Love…

I don’t know when it’ll start…

I also don’t know when it’ll end…

I believe in fated love.

“Seriously, this is going to be your senior quote?” Maeri asked gripping a paper with the lines above on it. “You know, this is going in the yearbook for everyone to see. Not only girls can see it but guys can too.”

Woohyun took the paper away from her and smoothed it out. “Why? What’s wrong with it?” He giggled, “Isn’t it romantic?”

Maeri couldn’t help but to cringe a little. Woohyun was also so confident, so sure in himself. Whereas Maeri scoured books for an appropriate, neutral quote that she could put in the yearbook (something that no one would make fun of or even look twice at), Woohyun just laid out his entire heart on the page and didn’t give a crap about what other people would think about it. Where did he get this confidence?  Maeri rubbed her forehead and pointed to the paper, “Who said this quote anyway?”

“I did,” Woohyun answered with a large smile. Maeri snorted, stifling a laugh. “What? It’s way better than yours!” He took up the piece of paper laying in front of her and read it out loud, “I came. I saw. I conquered. Julius Caesar.” Then Maeri ripped the paper from his hands and pouted. Woohyun chuckled. “What does that even mean anyway?” he asked resting his head in his hands.

Maeri’s lower lip jutted out even further in discontent. “It’s not obvious?” she asked her friend. He shook his head. She sighed and stared at the paper with her brows furrowed. “It’s supposed to mean that I get done what I set out to do.”

“Oh,” Woohyun exclaimed, finally understanding. “Why didn’t you just write that?”

“It’s called a ‘quote.’ And people don’t normally quote themselves,” Maeri chided putting down her paper. “Plus I don’t think I could put it down as eloquently as ‘Love…I don’t know when it’ll start.’ Aish! Who talks like that?” She was speaking sarcastically, but Woohyun took it as a compliment towards his literary skills.

He grabbed the paper from her and a pen. “I’ll write one for you,” he announced.

“No! Don’t!” Maeri whined as she got up and tried to grab the paper from him, but he easily evaded her.

He looked up at her with sad eyes. “Come on, don't you trust me?” he asked in a weak voice.

“Fine,” Maeri gave in, settling back into her seat.  Woohyun smiled his usual goofy grin and then turned his attention to his friend’s quote. Maeri watched him as he bit the end of the pen, contemplating for a few moments before he pressed it onto the paper and jotted down a few words. Maeri leaned in closer, trying to read over his shoulder, but he boxed her out, guarding the paper as if his life depended on it. He was also giggling like a maniac, which made the hairs on the back of Maeri’s neck stand up.

Then he suddenly stopped and brought the paper to his chest. “You ready for the best quote in the world?” he asked in a very serious tone, momentarily dropping his usual smile.

“Yep. I’m dying with anticipation,” Maeri said sarcastically.

“Jjang!” He exclaimed as he handed her the paper with both of his hands.

Maeri took it up, her eyebrows raised so high in suspicion that they almost disappeared into her hairline. She sighed and smirked when she finally read it out loud, “A man can live a month without food, a week without water, but Yoo Maeri cannot live a day without Nam Woohyun…”

“It’s true, right? I captured your essence in that quote. You’re nothing without me,” Woohyun excitedly explained.

Maeri looked at him, pouting slightly. “What am I just a growth to you? Or a parasite?”

Woohyun nodded enthusiastically. “You're my parasite. You’d die without me. Admit it,” he said, patting her on the head.

Maeri raised a fist threateningly at him, but brought it down immediately afterwards. A smile appeared on her face. “The quote’s actually not bad…with a few adjustments.” She grabbed the pen from Woohyun before he could object to her ‘editing.’

A man can live a month without food, a week without water, but he cannot live a day without love.

-Nam Woohyun

“But I didn’t say that,” he objected as he read her finished product.

Maeri was focused on smoothing out her paper (Woohyun had wrinkled it when he grabbed it from her hands). “It’s the essence of it,” she retorted.

Woohyun snorted in response. “Why? Do you love me?” he asked nudging her shoulder.

Maeri’s eyes were now permanently glued to the paper. She felt her cheeks growing hot and red, so she leaned forward, letting her hair fall and cover her cheeks. She bit her lip unconsciously. To say that Maeri had never had seen Woohyun as more than a friend would be a bold-faced lie. Yes, he was her best friend. Yes, they bickered and acted more like siblings. But they weren’t. Also he had a very handsome face and a body toned from sports; over the years he became increasingly  attractive in her eyes, even at his worst, sweaty moments. So it was inevitable that someday Maeri would develop a crush on him. And that day came when he started dating their classmate, Jiyoung, a year ago. Like the saying goes, “You never know what you got ‘til it’s gone.” She found herself being jealous of Jiyoung, who became the new object of his affections, the new recipient of his cheesy lines. That used to be her. She thought that initially she hated Jiyoung just for simply taking Woohyun’s time away from her, turning him into a ‘whipped’ man. However, Maeri realized that her feelings for Woohyun were stronger than she had previously thought when she saw them hold hands for the first time. That hand…is mine, she thought. He is mine. Oh ! Brain, what are you thinking?! I can’t really like him. His my best friend…Why is my heart beating so fast? …I like him.

