A/N: Hey guys~! Sorry if I wasn't able to post it immediately when it had been published already. AFF is undergoing some major breakdown last night while I was updating...Mian~ *bows* Enjoy reading! ^^

Only One - BoA

“So it’s tomorrow, huh?”

I looked up from the book I was reading and looked at my best friend who, in just a span of short hours, would be my brother-in-law, Jong In. He just entered the study of their grandfather’s ancestral house in Jeolla where I’ve found my refuge to while away time. I eyed him as he stood casually against the doorpost,  surreptitiously filling my senses with his features, lean and tall, slightly tanned than most people, his sharp, knowing eyes on me while the sly smirk I was so fond of hung about his exquisitely chiseled lips, everything. I was puzzled as to how I ever managed to stand this arrogant person as far as memory was concerned, but he’d been with me all my life…and so was his brother whom I was about to marry the next afternoon.

From the moment I’ve learned how to talk, he’d been my playmate. A selfish and bratty little boy he was, we’d bicker all day long about the shallowest matters, tease each other until one cries, well, most of the time it’s me, but through all that, I’ve come to realize that I liked him that way. It just wouldn’t be Kim Jong In without the attitude. By the time I began studying, he was my classmate and seatmate in all my classes. We were just inseparable, joined to hip as our parents called it. Besides that, we were buddies when it comes to getting into trouble. Where I’m involved, he is, too, and it goes both ways. We’re almost always in the same mess and our parents almost always have the same problems with us with regard to our studies. Finally, the moment I’ve learned to make sense of relationships, he’d become my best friend for all sense and purposes. We stuck up to each other’s craziness through thick and thin. He’s dependable that way and I made sure to reciprocate that with all that I can. He’d always been there for me and I know he’ll always be there no matter what…like my shadow and I his.

I nodded and set my book aside, still absorbed in my thoughts. This time, I thought about his older brother, also my childhood friend, ‘oppa’ I called him, and now, he’s my fiancé – Lee Taemin. He’s twenty, Jong In and I were nineteen. He’s like my older brother in a sense except that he’s betrothed to me. Well, he’d always been since I was born. Our parents, particularly my father and his mother, were best of friends along with my mother, and they’ve promised us to each other. The irony of it. I was forced to think that appa and his mother, formerly Mrs. Lee and now Mrs. Kim, had a past and they’re trying to fulfill it with us. Funny, but we don’t see each other that way. He’s actually Jong In’s half brother – same mother, different fathers – but nevertheless, they were the same to me, brother’s I’ve never had.

I never talked about the matter at hand as much as possible. I didn’t like the idea, but I was civil about it. Oppa is casual about it, too. I guess we’ve both accepted our fate long before we realized it. I didn’t hate him nor did he feel that way about me. We’re pretty close, but not ‘close’ close like I was with Jong In. We don’t discuss it unless we need to and we treat each other like normal friends. We go out, hang out, treat each other like siblings, care for each other like we normally do, but we are not committed to each other in a romantic way. It doesn’t even matter to me if he dates random girls and he doesn’t mind that I’m too close with other people, especially Jong In.  Though the fact that we were to marry someday was inculcated in our minds, we weren’t in love, we never fell in love to each other and I guess that would never change.

I smiled at the thought. We were dear friends to each other, lifetime friends, but it doesn’t change the fact that we were marrying for money and the whim of others. Though that’s case, we were still willing to go through with what our parents decided on without even protesting to it. I looked out the window and saw two figures sitting on the stairs of the gazebo where the altar was being set up. It was Taemin oppa and Kang Mina, the fourth one in our group, our childhood friend. She was the youngest in our group, our lovable, debutante maknae who was a crybaby but nonetheless cute. As the youngest, she received a lot of attention from all of us, especially oppa. I frowned when I saw her wiping her cheeks while he seemed to be comforting her. I sighed, knowing more or less what was going on. It doesn’t take a genius to see how attached they were to each other. They were like Jong In and I. We were the troublesome pair while they were the prim and proper people. Maybe Taemin oppa felt the same way whenever he sees us together. I felt bad going on with the plan, but we have no choice. We were on the same boat, all four of us – ready to sacrifice everything for our parents’ happiness.

“You and Taemin hyung, huh?” I heard Jong In’s deep voice from behind me. He sat down already and I could clearly hear the sardonic hint in his tone.

I smirked to myself before  facing him. I don’t really know what made him Taemin’s brother in the first place aside from the obvious reasons. They were different and aside from the resemblance on their looks, which was sparse, by the way, there wasn’t anything else similar. While Taemin was all reserved  and modest, he was all sunshine bright and egotistical. I tried to hide my surprise upon seeing him there. “Yeah. Doesn’t add up, does it?”

