Min's heartbeat began to race when she heard the doorbell ring. That familiar butterfly sensation that she has been experiencing for the past few months started once again in the pit of her stomach. She quickly jumped out of bed, tossing aside her book, and went out of her room and towards the stairs.

She came to the top of the stairs, just in time to see her brother Jungmin open the door to reveal Mark. She bit her lip to suppress the giddy grin the threatened to overtake her face at the sight of him. There he was, grinning with his hand outstretched to take Jungmin's in a brotherly handshake. His neatly styled hair and clean-cut nature made her swoon, and the normally-stoic girl couldn't explain why he made her feel this way. Mark caught sight of the girl and gave her a casual smile.

"Hey Min!" He raised his hand to wave. Min's face flashed with heat, and she awkwardly waved back.

"H-Heyyy..." she stuttered before taking a step back into her room. She patted her cheeks to calm the blush, and while doing so, she heard the door close and lock, signaling the departure of Jungmin and Mark.

Mark came into her life in September when Jungmin began his freshman year at the state university. Being a year younger, Min was a month into her senior year of high school. One day Jungmin introduced his new friend, Mark, to the family before they went off to a party. Jungmin and Mark suddenly became best friends, bros for life, despite only knowing each other since the start of the term. At first, Min was wary of him, finding his handsomeness to be a bad sign of him being a boy. But as he spent more time around her brother, the more she saw him, the more conversations she had with him, the more she began to slowly fall for him. Hard. Min normally gagged at the sight of couples, but now she was acting like one of those girls that she scorned so much.

Now that it was May, the year was coming to a close. Min's graduation was next week, and her brother and Mark has been out of school for a couple weeks now. She wanted to ask him if he would come to her ceremony, but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to.

The day came, and Min found herself suddenly standing on a stage in her school field in front of hundreds of people, faking a stiff smile while she held her diploma with one hand and shook hands with the man who was handing it to her to pose for the camera. Her purple graduation robes billowed as she walked off the stage down the few stairs and went back to her sit to let the rest of the ceremony finish. 

'You have reached the voicemail of 60-'

"Ugh, my mom's not picking up her phone," Min grumbled to her friend Jia while ending the attempted call. The ceremony had finally finished and people swarmed the field, either looking for their family and friends or looking for their new graduate. Jia caught sight of a particular someone and grabbed Min's arm. 

"Min, look! It's Mark!"

Min's head snapped up at the sound of his name. Sure enough, there was Mark, waving as he pushed through the crowds towards her. "Min!" she heard her name, barely over the noise of the crowd.

"Found my family. Seeya!" Jia gave her a final hug before leaving her to watch as Mark made her way to her.

"Gotcha! I'm gonna call Jungmin now to tell him that I found you." Mark put his arm around her shoulder to pull her close to him as they started towards the edge of the field. She was pressed so closed to him. She couldn't take it anymore, and pulled away from Mark.

"Mark, hold on," she grabbed his hand to stop him from going any further. He gave her a questioning look. "What's wrong?" he slowly lowered his phone from his ear.

Min took a deep breath, bracing herself for what was about to happen. "I really like you. Like more than as a friend. And I know that you probably don't feel the same way, and that I'm just a kid to you, and that nothing could ever happen to us, but--"

Mark interrupted her rambling. "Wait, what? Min, you like me?" He stared at her in surprise. She bit her lip and simply nodded slowly. Mark was silent for a few seconds, his mind racing with thoughts.

"Well," he finally said. Min winced, bracing herself for rejection. "I haven't really thought about you in that light." Ouch, rejection hurt more than she expected.

"But I'm willing to give it a try."

Min looked up at Mark in surprise, who gave a small, cute, and somewhat shy smile. "We've got the whole summer ahead of us. Let's get to know each other a bit more." 

It wasn't an rejection. And that was enough for Min. Her lips bloomed into a wide smile. "Sounds great," she said happily. Mark patted her head, smoothing her hair, then unexpectedly leaned down to peck her cheek. She started with surprise, then looked at him. 

"I'm warning you now that I'm an extremely skinshippy person. I hope you're up for it," he laughed at her shocked expression, wrapped his arm around her shoulders again, and started leading her towards her waiting family. "Come on, your parents are waiting."

Min smiled to herself. This was a start, and she was going to make the most of it.