You stared down at the box of chocolates that was gripped between your hands. You slipped off the cover and admired the assortment of truffles that were nestled between tissue papers in hues of red and pink.

You felt your mouth start to water as your eye ran over the chocolates.

You shook your head and quickly placed the cover back on the box, reminding yourself of the "no sweets lifestyle change" that your doctor recently put you on.

A stream of students flowed down the hallway, excitement visible on their faces. A handful of students still lingered, discussing plans for their weekend, as you took timid steps down the hall towards a small group of boys who were gathered near a set of lockers.

You stood behind a boy who had his back faced towards you.

The other five boys went quite, noticing you standing behind their friend.

Taking a deep breath, you mustered all of the courage you had in your body.

"Jongin," you called out quietly, your knuckles starting to turn white from gripping the small box too tightly.  

Your childhood friend and neighbor turned his head around and his eyes widened in surprise to see you standing behind him.

"Oh," he said, turning around to fully face you, "What's up?"

Past the sound of your heart echoing in your ears, you noticed that the entire hallway went completely silent as onlookers curiously watched the scene in front of them.

Not used to the attention, you swallowed hard under the weight of the dozens of eyes.

"These are for you," you spewed out, quickly shoving the box of sweets into his hands.

"Umm, thanks," he said with confusion and a bit of uncertainty in his voice.

The two of you stood in silence, you staring down at your feet and Jongin staring at the box of chocolates in his hands.

You could almost hear the click in his head hen realization finally set in.

"Are these -" he started by cut his words short.

Jongin glanced around and saw the attention that was being drawn to the two of you.

'Isn't he going to say something?' you started to panic internally, wondering what he was going to say, how he was going to react.  

But the reaction you received was the last thing you expected: he laughed.

But it wasn't his lighthearted, melodious laugh that you were used to. This laugh was mocking, cold, and shattered your heart into pieces.

"You actually baked these?" he sneered as another round of laughter surfaced from the pit of his stomach.

You stared at the boy before you in disbelief, your eyes starting to glaze over with tears. You knew he had a reputation for being a player, but you didn't know how downright mean he was. Even his own friends stared at him in shock.

"I'm sorry," Jongin placed a hand on your shoulder and looked down at you, expressionless, "But no thank you."

He gave the box back to you but you let it slip through your hands and crash on the cold tile floor, the dark mounds rolling around your feet.

You stood there, heartbroken and numb, ignoring the whispers and murmurs that filled the halls, as Jongin walked away without a second glance.

You tried your hardest not to cry, not there, not in public. But you couldn't stop a single tear from escaping your eye.

---

'If you love someone, the best thing to do is let them go.'

Jongin rolled his eyes at the saying and stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom.

"How is it the best thing to do if you both end up hurting in the end?" he muttered to himself.

He to his side and gazed up at the moon through his window.

"At least she won't be broken hearted in the long run," he sighed, an image of your smiling face popping into his mind.

Bright smile, crescent moon eyes, a laugh that made his heart sing. Your face was a littler chubbier than most girls in school, but he liked it that way. He always did.

His stomach churned when your cheerful face slowly morphed into one of pain and despair, an identical expression to the one you had in the hallway earlier that day. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, trying to force the image away.

He didn't want to hurt you, but it was the only way he knew how to protect you. Protect you from his reputation, the harsh and shallow fangirls that he had, the cold side of high school that he spent years trying to keep you away from.

In the back of his mind, Jongin knew who he was really protecting and that was himself.

He didn't want to experience real heartbreak and heart ache. He didn't want to be there when you realized that you could do so much better than him. And he most definitely didn't want you to see the fragile Jongin, the one who's the complete opposite of the cool and confident Kai.

So he pushed you away. He knew you would move on eventually, you were a strong girl after all.

The only thing was, he didn't know if he would ever move on. Could he handle seeing you in the arms of another man? Or laughing with a guy who he knew was supposed to be himself? Could he really handle the fact that you could fall for another?

Suddenly feeling a bit suffocated, he climbed out of bed and walked over to his window. Prying it open, he stuck his head out and closed his eyes, breathing in the cool autumn air.

