You laid in bed after waking up. It had been weeks since you had talked to Byunghee. After the fight neither of you had made an effort to contact each other. That was normal for you two. You both had the tendency to be stubborn.

What was unusual was how much you wanted to see him. You found yourself no longer caring about the fight and only wanting to see Byunghee. You didn’t anticipate that you would miss him this much. It had started to even affect how you treated Howon. Part of you blamed him for causing problems with you and Byunghee, but you knew that you had brought him into this, not the other way around.  

You sighed before sitting up and turning to look at your phone. You stared at it for awhile before finally picking it up. You opened a new text to Byunghee.

“Oppa… can we see each other today? I miss you.”

You got out of bed to shower and when you returned to your room afterwards, you found a reply waiting for you.

“I miss you too. I can come over at noon if that works for you?” You smiled at his reply.

“Sounds great” you quickly typed out.

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Byunghee smiled at you when you opened the door, happy to see you. Since it had been awhile, neither of you made a move to bring up the fight you had the last time you saw Byunghee.

It felt like it used to being around him. The two of you laughed, played games, watched silly variety shows, just having a good time. You missed being able to be like this with Byunghee. Somehow everything had gotten so complicated. As you thought about it, you realized it was your fault. You were the one that sought to change everything between the two of you by dating Howon.

But maybe it wasn’t just your fault. Perhaps part of it fell to Byunghee too. How long would the two of you been able to keep up a commitment free relationship like the one you had been in? How long would it have taken for one of you to crave something more? If you were being honest with yourself it would’ve been Byunghee who found someone first if you hadn’t clung to Howon.

Your thoughts seemed to demand freedom though as you suddenly began to speak. “It’s funny isn’t it? How after everything we can be like this again, like nothing ever changed.”

Byunghee turned from the television to look at you. He sat next to you on the couch, leaned back comfortably. “What do you mean?”

“I mean after everything, we haven’t changed. We can still be like this.” Byunghee frowned a bit at you. You shifted to face him, your legs folded on the couch. “Seriously Byunghee, think about it. With everything our friendship has been through, we can still be relaxed around each other like this, the same as when we were kids.”

Byunghee gave a reminiscent smile. “I guess it is weird to think about, it isn’t it? Even with all the craziness that has been going on recently, we still find a way to get back to the way we used to be. It doesn’t seem to matter what happens, does it? We always get back to being friends.” You looked up at him. To your surprise, he was smiling slightly. “I was crazy about you when we were younger, you know,” Byunghee said while looking at his hands that were folded in his lap.

“What?” Your eyes snapped up to stare at his face.

“Yeah, when we were in high school. I was never able to get the courage to tell you. You had so many guys after you, and you always said I was like a brother. I knew I never had a chance. So I kept quiet and accepted it.” Byunghee smiled at his hands again. You continued to stare at him in disbelief.

“You… liked me?” You asked slowly.

“More than that,” Byunghee said. “I was in love with you. I could never get you to take me seriously though.” Your mind was going crazy. Byunghee had been in love with you? But you had been in love with him since then too. How had the two of you never managed to piece together how you felt about each other?

“Oppa,” you said softly, looking up at him. Byunghee turned to look at you. “I liked you in high school too.”

He reached over and flicked your forehead. “You shouldn’t tease people when they make confessions like this. It isn’t nice.”

“I’m telling you the truth. I’ll prove it.” You jumped up from the couch, heading for your bedroom. Byunghee got up and followed you curiously. You pulled a box out from your closet shelf and sat it on your bed. You dug around in it before finding what you were looking for.

You pulled out one of your old journals and flipped it open. Most of what you wrote in your journals back then had been about Byunghee, so you weren’t worried about trying to find something about him. The page you opened to was about when you went to a school dance with Byunghee. It had been a girls’ choice dance. You wanted to take Byunghee but figured he would say no unless you sounded desperate so you told him that the boy you originally asked had said no. You smiled at the memory before handing the journal to Byunghee.

He quickly read through it before flipping to another page. You reached to stop him, unsure of what he would see. “Give me a second.” He said, holding you back with one hand. You sighed in defeat. He continued to read, turning to random pages before he just started reading from the beginning of the journal. You let him go for awhile before speaking up.

“Oppa?” You said softly. It seemed enough to get his attention because he looked up at you. He looked lost in his own thoughts.

“You really liked me this much back then?” You nodded in response to his question. “Why did you never tell me?”

“I didn’t think you looked at me that way,” you shrugged. “You had gorgeous girls chasing you down so frequently. How could I compete with them? I didn’t think I would ever get you to look at me like that.”

“We’re both idiots,” he said softly. You laughed slightly before agreeing. “Maybe if we had been able to tell each other this back then, things would be different now.”

“Different? How would things be different? Singing was your dream. You dropped out of school to achieve it.”

“I don’t mean that. I mean that maybe if one of us had been able to speak up back then, we would together now. Who knows, maybe we would’ve been married by now.” You froze. You had thought about what a future with Byunghee would be like for years. You thought about what it would be like to be married to him, to have his children, to grow old with him.

“You would’ve gotten sick of me,” you said jokingly, trying to lighten the feeling in the room.

Byunghee didn’t speak for a few minutes after your comment. You didn’t know what to say to him so you stayed quiet too. Finally, he looked up and met your eyes. He stared at you for a moment before he started talking again. “Tell me the truth, when did you get over me?”

You thought about his question for a moment. You couldn’t bring yourself to look away when you answered. “I don’t know if I ever did,” you said softly.

“But you’re with Howon now.”

“That doesn’t change how I feel about you. I know it should, but it doesn’t.” The two of you continued to stare at each other. “Originally I didn’t think much of Howon. Mi Rae encouraged me to get to know him. She said that the only way I could get over you was to find someone else.”

“And? Did it work?” His voice was hoarse, like he was holding something back.

You shook your head. “No. I mean, I do love him. I just love you more.” Byunghee looked frozen in place for a second before he surged forward.

His lips met yours in a passionate kiss. It wasn’t hungry and needy. Instead, you felt nothing but love. His lips were firm on yours, leaving no room for you to doubt how he felt. When he broke the kiss, he leaned his forehead against yours, his eyes still closed. “I love you too. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone in my entire life and I’m sorry it took me this long to be able to tell you.”

You shook your head slightly. “You told me now, that’s enough.”

“But we could’ve had years,” he started. You pressed your lips to his again to stop his words immediately.

“We did have years. We spent years loving each other, just in secret.” Byunghee smiled and nodded. “What do we do now Oppa?”

“You have to decide what you want to do, who you want. Do you want to be with Howon? Or do you want to be with me?”

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A/N: I actually wrote this chapter before the previous one. It just sort of came to me and I had to write it out. It was one of those moments when the story writes itself. I hope you guys like it~ almost done?