Dongwoon and I had met when we were still young, on the very first day of preschool. Despite how cliché it must sound, he was my own "knight in shining armor". At least, that's how I looked at it.

"I can't believe you're so stupid." The girl with the sparkling headband sneered as I stared at her with wet eyes. My palms still burned from being pushed down on the playground and tears were threatening to spill. When I didn't respond and just kept looking at her, she huffed and stomped closer, probably to push me again.

"Stop." A calm voice spoke behind her. A boy was standing behind me, a calm expression on his face. The other girls seemed to giggle at the sight of his black hair and perfect, dark brown eyes, and even the girl who had pushed me seemed to turn pink. "Leave, or I'll tell Teacher Park that you pushed her."

Even though it didn't seem that big of a threat, Teacher Park was known as the scariest teacher in our school. She would put children in time out for the smallest of crimes and if she had discovered someone had harmed another student, there would certainly be a huge consequence. Immediately, the girl bowed and apologized to the boy, pointedly ignoring me before scurrying off with her friends. He turned to me then, and held out his hand, a gentle smile on his face.

"Let's go somewhere else so I can check to make sure you don't need to go to the teacher." He spoke soothingly, his voice unbelievably low for such a young boy. With hesitant movements, I placed my hand in his slightly larger, outstretched one and let him pull me away. "I'm Son Dongwoon, by the way. What's your name?"

"Choi...Choi Eunmi."

Since that day, we've been friends. Even through elementary school, middle school, and high school, we've stayed close and spent time together whenever we possibly could. He was my best friend, and I was his. Everyone in school knew that messing with me would mean messing with him and no one wanted to cross Son Dongwoon, one of the kingkas in our school. I couldn't imagine a better life. I had good grades, a talent for music, and a lot of friends. But most importantly, I had Dongwoon. Nothing could go wrong, right? Well, you're wrong. I was in love with Son Dongwoon and there was absolutely no way he could ever love me back.

I held a hand to my cheek, a burning feeling already spreading. There was no doubt that a red mark was already appearing as well. Before I had time to react, the girl who had slapped me started to talk again, her words filled with anger and hatred. "Dongwoon oppa doesn't like girls with aegyo. Leave him alone from now on."

The tears welled up quickly and soon, I was starting to cry silently, my lower lip trembling. No matter how much her words hurt, I couldn't hit her back. I was never an aggressive person and I probably wouldn't be able to do anything but stand her and let her scream at me. But her words hit me hard, no matter how hard I wish they didn't. Dongwoon always told people that he didn't want to date girls with aegyo, although he never told that to me directly, it was a known fact. People always called me cute and I was known as the "aegyo princess" in our school, so why did he remain friends with me? Just because everyone, me included, was confused, didn't mean that we had to stop being friends though, right?

Taking a breath, I spoke with as much confidence as I could muster, deciding that it was better to stand up for myself. "No, I won't leave him alone."

"What did you say?" she screeched loudly, placing a hand on her hip in an attempt to look more intimidating, although the result was far from it.

"I said no. Dongwoon oppa and I are friends. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean that I'll stop just because you tell me to." I took a deep breath after my outburst, looking at her defiantly.

"You...you !" She raised her hand, causing me to close my eyes as the stinging returned, the sound of the slap seemingly echoing as students watched on with silence. I held a hand up to my check, my lower lip trembling.

"Stop." A voice called out and I opened my eyes to see Dongwoon walking towards us confidently, Yoseob and Junhyung behind him. My mind flashed back to the incident in preschool (hadn't he said the same exact thing?) but I was quickly pulled back to the future when I felt his eyes on me.

"Dongwoonie oppa!" The girl exclaimed in her squeaky voice. "You don't understand! She started it!" Dongwoon walked right past her and stopped in front of me, his gaze never leaving mine. He brought his hand to my cheek, replacing my own as the coolness of his skin soothed the burning.

"Are you alright?" He asked me in a gentle tone, his worried eyes no doubt checking to make sure I wasn't hurt anywhere else. I nodded, giving him a small jerk of the head.

"Oppa..." I whimpered, allowing him to pull me into a tight hug, my tears staining his shirt. I could hear Yoseob telling the girl to leave over my soft sobs and Junhyung exclaiming to the crowd to get going but I didn't bother to look up, to leave his comforting embrace. We stayed like that for a moment, giving me time to compose myself and stop the tears.

"Let's go." Dongwoon whispered in my ear, letting go only to grab my hand and pull me away, leading me away with the other two beside us.