The disclosure provides a mechanism where a user equipment (UE) may communicate with a neighbor UE of the UE's neighbor UE by utilizing the UE's neighbor UE as a relay for the communication between the UE and the neighbor UE of the UE's neighbor UE. In an aspect, the first UE receives a discovery message from a second UE, the discovery message including information about 1-hop neighbor UEs of the second UE. The first UE determines to communicate with a third UE based on the discovery message, the third UE being one of the 1-hop neighbor UEs of the second UE. The first UE requests the second UE to operate as a relay for communication between the first UE and the third UE. The first UE communicates with the third UE through the second UE.