What if love was right there in front of you - you just couldn’t see it ? 
 

Chanyeol was glad he met Haru that morning because he was a bit down after having to leave his old best friend, Jihoon. He couldn’t see Chanyeol any more.

But Chanyeol knew that having to leave his best friends was all part of his job. It was not a very nice part, but he looked for a positive side in everything,so the way he saw it is, if he didn’t have to leave his best friends then he wouldn’t be able to make new ones. Making new friends was Chanyeol’s favourite part of the job.

Chanyeol left Jihoons house behind and started walking, and for absolutely no reason at all he took the first left, and then after taking few random turns he ended up beside a housing estate called Gardenia Lane.

There were lots of children playing on the road, cycling, chasing, enjoying hopscotch, and loads of other stuff. One could hear the sounds of delighted screams and laughter coming from them. As much as they seemed really nice and all, Chanyeol just wasn’t drawn to them. He couldn’t just make friends with anyone. That’s not what his job was about.

After observing the people for a while Chanyeol sat down on the garden wall of the last house and began to think if he had made mistake coming to this street, he was usually very good at choosing places.

Chanyeol spun on his backside to face the house behind the garden wall. There was no action in this garden so he sat and studied the house. It had two storeys and a garage with an expensive car parked outside that glistened in the sun. The house had blooming fuchsia climbing up the wall, It looked pretty.

 

Just as Chanyeol was studying the face of the front door, it opened and was slammed shut rather loudly and angrily by a boy who came running outside. He had a big red fire engine in his right hand and a police car in his left hand. Chanyeol loved red fire engines; they were his favourite.

Anyway, the little boy started crashing his fire engine against his police car and making all these noises with his mouth. It’s fun pretending to do things that don’t usually happen in real life.

 

The boy rammed the police car into the red fire engine and the head fireman, who was clinging to the ladder slid off. Which made Chanyeol laugh out loud and the boy looked up.

He actually looked at him. Right into Chanyeol’s eyes.

“Hey” Chanyeol said, nervously clearing his throat and shifting from one foot to the other.

 “Hi” the boy replied, fixing the fireman back onto the ladder.

 “What’s your name?’ Chanyeol asked, kicking his foot against the wall in front of him.

The boy stared at him for a while, looked him up and down as though trying to decide whether to tell him his name or not.

Finally he spoke. “My name’s Haru. What’s yours?”

 Chanyeol shoved his hands deep into his pockets, he said, “Chanyeol”

 “Hi, Chanyeol” he smiled. He had no front teeth.

“Hi, Haru” Chanyeol smiled back.

“I like your fire engine. My old best friend Jihoon used to have one just like it and we used to play with it all the time.

“Do you want to come and play?” He raised his eyebrows questioningly.

Chanyeol grinned. “Of course. Playing is my favourite!” and he joined the boy on the grass.

“What age are you?’ Haru looked at him suspiciously. “You look like you’re the same age as my uncle” he frowned, “and my uncle doesn’t like to play with my fire engine”

Chanyeol shrugged. “Well, then your uncle is a boring old gnirob!’

“A gnirob!” Haru giggled “What’s a gnirob?”

“Someone who’s boring,’ Chanyeol said, scrunching his nose up and saying the word like it was a disease.

He liked saying words backwards; it was like inventing his own language.

 

“That friend that you mentioned,who is he?” Haru asked

“Kim Jihoon is his name” Chanyeol smiled remembering how much fun he had playing with him.

Haru’s eyes lit up “He is in my class in school”

Then it clicked to Chanyeol why he felt a sense of familiarity when he saw Haru.

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