At the sound of another voice, Lila froze where she was standing, but her heart was beating fast, she would be able to recognize that voice anywhere…Sandeul. “Ah, what…what are you doing here?” Lila managed to ask.

            “What are you talking about?” Sandeul asked pretending to play off the fact that he was previously eavesdropping on their conversation. He was walking home when he saw Lila and Mir walking to the park. It wasn’t that he liked to eavesdrop, but it was just something about the two of them that he thought was interesting. His feet just ended up leading him to spying on the two and overhearing the entire conversation, including the part of Mir announcing his departure. Somehow, something inside of Sandeul became happy at that statement; even though he knew that he wasn’t supposed to be.

            “You here in the park,” Lila said in an attempt to keep her voice steady despite the closeness of Sandeul to her and the fact that Sandeul’s arms were wrapped around her. “Why?”

            “Can’t I be?” Sandeul innocently asked as he pulled away from the hug and made Lila face him. “I was just passing by and I saw you standing here. I just thought that I should have a little fun.”

            “A little fun?” she asked in disbelief. She was scared out of her mind by thinking that someone could kidnap her while Sandeul only thought of it as a game. Was this the type of person that she had a crush on? But no matter how Sandeul acted, Lila was pretty sure that she would always have a crush on him.

            “Aww, don’t be mad,” Sandeul said poking Lila’s cheek. “How about I walk you home? It’s getting late.”

            “Okay,” Lila said nodding her head as she began walking to her house. Sandeul said nothing and walked behind her. They both felt awkward with one another, they didn’t know what to say or do. It just seemed like they were both lost in their own thoughts when it was that they were debating on whether or not to tell the other about their feelings. Sandeul figured that Lila probably wouldn’t do anything after hearing the news that Mir was leaving, so he thought that just leaving the feelings alone would be the best and staying by Lila’s side while Mir left. He also figured that he would be able to get closer to her that way.

            “I guess I’ll see you?” Sandeul awkwardly asked as they both stood outside of Lila house.

            “I guess I’ll see you,” Lila said nodding her head. She watched as Sandeul turned away to walk down the front steps when she stopped him. “If you don’t mind,” she hesitantly began, “I’d like for you to come to the airport with me so I can see Mir-oppa off. Is that alright with you?”

            Sandeul was in a state of shock. He didn’t believe that Lila was just asking him to hang out with her, he thought it was a dream come true. “Of course I’d love to come with you. What time should I be here?”

            “I’m not sure. How about you give me your phone number and I can text you the time after speaking with oppa?” Lila suggested. Sandeul nodded his head and he and Lila exchanged phone numbers. “Well, goodbye,” Lila said waving as Sandeul began to walk away.

            “Goodbye,” Sandeul said with a smile as he began the long journey back to his own house.

The morning came faster than Lila had wanted it to. She didn’t want to say goodbye to Mir. He was one of her good friends, someone that she could always lean on, but he was leaving to go explore Seoul. What he was going to in Seoul she wasn’t sure, but Lila figured that if he wanted to go then he should go and do what he wants to do with his life, who was she to stop him?

            “Good morning,” Sandeul brightly said as he stood outside of Lila’s house. They were going to go to the airport together with Sandeul driving.

            “Are you sure you can drive?” Lila asked with uneasiness.

            “Positive, I’ve never been better,” Sandeul said with a smile. He was confident in his driving skills, but with Lila around, she made everything more nerve-wracking, even when it didn’t need to be.

            The two made their way to the airport to see Mir off. As far as Lila knew, Mir was already at the airport, or rather on his way also. She didn’t ask many questions, but she knew that he was going to be there by the time that they arrived.

            The car ride was slightly awkward between Lila and Sandeul. They didn’t know what to talk about. It was the first time that they were really next to each other and it was the first time that they were ever doing something together. Since Sandeul was a year older than Lila, it was slightly hard for them to interact like normal friends during the school day, making their crushes even more crushing. Somehow, though, when they found themselves next to each other, they didn’t know what to talk about. They didn’t want to seem like they were too interested in the other one, but it was awkward without saying anything.

            “So…um…where is Mir-hyung going?” Sandeul asked as he awkwardly began the conversation.

            “He’s going to explore Seoul,” Lila said sighing. She didn’t want to admit that he was leaving because it would make it seem all too real, despite him leaving that day.