He arched a brow at me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I shrugged, concentrating on the floor. He might not be telling me straight to my face, but I knew he was against the idea of me marrying his brother. All four of us were, but circumstances just made him special. He confessed to me on the night when our parents officially announced out engagement which was a year ago, his reason being guilty about not letting me know when we shared all our secrets together. I didn’t say anything about the matter, not wanting to add him up into the equation that was already knotted and topsy-turvy. Masochistic, I must say. We’ve decided to forget about it, well, he did. I don’t know how true he was to his words, but I honestly didn’t. I mean, Jong In and I move around each other more intimately than his hyung and I do. The deepest kind of gesture we’ve had together was a kiss on the forehead and nothing else.

I wasn’t disappointed in that, of course. It just so happens that I was closer to my Jong Innie and I guess that’ll always be how it is. I can’t even act myself whenever I was with oppa. It’s like he’d scold me if I did something he doesn’t like. Taemin was just too refined for my taste, not that I detest him that way since I’ve known him to be like that. I’ve known him for what he was since I was a kid, but it’s just not the same anymore. I loved Taemin oppa as my friend, but not as someone to love in a romantic sense, not as a husband and especially not a lifetime partner. He’d always be someone I’d look up to, but I’ll never see him in that light.

“I don’t mean anything by that, Kai,” I lied, referring to him with the nickname he had since he was a kid, but I knew he saw through me. He saw more than what met the eyes. That’s Kim Jong In for you. I chuckled, ignoring that fact. “It’s just funny. We’re finally getting married.” I looked out again. Taemin oppa now had an arm slunch across Mina’s shoulders, trying to make her stop crying. Oh yeah. There was that, too. If Jong In liked me, she liked oppa. There were just too many reasons why we shouldn’t marry.

“A year ago, you indirectly told me you were sure of this by telling me to forget how I felt and now you’re having second thoughts?”

I faced him again. He was watching them as well with a blank expression. I rolled my eyes at him. “Who’s having second thoughts?”

He made a face and blew a raspberry.

“Okay. Maybe I am.”

“You are?”

I nodded. “But not about marrying him. You were handful as a buddy. I don’t know how matters would turn out once you’re my brother-in-law,” I jested, but he remained serious.

“I don’t like the idea either.” He shifted his gaze to me intently. He took my hands in his and made my head lean against his shoulder. I’ll miss that. “You can always change your mind,” he whispered as he leaned closer.

I knew exactly what he was trying to say. “That’s really helpful.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go on a shotgun wedding with Chan Yeol oppa,” I answered, referring to his close friend who had a huge crush on me when we were in middle school. “He’ll be there tomorrow, right? Maybe he’ll help me escape and my marriage to him would be my way of thanks. Besides, I’ll be in my wedding gown already.”

“Why Chan Yeol hyung?”

I frowned. “What’s wrong with him? He’s just as dreamy.”

“Ugh! Now I have every reason to believe that you had a crush on him, too.”

I laughed. “Maybe.”

His lower lip jutted out as he shook his head. He leaned back on the couch, away from me and stared up at the ceiling. “Things are going to change tremendously the moment you exchange your vows. I’d have to draw lines and so do you.” He gave my hand a light squeeze. “I don’t like that, just so you know.”

“Jong In-ah…”

He shut his eyes. “Hmm?”

“Tomorrow…”

“Yes?”

I swallowed hard, realizing that I was afraid of what he was telling me. “Things will be official.”

He chuckled. “And your point is?”

I pulled my hand away. “Don’t be like that. I’m as nervous as hell already.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me, but you don’t look like it.” He straightened up when he saw me scowling at him. “I’m sorry. I was kidding.”

I softened when he grinned at me. “You’ll always be my best friend, right?”

“As much as I don’t want to be just your best friend, I’ll do it and stay. Don’t worry.”

“Really?”

He flinched slightly, but smiled anyway. “Is that what you’re worried about?”

I nodded.

“Don’t. It’s okay. You’re going to be fine.”

“I know.”

“I’ll help hyung take care of you.”

I shook my head. “No. Help him take care of Mina.”

“Mina?”

“Yes. She’ll be very distraught. I could tell. You’ll help her, right?”

Pain crossed his features, but he nodded at me.

“I love you, Jong Innie~!” I cooed and smiled.

“I love you, too, Yerin and…” He breathed out. “I’m sorry.”

“Eh?” It was my turn to raise a brow at him. “For what?”

Ever so abruptly, he pulled me against him and closed the distance between our faces as his lips claimed mine with such familiarity and passion that I found myself yielding to his urgency. He held me close with every caress his lips made, speaking to my being, my soul, without words. The warmth of his body against mine branded me. Though I was marrying his hyung, I’ll be his…I’ll be Kim Jong In’s like I’ve always been. How do they call it, accidentally in love? I belonged to him and th