Nari waited outside of the front gate of her school building. It had taken months for her to finally build up the courage to confess to her crush and then about 3 weeks to finally get the letter just right. She didn’t want to come off as creepy and annoying when he read it. Honestly, they had been acquaintances for around 6 years now and she had liked him for about 2 of those years. She never called him her friend because she didn’t know if he saw her that way and didn’t want to pressure him into a friendship he probably didn’t want. They hung out after school, usually with friends of course though sometimes they would study together just the two of them. Nari was not a confident girl. Her friends were constantly telling her how pretty she was and how she should be prouder of it, but she honestly just thought of herself as annoying and bothersome to others. She was the type of girl who would always let others decide what they all did together because she didn’t want to feel bad if not everybody liked the things she wanted to do.

The longer she stood outside of the gate the more Nari thought about forgetting this whole ordeal and just never telling Lee Chan the truth. After all he was one of the most popular boys in school what could he possibly want with a simple girl like her. He should have been here by now Nari thought to herself. Tennis practice started 5 minutes ago he probably already went inside, and I came too late. There is no point in me staying out here any longer. She started to turn around to go inside and hide herself away till school started but someone calling her name stopped her. When she turned back around, she saw Chan and Minghao running towards the school gate. Minghao continued past her but Chan stopped right in front of her out of breath somehow still finding something to smile about.

            “What are you doing at school so early today Nari?” he asked her as he watched her fiddle with an envelope in her hands.

            “Oh, um, I was hoping to catch you before school actually.” Nari blurted out after a second of staring at him. His smile brightened at her words.

            “Any particular reason? Do you need something?” Chan inquired after her with a tilt of his head.

            “I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WOULD ACCEPT THIS!!” She exclaimed as she bowed and held out the letter, she had written for him. Nari couldn’t bring herself to look up she was surprised she was even able to get the words out without stuttering and fumbling over them. Though she realized that she did kind of yell at him when saying it but that was the only way she could get the words out all at once.

            “Really? I…”

            “Dude, we are already late will you come on.” Minghao cut him off before he could finish his sentence. He grabbed Chan by the arm and ran off again before he could even answer Nari’s request. Embarrassed she turned and ran to the nearest empty classroom to cry. I knew he would never like a girl like me how could I be so stupid to think he liked me just because we happened to hang out in the same group. Hell, he probably liked Soo-Yun and not me. She is the prettiest girl in school after all. Why wouldn’t a guy as handsome and popular as him like her? I am such an idiot. I don’t think I can ever show my face in front of him again. For the next hour and a half till the school bell rang for the start of classes Nari hid in that room and thought nothing, but self-deprecating thoughts.

            As the rest of the school day went by her friends kept trying to get her to talk to them. They could tell immediately that she had been crying before classes, but Nari refused to speak all day. At lunch break her upper classman best friend came in and tried to make her at least smile since she was refusing to talk but even Seokmin’s silly antics couldn’t bring her out of her sadness. Nari did consider herself lucky that Chan was not in her class. She normally only saw him at school when classes were over, and they met up to go study in the library together. Which is why after classes were over, she packed up her stuff and ran out before anyone could stop her. She didn’t stop running until she was at her house with the door locked behind her.

            For the next few weeks Nari did everything she could to avoid Chan. Honestly it was a lot harder than she originally thought it was going to be. She didn’t think about the fact that they were friends with the same group meaning that they all often went to hang out with each other outside of school. A few times she even caught sight of him outside of her classroom door in between classes but she would always make a break for the bathroom before he could get the other girls in her class to leave him alone long enough to get to her. After about 3 days she had finally started talking to her friends again, though she had refused to tell them the truth of what happened because she didn’t want them to be angry at Chan for not returning her feelings. She had lied and said her, and her older brother got into a fight and she hadn’t felt like talking about it. It was easy for her friends to believe that since when her and her brother would fight it would really bother her because they were normally so close.

            Valentine’s Day came and Nari honestly didn’t want to go anywhere. She got woken up by her brother jumping on her bed and shaking her then telling her to go shower and change while throwing one of her dresses at her. She didn’t mind the dress, it was actually one of her favorites, she just didn’t understand why her brother wanted her to wear it. When she left the room Seokmin was in the family room on the couch talking to her brother.

