YELLOW | yj x bg

☀︎ fifteen.

—beomgyu

Hueningkai and I were off to a bitter start. We knew each other from kindergarten but we wouldn't ask much from each other except borrowing a pencil, or asking each other to be each other's partner in gym class, or voting for each other for class president. I hate to say it, but we were always each other's second option, a backup. That's how we treated one another throughout our elementary years and middle school.

Time flew and before we knew it we'd arrived at the last year of middle school. Our final piece of sanity still left for a year before the beginning of high school comes and steals it from us- 8th grade, a time where both of us were at low lows. I'll tell you this, Hueningkai wasn't a social butterfly, but he still won hearts of everyone he talked to, even the teachers. He always chose quality over quantity when it came to friends, when it came to anything really. That's why he only had 2 or 3 close friends he knew he could count on.

But when 8th grade arrived, I'd noticed a shift in the way his friends treated him... all because he got into an accident one week and had to be hospitalized. When he came back to school after he'd recovered a bit, he had to walk using the help of crutches.

I noticed something.

I noticed that the same friends he'd play around with at home time, now refused to even look in his way. They wouldn't help him carry his schoolbag as he moved from class to class, they wouldn't sit with him during lunchtime, they never sent him the schoolwork he missed when he was absent for weeks on end if something went wrong with his leg.

I just felt like I needed to step up. Not for the sake of being a hero, but because I wanted an excuse to have to talk to Hueningkai. I was always shy around him since kindergarten, I always felt like he mustn't like me- which must be the reason why he doesn't spend time with me. Otherwise he would have just asked, right?

But I came clear and I told him him I wanted to be his friend since the longest time because he 'looks like a marshmallo.' Yes, that was exactly my reasoning. But also I just felt like we were born to be friends from a past life.

He was surprised at first, but accepted my offer. And so it began -

I annoyed him so much that he probably didn't have the choice but to. I used to help him get to every single one of his classes, I'd bother him every second of the morning till the afternoon, I'd solve math questions for him on days his legs hurt too much. Not to mention how much I pestered him to tell me what his favorite video game is so that I could buy it for his birthday.

That accident is the reason why he still limps slightly when he walks. But even having a weak leg didn't succeed in diminishing the love he had for dancing. His eyes light up when he does, and it fills me up with immense joy to be fortunate enough to be a witness to it.

I love to spend time in the practice room and watch him dance to his favorite songs, even if he looks like a newborn giraffe who's learning how to walk, waddling along. I didn't care if he looked like a beginner, because seeing him dancing was one of the only times I saw the twinkle in his eye and his soft, infectious smile since 8th grade started.

Over the years, we grew on each other. He taught me just what a real friend is supposed to be like. I have to thank him for fixing the cracks in my heart, for teaching me that kindness doesn't have to be fake or forced, that you can find enough strength to make someone's day better even if you're at your worst.

I still remember- after his leg got better with physical therapy, he used to chase me around the school hallways after I'd jokingly steal his notebook. I'd run slowly so that he doesn't fall too far behind. He used to leave school early somedays because of doctor appointments, and I'd ask him for updates the next day he'd return. He'd always give me a vague answer, and I figured he needed privacy about health matters so I left him alone.

It always irked me how people saw him as someone with a disability instead of a boy who loved dancing so much to the point that he forced himself out of his hospital bed so that he could chase his dreams.

It irked me how they never saw the Huening who was the first to notice a bruise on my thumb and place a bandage over it, who made DIY bookmarks in the shape of a penguin, who got every single answer right in class but funnily not a single one correct on the exam.

We were each other's protectors.

And nothing could change that.