Luhan didn’t know for how long he had whined from the backseat of the car. First, he needed to go to the toilet, second, he was hungry, third, it was hot in the car and lastly, he was bored.

“Look, Luhan. If you don’t shut up I will personally throw you out of the car” Luhan’s stepfather Jonghyun said, slightly annoyed by the way Luhan was acting.

This wasn’t the first time Luhan was against following his stepfather, mother and the more than a little bit annoying stepbrother Chanyeol on vacation. Luhan hated to live in Korea with his new family as well.

Ever since Luhan’s mother left Luhan’s father for this weird Korean business man, which was about two years ago, Luhan had been forced to leave China and move to Korea. Getting used to the language and the culture was hard enough for him and he didn’t have any friends in Korea.

“Mommy! Chanyeol took my book!” Luhan yelled from the backseat and tried to get the book Chanyeol just had taken from Luhan’s bag back.

Luhan’s mother, Chun, just laughed at her son. “Let him be, he’s two years younger than you”

Luhan pouted and kicked the back of the seat in front of him hard with his foot in protest of being in the car much longer.

“We’re there in thirty minutes” Chun said but Luhan didn’t listen any longer. He just wanted to get out of the car and away from his stupid family as soon as possible.

Would running away be a good option this time?

~*~*~

“Sehun! Its dinner-time” Sehun’s mother yelled from the small cottage.

Sehun, who had been outside and painting, hurried inside the cottage and hugged his mother around her waist.

His older sister, Hyerin, laughed at her younger brother’s expression.

“Let’s take a seat” Hyerin began to put some of the food on her plate and Sehun followed every single movement his sister made.

“Have you all packed your stuff?” Sehun’s mother, Jihyun, asked.

Sehun nodded. They had been at a camping in Busan for a week now; it was tradition for their family to do so, but tomorrow was it time for them to leave the camping and go back home to Seoul again.

Sehun liked the camping, he didn’t have much of friends there but he got to spend time with his sister and mother, the two girls he loved the most in the whole world.

Sehun’s father passed away in cancer when Sehun was six years old and the only thing Sehun remembers of his father are all those years when he was lying at the hospital.

It really bugged Sehun to only have those kinds of memories with his father; he wanted to have a male role model as well.

In reality, Sehun didn’t want to leave the camping yet. But since his mother had work to do the following week he knew that they had to go now.

~*~*~

An unknown car stopped outside the cottage next to Sehun’s later that evening. And Sehun, who was lying in his bed while reading a book, hurried out to see the new family.

It was a family of two children, boys, and two parents, one male and one female. The male spoke in Korean to the younger son while the female spoke in another language, probably Chinese, to the older son.

Without even thinking of what he should do Sehun ran to the family.

“Hello” Sehun said to the female. “I’m Sehun, I live in that cottage”

The female bowed back to Sehun. “Hello Sehun. My name is Chun. This is my son Luhan”

Sehun smiled towards Luhan. “I’m ten years old and you?”

Luhan looked at his mother, who translated what Sehun had said into Chinese.

“I’m also ten” Luhan replied with a really broken Korean. It seemed like they hadn’t been living in Korea for that long.

“Do you want to play?” Sehun asked.

Luhan nodded, not sure why Sehun asked him to play but he knew that anything would be better than staying at the cottage with their parents.

“I have a Nintendo DS in my bag. I can ask my sister is I can borrow hers and we can play Super Mario Bros together” Sehun smiled and grabbed Luhan’s wrist and the two boys ran to Sehun’s cottage.

~*~*~

The two boys played with each other for a long time. They did not only play with the Nintendo DS, they did also play at the playground and play some soccer with each other.

The sun was about to set and the two boys were sitting together with each other in the grass.

Luhan was happy; Sehun had become his first Korean friend and the first Korean that actually had understood his poor Korean. Whenever they had problems to communicate with each other, they used charades or hand-gestures to make each other understand.

“Why aren’t my friends in Incheon like you?” Luhan asked.

