WU YI FAN and I were childhood friends. We grew up together in Vancouver, Canada.

I first met WU YI FAN when I was four. I remember that day very clearly.

It was a sunny day and I was at the park, in a pink overall dress, two pigtails and playing with a red plastic shovel and a bucket, playing in a sandbox. Two bullies came by and pushed me down to the ground, into the sandbox. I fell on my bottom and had started crying.

WU YI FAN came over and yelled at the two boys. He was seven then. After he told them to scram, he extended his hands and helped me up. He shared his cookies with me and told me not to cry.

From then on, we were best friends. We went to the park every single day and played with each other. On rainy days, when we couldn't come out to see each other, my mom would send me to his home or he would come to mine.

He was just about the coolest person I had ever met. His mother was very kind to me, always baking cookies for YI FAN and me. I always tried to help her around the house as well. I didn't want her to be too tired.

He had the name "Li Jia Heng" but he said he preferred to be called "Yi Fan". We attended the same school until he went to middle school. Then I had to move to New York. It seemed like the whole world was against our friendship. New York? Why? I had asked my mom. I like it here. I really didn't want to leave. Vancouver was everything to me. It was where I'd spent my childhood. Where I met my best friend. 

Because we found better jobs there, Mom had replied.

So I moved to New York. I couldn't even celebrate my thirteenth birthday with YI FAN. He was really disappointed. We'll still write letters, I said, to cheer him up right before I left. And we could call each other sometimes.

And we did. We called each other once a month and often wrote letters. I would smile when I read his letters, thinking of his reaction when he wrote it, or thinking about how he looked when he was doing all those fun things he told me about. We really missed each other. Even though Canada wasn't so far away and we were both still in North America, it felt like we were on opposite ends of the world.

I miss you, he would say. I wish you were here. Everything's different without you here. Everything's changed. The atmosphere feels different with you not here with me. I cried sometimes at the night.

He spent some time in China for a couple of years, but moved back to Vancouver.  

Soon after, I made a friend. Her name was HALLEY. She loved to laugh, just like me. I started getting used to New York. I told her about WU YI FAN.

Fast forward two years later, he told me about how he was going to try out for SM's Global Audition. I giggled when he said he was going to sing or rap. I just couldn't imagine it. Good luck, I said. I meant it. I wished the best for him. 

When he made it, I was surprised. He was that good. I asked him to rap for me, but he said I would hear it when he debuted. I was extremely happy for him. He was going to become a star!

* * * * * 

It's been so long since we contacted each other now. He's in Korea. I'm still here in New York. But I promised that when he debuted, I would go to Korea to visit him. He was really happy to hear that. 

EXO. That was their group name; I found out when they debuted (Well, when they released the teasers). I couldn't wait to see him. I hadn't seen him in so long and he was all the way on the other side of the world, waiting for me. I couldn't wait to reunite with my bestie. I asked HALLEY to go with me because I didn't want to travel alone. She was a fan of EXO, but mostly D.O. and she said of course she would go.

So we packed.

* * * * * 

Now here I am, at the airport, waiting with HALLEY for our flight to Korea. I couldn't wait to see him. KRIS. His stage name. Huh. It didn't sound bad. But I was used to calling him YI FAN. 

WU YI FAN, I'm coming, I thought to myself, as I boarded the plane.