"Sorry! I didn't keep you waiting for long, did I?" My vision becomes dark as a pair of familiar hands wrap around my eyes.

"If you consider two hours as short, then yes, you didn't keep me waiting for long." I try my very best to put on an irritated look. She releases her hands and stands right in front of me, making silly and apologetic faces. With this, I know that I have lost. "Fine. You win."

"I always win!" She claps and cheers excitedly. "Where are we going today?" She links her arm around mine naturally as we stroll along the street of Myeongdong.

I am Kwon Jiyong and the girl is Im Yoona; my childhood friend and well, my GIRLFRIEND. Yoona and I had been best of friends since we're eight. We've been in the same preschool, high school, middle school, college. Though we had been friends for more than half of our life, the thing to note is that we have nothing in common. Yoona loves ballads, I love hiphops. She loves every single food on Earth, while I'm a picky eater. She is an outgoing and friendly person, but I'm a Mimosa - 'Touch-Me-Not'.

Hence, it came as a surprise that we could actually click. Yoona had always been a popular girl in school, having lots of suitors and admirers. She did went through several courtships, but it always ended up as breakups. Of course, I had been carrying a torch for her, but I was far too much a coward to confess to her. I'm nothing compared to her suitors. I ain't rich, I ain't handsome, I ain't smart, I ain't... Ok, I can go on and on about this. In short, I'm just not cut out to be her other half. I'm contented enough to be by her side, to be able to share her sorrows should she meet any.

So, how did we get together? I guess, heaven is kind with people like me. Yoona seemed to notice my feelings when we were eighteen. I denied it initially but she wasn't someone who would be taken in so easily. A little embarrassing it might be, but she was the one who confessed to me. On my eighteen birthday, after my celebration and when everyone had left, she brought me to the park where we first met. We talked and reminisced about the past for a long while. When I was caught off guard, Yoona kissed me by the cheek and scolded me for being a coward. She told me she loved me too. Not as a good friend, but as a guy. I was so overwhelmed with happiness that I couldn't rub that smile off my face. It took me a minute or two to realise what she was trying to say - She wanted to be my girlfriend. I was so happy that I literally hugged and spun her around the park, ignoring the weird stares and gazes thrown at us.

I was a coward. Actually, scratch that. I'm still a coward. If I ain't a coward, Im Yoona would have been Kwon Yoona already. We are twenty-five now and our relationship, seven. Yoona once told me that her ideal age of marriage was twenty-four. I had been keeping this in mind, but didn't have the guts to take any actions. Friends around us, be it an introvert or extrovert, had all gotten married or had kids. This time, I swear I am not going to be a coward anymore. I won't and can't let her take the lead anymore. It's a proposal, not a courtship. I am asking for her hand. Asking for the permission to spend the rest of my life with her.

"Ji? Yah! Kwon Jiyong! Are you spacing out again?" One flaw about her? She is too rough at times. But who cares, I don't detest it.

"Aren't you hungry?" The only thing that could keep her busy; Food.

"Yeahs!" See what I mean? "Are we eating at somewhere classy today?"

"You do know that I just gotten my pay right?"

"Precisely. Daesung oppa told me that you had a promotion too. A pay rise even. Why didn't you tell me?" She pouts, giving a dissatisfied look.

"Awww. I wanted to tell you over the dinner, as a surprise. But Kang Daesung just ruined everything." I pinch her nose and smile.

"So, we're going to have steak after all?" She lights up immediately.

"Not just that," I laugh, wrapping my arm around her waist, pulling her closer to me as I take in her strawberry scented hair. "I had it all planned out. Just be prepared to be swept off your feet."

This time, it's going to be a success. It must be.

✺✺✺✺✺

"I was just joking! Are you serious? Everything here is so overpriced!" Yoona exclaims as her eyes goes wide at the menu. "Let's go somewhere else to eat instead."

Another thing that I like about her. She cares for me, from head to toe, from inside out.

"Don't worry. I got the money. Didn't you want to have steak? Here serves the best steak in town." I chuckle as I look at the menu for the sake of looking. I had already set everything in place.

"Yes, I did say that. But I'm pretty sure the one we have at Billy's is as equally good. You don't need to splurge on this Ji." She pouts, trying to keep her voice as soft as possible, while glancing around the posh restaurant. "Let's make a run now."

"We would like to have two porterhouse steaks. I would like to have mine medium well and give this lady well done. Give us a bottle of 1999 C