Who’d have ever thought that the happiest day of my life would also be my last? Four months before the last time I walked on the cold ground, sniffed the calm air and saw the rain fall from the sky like tears, I met the boy of my dreams. He may have been a man physically, but in my eyes, he was the little boy prince of every girl’s fairytale. Meeting him was a complete accident. He was the one that actually caused the accident. I was on my way to meet a friend, when he knocked me over at the bus station. I managed to cut my shin open on the steps that I was trying to walk up. Just before, he and his friends had been desperately running down them. But out of all of the boys, the blonde-haired, gentle-faced boy happened to knock me over.

“Omo, I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there.” He held his hand out to me, which I gladly accepted, seeing as my leg was hurting an awful lot and bleeding profusely. “Ah! You’re bleeding!” He panicked, which was one of the cutest things in the world. The way his eyebrows were pulled together, his mouth was open wide and his hands were flailing all over the place was one of the first things that attracted me to him. That, and his undeniably beautiful russet eyes that were trying to stare through me.

“I’m alright, honest!” I tried to reassure him, but it was no good. By this point, he’d tuned out my voice along with his friends. I hadn’t failed to notice that they were speaking a completely different language and that they were all undeniably beautiful. But not as beautiful as the panicking mess in front of me. I poked his side, trying to get his attention, but he ignored me. So I went to plan B and cupped his beautiful, porcelain face with my hands, forcing him to look me in the eyes. “Hey, I’m okay. Mind telling me your name?”

“It’s Kevin. Kevin Woo.” I nodded and smiled before telling him my own name. He looked like he was about to say something more, when a sudden flurry of screams and shouts brought our attention elsewhere. Kevin and his friends looked tired and frustrated at the wails and shouts above our heads, which were coming from the shopping centre that we were standing directly below.

“Kev, we need to go,” a tall, muscular boy told him. He had bleached blonde hair that was swept across his forehead, just above his soft, hazelnut eyes. He extended his heavily muscled arm out to me, gesturing me to take his hand. “Come with us, so we can make sure you’re okay.”

All I could do was nod, as he showed me a dazzling smile, full of pearly white teeth. Soon they were all grinning with him. I looked down the line of seven people, studying each smile. Most of them were pretty and adorable. One very tall boy, who was sporting a large quiff on his head and had darker skin than the others, was showing a dorkier grin. But Kevin’s beautiful smile caught my attention. It may have been smaller than the others’, but he made up for it by the way his eyes sparkled as he looked at me. He also held his hand out to me, so I took it. Soon enough, I was walking along, holding the hands of these two complete, but beautiful strangers. I had to limp though, seeing as my leg didn’t particularly want to co-operate and blood was still sliding down my leg, soaking my socks.

The girly screams behind us didn’t stop. In fact they grew louder and were accompanied by exasperated sighs from the boys. Kevin suddenly stopped walking and stood in front of me. His face was so close to mine, that our noses were touching. Without warning, he lifted me into the air, one arm under my knees and the other round my torso. I stared at him, wide-eyed, but he just chuckled lightly.

“It’ll be faster to get away from those fans if I carry you.”

“F-fans?” I asked cautiously.

“Oh yeah. We didn’t get a chance to introduce ourselves properly.” He started walking fast, to catch up to his friends who were a few feet in front of us, towards the exit. “We’re a boy band from South Korea called U-Kiss. I’m Kevin. The guy with blonde hair is Eli. The tall one with the funny quiff is Alexander, the short one with red hair is Dongho, the chestnut-haired guy is Soohyun, the one with purple hair is Kibum and the dark-haired one is Kiseop. We were singing and doing a fan-signing before we started getting chased by our fans.”

“O-oh… Must be nice to know so many people like you.”

“Actually, it’s kind of creepy sometimes. You won’t believe how many times I’ve been sent girls’ in the fan mail.” We both laughed loudly as we finally exited the bus station. The other boys were already across the road, waiting next to a large black van for us.

“Come on guys, get in!” Alexander yelled. He looked impatiently at us, but Kevin just rolled his eyes. Once we were inside, and who I assumed was the boys’ manager started driving, Alexander’s expression softened considerably. “Are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“No, I’m fine.” He raised his eyebrows, questioning me. “Honest, I’m okay. I’ll just put an ice pack and a bandage on it when I get home.”

