“Dude, just walk up to her and tell her how you feel” Nichkhun nudged Wooyoung who has been staring at Dara for most of lunch. It would have been romantic to be staring at the person you love with such deep devotion, but if you bear no relation to them and are just friends then it’s just plain creepy.

“I can’t. What if she doesn’t like me like that, it’ll ruin our friendship. I prefer to be just friends rather than nothing at all” Wooyoung went on and both Chansun and Junho mouthed the words in synchronization with him. It isn’t the first time that they heard his short speech, it’s been told times and times again every time someone pushes him to confess already.

He looked back to where Dara’s table were and found her looking at him too, he blushed slightly but waved nonetheless and she waved back as well, smiling even. Just the way those lips formed into a perfect arch of a smile made his heart flutter like butterfly wings.

Sometimes when they catch each other and their eyes meeting it seems as if they were a couple, just the way they looked at each other lovingly and the way they would make each other smile made anyone think that they were dating. One problem was they weren’t, if they only knew.

“So who are you going to ask for the dance on Friday?” Jun.K asked curiously, raising his brow and making some sort of beat with the fork against the plate.

“Umm … I don’t know yet” Wooyoung answered truthfully, scowling at his soup.

“Well, better make up your mind coz fishlegs over there is making his move” Nichkhun grinned, pointing his spoon at Donghae who was having a wonderful talk with Dara and by the looks of her smile it was going good.

“Ooh, turned down” the maknae line both said when they saw Donghae was leaving the table with a disappointed look on his face.

Wooyoung was rejoicing quietly in his mind, raising his hands up though just like he won the lottery and was being way obvious. The boys around him rolled their eyes, feeling a bit frustrated with his cowardice over his feelings for the girls.

“I wonder why he keeps rejecting them though, according to Bom, Donghae’s like the seventh one now” Taecyeon asked but the other just shrugged, not caring at all.

The bell rang and lunch was over, period four was starting and Wooyoung couldn’t wait to get to class. It wasn’t like he really liked the class or something, it was only because it was one of the two classes he had with the girl. Even though he sat on the other side of the class and she did on the opposite he still made the best of it.

What he thought would be a fine afternoon turned fairly tragic. Dara was standing outside the classroom door with class president Kwon Jiyong talking to her. He stopped behind the corner and watched them closely, trying to not get caught while eavesdropping.

“Dammit” he cursed when he caught a bit of what they were talking about. Like every boy, he was asking the girl to be their date for the dance on Friday but what he didn’t understand was that just like every other boy they kept being rejected.

Then suddenly Jiyong formed a flower out of nowhere, a rose to be exact and her favorite one. Behind him was IU, a girl a grade younger than he was. “Oppa” she patted his shoulder, surprising him a little bit.

“Oh, hey there” he said clumsily, smiling though to make the other not feel bad about it.

He couldn’t deny the fact that she was one of the cutest girl in school and a lot of boys admired her for that and for her voice. He also knew that the girl had a bit of a crush on him ever since she first laid eyes on him and she hadn’t got the heart to tell her he doesn’t like him in any way at all.

“Sure, I’d love to” he heard Dara say and it was just a rush of adrenaline in him. He didn’t know what came to him but the next thing that happened was that IU was hugging him and thanking him.

“I’d love to go with you oppa, of course” she squealed and by then Dara was already beside Wooyoung, watching them with widened eyes but a weak smile on her lips.

Wooyoung saw her and gasped, wanting to push IU away from him but couldn’t as he was too surprised and breathless over the happenings. “Wow, you’re lucky to IU to be your date Woo” she chuckled lightly, poking Wooyoung’s arm and softly pinching IU’s cheek as she still was one of her friends.

He saw something in her eyes, sadness or maybe hurt but he didn’t know why though. Didn’t he just hear her say yes to Jiyong to be his date for Friday? If that’s true then why doesn’t she seem much happier about him and IU? He was confused and lost, the time to process it all wasn’t given as their chemistry teacher was already starting the class.

