It was hard for LuHan to move into Korea. People often laughed at him for having feminine features. People would call him ‘noona’. At first, he didn’t understand why they found this so offensive, until he understood what it meant.

His favourite classes were Economics and other 4 classes he took with the only people he could handle, the sunbaes (seniors). He could at least find some peace with them. They were quiet and mature, and they respected LuHan for his grades rather than calling him ‘nerd’ or ‘freak’. Sunbaes were a little flashlight in the long dark tunnel that Seoul Public Highschool was.

Sometimes LuHan would eat alone in the benches crossing the street from the building. Others, he would sit in the gym terraces and have chocolate milk with Kai and Chen, two sunbaes from the arithmetic class. Most of the time, Kai would talk about how much he wanted to leave to the country side and Chen would talk about how much he wanted to study abroad, and LuHan would say he wishes he could go back to Beijing.

Sometimes Chen would say words that were hard to understand for LuHan and Kai would help him out, while Chen apologized constantly for causing trouble. In the end, LuHan always appreciated Chen because he always learned new words from him.

And that’s how recesses with Kai and Chen were, mostly about classes and intellectual topics.

At the end of those fifteen hours he had to spend on that hellhole, he would meet a very close sunbae of his, SeHun, and he would smile at him and ask him stuff he didn’t understand in the Exact Sciences class and SeHun would insist in waiting for the bus with him, because he didn’t want to leave him alone.

LuHan liked spending time with SeHun because he looked like a girl and so did he and they would talk about occasions in which people mocked at them for having feminine features. Often SeHun would bring out a comment about how annoying he found having to cut his hair short because other people bothered him quite a lot.

That day was a Monday and LuHan met SeHun at the bus stop as usual. SeHun told LuHan he gave his money to Kyungsoo because he lost his wallet.

LuHan smiled and thought SeHun was a great person and then told him he had money and he could get some ice cream for him. SeHun smiled and asked if he had enough money to buy ice creams for both of them. When LuHan nodded SeHun would feel relieved because he was starving for something good.

That afternoon, both walked downtown to the nearest dessert shop and bought ice creams for each.

They sat on a red leather couch with the ice cream cones on their hands. SeHun sat cross-legged, as always, while LuHan sat awkwardly with his legs closed.

“Thank you for the ice cream, it was really nice of you.” SeHun smiled at LuHan, who was staring at the distance.

“It’s okay. You’ve been nothing but nice to me, is the least I can do.” He responded, still staring at the wall.

SeHun stretched his hand and put it in front of LuHan’s eyes, waving them, awakening him from his daydream. “What’s up with you, kid?”

“Ah… Nothing.” He smiled.

“It’s something bothering you? Are those juniors messing with you again?” He said, as he cleaned some ice cream from his bottom lip with his thumb.

“They always do, but I don’t worry too much about it.”

“What are you thinking of, then?”

“Nothing.” he said, finishing is cracker cone.

“Okay.”

LuHan wasn’t worried about something; he was worried about a lot of things. He was thinking about the Chemistry finals being right around the corner, and how hard the Writing lessons were and how SeHun could notice everything and anything about him.

And yes, SeHun could notice how LuHan was worried about something, for him, it was clear.

SeHun and LuHan had known each other for about five months, but SeHun was aspiring as a psychologist, and since he memorized personalities very carefully, it seemed like if SeHun and LuHan had been friends for years.

Later that day, LuHan asked SeHun to walk home with him, he said something about some kids staring at him from the windows, and then he told him about that time someone threw rocks at him.

And then SeHun would feel empathy and would drop a comment like, you should come live in my neighbourhood.

LuHan was straight, or he believed so.

SeHun wasn’t sure, he never asked himself about his uality.

LuHan was straight. He was straight from 5:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. and then from 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. But when he was with SeHun, he wasn’t even sure. But that didn’t worry him, SeHun could be taking him to Canada and LuHan would be so lost that he wouldn’t even be noticing.

SeHun liked LuHan’s personality; he liked how he wrinkled his nose at time and how much effort he put in everything he did. SeHun was impressed by the fact that although LuHan was still learning Korean, he did better than Chen, Baekhyun and even Yixing, that were Korean speakers by birth. Something he really liked of LuHan was how slow he talked and how cute he was when he stuttered.

LuHan remembers that time when SeHun counted how many times he stuttered, a total of 32 times in an hour. That day was possibly the best day of his life, or that’s what he said to his best friend in Beijing. That day was the first time SeHun said he would stay with LuHan until the bus arrived.

SeHun and LuHan were great friends. In fact, SeHun was the first person from the institute that had ever visited LuHan’s house. SeHun liked his house; he said it brought him a warm feeling. LuHan was probably the only person who found SeHun’s lisp cute instead of laughable.

SeHun and LuHan were great friends. SeHun would tell personal stories, stories he had never told anyone before, and LuHan always promised he wouldn’t say anything, and he never did.

SeHun and LuHan were great friends.

No, no. SeHun and LuHan were best friends.