A year into their relationship, Kyungsoo and Joohyun have only held hands, hug, and he would occasionally kiss her on the forehead. Both of them are very shy, and Joohyun has a hard time in expressing her feelings. Kyungsoo would always be the one to initiate a conversation, and he was even the first one to say ‘I love you’. Each time he would say those three words, he would only get a ‘thank you’ in return, not even an ‘I love you too’. This doesn’t make Joohyun love Kyungsoo any less, it’s just too hard for her to utter those words to anyone. She doesn’t even say those words to family and friends. It is still foreign for her, he was her first relationship and she didn’t know the right way to express her feelings.

Most of their dates consist of movie-making. The guy being a director with a budget camera, and the girl being an actress with lack of training. Some days, they would randomly go to the park or random neighborhoods to create short clips. On other days, they would simply chill in Kyungsoo’s apartment. Going to the mall would be their last option. They don’t find it meaningful. Well, once or twice a month they would go to a mall together only to go to the movie theatre and watch a movie. After all, that is where they first met.

On days where Joohyun would come to Kyungsoo’s apartment, she would help clean his room, iron his shirt, and cook for him while Kyungsoo catches up on office work or edit his videos. It's as if they were a married couple already. They would cuddle and watch old movies together, or binge a TV series until really late. But, no. They don’t live together. Kyungsoo would always drop Joohyun back to her house past midnight. They like it this way. Although living together might be easier, they find no thrill in such a  fast-paced relationship.

Today was just another one of their dates in Kyungsoo’s place. Joohyun was baking and Kyungsoo pulled out his camera to take short clips of her. Joohyun would pretend like she’s a top-selling actress and acted expressions she studied from Jennifer Aniston or Amy Adams.

“Take one, action!” Joohyun started acting but then giggled midway.

“Ah, I’m sorry.” she covered her face shyly and laughed. Kyungsoo laughed along as he thinks her laughter is contagious.

“Let’s start over,” Kyungsoo said, as he stopped the previous clip on his camera to start a new video.

She started acting again and pretended like she was baking while dancing around with no music. She pictured a scene as such like the one in Hidden Figures where all three ladies were drunk and dancing in the kitchen. Kyungsoo held back his laugther as there weren’t any music accompanying his girlfriend dance.

While she was twirling around, she opened the first drawer to act like she was taking some ingredients. As she opened it, Joohyun was shocked to see a much rather empty drawer. She was pretty sure this is where Kyungsoo stores paper towels and his boxes of cigarettes. She didn’t know how to comprehend, so she hesitated a little.

“Kyungsoo-ah,” she paused for a while.

“Yes? What’s wrong?” Kyungsoo stopped recording and placed his camera on the counter walking towards where Joohyun was.

“Umm… your drawer is a bit empty.” Kyungsoo knew immediately what she meant and a smile creeped on his face.

“I quit,” he answered to a question that was not asked but he was sure Joohyun was thinking about it.

“What?” Joohyun’s reaction was unreadable. It was a mix of confusion and a hint of happiness.

“I quit smoking, Joohyun-ah,” Kyungsoo made it clearer. “It was hard in the beginning but I tried my best. I know you hated it when I smoke. You may not say it, but I can sense your discomfort.”

This touched Joohyun’s heart. She was moved beyond words, but the way that she is, she can’t express what she’s feeling.

“I love you Joohyun-ah,” Kyungsoo stared straight to her eyes with clarity in his words. “and if I quit smoking means I get to spend more time with you, and you might even like me more, then why not?”

He held Joohyun’s head by the sides and leaned forward to kiss her forehead.

"I love you Joohyun-ah.” Kyungsoo repeated.

There was silence, but it wasn’t excruciating. Kyungsoo was used to this, but he knows deep inside Joohyun loves him too. And right by the kitchen counter, he hugged her with so much love.

“I l-love you too,” although muffled to Kyungsoo’s shirt as her face was buried on his chest, Joohyun said the three words that Kyungsoo have wanted to hear for the longest time.

