“But mum, my castle needs me,” Yifan says, as he unhooks his belt from inside the rumbling beast. “We can’t leave it alone and unprotected.”

His mother shakes her head, but the smile she has on is still as bright as the day she crowned Yifan the king of his castle. Yifan knows that these trips out into the unforgiving lands have to be done, but still he wishes he could have one more naptime inside of his castle to sleep. Sleep is something everyone needs, especially a growing prince.

Besides, traveling to this foreign land always made Yifan nervous.

The giant gates tower over him and strange letters painted in an angry red flash across the signs leading inside. Welcome, they would read, like it’s supposed to make Yifan feel better. This place is anything but welcoming. The big yellow circles with smiles drawn on them look especially scary today, and it has Yifan quickly rushing to his mother’s side to hold her hand.

His stomach starts to rumble again and he feels his apple juice—apple wine he would correct his mother—slowly coming back up.

“You’ll be fine Yifan,” his mother says reassuringly as she rubs the back of his head. “Kindergarten is something you just have to get used to, but you’ll learn a lot.”

Yifan isn’t sure what he could learn inside of the monstrous fortress except sheer horror, and the fact that everyone there seems to avoid him, like he has some deadly illness like the chickenpox. He would’ve felt better if he was allowed to bring along his sword to fend off the evil creatures inside, but his mother took it away from him—toys aren’t allowed in school—and told him there’s nothing to be afraid of.

How can Yifan not be afraid if he doesn’t have his trusted squeaky sword with him?

“But mum!” Yifan cries as they near the entrance. “They don’t like me.” His hold on his mother’s hands tightens as they walk closer.

His mother smiles brighter towards him as the door stretches high above Yifan. Up close, it’s always given Yifan nightmares, like he’s being thrown into enemy territory by his mother which, now that he thinks about it, could be read as betrayal?

It was a trap!

“Mum! I need my dragon!”

His mother sighs softly and kneels down beside him to place her hands on his shoulders. “Yifan, we can’t bring dogs to school. It will be fine.” She plants a kiss on his forehead, and it displaces the nervousness inside of him with warmth, if only for a few seconds. “Besides, princes are meant to be tough aren’t they? They’re supposed to be heroes. Maybe there’s someone who needs your protection inside?”

Yifan’s eyes sparkle. “Yeah!”

Princes are heroes, and Yifan is definitely a hero. One time he saved his dragon from falling into the bottomless pit of sand, and when he told his mother about it, she said Yifan was her little prince, and that he was going to do great things in life.

“Now don’t you want to go inside and meet everyone?”

Yifan rubs at his nose. “Let’s go!”

When they reach the final gate inside, Yifan can’t let go of his mother’s hand, even when she says that she can’t enter inside with him.

He has to be brave though, and with a final hug, his mother left for the unknown, leaving him alone in front of the gate. There is a lot of noise coming from behind it, and Yifan knows it’s a conspiracy to overthrow him. Taking a deep breath, Yifan knocks on the gate a few times before it’s opened and he’s greeted by his teacher.

“Welcome Yifan!” Miss Lee always looks happy. It isn’t right, Yifan thinks and all of the bravery he mustered quickly disappears. “Are you excited for today?”

Yifan mumbles a “no” under his breath and rubs his sneakers against the ground. I want to go home. Maybe if he just stood there and did nothing, the teacher would think he’s a statue on the side of the road and leave him alone, and then he could go back to his kingdom and forget about the nightmare that is Kindergarten.

“Come on in! Don’t be shy.”

It didn’t work.

Yifan slowly trudges inside, keeping his eyes on his sneakers because they are infinitely more interesting than the faces of thousands of other kids that clearly do not want to talk to him.

He collides with a red table on the way in and really, what kind of architect built this kingdom? Who would place a table right in front of the door? From the way the other kids giggle, it seems he’s the only person to bump into it today. Miss Lee makes a shushing sound and the other children only seem to snicker louder as they cover up their mouths.

“Now that Yifan is here, we can begin!” Miss Lee says as she stands in front of the magical white board.

Yifan doesn’t remember anything from that lesson because he’s too busy trying not to cry from the stares he’s given from the other children. He might not look like everyone else, but it doesn’t mean he’s anything to be afraid of. Yifan wishes that there was a fairy godmother on his shoulder that could make all of the mean children go away.

