He was depressed.  His family couldn’t understand him anymore.  He was too different from them. He was an outcast.

            The young boy sat in the large backyard, staring at the sky. It's not like he had much else to do at this time. His parents were busy so he was left with his sibling, who didn't want much to do with him.

            He ran his hair through his ebony black hair, waiting patiently for the day to end.

            “Heads up!”

            The boy sprang up to his feet at the call as a large, black and white sphere came hurtling toward his face. The boy instinctual leapt up and trapped the ball with his chest before juggling it with his knees.

            “Whoa, close one,” a voice called from the opposite side of the fence. The black haired boy looked up to see a boy with bright red hair scaling the wooden barrier.

            “Hey, you're really good at that,” the red haired boy said with a smile, before leaping over the fence. “Do you play soccer?”

            “Used to,” was the other's reply before kicking the ball into the newcomer's hands.

            “You should again.  It's fun and relaxing.”

            The other boy glared at the red head’s bright smile before letting his features soften and turning away.

            “I got an idea, why not come play with me? I'm just going to the park nearby,” the red haired boy said before tossing his ball up and juggling it from ankle to ankle.

            “No thanks.  I'm busy.”

            “No you’re not! You were just lying around doing nothing.”

            “What?” The black haired boy yelled, startling the other. “How do you know that? Were you spying on me?”

            “I rather not answer that,” the child squeaked. “I just saw you around and wanted to talk to you but I had to mentally prepare myself on how to approach you and say hi. But while thinking and juggling my ball, I lost control. Who knew that'd be the way to approach you? Must be fate. ”

            “Weirdo,” the other remarked before walking towards his back door.

            “So, wanna play with me?” The redhead asked halting the black haired boy in his place.

            He ran a hand through his ebony locks before narrowing his eyes at the child. The redhead stared at him with pleading puppy-dog eyes. As annoyed as he was by this boy, he could feel his defenses crumbling. He sighed heavily before placing his hands in his pocket. “Ok, I’ll play.”

            The red haired boy smiled, lightly bouncing on his heels. “Yes! We’re gonna have so much fun... uh... uh...” He paused for a moment. “By the way, what is your name? I should probably learn it to know what to call you.”

           The black haired boy smiled before holding out his hand to shake the other boy’s hand. “Hakyeon. My name is Cha Hakyeon.”

            The red haired boy’s face lit up before grabbing and shaking the other’s hand. “Nice to meet you Hakyeon. I’m Jung Taekwoon.”

            “What’s your favorite food?” Taekwoon asked as he skipped through the trees of his yard.

            Hakyeon chased after the merry boy. He had been invited over to Taekwoon’s house for the day, to hang out after school had ended. He had no idea from his appearance that Taekwoon was rich or that he was the male heir to his father multi-billion won corporation. He didn’t seem like a stuck up rich kid at all, he was far too kind and his smile couldn’t help brightening Hakyeon’s day.

            “I guess I like galbi,” Hakyeon said chasing after the younger boy.

            Taekwoon smiled, “Ok, what’s your favorite hobby?”

            Hakyeon stopped before leaning against a tree to think. “I guess... I like to dance. What about you?”

            Taekwoon laughed as he sat down in a bed of fallen leaves. “Soccer!”

            “I should’ve guessed.” Hakyeon rolled his eyes.

            Taekwoon chuckled, “I also like to read fashion magazines, watch Japanese romance films, and sing, singing is my favorite.”

            “You really like it, don’t you?”

            Taekwoon nodded. “It makes people happy, and that makes me happy.”

            Hakyeon smiled. “You’re kinda a romantic, aren’t you?”

            Taekwoon rolled his eyes. “So what else do you want to ask me?”

            Hakyeon thought for a moment. “What’s your favorite color?”

            Taekwoon thought for a moment. “Black and... blue!”

            “Really?” Hakyeon thought aloud. “I thought you’d like red, considering you dyed your hair that color.”

            Taekwoon laughed. “No, I didn’t die my hair, my sister did. That is after she found me sneaking red dye into her shampoo. She was sooo mad at me.  But I had to prank her after she called me Kitten.”

            Hakyeon laughed, “But you do look like a feline. Kitten is an adorable nickname.”

            “No way, that’s a girl’s nickname.” Taekwoon stuck his tongue out. “I need something more manly like Panther or Jaguar or...”

            “Leo!” Hakyeon shouted, “Like the lion constellation!”

            “Yeah, Leo.” Taekwoon chanted. “I like it! I’m the mighty lion, Leo”

            Hakyeon laughed as he leaned back into the tree. “Then I’ll start calling you that from now on.”  

