck then ed forward his pinky finger aimlessly towards Jeno, and wiggled the offending appendage. "I, Donghyuck Lee, promise that there will never be a future where Jeno and Donghyuck are not friends."

Jeno scoffed lightly at the other boy's childishness, but broke into a soft smile that Donghyuck returned with a beaming, encouraging smile of his own. As they linked fingers, Jeno held his breath, overcome with an intense feeling of the importance of this promise, and the fear of ever losing Donghyuck. He gripped tighter and then let go, hand swinging down to his lap. Donghyuck nudged Jeno's shoulder with his own, stretching his legs into the now dark air.

Jeno glanced discreetly over at Donghyuck, who stared at the star scattered sky, a soft subtle smile gracing his lips. Jeno has never seen a sky as beautiful as the one captured in Donghyuck's eyes, the light and a promise reflected in the depths of his glossy orbs.

3. Jeno was fourteen when he realized that Donghyuck's hand looked better held within his own.

Donghyuck had finally found himself a girlfriend. She was pretty and sweet, just what Donghyuck deserved, but Jeno could not find it in himself to be happy for the other boy for some unidentifiable reason. Jeno berated himself and deemed himself selfish in his lack of desire to congratulate Donghyuck or partake in his regaling of the loving moments he shared with his now deemed other half.

Jeno found that his chest seemed to have begun to ache in a weird fashion, as if it was being squeezed and rung out to dry, when Donghyuck talked about how pretty her smile or her eyes were. Jeno wanted to respond that Donghyuck's eyes and smile were just as pretty, if not prettier and so by default hers were nothing special. However, he held himself back and merely nodded or smiled when necessary.

One fall afternoon, a week after Donghyuck revealed his newfound relationship status, Jeno and Donghyuck found themselves walking home from school. This walk was no different from others as the pleasant, crisp afternoon air was filled with meaningless conversation between the two boys. Mostly consisting of Donghyuck commenting on something he had seen or something he had heard through school gossip during the day and Jeno responding when appropriate.

Donghyuck made to grab Jeno’s hand to hold and swing in tandem with his own as they occasionally do during their walks home.

Donghyuck appeared to enjoy this form of affection, so Jeno had never really objected before. The smile that graced Donghyuck's face as he clutched Jeno's hand while recounting some trivial occurrence with great enthusiasm was worth the odd discomfort he felt in his stomach, as if his insides were run through a cycle in a washing machine. He liked the way Donghyuck's hand fit so seamlessly in his own. Jeno would even go so far as to say that it was worth the prodding taunts from his friends on the baseball team, especially Mark Lee, although those were a little tougher to swallow.

However this time, Jeno slipped his hand into the pocket of his uniform slacks before Donghyuck could grab it, leaving the brunette to instead grasp at the distance now between them. Tilting his head