After calming her racing heart, which had sped up after Woohyun asked his question, Maeri looked up and smiled coolly. “Of course, I love you…like a brother,” she lied through her teeth. Woohyun pushed out his lower lip and nodded. “What? Do you not love me too?” she asked in mock shock, but secretly hoping that he would confess, dump Jiyoung, and run off hand and hand with her into the sunset. Brain, stop it!

“Of course. You know, as a friend,” he said as he fiddled with the pen. Then an awkward pause formed between the two of them. Woohyun looked over at his quote again, then asked, “Do you believe in soul mates?”

“What?” Maeri choked out in surprise. “Why do you ask?” He just shrugged in response. Maeri grew a little irritated. Sometimes his brain just jumped from one topic to the next; she couldn’t read him, and tell what he was thinking. “Well, I guess statistically it makes since,” she answered.

Woohyun burst into a fit of laughter. “Statistically?” he asked skeptically between laughs. “You believe in soul mates because of math?”

Maeri bit the inside of her cheek, controlling her short-temper. “It’s not that weird,” she mumbled under her breath.

“Why?” Woohyun asked with a curious smile.

Maeri paused, gathering her thoughts before answering. “Well…if you think about it, there are like a gajillion people in the world…”

“If you round up,” he joked.

“Of course,” Maeri continued. “So take into account all the different variations in personality, ethics, morality, stuff like that…”

“Okay,” Woohyun said pretending to calculate it in his head.

Maeri laughed. “There’s bound to be 1 person out there who perfectly matches up with you. But…”

“But what?” he asked, being very attentive to his friend’s bizarre explanation.

“The world’s a big place. Statiscally…”

“Of course,” he interjected.

Maeri had to cover up his mouth with her hand before she could continue, “Statistically, you might never meet up with that person.”

Woohyun removed her hand away from his mouth and pouted. “That’s just sad,” he remarked.

“Why?”

He brought up his knees into his chair and hugged them. “You believe that there’s a perfect person out there for you, but you’ll never meet them?” he asked.

“Well…it’s unlikely,” Maeri muttered. “Why? What do you believe?”

“Fate! Didn’t you read my quote?” he demanded, shaking his paper in front of her face. She gently pushed it away. “There’s the perfect woman for me somewhere out there. And we will meet.”

“How can you be so sure?” she asked. Woohyun was always so sure about everything.

“Because fate wouldn’t be so cruel to give us a soul mate and never let us meet them,” he answered assuredly.

“Do you think that you already met her?” she asked, taking his paper away from him and rereading his quote. Fated love…

He shrugged. He watched Maeri fiddle with the piece of paper, and an amused smile appeared across his face. He knew that she had really meant, “Do you think Jiyoung is your soul mate?” And the honest answer would be a flat out “No!” Sure, Jiyoung was the prettiest girl in the class. Dating her was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up (especially when it made all the guys in the school crazy with jealousy). But she was too demanding. He could see the relationship not lasting longer than a few more weeks. He was growing tired of her and her endless lists of demands (having to walk her to every class, carry her books, buy her food, pick up her dry-cleaning, wash her car, etc.). But he wasn’t going to tell Maeri the truth, that the only reason why he was dating Jiyoung was because she was pretty. Then he would appear shallow, and Maeri’s opinion meant a lot to him.

Woohyun also felt a shift in Maeri’s behavior towards him. It was obvious that she became jealous of Jiyoung. Subtlety was not Maeri’s forte; her face was too honest for that. But was that because she was angry that Jiyoung was cutting into their friend time or because Maeri actually liked him, Woohyun wasn’t sure. But one thing he did know for certain, she was a lot more fun to hang out with than Jiyoung, especially since Maeri was more likely to buy him food.

While Maeri was busy studying his quote, he tore hers away from her. “I like your quote better. Let’s switch!” He got up from his seat. “I came up with this one anyway…well, mostly.” Then he took off to turn his new quote into the yearbook office.

“Yah! Nam Woohyun!” she called out after him and chased him down the hallway.

In the end, they had identical quotes printed in the yearbook. Maeri was unable to deter Woohyun from stealing hers and was unwilling to change her own. But she did end up stealing something from Woohyun in return, his unwavering faith in fate. Statistics wasn’t the only reason anymore why she believed her perfect match was  out there, and she will meet him one day…if she hadn’t already.