            “So.” Taekwoon approached Hakyeon. “What about you? If you’re going to call me by a nickname, I should call you by one too. Got any nicknames I can use?”

            Hakyeon turned away, a blush on his face.

            “You do have one!” Taekwoon cheered. “Tell me! Tell me!”

            Hakyeon mumbled something under his breath causing Taekwoon to lean in closer.

            “What was that?”

            “Na___ yeo__.” Hakyeon muttered a little louder.

            “One more time,” Taekwoon spoke.

            “Naggy Yeonie!” Hakyeon confessed.

            “Naggy Yeonie?” Taekwoon repeated, falling back in laughter.

            “Yah! It’s not that funny!” Hakyeon yelled.

            “Naggy Yeonie, N- Yeonie,” Taekwoon laughed before sitting up on his knees in excitement. “N-Yeon!”

            “In-yeon?” Hakyeon repeated in confusion. “Fate?”

            “Exactly!” Taekwoon replied. “Because it was fate that we met, so I think we should call you N-yeon, or better yet, just N for short!”

             “N?” Hakyeon thought for a second. “I guess it’s a good nickname. Better than my old one.”

            Taekwoon smiled before rubbing his hand through Hakyeon’s hair. “N it is. Nice to meet you N!”

            Hakyeon smirked before flipping the boy over onto the ground and chopping his neck with two fingers.

            “Yah!” Taekwoon whined before pouting. Hakyeon simply laughed.

            “Nice to meet you too, Leo.”

            “Hey N,” Taekwoon spoke quietly as the two boys sat on a bench near the park soccer field.

            “Yeah?” Hakyeon responded. He took a breath of the early autumn air before taking a sip of banana milk from the box he was holding.

            “Do you ever wish... you were someone else?”

            The straw slipped from between Hakyeon’s lips as he turned to face the red haired boy. “Why do you ask that?”

            Taekwoon let off a sad smile before looking at Hakyeon and shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

            Hakyeon could tell Taekwoon was lying but didn’t want to press further.

            “N?” Taekwoon asked.

            “Yeah,” Hakyeon answered.

            “Would you be upset if I stopped being me?”

            “What do you mean?”

            Taekwoon leaned back on the bench, swinging his legs and looking up at the sky. Hakyeon could see tears dripping from the younger boy’s eyes and his concern rose.

            “Leo? What happened?”

            “My dad doesn’t like me singing.” He wiped his eyes.

            “Why not?” Hakyeon asked. “You have a great voice, I’ve heard you.”

            “Yeah, but singing won’t make me a good businessman. He said I should be interested in stocks instead of soccer, meetings instead of magazines, and suits instead of singing. As his heir, he really just wants me to be cold and controlling, just like him.”

            “But that’s not you!” Hakyeon commented.

            “But it may be, someday.” Taekwoon leaned back staring at the sky as the clouds began to cover the area.

            “Hakyeon.” Taekwoon said, attracting the tanned boy’s full attention by using his birth name. “Can you promise me something?”

            “What is it?”

            “Promise me, that no matter how I change, you’ll still remain the same, and remember who I am?”

            Hakyeon looked at the boy nervously. He hesitated for a moment, staring at Taekwoon before nodding slowly.

            “Alright... I promise.”

            Taekwoon was running. It was a cold and rainy day, but he couldn’t care less; he was too excited to get to Hakyeon’s house.

            As Taekwoon rounded the corner and made it to Hakyeon’s gate he slid in a puddle and found himself falling forward, dropping the envelope in his hand.

            “Leo?” Hakyeon called as he opened the front door and walked toward the wet boy.

            Taekwoon simply pulled himself up and smiled at the boy. He quickly reached out and grabbed the envelope. “Aww man, the paper’s all wet.”

            Hakyeon helped the red haired boy to his feet. “Leo, what’s this about? It’s raining cats and dogs out here. Shouldn’t you have an umbrella?”

            Taekwoon chuckled, “I just didn’t want to waste time looking for one. I had to bring you this now.”

            Hakyeon tilted his head in confusion before reaching out and taking the envelope in the other boy’s hand. He carefully opened it up to find a wet card with ink running. “Uh.”

            “It’s an invitation,” Taekwoon said, grinning, “to my first sleepover.”

            “F-first?” Hakyeon was surprised. Taekwoon was practically thirteen. How could he have never had a sleepover before?

            “It’s gonna be great. My parents said we could use the old servant's quarters on our property as a club house, since I know the main house is too big. We’d have snacks and movies and be able to ro