18: Too Late

Sungyeol looked as if he wanted to kill me with the way he looked at me.

He suddenly gave me a call in the middle of the night, asking to meet up with him at the park near his house. When I arrived, he just ran up to me and grabbed me by the collar. I thought he was going to punch me, but he hesitated and glared at me instead.

“How could you do that to her?!”

And now I think I know why he’s mad.

I brushed his hands off my collar and snickered. “Isn’t it obvious? I don’t like her. Would it have been better if I kept her hopes up?”

Sungyeol looked at me unbelievingly, as if I just said the most heartless thing in the world. I, myself, couldn’t believe how I could say such a despicable thing. “You could have at least been considerate of her feelings! Even if the feeling wasn’t mutual, was it really right of you to say you didn’t want her to like you?!”

“Yes! Because I didn’t want to receive her feelings! They bother the hell out of me!”

Those words added fuel to the fire and made Sungyeol charge at me with his fists. I didn’t even evade. I just received his blows without complaints. I deserved them, anyway.

“Her feelings were a bother to you?!” Sungyeol’s next punch was so strong that it made me fall on the ground. He immediately bent down and grabbed me by the collar again. “You should have seen how devastated she was!”

No. That is something I didn’t want to see. Just thinking about it makes me want to punch myself. “She’ll get over it soon enough.”

The look in Sungyeol’s eyes were no joke. It’s the first time I’ve seen him this angry. “You’re a crazy bastard.”

Despite my messed-up face, I still managed to grin. “You like her that much, huh?”

“What?!”

“I’m not an idiot, Sungyeol.” I sat up and wiped the blood off my mouth. “Everyone might be oblivious to it, but I know better. Yes, she’s not your ideal type and all that, but we both know how you truly feel about her.”

“She’s…just a classmate!”

“You said the same thing about Taeyeon-noona!” I fumed. “You said she was just a fling and you weren’t really serious about her! But I knew based on how you kept spacing out after she left! I knew that you really liked her! You even went after her in the States and didn’t contact us for a year!”

We were just a bunch of kids back then. We were in our last year in middle school, and Kim Taeyeon was a high school sophomore. She was the daughter of my father’s longtime friend and business partner, which also makes her my childhood friend. I liked having her around since I was an only child, and she kept me company during those times when I felt alone. Despite it all, my feelings for her were never romantic. She was as important to me as an older sister and friend. But that wasn’t the case for Sungyeol. Taeyeon-noona was Sungyeol’s first love.

I met Sungyeol in 7th grade. At first, I wanted to live a quiet life in middle school, but Sungyeol kept bugging me right from the first day of school. I don’t know why he even wanted to befriend me. Anyway, he was too noisy to ignore. Long story short, we ended up becoming friends. He then introduced me to his friends, aka the rest of the gang. Since then, life has been more exciting. I never knew having good friends could be fun.

Soon enough, Sungyeol would barge into our house unnoticed. It was shocking at first, but I got used to it and eventually found myself looking forward to his visits. But one day, he came over during the time when Taeyeon-noona came for a visit. Sungyeol fell in love at first sight, and the rest was history.

He started coming over more often not to hang out with me, but to see noona. It didn’t bother me, since it was fun to have the two of them around. I actually thought it would be great if Sungyeol and noona could end up together, so I tried to help him out a few times. I thought everything paid-off, since the two of them eventually began to see each other privately. I was honestly happy for them, but I guess I was too naïve. I was too stupid to realize that something was wrong. Before I knew it, things were already going downhill.

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