“Yifan!” Miss Lee calls out to him and Yifan immediately freezes. Suddenly everyone in the classroom is staring at him and Yifan’s palms start to sweat. “How was your weekend?”

Yifan can’t remember what he did over the weekend. He can’t even remember what he did yesterday. It’s very hard to concentrate when there’s thousands of beady eyes staring at him and judging him, waiting for him to say something just so they can laugh at him. When he opens his mouth to say something, only a breathy squeak comes out.

There’s laughter all around him and Yifan sinks further down his chair, wishing that the day was already over so he could go home.

Recess is Yifan’s favorite time here.

It’s a time when everyone can go outside and frolic around doing whatever they please; basically it means it’s a relaxing time where Yifan is left alone. Yifan never once tried to conquer the jungle gym because it was overrun with too many kids, and he didn’t feel capable of pulling it off by himself. He’d rather stay by the giant tree and talk to the birds in its branches, because they are better listeners than any kid.

“My mum took me to the giant palace of shopping,” Yifan says to the bird preening itself. “She bought a lot of food, and a few new weapons for my castle.” The bird seems to nod as it continues staring at Yifan attentively. “I still can’t let my dragon sleep inside though. Mum won’t allow him.”

Yifan waits for the bird to reply, but it just continues to stare at him.

“I don’t understand why. She does a lot of things I don’t understand. Like that one time she—”

A kid runs past him and almost knocks dirt onto his sweater, but Yifan ducks away at the last second. “Hey!” he shouts after the kid before dusting off his clothes. “Rude,” he adds in an afterthought. His thoughts are left to simmer as the crowd near the metal tower starts growing louder.

“Everyone!” the kid at the top shouts. “I am Park Chanyeol and I am here to search for aliens!” Chanyeol is the lanky kid in his class, almost as tall as Yifan is. A mop of curly hair bounces happily atop his head, and his smile is blinding, even from way up at the top of the jungle gym. “I love aliens! I think we should all be friends!”

Yifan knows this kid.

He’s the annoying one in the fortress, the one who would always scream his answers at the teacher, and make a mess in Yifan’s second favorite time—arts and crafts. He’s the kind of kid Yifan wouldn’t get to know because he’s completely different from him. Chanyeol is like a tornado, wild and loud, leaving behind a path of destruction in his wake. Yifan isn’t like that. Yifan tries his best to not attract attention.

Chanyeol’s face scrunches up into a smile as he shouts, “Are any of you aliens? If so, please come forward so I can befriend you!”

The kids around the playground all whisper to one another, glancing over to Chanyeol with curious judgment. All at once, a few kids start to throw pebbles at Chanyeol, and soon the whole crowd is joining in with the stoning. Chanyeol lets out a yelp as he ducks inside of the tower, away from view as the crowd start to shout about how weird and creepy Chanyeol is.

Freak! No one likes you! Get off the playground!

The teacher shouts from the gates and rounds up the children to break up the witch-hunt, asking them to stop misbehaving. A couple of groans and moans here and there and the children stop, leaving the jungle gym to go about with their own devices. Yifan was about to do the same, when he hears a faint sobbing from inside the tower.

His heart starts pit-a-patting, a steady beat against the murmur of the playground. He doesn’t know what actually makes him move, but he’s suddenly climbing to the top of the tower, passing through the ring of crocodiles circling the stairs. The crying gets louder the higher he climbs, and then he’s face to face with Chanyeol himself.

A number of thoughts cross Yifan’s mind as he glances at Chanyeol.

Is this really the same kid? Should he even be here right now? The boy’s crying waterfalls inside of the tower top, huddling into himself with lanky arms and even lankier legs. He looks vulnerable like this, unlike the loud and obnoxious kid Yifan is used to seeing in class. Cute? There’s a big possibility that Chanyeol is the definition of the word.

“Are you here to yell at me too?” Chanyeol stutters as he watches Yifan with wide eyes. Snot is oozing from his nose and Yifan offers him a napkin to clean himself up.

“No,” Yifan says quietly. “What are you doing up here?”

Chanyeol wipes at his nose a few times, sniffling as he says, “It’s my space station. I come here when I search for aliens.”

Yifan tilts his head. “Aliens?”

“Yeah!” There’s a spark that’s lit at the word and Chanyeol’s smile peeks out slowly from behind his lips. “I’m looking for them!”

“Really?”

“Of course! I want to be a real astronaut when I grow bigger! I want to see the stars and show everyone how cool it is! Then everyone would be an astronaut too!” Chanyeol’s eye seems to squint as he continues. “Wouldn’t that be incredible?”

