Come with me…. Airplane…. Love…

Tears drift down his face as he hears those words. Holding a small paper airplane in his hands, he weeps. He weeps as the memories play through his mind like a broken record trying to catch up. Everything moving as if it was in fast forward, but the focus always seems to be those paper airplanes and his friend who taught him how to fly.

Come with me… Airplane… Love…

The first memory starts again. A small boy resting on his bed, hugging his knees to his chest as his parents argue. His room is bare, new, and fresh. Bare walls, with the bed not even made yet and boxes strewn across the floor. He walks over to one.

      LuHan

Stuffed Animals

Moving his hands up to the box, he opens it and looks in to see the small faces of his play toys. The baby deer is the first he sees and almost instinctively he picks it up. Luhan pulls it close, hugging it, as he tries to not be frightened as the slam of a door can be heard below. A small breeze plays into his room, ruffling the window curtains his mother had put up prior to going downstairs to finish unpacking. Feeling the breeze and wishing to see the view from the new room he stands up and walks over to the window, parting the curtains and looks out.

A house stands immediately next to his, it’s not much of a view unlike his old place but he notices a pair of eyes looking back at him. Another boy stands there, his eyes twinkling as he sees him, staring but yet not trying to be rude. He waves, a smile forming on his lips.

Nervously, Luhan steps out view. What is he to do? Should he wave back? Would that be strange? What if he thinks he’s weird? Shyly, he peeks over around the corner of the window to take a peek at his new neighbor. He looks across into the other window adjacent to his own to see… nothing.

The boy is gone.

Sighing, he turns away again, slowly sitting down again, holding the baby deer in his hands. He screwed it up already. The first friend he could have made. And he screwed up. The realization that he had lost the opportunity to befriend the kid that lived next door made his head hang in defeat. The wind trickles along the back of his neck, moving his hair slightly. He feels tears starting to build up. Everything was new and different, his parents were fighting. His friends were gone, and even though he had the opportunity to make a new friend, it was gone in the split of a second. Feeling a tear that’s on the edge of falling he closes his eyes and lets it fall, feeling the wind on him again.

The sound of crinkling paper…

The breeze the seemed so calm that day…

The tears that streamed down his face…

Luhan looked up, brushing the tears from his face wondering where the sound of crinkling paper came from. His eyes scan over her room trying to find the one thing that’s different and finally they rest on a small white plane. A paper airplane. He blinks, confused, before reaching over to pick it up.

Where did this come from?

He looked down noticing a small hint of writing on the plane’s wing. Unfolding it carefully, he read the message.

Hello. You must be my new neighbor.

My name is Zhang Yixing.

I’m 9. How about you?

You look nice.

The baby deer you’re holding is cute.

Let’s be friends. Okay?

Luhan chuckles softly at the message, letting a small hint of red tint his cheeks. He smiles and stands up to look out the window, to see the boy returning the smile. His eyes twinkling. Shyly he speaks up to him.

“I want to answer you. But I don’t know how to make a paper airplane!”

The other boy looks a little confused before laughing softly and speaks up as well.

“What’s your name?”

“Luhan. It’s Lu Han.”

“Well, Luhan. I’ll teach you how to make one.”