Wooyoung kept glancing over to Dara’s side, wondering what was wrong with his friend since the frown on her lips never left from the time the class started. Just one time she too was looking at him, Wooyoung waved goofily like he always did to make her smile but even the funniest face wasn’t enough to take her sadness away. So, he took his phone out and decided to just text her.

From: Woo

            Hey, what’s wrong? Your frown could make the sky cry. Smile a bit J

From: D

            It’s nothing.

He was a bit shock to have such a short answer coming from her. All her messages would always be 4 or 5 sentences, whatever the topic was she always had something to say and it wasn’t a bad thing. Texting compensated for the times Wooyoung couldn’t be with her and getting a short two word from her hurt more than it should have.

From: Woo

            There’s obviously something wrong. C’mon, tell me. We’ll get you latte later, your favorite and my treat.

From: D

            Sorry. Got other plans.

Just four simple words were enough to break his whole world apart. There has never been a time where Dara rejected his offers of hanging out. He didn’t know what was wrong but he was smart enough to not push it further. He looked through the corner of his eyes at Dara and saw her doodling on her notebook, just like how she does when something was bothering her.

From then on the two never talked and then Friday came.

Everyone was gathering inside the hall they rented for the event. The hall was huge, like a Greek stadium of some sort and the fee for it wasn’t too hard to pay since the school was a regular customer. It just happened that the theme of the dance was Greek mythology and so everyone came in as some Greek god. It couldn’t be avoided that someone was the same person as the other, but with the different interpretations of their costume made it bearable.

The popular people were expected to be the more famous gods while the other just tried to look good. Wooyoung came through as Hercules and IU, his date was one of the muses or the goddesses of music. Jiyong was Apollo and they all had expected his date Dara to be Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty but they were all surprised to see her as Megara, a mortal.

Though she was what they didn’t expect her to be they couldn’t deny the fact that she was exquisitely beautiful but no smile could ever hide the sadness painted behind the mask.

Everyone had fun, the dance was never a bore, the food was amazing and but of course the romance was in the air. Wooyoung had finally separated himself from IU. He’s been dragged everywhere and introduced to everyone by the girl, it wasn’t like he didn’t like it at all he just didn’t fancy it.

“Rough night?” Junho teased the other, handing him a glass of coke since alcohol was still prohibited and such.

“Not at all, just too much walking and people” he sighed, finishing the glass with one shot and then his eyes finally settled on wandering around to look for someone.

“If you’re looking for Dara she’s not in the room” Jun.K sat down and informed him.

“What do you mean not in the room?” he asked, getting worried.

“She’s out by the garden, she has been for the whole time” the older sighed.

Wooyoung stood up and carefully left the room without getting spotted by his date or he’d be on another round of introductions and walking around. Having to find the garden wasn’t hard since they’ve been to the place a couple of times already and the statues were all pointing towards that direction.

On the end of the stone trail was a fountain and around it were stone cupids. At first he wondered if he was on the right garden since he didn’t see anyone, but within the trickling of the water he heard a sweet familiar hum.

“What are you doing out here?” as easy as it was to scare Wooyoung it was the opposite for Dara, she just looked up at the intruder and smiled weakly before letting her head back to where it was again. “Just getting some fresh air” she answered.

“How come you’re not inside with your date, the great god of the sun Apollo” he tried to lighten up the mood but it was just like trying to get a flashlight working with the same old, ran out batteries.

“He’s a bit busy with his own death, a severe case of hubris” Dara chuckled bitterly and dryly like she was drunk, but she wasn’t because the girl had serious alcohol tolerance.

“I don’t think that’s Apollo’s fatal flaw” Wooyoung said but again it worked like dry wind on a scorching hot desert.

“Shouldn’t you be inside?” Dara snapped, though it wasn’t completely a problem with anger it sounded like one. Wooyoung didn’t know what to do or what to say, he has never seen the other like that before and it was worrying him. “I’m sorry … I’m just hurting a bit” she chuckled and although it sounded sweet it was still bitter.

