"We're so distracted by how things end that we usually forget how beautiful the beginning was."

—Lamiya Waheed

The stinging sensation on his cheek hurt less than the look she gave him yet that still didn't deter him from anything. 

"What the is wrong with you?" she muttered breathlessly, fingers grazing her lips that still had that warmth from his. "W-Why would y-you—"

Jiyong was still kneeling down at her, arms trapping her from both sides while he continued to stare at her with determination. "I'm in love with you." he replied simply. 

Incredulity and disbelief danced in her eyes before she suddenly felt her cheeks burning. Naturally, her face contorted into a scowl but her unconscious response made her go red all over. Seeing this made Jiyong let out a smirk and Dara, still overwhelmed, roughly pushed him off and sent him to the ground. Jiyong landed with a pained grunt as he nursed the back of his head.

Before he could open his eyes, he found Dara scurrying towards the door, struggling off her still-recovering feet and making her trip over herself from time to time. Jiyong quickly pulled himself up to help her but when he did, she snatched her arm away from his grasp and looked at him as if he was a stranger. His jaw clench at the response but he helped her either way. Dara however wasn't one for receiving help from him at all. 

"Let go off me!" she shrieked.

He let out a groan as he successfully carried her bridal style. "Jesus, calm down." he mumbled annoyedly as he tried to evade her trying to slap his face. 

"Calm down?! How can you tell me to calm down when you just—"

"Told you that I loved you?" he finished off and arched a brow. "C'mon Dara, you're better than this. How could you not even notice my feelings?" He said with a mocking monotone voice that made her growl. "You hurt me." 

"Kwon Jiyong, put me down!!!!" 

He opened the door and was greeted by their families curious looks. "Why? Is my touch making you fall in love with me too?" he answered mischievously. 

Jiyong's parents hanged their mouths hearing those words come out of their son's mouth while Dami burst out in proud laughter beside her fiancé who was looking at her amusedly. Mrs. Park broke out in the biggest relieved smile she could and shot Jiyong a grateful look unto which he answered with a smiling nod. 

Dara was still fighting off of him but Jiyong wasn't having any of it. A bright idea popped in her mind and she reached down to his lower half before giving him the hardest punch to the balls. Jiyong abruptly let her go with an Earth-shattering scream, making her hit the ground with an alarmingly loud thud. The amusement in the onlookers eyes quickly vanished and they quickly scampered off to the woman who was in agony. They all surrounded her but no one bothered to look at Jiyong except Jay who gave him a comforting pat on the back. 

"What the , Jiyong?!" Dami bellowed. "Dara's still recovering! Do you want to put her back in the hospital?!" 

Jiyong scoffed amidst his internal misery. Dara just fell down but Jiyong felt like his crotch was detaching itself from the torturous pain. His breath was ragged as he managed to hiss out, "My balls are falling off!" he screeched. "I can't breathe!" 

"Man the up, dip!" Dami glowered, going back to tend on the helpless Dara. 

Double ing standards.

"Do you want some ice, dude?" Jay asked sympathetically, still rubbing the guy's back. 

Jiyong looked at him teary-eyed and nodded fervently. At least there was someone who cared for his balls. Jay nodded gravely and hurried to the kitchen to get his fallen brother the help he deserved. Jiyong was liking his noona's fiancé more than his noona herself. That can go die. Jiyong swore he saw a blinding light behind Jay and a halo on his head when he handed him a bag full of ice. Seeing that the younger man was still immobile, Jay helped put the ice against his crotch, and with the little will to live Jiyong had left, he put his hands over Jay's as a form of gratitude. 

From an outside perspective, it looked like Jay was touching Jiyong's crotch while Jiyong was helping him touch the ta-la-la's. Dami, who was watching them, grew red with rage and she absently removed her hands from Dara's head, making the girl bump her head to the ground and groan once more. Ignoring her parents scolding, Dami marched towards the two seemingly gay boys and pulled Jay by the back of his collar, dragging them both out of the scene unceremoniously. 

As Jiyong continued to writhe alone on the ground, he caught Dara's eyes (who was also still on the ground). They shared a silent stare before Dara turned away from him with a 'hmmph!'. A snarl erupted from his lips as he continued to look at the back of her head. 

"You are... such a ." he croaked. 

Her head instantly whipped towards him, anger evident in her eyes. "I wasn't the one who dropped a recovering patient, !" 

Expecting him to retort back, Dara braced herself from his typical rain of tirade. But instead, Jiyong grew quiet and the light behind his eyes dimmed to a somber one. Feeling uncomfortable, she looked away before letting out a surprised sound when she found Mr. Kwon carrying her towards the nearby couch. Glancing behind the older man's shoulder, she caught Jiyong on the ground, still looking at her with that same expression. She quickly turned back when Jiyong mouthed her the same words from before.

I love you.