"You're doing the right thing," he told himself as he stared at your window that was only a few feet away from his own, "She deserves a man, not some childish boy."

Just as he was about to close his window and return to bed, the faint sound of a sniffle traveled with a soft breeze to his ears.

Sticking his head out of the window again, he felt his heart drop into his stomach when he saw a figure curled up on the rooftop next to his.

You sniffled as more and more tears slipped out of your eyes.

Another cool breeze of night air blew against your balled up figure, chilling you to the bone and causing you to bury your face deeper into your arms.

A sudden feeling of warmth wrapped around you, shielding your from the cold wind and the cold heartache.

You looked up and your eyes met another pair that belonged to Jongin. He still had his hands on the blanket that he was wrapping around your shoulders as he started back at you, unwavering.

You quickly turned away from his, scrubbing away your tears with the back of your hand.

Jongin bit the inside of his lip as he watched you wipe away the trails of tears on your cheeks and clear your clogged up throat.

"What are you doing out here?" you asked, sitting up straight.

Jongin felt like something was eating him from the inside as you tried to be strong in front of him.

"You looked cold," he said softly as he sat down beside you.

"You looked pretty cold today in school too," you let out a forced laugh, trying to make light of the situation that you wished you could forget.

Now, at that moment more than ever, Jongin wished he could time travel. He wished he could go back in time, be true to himself, accept those stupid chocolates, and finally have you as his after all those years of just being "childhood friends".

"I didn't mean it like that," he mentally kicked himself when he realized how horribly cliché that sounded.

"Then what did you mean for that to be?" you held back you scoff, you were honestly too tired for all of this.

"I-" his mind suddenly went blank despite everything that was through his head mere minutes ago.

You heaved a sigh, "It's getting late, why don't you just go back inside, Kai?"

"Don't call me that!" he snapped, turning his head towards you and sending you a glare.

Regret instantly took over his body when he saw you flinch away from him and he realized how harshly that came out. He his lips as he turned to face foreword and bowed his head.

"You never call me that," he whispered.

"Isn't that what you've always wanted me to call you?" you asked, dozens of memories of Jongin scolding you for calling him by his real name instead of the name that his friends from school made up.

"Well, yeah but just … don't," he finished lamely.

"Then what do you want me to call you?" you furrowed your eyebrows, frustration starting to set in.

"Your boyfriend," he whispered, not realizing that he said his thoughts out loud.

"Excuse me?!" you yelled, not even caring that it was the middle of the night, "What gives you the right to say that?!"

"Because I love you!" he screamed back at you, "I've always loved you! I loved you when you had a crush on Sehun, when you thought you were going to marry that lead singer of the boy band, and even when you told me about your first kiss. I loved you even then."

A new batch of tears filled your eyes.

"If you loved me, why did you reject me today?" you asked, your voice cracking.

"Because you can do so much better than me," he said, shaking his head with a grim smile as he felt his eyes start to water.

"Yeah right," you scoffed, rolling your eyes, "That's not true, just look at me."

"You're beautiful," he responded without hesitation.

You looked at the boy sitting next to your with wide eyes, stunned by his blunt words.

After a few moments of silence, he finally spoke up.

"Jongin is shy," he ignored the confused looked you shot as him as you wondered why he was referring to himself in the third person, "But it's a good thing Kai is selfish."

You let out a small gasp right before he leaned in and pressed his lips to yours, capturing them in a kiss.

You sat there for a few moments, wide eyed and still as Kai cupped your cheek with one hand. You slowly came back to your senses and let your eyes slip shut as you kissed him back.

If there was anything in the world sweeter than chocolate to you, it was Jongin's lips.

You pulled away when oxygen became a necessity and stared up into his eyes.

"Was that Kai or Jongin?" you whispered, still a little flustered and breathless from the kiss.

"That was Kai," he breathed as he leaned his forehead against yours, "But this," he brushed his lips against yours in a kiss that was so tender and innocent, you didn't really know if it counted as one, "is Jongin."

You let out a tinkling laugh as you wrapped your arms around his neck and reconnected your lips to his once again.

When he eagerly responded to the kiss, you didn't know if it was Kai or Jongin, so you guessed that it was just your boyfriend.