The chestnut-haired one, Soohyun looked at me with piercing eyes as he spoke in Korean. I looked at Kevin in confusion, who just laughed at my expression. “Soohyun says: Would you like to come to our hotel room with us for a bit. Just to hang out. And we’ll take care of you.” He trailed off for a second as he concentrated on the thoughts that were going through his mind. “It’s the least I can do after I knocked you over.”

I bit my lip and nodded shyly, eliciting a bright smile from the blonde-haired boy. At the huge hotel, Kevin placed me on one of the large beds and started cleaning and dressing my wound single-handedly. When the other band members offered to help, he refused them. I noticed that Eli’s eyebrows wiggled in excitement slightly, after Kevin had shooed him away, as though he knew something I didn't.

“All better now?” I nodded silently. We sat with the other boys on one of the sofas and watched TV together for a couple of hours while making small talk. It seemed that they were all very interested to know about me. But I wasn’t willing to disclose too much information. When I looked at the clock, which read six o’clock, I realised that I had to get back ‘home’, as I was way past curfew.

“I’m sorry to be a bother, but would you be able to take me home? I have no idea where my house is from here.”

“Sure! Whereabouts in the city is your house?” Kevin asked.

“Werrington. Just follow the sign posts for Werrington from here, and we should be able to find it.”

Sure enough, all the U-Kiss boys took me home, their manager once again driving. He was a quiet man, but also very kind. Once we’d pulled up outside, all the boys looked at the building in front of them in awe.

“Wow, you live in a mansion!” Eli shouted loudly, a goofy smile plastered across his face. “Can I come live here too?”

My moment with the boys was soon ruined, when the ‘mistress of the house’ came out, looking flustered and angry. In fact more like furious, than angry. She snatched my wrist and started to drag me away from my blonde prince and his friends.

“Where the hell have you been, you stupid girl? You know the rules! You’re not supposed to be out past six, yet here you are gallivanting off with boys! I had all of the other children lined up, forcing them to tell me where you were. None of them knew though. Where were you?”

“I’m sorry ma’am. I was supposed to be meeting my friend, but on the way there, I was knocked over. Kevin and his friends helped me and then we watched TV and talked at their place.” I deliberately clouded over the truth a little. Like the fact that they were a popular boy band and that we were all in a hotel room together. That wouldn’t have gone down too well.

Someone behind me tapped my shoulder, so I whirled round to face the goofy Eli. “Why did you call her ma’am and not mother. And why did she say other children? Do you have siblings?”

Kevin smacked him across the back of the head. “Are you really that dense Eli? You live in an orphanage, don’t you?” I nodded slowly, perfectly aware that tears were sliding down my cheeks, leaving wet trails of sadness on my skin. Kevin’s eyes softened as he stepped closer to me and pulled me flush against his chest. My head fell onto his shoulder, so I could cry while he held me. “Do you like it here?”

“N-no,” I mumbled.

“Then maybe you could come and live with us instead. I’m sure our manager could sort something out. You’re seventeen, so you’re legally allowed to leave anyway, aren’t you?”

That was how my relationship with Kevin had started. That was when he’d first shown me his beauty, his kindness and his sympathy. That was when he’d saved me from my sadness. As Alexander was the oldest of us, he agreed to be my legal guardian until I was eighteen, but I never reached the age of eighteen. Xander doted on me so much. He constantly bought me things I didn’t need or ask for and treated me like a little princess.

Kevin, on the other hand, started out as my best friend. But over time, we both realised the feelings we harboured for each other. It was deeper and more meaningful than friendship, so we started dating. Not much changed. I was hated more by the fans, but I honestly didn’t care about that. The only major impact that our change in relationship had was the fact that we began kissing. We were already hugging, holding hands and even sleeping in the same bed at night.

One afternoon, when Kevin had just come back from recording an interview for a radio show, he decided to treat me to lunch. He took me out to a posh restaurant, and bought me the most expensive dish on the menu. Once we’d finished, we took a stroll around the park, hands entwined together. We sat down on the bench, when Kevin said he had a surprise for me. He’d written me a song.

Since that first day, when I met you,
I never knew that love could be so true.
But every time I see your face,
I know there’s no one who could replace
You.