Sehun shrugged, he didn’t know what Luhan meant but he somehow felt that Luhan was a lonely person. “Maybe they only see that you’re Chinese.”

Sehun knew that people often bullied Chinese and Japanese people in his school and he couldn’t help but believe that it was the same in Luhan’s school.

Luhan leaned his head on Sehun’s shoulder and looked at the water that looked so welcoming right now.

“Can’t we take a bath?” Luhan grabbed Sehun’s wrist and ran back to the cottage with Sehun, who was trying hard to catch up with Luhan’s speed in running.

The two boys grabbed their swimsuits and told their parents that they would take an evening-before they would go to bed.

Luhan was the first one to run out on the bridge, but when he reached the edge we waited for Sehun.

“You first” Luhan smiled.

Sehun’s eyes widened. “No… you first”

Luhan laughed a little, both him and Sehun were the same; they hated to jump into the water without knowing if it was cold or warm first.

“Then, together” Luhan took Sehun’s hand.

Sehun’s eyes widened at the skin-contact Luhan did with Sehun. He wasn’t used to that, Luhan was so different from all the other persons he ever had met.

“One” Luhan began to count, first in Chinese but when he noticed that Sehun didn’t understand he changed into Korean. “One, two, three”

The two boys jumped into the water together. It was not cold in the water, but it was not hot either. It was a perfect temperature.

They don’t know for how long they were playing in the water, but when Luhan’s mother called Luhan in they both walked slowly back to the cottages.

~*~*~

Sehun got ready to go to bed; he changed clothes into his pajamas when someone knocked on the door.

“Sehun, Luhan’s here. He wondered if you wanted to go with him and brush your teeth” Hyerin said.

Sehun grabbed his small bag were he had his toothpaste and toothbrush and walked as fast as he could to Luhan.

“Mom, is it okay if I go with Luhan to brush my teeth?” Sehun yelled into his mother’s room.

“Sure!” His mother replied.

The two boys walked to the public-toilet and took a sink they decided to share and began to brush their teeth.

“I had a great time today” Luhan said and spitted out the mix of saliva, toothpaste and water into the sink. “Thank you so much, you are my best friend”

Sehun spitted out the toothpaste as well. “We will have more fun soon”

Luhan smiled. “Off course, we can play tomorrow”

Sehun nodded, by this time he had forgotten that today were their last day here and his family would leave in the morning the upcoming day.

~*~*~

Luhan went to bed with a bright smile on his lips that night. He had never been feeling his happy in his whole life, all thanks to Sehun. Sehun sure was a great person and he would love to get to know him better.

Luhan’s mother was also happy; she had never seen Luhan like his before. Not since they moved to Korea. Maybe Sehun was all Luhan needed.

~*~*~

The following morning was Sehun and Hyerin busy with packing all their stuff into the car while Sehun’s mother was checking out.

Luhan saw how they were packing and hurried out of his cottage, only wearing pajamas and had messy hair.

His eyes were as big as tea-spoons when he yelled at Sehun:

“Are you leaving today?”

Sehun nodded, he felt empty in his chest. He had never been sad of leaving a friend before, but leaving Luhan hurt a lot.

“I’m sorry, but I will be here next year” Sehun yelled back at Luhan.

Luhan bit his lower lip. “Then I’ll make sure to be here next year as well”

~*~*~

Luhan helped Sehun to pack the rest of the stuff and stood outside his cottage when Sehun drove away. The last thing Sehun saw before they left the camping was Luhan waving at him.

And Sehun couldn’t do anything else but wave back.

Don’t worry, Luhan, I will be here next year.

~*~*~

Luhan’s mother noticed how Luhan was sitting all alone in the grass while reading by lunch-time the same day.

“Why aren’t you playing with Sehun?”

Luhan shrugged, he did not move his eyes from the book for a second. “He went back home”

Luhan’s mother hugged her son.

“He will be here next year.” Luhan looked at his mother.

Luhan’s mother smiled at him. “Then, if you want to, we can come here next year as well”

Luhan nodded happily and turned his attention back to the book as well.

Wait for me, Sehun, I promise that I will be here.