“It would,” Yifan says. He doesn’t want to pry, but the thought has been bugging him. “Why were those kids throwing rocks at you?”

Chanyeol immediately deflates, smile waning and struggling to keep afloat. “I don’t think they like me. They think I’m weird.” His smile starts brightening. “I just want to be friends with everyone, even if they think I’m weird. Is that weird?”

It is very weird to Yifan, but in a way, Chanyeol seems to share a few things with him, and really, it’s not that weird at all. “I want to be friends with everyone too.” Yifan adds. “Everyone thinks I’m weird because I don’t talk much. They think I look different.”

Chanyeol takes a moment to look at Yifan up and down, before nodding to himself like he’s found the answer to his question. “You do look different,” Chanyeol says, quickly adding, “But it’s not a bad different. It’s a good one! I don’t think you’re weird at all!”

“Thank you?”

“No problem!” He’s smiling brightly again and Yifan decides Chanyeol looks the best when he’s smiling. “If everyone thinks you’re weird, then they’re all weird too!”

Yifan laughs through his hands. “You’re very weird Chanyeol. I like you though.”

“I LIKE YOU TOO!” Chanyeol shouts at him. “CAN WE BE FRIENDS?” He seems to yell when he gets excited, Yifan discovers, and his face is swallowed by mirth, happiness touching the far corners of his eyes.

“Sure!” Yifan agrees happily, and then Chanyeol’s taking his hands inside of his own.

“I DON’T THINK I ASKED, BUT WHAT’S YOUR NAME?”

“Yifan. Wu Yifan.”

“NICE TO MEET YOU YIFAN. I’M CHANYEOL! BUT YOU CAN CALL ME CHANYEOL!”

Yifan doesn’t realize it right away, but the friendship they’ve sparked is meant to last much longer than through simple playgrounds.

Yifan learns that Chanyeol’s actually a pretty weird kid.

He loves to eat glue, makes farting noises during naptime, and sometimes he gets the alphabet wrong—the poor boy has a hard enough time writing his name—but Yifan thinks that it makes Chanyeol who he is. It makes him interesting, and maybe being weird isn’t really that bad.

Especially if it’s describing people like Chanyeol.

He learns that Chanyeol comes from outer space, with a family that are always busy with serious things, and that Chanyeol’s best friends are the books his sister gave him. Chanyeol loves books; he loves to read the ones with pictures in it, the ones about outer space and the planets. He wants to discover a star one day and name it after himself, and Yifan thinks that’s adorable.

Yifan tells him about his mother who’s actually a queen, and that she’s the one who gave Yifan his own castle. He tells him about the dragon that lives inside of their kingdom, and that Yifan has been training all of his life to be the perfect prince. Chanyeol perked up at this, and made a paper crown for Yifan during arts and crafts.

“A prince needs a real crown!” he says when Yifan asked him why he made it. “How else will everyone know?”

Yifan was too happy to say his thanks, but he thinks that the smile Chanyeol beamed at him means he doesn’t need to.

At the end of the day, Yifan somehow ended up holding Chanyeol’s hand in his when they were leaving, and when Chanyeol tried to take his hand away in embarrassment, Yifan only held on tighter, smiling alongside his friend because everything was going to be okay.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then?” Chanyeol asks as they leave the fortress gates, searching for their mothers among the crowd.

Yifan nods. “You will. Who else is going to help you find the aliens?”

Chanyeol bends over in laughter and then pulls Yifan in close for a hug. For the record, Chanyeol hugs way too tight, and Yifan isn’t fond of anyone hugging him, but Chanyeol is just so earnest and innocent that Yifan hugs back just as tightly.

“Thanks.”

Yifan tilts his head when they break apart. “For what?”

“For being my friend.” Chanyeol glances at the ground. “I don’t really have any friends and I’m just happy that I do now. Really happy.”

“I should be thanking you,” Yifan shakes his head. “For being mine and for not laughing at me. It really means a lot.”

Chanyeol giggles. “Isn’t that what friends are for?”

Yifan nods and as he reaches for Chanyeol’s hand again, he realizes Kindergarten isn’t that scary of a place after all. What was once a strange and foreign land to him is now lit with a small beacon of light and friendship, and the unknown is now something he doesn’t have to face by himself anymore. He’s no longer alone.

He has Chanyeol.