            “Wow Nari you look really pretty.” Seokmin smiled at her as she came to stand in front of them. Jeonghan, her older brother, pulled her away from him with a dirty look.

            “What is going on?” Nari squirmed in an attempt to get out of her brothers grasp.

            “We are taking you out of course!” he bounced up and down with her still in his arms. She gave up trying to escape.

            “I don’t want to go out.” She sighed and turned to Seokmin in hopes of getting some back up, but he just smiled and shook his head.

            “Too bad. It is Valentine’s day, and I will not have my beautiful precious baby sister cooped up in her bedroom all day. Let us go.” Jeonghan grabbed her hand and started to leave the house. Not forgetting to grab her purse for her and their house keys on the way out. They went downtown and shopped for a few hours. Nari enjoyed when her brother took her shopping because he could never take the situation seriously. This time he bought her a few things as a “gift” he had told her. Seokmin even pitched in on a cute pair of shoes for her. It was about lunch time when the boys started leading her towards a café. It was actually her favorite place to go on special occasions because they had the best drinks and the sweetest treats, if that were even possible.

            “Here is your drink go wait for us at that table and we will bring the cakes.” Seokmin pointed to a table in the far corner. Nari nodded and walked to the table with ease. She was actually quite surprised how slow the shop was today of all days. She figured it would be full of couples but there were only 3 or 4 couples sitting around. She sat down in one of the chairs and started sipping on her dalgona milk tea. After about 5 minutes a tray with 3 cake slices on it was set down in front of her. Nari smiled and looked up expecting to see Seokmin or her brother to be at the other end of the arm holding the tray. She never expected Chan to be standing right next to her.

            “Hi Nari.” He smiled at her. At first, she didn’t know what to do. She had looked around for Jeonghan or Seokmin for help, but they were nowhere to be found. Finally having nothing else to do she stood to leave. Chan’s hand wrapped around her wrist and halted her movement. “Please wait, Nari. I have been trying to talk to you for almost 3 weeks now, but you won’t even let me close to you.” She was staring at his hand on her wrist. It was warm and surprisingly soft for someone who played sports. “Please just let me say what I want to say and if you still don’t want to be around me, I will leave so you can enjoy your cake.” When Nari looked at him he had a sad almost pleading look on his face. It isn’t like him at all he is usually the happy one of their group. She decided to let him talk. She nodded her head and sat back down but started looking at the cakes instead of looking at him.

            “First of all, I want to apologize for Minghao. He didn’t understand the situation that was going on when he ran back and took me away. He honestly was just panicking because we were late for practice and the more minutes you are late means the more laps you have run. So, I am really sorry for his actions that day.” Chan explained as he sat in the chair next to her. Nari thought about Minghao running off with him and could understand why he wouldn’t want to be too much later since she herself has always hated running laps. She nodded her head in understanding which made Chan smile. “Secondly I want to say that I am glad he grabbed me and ran off before I had the chance to take your letter.” She wasn’t expecting him to say that, so her eyes widen, and she got sad. Nari looked down towards her lap where her hands were fidgeting.

            “Wait don’t get me wrong Nari. Honestly, I was about to accept your letter, however the thing is I wanted to be the one to confess to you first.” Her head shot up and her wide eyes made Chan let out a small chuckle.

            “Wha…What do you mean?” Nari was so surprised not only by his statement but also by her stutter. She was so nervous that her intertwined fingers started to squeeze tighter. Seeing this Chan grabbed her hands in his. He was worried that she would hurt herself. He knows that she does this when she is scared or nervous since they had hung out enough times over the last few years.

            “What I mean is that I had planned to confess to you the same day you tried to confess to me. I had this whole plan for when we were in the library but then you never showed up. I had been planning it for a couple of weeks because I wanted it to be perfect for you. I didn’t expect you to try confessing to me earlier in the day nor did I expect Minghao to interrupt us or for you to get upset and hide from me afterwards.” Chan looked her in the eyes. She was still confused, but he continued. “I have liked you for a while now Nari. Honestly, I was confused by my feelings for some time because I knew I wanted to protect you, but I just thought that was because you were one of my female friends. Though while we were all out at Karaoke one night you were up singing with the rest of the girls and I couldn’t stop thinking to myself how cute you looked. Slowly I started to notice more and more things about you like how you sometimes stare off into space when people are talking but are still be able to quote everything they just said verbatim or how you refuse to watch scary movies and will just make the excuse that your brother needs you at home anytime everyone wants to go see one or even how you squeeze your hands really tightly when you are nervous or scared.” Chan smiled at that one and looked down at her hands still held in his. Nari was legit surprised that he had noticed so many things about her. She honestly thought no one ever paid attention to her in the group.