Wooyoung heaved a sigh and stood up, but he didn’t leave. He stood in front of Dara and sat down on the grass, not caring about his costume. “Hey” he said softly and cupped her cheeks with both of his hands, brining her face to look at him. “What’s wrong?” he asked, rubbing her cheek with his thumb like he always did whenever the other was keeping something from him.

“Do you know why I kept rejecting the guys who asked me to be their date for tonight?” Dara asked him, her eyes looking straight at his. They were watery and a bit red, she has been crying he thought. He shook his head though, not knowing why.

“Because I was waiting for you to maybe ask me” she said in the saddest tone he ever heard from her. It was breathtakingly sorrowful that he was choked up with the words he was about to say.

He looked up at her eyes and saw the tears that were threatening to fall before to have fallen already, staining her cheeks. “Ssshh” he said and wiped those tears away, but even with his calm face he was going crazy deep inside. He had completely missed out that fact that the other had feelings for him and went straight to the fact that he was the reason the girl he love was sad.

“I’m sorry” he suddenly blurted out, surprising both of them but at least because of that the girl had stopped crying and so he smiled. He was mistaken though, the phrase seemed to have made it worse because Dara was then crying even more and had resorted to hitting him.

“Why are you hitting me?” Wooyoung chuckled, struggling to hold the girl’s hands down.

“Because you’re so stupid” Dara cried.

Wooyoung didn’t know what else to do, he had one thing in mind honestly but he thought it’s the worst thing to do at that time. He couldn’t think of anything else to do anymore, Dara was crying even more and he hated seeing her cry. He hated seeing the person he love cry because of him.

Then he thought of something, remembered a line from some post online that he had read. “Love is giving up fear and finding courage”. He was scared that his feelings might push her away but he just couldn’t leave it in the dark for the rest of his life and so he went on with the last resort.

“Dara” he said softly, the endearment on his voice stopped her cries. “I love you” he smiled and closed the gap between their faces, their lips meeting but only a soft brush.

It would have been perfect if Dara had kissed him back but she didn’t, instead Dara used all the strength she had and pushed the boy away. Right then another unexpected act came through, Dara had slapped Wooyoung and it mortified the boy. He thought he was rejected that she didn’t have any feelings for him at all.

“Why didn’t you ask me for the dance then? How can you not see that I love you too? Are you that stupid?” Dara was just letting it all out, yelling at him on the top of her lungs without any care if anyone was around watching them.

Finally, Wooyoung regained his senses and just smiled. He had completely forgotten about the stinging feeling on his right cheek and was smiling like a fool. “I’m sorry” he sighed and wiped her tears away again, finding the task never tiring.

“I heard you say ‘Sure, I’d love to’, I thought you were going to go with Jiyong” Wooyoung sighed, rubbing her cheek.

“What? You were eavesdropping?” Dara narrowed her eyes on him and he almost whimpered away in fright.

“Maybe …” he looked away and Dara giggled, he smiled form hearing it.

“He was asking if I’d want to help decorating the venue since they needed one more person” she confessed, pinching the boy’s cheeks for misunderstanding the whole situation.

“That hurts” he whined, rubbing them. Dara giggled and just pecked his lips.

“I’m really sorry. It’s just people do crazy things when they’re in love” Wooyoung chuckled and continued on, “Be mine?” he asked in the sweetest way he knew and Dara could have fainted fa rom delight.

She nodded eagerly, they both stood up and Dara had flung her arms around the other’s neck. She didn’t even need to think twice or anything, she smiled and kissed him on the lips.

“Oh would you look at that. Greek mythology at its best, Hercules and Megara for the win” they heard their friends clapping on the side. Both of them didn’t care at all and continued on their make out session. “Oh please, stop or I’ll strike you with lightning” Taecyeon said, flashing them his cardboard cutout of a lightning bold.