Another month has passed and my friendship with Kibum grew. We’d message each other everyday and face time whenever we could. Though our schedules barely matched, we made it work. When I was at school for 2 3-hour lectures, we’d facetime during class, when he was at practice, we’d facetime then. We’d talk for hours straight if our free times happened to coincide, but other than that, we did our best to accommodate each other.

            “Hoooooow’s it going?” Kris got in my car, I picked her up because I asked her to come with me to a Korean snack bar today.

            “Nothing,” I muttered.

            “You’re looking more and more like panda every time I see you,” she said and grabbed my phone to play music.

            “I know, i’m so tiiiiired,” I groaned.

            “From all those talks with Key, I bet,” she nudged my arm.

            “Ha! No..i’m just working hard to graduate early so I could go to Korea sooner. I don’t plan on telling Key though, I’ll surprise him,” I said, with a huge smile on my face.

            “Ayieeeeeeeee! You crazy girl,” she said excitedly and started to browse my phone. “Are you like, almost done?” She asked. “You should be right? You’re taking 5 courses per semester! I don’t know how you’re doing that and working at the same time,” she shook her head.

            “Uh...yeah I am, I registered for 5 courses instead of 3 in the summer and then after that I have my practicum in the fall then, i’m done!!!” I said happily.

            “You’re leaving soon? How long do you plan on staying there?” She asked and this was a question even I didn’t know the answer to so I simply shrugged.

            “Depends I guess…”

            “I can guess what it depends on…” She said in a sing-songy voice. I rolled my eyes and ignored her remarks for the rest of the drive.

            “Kiiiiibum-aaaaah,” I sang while on a facetime call with Kibum. Kris and I were sitting inside the Korean snack bar I wanted to go to. I started eating all the good stuff, like spicy rice cake, fish cake soup, kimbap, in front of the camera and made it look like I was shooting a commercial. “Mmmmmmm! Yah, this is so good,” I added with my mouth full. I was trying to make him jealous because he was on a diet. Well, I mean that wasn’t a really nice thing to do, but he would get really irritated and it would just be adorable.

            “Don’t be mean!” Kris said as she ate her food too. “Key-ssi, this is really good though,” she added and put her face in front of my phone so Kibum would see her. Our schedules still didn’t align so I would take his call when I could and Kris understood this. I was so happy that Kris was finally comfortable talking to Key, it took her a couple weeks because she kept freaking out every time we talked about it.

            “You two are too much,” Key said and furrowed his brows. I stuck my tongue out at him and kept eating. With that, another afternoon passed...Another day passed, another week, another month, and another month again.

4 months after the first meeting...

            “Ellie Ellie,” he said quickly and in a cute way, if I may add.

            “Kibum Kibum,” I said in the same tone. We were both getting ready, while on a call. My final exams ended today and I was going out to go celebrate with my friends. Key just came home from water-skiing and was going to all kinds of broadcasts today.

            “Look, is this what someone wears to a ‘i’m free!’ party?” I said and kept making cringe-y poses in front of the mirror and switched cameras so he could see.

            “AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yah! You should think about the people seeing you,” he said and kept laughing.

            “I think I look pretty good! I don’t need your opinion,” I said confidently. My Korean had gotten so much better in the time that we have been talking that we barely even talk in English anymore. I’m so proud of me.

            “Aigooo...where are you going anyways?” he asked as he put on moisturizer.

            “Some club,” I shrugged and looked for a jacket to wear.

            “What?! Club??” He asked and I heard things drop on his end of the phone.

            “Mm-hmm!” I said and started putting on makeup. He was silent for about a minute, but I was too busy getting ready to say anything.

            “Mmmkay, be careful okay? There are many creeps out there,” he mumbled and started humming. I looked at him and scoffed.

            “They should be careful of me!” I said and ‘hmph’-ed after.

            “Aigoo aigoo, look at you...i’m serious,” he said in an annoyed voice.

            “Yah, I used to go out a lot then I focused on my studies,” I explained myself and curled my eyelashes.

            “That’s good, just focus on your studies and achieve your dream!” he said cheerfully. Little did he know, I was working ten times as hard so I could graduate earlier, to get to Korea earlier than expected.

            “Mmhm!” was the only thing I said to avoid suspicion. He tried on about four different sunglasses before he chose one and walked out the door. “Are you driving?” I asked and just sat on my desk chair, while I waited for my friends’ phone call.

            “Nope! I’m getting picked up by Manager hyung,” he said and fixed his hair in the call.

            “Ahh, have fun today! Drink lots of water, Kibum-ah” I put on red lipstick to match my all black outfit and used the facetime call as my mirror.

            “Did you have some beets?” he chuckled while walking down the stairs.

            “Okay, i’m hanging up,” I said bitterly.

            “I’m just joking, aigoo, you gotta learn how to control that temper of yours,” he clicked his tongue and shook his head.

            “You control your temper!” I said and watched him get on a van.

            “Annyeong my babies,” Key said to whoever was in the van when he sat down.

            “Is that Ellie-ssi?” a series of questions again from the one and only SHINee.

            “It’s me! Hi guys!” I yelled out. Over time, I got more comfortable with them than the ten minutes we all spent together in that darn hotel room.

            “We should facetime too!” I heard Jonghyun say. Key turned to him and I couldn’t decipher what happened. Then suddenly, all their faces appeared on the screen.

            “Wah, you look so pretty today!” Taemin said.

            “That’s a nice colour of lipstick on you!” Onew said and waved.

            “Hi Ellie-ssi!” Minho said.

            “Where are you going today?” Jonghyun asked.

            “Kibum said I look like I ate beets,” I shared. Then I saw what I expected to see. Minho hit the back of Key’s head. I started laughing at the sight of this.

            “Have a good day guys! I’m cheering for you all!” I smiled and waved at them and they waved back, said they bye’s and sat back down in their seats.

            “Yah be careful, okay?” Kibum said, with a worried look on his face.

            “Don’t wooooorry so much my chingu!” I said cheerfully.

            “Okay..have a good time!” he finally said.

            “Mmm, fighting!” I said and cheered him on.

            “Mmm, talk to you later, watch the broadcast!” he said in English and we hung up.

The night flew by like how I expected. I drank a little too much because I was so happy that the semester was over. I couldn’t even remember anything else except loud music and strong drinks. The next day I woke up in my bed, not even knowing how I arrived home. I went straight to the washroom to wash my face and brush my teeth.

            “Aiyah, somebody kill me,” I said and grasped the roots of my hair. I felt like somebody was drilling into my skull. “Thank God i’m not doing anything today,” I mumbled to myself. I lounged around the house for the entire day and hoped that Key would call or text, but I didn’t get anything. He’s probably really busy…

I waited until the night ended and I just fell asleep.

Another month has passed and I haven’t heard from Key.

“Yah I know you’re busy and can’t facetime a lot but you haven’t even messaged at all,” I stared at our polaroid picture and flicked it. “What’s going on...” I said quietly.