            “Explore Seoul,” Sandeul said thinking about it. He had always wanted to go to Seoul and see the surroundings; he thought that it would be cool. Seoul was a city, unlike the somewhat suburb area that they were from. Going to Seoul seemed like an adventure, and it seemed like something he would want to do in the future sometime.

            Within no time, they arrived at the airport and they saw Mir in the waiting area. “Oppa,” Lila immediately said as she ran over to him and hugged him.

            “Lila,” Mir said standing up as soon as he heard Lila’s voice. As tightly as Lila hugged him, he hugged her back. He was going to miss the feeling of being together with her, but when an opportunity arises, he must take it.

            “Oppa, I don’t want you to leave.”

            “I don’t want to leave either,” Mir said with a half chuckle.

            “Then why are you?” she asked as she pulled away from the hug and looked at him with a serious expression.

            “I want to explore, I want to become a better person,” Mir told her. “By staying here…I can’t really do that now, can I?”

            “Yes you can, you don’t have to leave.”

            “I wish I could stay, I really wish I could, but I can’t, I’m sorry.”

            “That’s alright,” Lila said attempting to hold back her tears. She didn’t want Mir to remember her as a crybaby. She wanted him to remember her as someone that was always happy, not a crybaby.

            “I’ll come back for you, I promise,” Mir said as he hugged Lila tightly again. He was sure that he would come back once he made a good name for himself. He was sure that he would come back and rightfully tell Lila how he felt about her and just maybe they would be able to have a good future with one another. Maybe they would both find happiness in each other, Mir wasn’t sure, but it was something that he was willing to work towards.

            “Promise?” Lila muttered.

            “Promise,” Mir repeated.

            Sandeul awkwardly stood on the sideline watching the whole scene unfold in front of him. He didn’t know what to say about the situation and he definitely didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t that close with Mir and he wasn’t that close with Lila, despite the desire to be closer to her. However, after hearing Mir’s words towards her, he was beginning to worry about whether Lila’s heart would be able to come to him. After watching the scene between Mir and Lila, it seemed like they both liked each other and Sandeul figured that there would be no way that Lila would come to his side no matter how much he pursued her. In that short moment of time, Sandeul was slowly starting to give up on Lila.

            “Are you okay?” Sandeul asked as he and Lila were driving back to her house. The car ride was silent and Sandeul was pretty sure that he saw Lila softly crying upon Mir’s departure onto the airplane.

            “Yea, I’m fine, I just want to go home,” Lila said sighing as she looked out the window. “Thanks for coming with me, though.”

            “Anything for you,” Sandeul softly said as he continued driving to her house.

It had been about two months since Mir left for Seoul. During that period of time, Sandeul and Lila slowly started becoming closer friends. Slowly, Lila began forgetting the emptiness of Mir as Sandeul began filling that spot. Both of their crushes for each other grew.

            “You seem to be getting closer to Lila these days,” Minhyuk said when he and Sandeul were spending their lunch break together.

            “Really?” Sandeul asked attempting to play off the fact that he and Lila had been getting closer. He didn’t want to ruin anything between the still budding friendship between the two of them so he thought that saying nothing would somehow work and keep their friendship the same.

            “You know it as well as I,” Minhyuk said rolling his eyes. He knew that Sandeul would probably try to change the subject whenever he brought up Lila, but this time he was determined to have Sandeul keep on the subject of Lila and not change the topic. “Why don’t you just confess to her?”

            “What?” Sandeul asked as he began choking on a mouthful of food. “What did you just say?”

            “Confess to her,” Minhyuk said once again as casually as possible. “I’ll even help you. While we’re at it, why don’t you confess to her today?”

            “Are you out of your mind?” Sandeul asked. “How in the world would I be able to confess to her today?”

            “Just tell her what you really feel, it’s not that hard,” Minhyuk said as he got up from the table that they were sitting at. “We’ll talk about it after school. You’re going to confess to her today, I’m going to make you.”

            “Ya! Lee Minhyuk!” Sandeul called after him, but he didn’t pay any attention and continued walking away. Sighing, Sandeul admitted slight defeat. He figured that he was probably going to have to confess to Lila and that Minhyuk wasn’t going to let him get out of it so easily when it was pretty obvious that he liked her.

