Before I begin my story, let me introduce myself. I am Taeyeon Kim and I am seventeen years old. The following story I am about to share with you is a story about two old friends of mine…

I once knew a beautiful girl who had a wonderful personality that matched her equally beautiful face. She was popular with those around her, and she was just about the most happy-go-lucky person I had ever met. However, I had never spoken to her because she was one of those individuals that were not very easy to approach because of their overwhelming popularity. Despite her friendly nature, her beautiful face and outgoing personality would intimidate and prevent you from approaching her if you did not have the guts to. Her name was Tiffany Hwang, but everyone knew her as Fany.

To me, Fany seemed to be a very strong person that would never let anything bother her. In fact, you would never think that she had anything troubling her because there was a constant smile on her face. Seeing her without that smile is like having Kool-Aid without sugar, fries without salt, or cereal without milk. In other words, you could not have one without the other.

Every day, I would see her around school and the peculiar detail I noticed about her was her extremely long socks. They were the type of socks that athletes would wear—socks that would extend five inches above the ankle. It was unexpected to see Tiffany wearing them because she was a cheerleader. I would understand if the girls from the basketball or volleyball teams were the ones to wear those types of socks since it was not beyond the norm of the school, but that was the first time I had seen a cheerleader wearing socks of the type. Despite that, this peculiar detail about her intrigued me nonetheless.

Another thing I had noticed about her was the way she hated to stand out. Despite being a cheerleader, she was the most low-maintenance out of all of them. The cheerleaders would always have make-up on and have their hair perfectly straightened or curled, but a majority of the girls in the building would only wear make-up and let their hair down during special occasions. Fany was like most of the girls in the school. Her hair would always be in a high ponytail with little or no make-up applied on her face. But I guess these particular details were what set her apart from everyone else.

Being able to admire this girl’s beauty and radiance every day was a blessing for me. Admiring her from afar was something that had become a part of my daily routine and to be completely honest, I did not mind. This action was enough to put a smile on my face each and every day, and I could not call my day complete until I had done so.

Likewise, I had known a boy who had an equally beautiful personality as Fany’s. He was the cutest and nicest boy you could ever encounter. He would always help those around him without asking for anything in return. And whenever he would find someone sitting alone or someone without a smile on his or her face, his first instinct would be to brighten up that person’s day. No matter what your problem was, he was able to put a smile on your face. This boy’s name was Kangin Kim.

I had known Kangin for three years, and growing up with this boy was nothing short of incredible. Even when he wasn’t talking to me directly, he would make me feel so involved in the conversation, I would feel as if he was talking to me. We were never really close friends, but I could not deny that we were friends. After all, Kangin had never talked to a person he did not befriend.

In time, I slowly began to have feelings for him. Although, I never did act on my feelings because he would always have girls around him. It wasn’t that those girls intimidated me, it was more the fact that I knew he would not return my feelings. I didn’t mind though. As long as I could be his friend, I was happy. Or at least, that’s what I thought.

It was during our sophomore year of high