If I could turn back time; I would. Or not.

                That was what she has been thinking when she first saw him at her cousin’s eighteenth birthday. Oh how she wished she wore the dress they we’re asking her to wear! Her heart sank as she remembered how stubbornly she shook her head upon seeing the overly feminine dress.

                “There’s no way I’m going to wear that dress to your eighteenth birthday ‘couz.” Dara said as she slumped down her bed. She cursed under her breath how painfully feminine the dress was.

                “Oh c’mon. It’s my freaking birthday for John’s sake! Won’t you at least spare it from I’m-a-tomboy antics of yours? It’s just this time I’m asking of you. Plus, you’re included on the eighteen candles. Won’t you at least wear it to be presentable?” Her cousin was batting her eyelashes at her.

                She mockingly placed her hands under her chin with her eyebrows creased. “Uh, thanks. But no, thank you. Now, would you please get out of my room and walk away along with that dress? Shoo. Go now.” She nodded towards the door and then turned to her laptop to return to what she was doing.

                Now, she could only feel regret and embarrassment as she weaved her way at the party, only wearing her favorite green pajamas: surely looking like a lost puppy in a mall. It would have been okay, smooth sailing party that she just needs to get over at. If not for him.

                He is a part of the eighteen roses of her cousin. He was awfully ripe at the age of fourteen and well, she was awfully a kid with milk on her lips at twelve. Oh why does he stand in five feet and seven inches and have a prominent jaw line, smooth porcelain white skin, and hazel-brown eyes? She’d never know. To her, he was the most perfect person to walk this earth in her entirety. And she hated the fact that her birthday girl cousin gets to talk to him. If only she had agreed to wear the dress and then he would see how feminine and beautiful she’d be!

                Shoulders drooped; she went to the kitchen to eat her meal there. She can no longer stand to see him together with her cousin and well, it is obvious how she felt so little because she was wearing PJs. She attacked fiercely the pitiful meal. Well, she always does that nonetheless. At least, the food comforts her and her hurt ego.

                She was in the middle of fighting with her food when, someone, some man to be exact, knocked on the kitchen door, fully disturbing her peace.

                “Excuse me, can I ask for a glass of water?” A husky voice called out from a head that was hanging from the door. When she turned around to see who it was, a man came into a full view, announcing clearly the answer to her question.

                There she was completely in awe, with food hanging at , and was staring at him. It took her more several—agonizing—seconds to finally process what the man had just said. She first swallowed the food before shooting up from her seat to get the pitcher of water and a glass. When she finally was there at the fridge, she took a moment to feel her heart that was pounding through her chest. How she was relieved that he can’t see her back there. Calming her nerves down, she put all of her effort in pouring that water to the glass. When she finally realized she cannot do it, she picked up another glass and the pitcher of water before going back to him.

                “H-Here. S-Suit yourself.” She managed to stutter, completely making herself a complete idiot in front of him.

                He chuckled. Did she heard her chuckled? She looked up to him to check if it was true. She saw his eyes smiling with his lips. He had finished drinking.

                When he was about to go, he turned to her and said, “You have a beautiful pair of dimples.”

                From then on, she fervently prayed that she’d be the woman he marries and be the one he will love for the rest of his life. But then, horror struck her. She doesn’t even know his name. Night and day. Day and night. She never forgets to pray that her wish come true. She also added in her prayers that she be able to see him again.

                And as if the heavens have heard her, she finally met him after a year when she entered high school at a new school. Guess what, she finally learned her way to be that lady she can he.

                She was with her friends when he finally come up to him and said, “Oh my gosh! You are that lady with the beautiful pair of dimples in her green pajamas.”

                And he was smiling her, as if she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. And, she is. “I’m Kwon Jiyong by the way.”

  Fin.

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based on a true life story. :)