“So if we sum that up... I like you.”

    Three words and all my brain’s response to every single nerve of me being alerted is just to freeze. Pretty clever, right?

Yeah, it is, in the most sarcastic way.

    Maybe it is just on her voice that I found it too much to be a part of my messed up reality, or it is maybe through the built up months I spent with her already which made me think about some gleam of hope on that horizon after the sea.

    Her hold on me is tight yet it is something comforting. It is just… comfortable and I wonder if she could ever hold me like that forever. It might be just on my dreams or it may really be a pretty possibility for a young adult like me. I, obviously, prefer the latter. Do we even have to ask that?

    It’s not the first time I heard those words directed to me. And, I am definitely not a newbie at this kind of thing. Well, that is what I think. I may be not and perhaps I am, considering the fact that I am still debating about what should I do right now.

    I’m not dumb. It is just that there are things I cannot do.

    “T-thanks..?” I voiced out, the latter parts almost sounding like a question. My vocal chords seem to know what is happening that it produces a sound opposite to the loud one I would usually have.

    Disappointing? I know. It does mess me up too.

    I could already imagine the change in her bubbly mood which is obviously written on her face. I already prepared myself to witness how I had turn a good day into its complete opposite in just a matter of seconds.

    You see? It is a mess. Sometimes, I do caught myself going out of my room through the sliding door-sized glass windows to go to that small balcony in the back side of my room, hidden with dark navy blue shade curtains. I stand there, looking up at the stars, waiting for one of them to fall off. And then, maybe, I could say a wish that somehow something would happen that could make me wrap my head all over these things. I wish I could understand this ‘me’.

    It is a mystery to myself too. And I wonder if I could ever fathom its full depth.

    I swear, I wanted to go home right there, run though the embrace of my mom and heartbreakingly tell her how I messed things up with the girl I have been liking all these months in just a matter of seconds.

    A tap brought me back to my world. I turned my head to its direction and I saw her sweetly smiling at me as if I didn’t answer her with something pitiful. She angled her head slowly while her lips parted wide.

    “Really?" I heard her chuckle.  "I’m quite surprise by how you live on that tsundere image.” She shifts on her position on my back, making her face approach mine closer. “But I guess, I have been living with you for a long time that that ‘thank you’ is processed by my brain as you saying what I said back.”

    And I couldn’t stop myself but to smile. How can she be an angel?

   "Yes. I put that in a way to show that you are indirectly saying you like me to. Is it wrong to assume? Am I even assuming?" She asked continuously making the smile I had turn into a grin.

    “Eyy~” She shifted again, much closer this time. “Did I see the ice princess smile widely?” She teased and I rolled my eyes at her before I shake my head.

    “I’m not an ice princess. I thought you know that.” I said, partly teasing.

    “Hm.” She hummed. “I actually do.” She grinned at me. Her eyes turning into a crescent as it sparkled with its own glow, effectively making me stare at her for the longest time I could have known.

    “You are my princess… That is what I know.”

    And I swear, I almost thank God for all the blessing he has bestowed upon me on that entire day. But maybe, the heavens must have realized that they are already being too generous for today, that something or someone interrupting us could be an enough twist for today. A little disappointed, but not surprised.

    “Could you two stop staring at each other and move on?!” A bitter voice from our back startled the both of us. She had her hair probably dyed a lot of times that I can see her balding already. She is standing with a guy beside her. Her other hand is intertwined with that of the guy, making me think they must be a couple.

“I get it that you two are a couple too but you two should be aware there are other people who are climbing the stairs.” I just watched her as her other hand meet that part of her not so y body above her pelvis.

    However, I could sense how she look at Yerin and I suddenly wonder if she’s mad at us for stalling their time or she got something with this babe I had on my back. Well, too bad for her, this is mine.

    As much as I want to defend ourselves, I chose not to fire back. I could sense how Yerin tensed up upon knowing there could be someone who might recognize her there, add to the fact that we are even mistakenly thought to be a couple. I love that part, but Yerin’s career is more important.

    She looks like she is trying to hide her face by looking at the oth