You were sitting on your couch with a magazine in your lap. You were flipping through the pages when you came across a page titled “Ways to Improve The Communication in Your Relationship”. Your eyes flashed up to your boyfriend, who was busy playing video games. You decided to read through some of the suggestions. One was to make a list of things the other person did that bothered you so you could address them and find ways to compromise these things.

“Oppa, can we try something?” He paused the game and looked over at you, nodding. You explained what you were supposed to do to him. You each then sat at opposite ends of the room to work on your lists.

As you slowly came up with things that annoyed you, such as him leaving his clothes lying around in the bedroom, you noticed that he was fervently writing away. Did you really bother him that much?

Ten minutes later you both moved to the couch to talk about your lists. Cheolyong sat quietly as your read through your list. It wasn’t very long, but you had tried to come up with a few more things when you noticed how much he was writing. He agreed to ideas to try and fix the things he was doing. When it was his turn, you braced yourself.

You sat listening as you spoke, but you quickly realized that he wasn’t reading a list of things that bothered him. He was listing things that he loved about you.

“I love the way you look when you wake up in the morning before you do your hair and put on makeup. I love how you always try to make dinner for me even though you’ve been at work all day. I love that you watch every performance.” The list went on and on. Your heart hurt a little as you realized you had criticized him in your list, while he did the opposite.

“Oppa, I love you. A lot. You know that right?” Cheolyong smiled at you.

“I know. But you have to play video games with me as punishment for making us do this.”