This…I’m going to turn this into a story. There’s no such thing as “She was mine because I met her first” kind of thing going on in my mind. It was a fact that I met her first, but I never had her first. Baekhyun…what should I say about him? I’ve known him ever since I’ve the talent of crawling on all four. Baekhyun had been my next door neighbor for about 17 years before he moved to another street. He was enrolled into another school before he enrolled into my high school. We were like blood brothers - family - if you know what I mean. We stole from each other, got angry with each other, hit each other, got into fist fights, but it was the norm for guys like us.

During that year when Baekhyun was absent from my school life, I met her, Yuri. Kwon Yuri. She wasn’t the outgoing kind of popular girl; she was a very lively person and drew friends from all sides. I befriended her that year. I liked her the more I got to know her. She was really enchanting as she was friendly. When I knew I liked her, I wanted all my friends to know of her existence and I made the mistake there.

My friends grew friendly with her, they treated her alright, all of them seemed to treat her with respect and joked around with her. What I didn’t know was that a month later Baekhyun had started seeing my special person behind my back. That fall when Baekhyun enrolled into my high school, a rumor spread.

“That new kid has a girlfriend in this school, I heard.”

“I heard they’ve already gone past ‘that’ base.”

I grew curious one day. Would Baekhyun keep anything in his life a secret from me? So I asked him one day and he told me, he’d introduce me to her after school. I grew anxious and nervous. I don’t grow nervous unless something that might impact me would happen, so I became cautious that day. I had planned to confess to Yuri tomorrow since it’d be the 200th day since we’d met and I wanted to make something special out of it.

That day after school I headed directly from school to see Baekhyun at the ice cream shop where we’d promised to meet. The moment I opened the door I saw Yuri sitting at one of the tables and it surprised me. I didn’t know she visited this ice cream shop, but the second I took a step forward someone grabbed my arm.

“Here!” Baekhyun held an ice cream out to me and forced it into my hand. He walked forward and Yuri scooted across her bench to make room for him. There was this broad smile of innocence on Baekhyun’s face as he handed Yuri her ice cream. This left me staring at the two before it suddenly dawned on me.

“You’re not gonna sit?” Baekhyun questioned confused.

Dumbfounded, I remained standing where I was glued in spot before taking a seat in front of them. So they’d met a week after I had introduced them and gotten closer after that. This wasn’t supposed to happen.        

I was hurt. They’d done this behind my back.

The next week and the week after that I avoided contact with either of them. I was miserable and out of love. I didn’t know whether to consider Baekhyun a best friend anymore or not. Was Yuri still even my friend?

I eventually grew over it when Yuri visited me one day and I accidentally cried to her about it. It’s embarrassing now that I think about it. Then I realized I actually really still treasured her. She was my first love and I still wanted her in my life. So then, I got back to where I was before. I amended mine and Baekhyun’s friendship.

Gradually, he and Yuri would get married later on in the future and have a child of their own. During those times, the smile that beamed off Yuri’s face made her radiantly beautiful, but Baekhyun’s smile really meant even more to me. He was so happy. This happy man never stopped smiling or laughing. Really.

Baekhyun meant so much to me, honestly. The more time that passed by, the more we grew older together…every moment of it all was really precious. I’ve held it dear in my heart all this time.

 One day he told me, “Be the god-father of my son, Chen. It’d really mean a lot to me.”

This offer touched me. Of course I agreed. That following year he told me about how he and Yuri first started. When he told me their story, I could see all the love in his eyes and I was glad, then, that Yuri had chosen someone like him over someone like me.

And when their son turned 6, Baekhyun had a boating incident…

So here, the story begins…

Pretty. She was very pretty.

Baekhyun couldn’t take his eyes off her even when Chen had pulled her to the side to introduce her to his other friends. The smile that grew on her face made her cheeks perk up a little and there was this glint in her eyes that made him shy. He thought his face had turned beet red when she turned over to look at him. Not wanting to let the moment pass, he lifted his eyes up shyly from the ground and she smiled bravely at him when their eyes locked for a split second. Embarrassed, he quickly darted his eyes away again.

From afar, he could hear her laughing cheerily at Baekhyun’s greasy jokes. That night when he went to sleep, all he could really think about was that smile and that laugh he’d seen and heard.

The following week, he was dragged out by his younger sister to go as a ‘chaperone’ for a trip. At Lotte World he drifted from them. While they went off to play on their own, he wandered around by himself. A loud crowd had formed that day and he had to squeeze through several families before he could find an empty bench away from the crying babies. Unhappy to be there he plopped down onto the seat and leaned forward while scratching the back of his ears.

All around him were children and young adults running and walking wildly around. Everyone seemed to be with someone and they were having some kind of fun he was missing out on. Baekhyun would have normally joined them, but it didn’t feel right that day. He’d wanted to stay home and listen to his new CD and maybe try out some new recipes he’d seen online. He didn’t want to be outside suffocated in some crowd of loudness.

“Are you alone?” the voice forced him to look up and he immediately straightened his back when he recognized her. The wild pumping of his heart drowned out the crowd’s noise immediately.

“A…ah…” he muttered like a retard.

Yuri smiled at him as if glad she’d found him. “What are you just sitting here for?”

“Ah…w…well…I’m here with my sister,” he replied before shaking his head, “I mean…I’m here to watch over them…”

Baekhyun then turned to look around like he’d lost someone he should have kept his eyes on. Yuri, though, seemed amused.

“You’re handsome.”

He spun back around to look at her with his big eyes and she just laughed at him. This made him unsure about whether she was just being sarcastic with the comment or if she’d been sincere about it.

“You want to go ride something? I’m here with my sister, but she ran off somewhere with some other kids from school,” Yuri explained and he realized she was still standing up.

“S…sure.” He stuttered.

They walked around together before randomly choosing a slow parachute ride. It was quiet when they got on the ride, but it didn’t feel awkward for some reason. Baekhyun was sure that it was Yuri who wasn’t making it awkward. When he turned away from the scenery below to look at her he found her reaching an arm out into the air.

When she turned to him she said, “Chen told me you two are childhood friends.”

“Oh…yea, we are. We were next door neighbors.”

“Ah…no wonder,” she commented with a smile, “are you two into the same kind of things?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“I know Chen likes food, he likes singing, music, writing, and reading. Are you like that too?”

He looked a