Shockingly, Dara was able to calm herself down when Mr. Kwon carefully put her down the sofa. She silently rolled herself to face the backrest making the parents share a concerned look. Her mother asked her if she felt alright or if she was hurt somewhere but the girl just shook her head and just told her she needed to rest. She could hear their parents leave the living room and move towards the dining room where their vague murmurs could still be heard. 

Why was he making things so weird? Dara sighed to herself. From what her and the doctors found out, her last memory seemed to be when she was still dating Seunghyun. With Jiyong's sudden confession, she could only imagine what he'd felt at that day when he kept asking for Seunghyun even though Jiyong was already there. Dara froze and shook her head. Why was she even thinking about Jiyong? He was her dongsaeng for Christ' sake. How could she even think of him in... that way?

But apparently, Jiyong didn't care if their relationship to her was regressed back to a noona-dongsaeng one. 

Dara felt a familiar warmth behind her and she instantly knew that it was him. She waited for him to touch her but when that didn't happen, she relaxed and subtly moved closer to the backrest, away from him. Jiyong glanced behind him before looking forward and closing his eyes in temporary resignation. Together, they basked in silence that they weren't used to. The comfort that lied behind their stillness was gone and suddenly, everything they were experiencing felt foreign. 

Jiyong was leaning back on the couch, sitting on the ground, while Dara lay fetal position, front to nothing and back facing his own. There were a million questions going through her mind while there was a million answers going through his. It was all there yet no one dared to voice out what they thought. But now that he promised himself that he wouldn't back down now, Jiyong was the first to take the step. He positioned himself so that he could face her, still sitting Indian style on the ground. He could see her back going rigid at the sound of his movements but she didn't bother to look back to see what he was doing. He looked at her longingly before finally saying what he should've said long before. 

"I was so afraid of losing you that I held myself back from wanting us to become anything more. I was too young and dumb to realize that only being friends with you did nothing to ease this fear that I still had. Staying friends with you just made me endlessly imagine what it'd be like to have you as a lover and it unknowingly made me become resistant to you since I was scared that I might push you away because of those feelings." he said, voice only loud enough to be a soft whisper. 

"We've been together for two decades and I've loved you for all of those. I'll love you for all the other future decades that we're gonna be spending with each other—be it as two separate people or as one." he said sincerely. "I admit, I've taken you for granted and I know I'm a goddamn because of it but I'm not gonna let that happen anymore. I'm going to be completely honest with you now and no matter what happens between us... I'll always be there for you no matter what." 

"Ji—" 

"No, I want you to hear me out first." He put a hand behind her back to stop her from facing him and she reluctantly complied, settling back away from him. Jiyong took a deep breath before continuing. "You've taken care of me when I was young. You gave me a shoulder to cry on when I needed it... and I cried a -ton back then." he chuckled. "You hugged me at times when I didn't know I needed it and you kept me smiling every time I see you beside me. You've done so much for me and I kept taking and taking..." 

"I want to do that for you too, Dara. I want you to cry on my shoulder if you need it. I want to hug you randomly and make you feel like you always matter. And I want to keep you happy... always. I want you to let me do all of those for you. I want believe that I'm that person that'll do everything for you. I want you to see me as a man that you can imagine yourself being with for the rest of your life."

"Dara... I'm not that kid that you keep seeing me as." 

Her heart thudded as her brows furrowed in contemplation. S-Stop, she wanted to scream but she couldn't find her voice. Stop making me—

"I want to be the only one that makes you happy." 

She flinched when his hand suddenly patted her arm but she was too frozen to look back. 

"Rest up, okay?" 

Without a word, Jiyong pushed himself up and walked away, leaving her in total conflict with herself. Just what happened between us? Why was he suddenly feeling the need to confess his love for her? And... why did it give her heart a painful feeling? Maybe he was just saying that because of what happened to her in the accident. Yeah... that must be it. Maybe it was just a spur in the moment thing and it might die down soon enough—

A warm blanket suddenly engulfed her and she finally looked up to see a gentle smile on his face. She was seeing Kwon Jiyong yet she felt like she was looking at a completely different person. Her face grew disconcerted the more she looked at him but then he put his hand over her eyes, ultimately ridding her of the chance to see right through him. 

"Don't think." she heard him say. "Thinking is what broke us." 

And with that, he left and Dara was left to wonder more about the past, most especially the past she shared with him. 

Jiyong looked up from peeling his apple and released an inquisitive grunt. "What are you doing here?" 

Seunghyun flipped his imaginary hair and carefully put the bag of fried chicken on the table Jiyong was leaning on. "Dara called me." he said. 

The knife stilled on the apple and the older man took a cautious glance at it before stepping back. Seunghyun's eyes roamed around the house to check if there were witnesses but alas, it seems like they were the only ones there. 

"Why in the hell would she call you?" Jiyong asked menacing, his knife unconsciously angling towards the man. 

It was natural for him to be on guard in the presence of Choi Seunghyun since he's been informed that Dara's last memory had been when these two were together. God knows how much patience he had to endure when Dara caught the hateful man in a tearful embrace when