            Sighing, Sandeul sat through his next classes wondering how in the world he was supposed to go about confessing to Lila. He wasn’t entirely sure what her dream confession was, as he had wanted to ask her but was also too nervous to even mutter a word about possibly confessing to her. Sandeul was afraid of rejection, he was afraid of being rejected from the person that he didn’t want to reject him the most in the world. It was that type of feeling, but Sandeul was a bit restless too. He wanted to know Lila’s answer and he wanted to know whether she liked him back, he was curious.

            “What are you doing?” Daehyun asked sitting next to Sandeul in their last class of the day.

            “Nothing,” Sandeul said sulking as he rested his head on his desk.

            “Well obviously it’s nothing,” Daehyun said rolling his eyes. He knew that something was bothering Sandeul and although he didn’t entirely know what was going on, he figured that it probably had something to do with his crush on Lila, but he wasn’t entirely sure. Sometimes Sandeul would get sad over food that they had or didn’t have in the cafeteria. Daehyun was never sure what was going through Sandeul’s mind.

            “How do you confess to a girl?” Sandeul asked leaning his cheek on the desk and looking at Daehyun.

            “What are you talking about?” Daehyun asked looking at Sandeul in disbelief.

            “How do you confess to a girl?” Sandeul asked again with full seriousness as he looked at Daehyun. Sandeul figured that Daehyun would be able to answer such a question since all of the girls liked Daehyun and Daehyun had quite some experience in dating them. Sandeul figured that there would be no one better to ask advice from than him.

            “You want my advice on how to confess to a girl?” he asked in disbelief. Daehyun couldn’t believe that he was acting like that just because of a girl, who he was sure was Lila.

            “Yes,” Sandeul sulked.

            “Just do what you deem fit,” Daehyun said shrugging his shoulders and getting out his books as the teacher walked in. “Just do what you feel comfortable with, no one should be forcing you to do something that you don’t want to.”

            Daehyun really provided no help to Sandeul who just continued sulking deep in his thoughts about how he should confess to Lila. Although, Sandeul did think that Daehyun provided one good piece of advice, that he should just do what he deemed fit. Sandeul was never one for fancy confessions, he figured that that would make everything awkward.

            “I’m just going to do a blunt confession,” Sandeul told Minhyuk when they were at their lockers.

            “You’re actually going to do it?” Minhyuk asked. He was sure that Sandeul was going to find some way to bail out of the whole situation.

            “I’m going to do it,” Sandeul said taking a deep breath. He figured that it was either now or never. If he didn’t confess to Lila that day, then he figured that he was never going to be able to tell her his feelings, ever.

            “Are you sure about it?” Minhyuk asked attempting to make sure that Sandeul was going to do it and not mess up.

            Without replying to Minhyuk, Sandeul made his way over to Lila’s locker in another hallway, but not that far away. “Hey, oppa,” Lila said, her face brightening upon seeing Sandeul. She hadn’t seen him all day and she wondered where he was. To her, it kind of seemed like he was avoiding her.

            “I like you,” Sandeul immediately said as soon as he saw Lila. His heart was beating a thousand miles a minute and he was hoping that she wouldn’t be shocked by his sudden confession, but she was. Lila was in shock from the sudden confession of Sandeul, but it was a good type of shock. She didn’t know what to think. Here he was, the boy that she had a crush on for the longest time, saying that he liked her.

            “What?” Lila asked in shock and disbelief. It wasn’t that she didn’t hear him; it was just that she wasn’t sure if her ears had mislead her.

            “I. Like. You,” Sandeul said breaking apart each of the words. “I like you, I’ve liked you for the longest time. Lila, will you be my girlfriend?”

            Without hesitation and without thinking, since there was no need, Lila nodded her head. “Yes. Yes…I will be your girlfriend. I like you, too, Lee Sandeul,” Lila said. After hearing those words, Sandeul immediately wrapped his arms around Lila and brought her close.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What was the reason that Lila and Sandeul broke up? Will Lila ever discover the reason why Sandeul left her? Will Lila and Sandeul get back together? Will Eunji do something? Will Jinyoung be able to win Lila's heart?

Here is Chapter 13. Hope you enjoyed :D

The next chapter will be the last chapter about the past and after that, we'll move back into the present. For certain, in the next chapter, you'll figure out the reason why Sandeul left Lila. What do you think it is?