No matter how hard I try,
I feel like I’ll always cry,
Because I know I’ll never be the best
Unlike you, who beats the rest.
Oh, you.

You are the one,
My shining star.
Take me with you
And help me go far. 

I was crying when Kevin had finished, seeing as the song was so beautiful. He pressed his lips to my face, kissing away my tears of happiness and elation.

“Saranghae. I will always love you. Forever.”

“I will always love you, Kevin. Promise.”

He carefully place his lips on mine, giving me a soft kiss, which was soon deepened. His lips moulded around mine perfectly, and were so gentle. His teeth grazed my bottom lip, surprising me so much, that I accidentally opened my mouth a little. He took the opportunity to tenderly slide his tongue inside my mouth. Our tongues danced around each other, caressing my senses with the soft touch; the sweet, sugary taste and the loud, loving moans that escaped us both. We only stopped once we were running out of oxygen. Kevin was smiling as though he was the happiest man in the world, and I could tell my expression was matching his.

“Jagiya, let’s go for ice-cream!” Kevin slipped his hand into mine and dragged me to the nearest ice-cream parlour. He ordered a giant twenty-scoop ice-cream with toppings for us to share. While we were feeding each other the scoops of vanilla, chocolate, mint, strawberry and cookie dough ice-cream, Kevin slipped something into my hand. It was a heavy, pink envelope. “You do know what day it is don’t you?”

“Yeah, it’s February 14^th.” I thought about the date for a minute. “Oh, it’s Valentine’s Day! I can’t believe I forgot.”

“I thought you’d forgotten, but that’s okay. Just being with you makes me the happiest man in the world.”

“Kevin. You’re perfect without the gifts anyway. I don’t need material items to be happy either. I just need you.”

“Just open the envelope!” Kevin nudged me in agitation. I followed his request and swiftly flipped my fingers underneath the seal. A letter, written in extremely neat handwriting fell out, along with a silver heart-shaped necklace, which had a small pink stone in it.

Dear Jagiya,

                        Happy Valentine’s Day my love! I knew you’d forget seeing as we’ve been so busy, but I wanted to make our first Valentine’s together special. You have no idea how happy you make me feel. Being around you is enough to clear any man of his sadness! I wrote you this letter to let you know how much I love you. I promise to protect you and watch over you. I promise to be your best friend, your brother and your guardian all rolled into one. But most of all, I promise to love you forever and never let you go. I’ve given you my heart and you’ve taken good care of it, so please let me take good care of yours.

I promise to love you to the ends of the Earth.

Saranghae

Your Kevin xxx

“Kevin, it’s beautiful. But there’s one thing wrong with it.” Kevin’s eyes widened in worry as he looked at me. I tried to refrain from laughing at the sight of my panicky boyfriend. “You already have my heart and you’ve taken better care of it than anybody else has.” He smiled the widest smile I’d ever seen before and fed me another spoonful of ice-cream.

Once we’d finished, we started walking back to the U-Kiss dorm. My fingers were entwined with Kevin’s and we were walking so close together that it would’ve been impossible to fit a sheet of paper between us. As I was fiddling with my necklace with my free hand, the beautiful letter Kevin wrote flew out of my pocket. I tried to catch it as the wind whisked it out of reach. I followed it, desperately trying to get it back, but it landed in the middle of the road. Without thinking, I ran out immediately to get it. What came next can only be described as unbearable pain.

A van collided with me at high speed and knocked me off my feet. I could feel the blood spilling from the cuts all over my body, including one that was in the exact same place as where I had cut my leg four months ago. A small reminder of the time I met Kevin. He was by my side in one of my failing heartbeats.

“Baby? Please be okay. Stay with me!” He begged. Tears were falling uncontrollably from his beautiful russet eyes. I wanted to reach out to wipe them away with my fingers, but I didn’t have any strength at all. I only had strength to mutter one word to him.

“Saranghae…Kevin…” My voice faded away as my vision became smaller and smaller, closing itself off from the rest of my body. I couldn’t see my perfect, beautiful Kevin, and soon enough I couldn’t smell his sweet, chocolaty scent, hear his angelic voice or touch his flawless, smooth skin. As the pain was replaced by numbness, one last thought crossed my dying mind. ‘At least I died happy.’