            He looked back up to her eyes. “Once I realized that I actually had feelings for you I wanted to spend more one-on-one time with you and that was why I invited you to study with me in the library after school. I wanted to get to know you more without everyone else around. I didn’t want you to feel like you were obligated to do whatever they wanted because you didn’t want to be a bother. I wanted to get to know what you liked and what was fun for you and what you hated. I wanted to know all of it Nari.” At that moment she thought back to the time they spent together and how after they had started studying together it seemed that the group started doing a few more things she liked doing. She wondered if that had been Chan’s doing.

            He gave a big smile. “I like you Kim Nari. I am really hoping that you still like me too and will perhaps accept me when I ask you my next question.” Chan stared at her and she isn’t quite sure how to react no one has ever told her they liked her before.

            “But Soo-Yun is prettier than me. Why would you like someone so quiet and plain as me?” Nari said before he could continue.

            “Are you serious Nari? You are beautiful and sweet and caring and funny. You are so much better in so many ways than Soo-Yun don’t you see that?” Chan asked with wide eyes scooting closer to her. She shook her head because Nari had never thought that she was anything but plain and shy and boring. “I don’t like Soo-Yun, Nari. I like you and I want you to be my girlfriend. I want to be the guy who holds your hand when walking down the street and covers your eyes during a scary movie and comforts you when you are sad or nervous about things. I want to be the guy who makes you smile and laugh at my stupid jokes. You are the girl I want to be with Nari. So, will you please be my girlfriend?” He finally asked her the question he had wanted to ask her for the last year. Nari stared at him wide eyed for a bit longer than necessary and Chan took her silence as a no. “I guess I will just leave you alone to finish you cakes then.” He looked down and she could see the sadness and disappointment in his eyes as he stood to leave.

            “WAIT!” Nari exclaimed and then realized what she did. She bowed apologizing to the other patrons at the shop. Once she felt she had apologized to everyone else she turned to face Chan. “I am sorry my brain is a little slow today because I am sleepy and didn’t even expect to come out today.” She admitted.

            “Yea I asked and begged Seokmin to help me out after explaining what had happened the other day. He didn’t want to at first because he was mad at me. When I explained about how I had planned to confess to you that very same day he decided he would help and roped your brother into helping. So sorry for that.” He blushed a bit as he looked out the window and when Nari followed his eyes she saw Jeonghan and Seokmin outside turn away like they weren’t just observing the scene between her and Chan.

            She turned back at him and with a small but sweet smile on her face she finally said, “ I would love to be your girlfriend Chan.” A smile lit up his face and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders hugging her gently.

            “Really?” He pulled back to look at her. Trying to gauge her expression and make sure she was serious about her answer and she nodded her head while biting her bottom lip. “Oh my god, Nari you have no idea how happy you have just made me.” Chan pulled her back into the hug and then realized they are in public so pulled away and sat back down next to her. “Now I have another question for you.”

            Nari looked at him as she put a fork full of cake into and tilted her head to the side urging him to continue. “Will you let me take you on a date?” he laughed a little when she chokes on her bite and handed her a drink to wash down the cake with.

            “Now?!” She asked him once she had cleared her air ways.

            “Of course, now silly. It is Valentine’s Day after all.” He gave her a big smile while unconsciously taking her free hand into his own. “Or at least when you are done with your cake that is.”

            “What about those two?” Nari gestured to her idiot brother and best friend still pretending to not be creeping in on them. Chan just laughed for a second.

            “Don’t worry about them I am sure we can find a way to shake them off our trail.” He joked and she smiled. After that they spent the day enjoying the outdoors before ending it with a movie and dinner. Chan even bought Nari a stuffed bunny from a stall they passed in one of the markets they went to. She had to confess this was the best day of her life and she smiled as she realized that there would be many more to come from now on with Chan by her side.