Dara's POV

I'm a conservative Filipina. Courting a man---however much like him---was out of the question.

But I took exception when I fell in love with Jiyong.

Jiyong moved here from Korea to study, and he was living with his favorite uncle. I met him a few months after he had settled in.

I was immediately attracted to him. I did everything to make him notice me, but he never showed a sign that he was interested with me. I wanted to strangle him in frustration.

Recently, I found out that he got a girlfriend, Bom Park, one of his classmates from school. He looked happy with her.

I regretted not telling him my feelings. If I had, maybe he wouldn't have looked at Bom and I could have been his girlfriend.

Some say that there is nothing wrong with the girl going after the guy, especially if he was naive or shy. But it was too late, and all I could do was to wish him the best.

Then the unexpected happened. Bom didn't really love him. She dumped him when she found someone new ---- a T.O.P. look alike--- who she thought was more fun to flirt with.

I didn't want to lose him to another girl again. I gathered my courage and emailed him, saying that he was wasting his time on someone who didn't love him while there was a woman nearby who loves him.

He visited me the next day. He couldn't believe what he had read and asked me straight out if I was the woman I had written him about. He looked at me suspiciously, asking if I was playing a joke on him.

"No, I don't think so," I said seriously. I looked at him, and tried very hard not to blink.

His shoulders sagged in relief. He held my arms and looked into my eyes. He suprised me with what he said next.

He said that he wasn't hurt with his break up with Bom because he really loved someone else, someone he could not court because she was from a different social class. He couldn't approach her because she comes from a rich family. Plus, she was beautiful and intelligent, while he was just plain and ordinary.

My initial surge of jealousy turned to shock when I realized that he was referring to me!

I held his hand and we looked into each other's eyes. I saw his love for me, but I also saw his insecurity. He said he had suppressed his feelings for me because he had a great fear of rejection.

I shushed him and told him that if we had both gotten the nerve to ask each other out long ago, we would have been together since then. It was obviously long overdue, but not too late!

THE END