~

The loud music was blaring and as soon as they entered the place, the lights itself had already made Joohyun a little bit dizzy. Kyungsoo’s college best friend, Jongin is celebrating his birthday in club Octagon that night and he thought about bringing Joohyun along. Joohyun is not the type that likes going to clubs, she doesn’t even like going out in general, she’s a self-proclaimed homebody. Today was an exception though, because she felt bad that Kyungsoo keeps inviting her to events and meet his friends but she always rejects the offer.

For the occasion, Jongin rented a humongous private room that could fit around 30 people. He was one of the most popular guy in university because he was part of the basketball team and he was also a student representative for their batch. As Kyungsoo and Joohyun entered the room, every pair of eyes was instantly directed towards the door at the beautiful couple that stood hand in hand. The pair were shocked at the crowd before their eyes because when Jongin said that he would rent a private room, they thought that only around 10 people would attend the event.

Kyungsoo could spot their group of friends at a booth just chatting and drinking. The boys that he and Jongin used to hang out with during college years. As he looked around, Kyungsoo tightened his grasp on Joohyun’s hand because about half of the people in the room was unfamiliar and a bit wilder than his own group of friends. Some guys are making out with girls that wore skirts short enough to have exposed their underwear. Others were already drunk and it was only 8 PM.

“Yah, how are you?” Junmyeon, his friend from the business case association back in university was first to welcome Kyungsoo with their old secret handshake that both still remembered.

“Kyungsoo-ah! My friend,” Jongdae was next and he hugged Kyungsoo, “how have you been, pal?”

Although Kyungsoo’s hands never left Joohyun throughout all the greetings, Joohyun still felt a little out of place as there wasn’t a single person in the room that Joohyun recognized.

“I’m glad you made it here bro,” it was the host himself that greeted Kyungsoo next.

“I wouldn’t miss your birthday for anything,” Kyungsoo handed him a gift he bought earlier that day, “happy birthday Jongin!”

They continued their small reunion as all of them approached the booth where the rest of the guys are. Kyungsoo pulled Joohyun closer to him and held her by the shoulders.

“Guys, this is Joohyun,” he introduced his girlfriend to the boys, the booth went silent in an instant as Kyungsoo continued, “and she’s mine. Don’t even think about touching a single strand of her hair.”

Joohyun blushed hard to this, but she managed to bow and greeted everybody.

“Hello, I’m Bae Joohyun.”

“Damn, Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol shrieked as he threw some chips towards his friend “you always get a jackpot, huh? Lucky bastard. Joohyun, why would a pretty girl like you want to be with someone like Kyungsoo?”

Kyungsoo shot at him with his deadly glare and was about to strangle the taller man.

“Yah, I’m sorry,” Chanyeol laughed, “I was joking, you guys looks so cute together! As Kyungsoo’s dearly beloved friend, I’m sending my approval Joohyun-ah!”

Chanyeol threw his thumbs up and winked at her.

“First of all, I don’t need your approval,” Kyungsoo finally threw a punch at Chanyeol’s shoulders, “and second, why are you calling my girlfriend informally already? Stop trying to be too friendly.”

The rest of the crowd laughed. They missed this. They missed the inappropriate banters thrown at each other, the inside jokes about professors or fellow students, the quarrels among themselves over stupid things, and most of all they missed talking with one another like how they used to during college days. Most of them used to even stay together at the student housing. Now, they were living busy businessmen lives and they would only meet up as a group at events such as this.

“Hey Kyungsoo-ah, Joohyun-ssi let me introduce you to the rest of the crowd,” Jongin gestured towards the rest of the crowd. Although Joohyun wished with all her heart that they would just stay where they were with the rest of Kyungsoo’s inner circle, Jongin pulled them around the room and introduced his other friends one by one.

“These are my friends from high school but they’re pretty much drunk already so I won’t even bother introducing them,” Jonginn laughed a little as he pointed at a group of guys and girls dancing on top of the table and some were even making out on the sofa.

“These people over here, are my club-hopping friends in college when your boyfriend rather stays at the dorm and watch stupid movies,” Jongin nudged Kyungsoo a little bit before continuing, “that’s Hyuna, that’s Jiyoon, and that’s Sohyun, over