Her fingers his black hair absentmindedly. He loves it when she does this; it was soothing. His ears were filled with her humming a familiar song dating back to their childhood. A small smile crept on his face, recalling the memory when he first sang the song to her. “That song got you to stop crying every time,” Daesung chuckled, looking up at his best friend. “You were such a crybaby growing up.”

Her eyes narrowed, glaring at the singer. “I wasn’t a crybaby! I was just a very sensitive little girl!” Anika exclaimed, flicking Daesung’s nose.

“Yah! That hurt!” Daesung yelped, rocketing up from Anika’s lap. “How dare you damage my beautiful face?” he whined, looking at her with sad eyes as he cupped his ‘injured’ nose.

“You’ll be alright,” she waved off, chuckling.

Daesung let out a loud, dramatic wail, burying his face into the couch. “I’m going to tell Seunghyun-hyung on you!” he cried.

She eyed him with disappointment, shaking her head. “Sometimes you make me question this friendship,” Anika sighed, glancing at the overdramatic singer.

“I question things between us, too, sometimes,” Daesung retorted, recovering quickly from his emotional ordeal.

“Oh? Like what?” Anika scoffed.

He looked at her for a moment, feeling the blood creep up on his face. He diverted his eyes into another direction, too nervous to look at her now. “Like what?” she repeated, annoyed. Daesung let out a nervous cough, mumuring, “You know…like, I don’t know… Maybe why we don’t take this friendship to something more.” An eyebrow perked up, triggering a curiosity from his words. She leaned closer to Daesung. “What did you say, Dae?” He kept his head down, refusing to look at his best friend. The singer immediately regretted what he said, mentally slapping himself.

 “What did you say, Daesung?” Anika repeated, forcing Daesung to look at her.

 The singer his lips nervously as he went back and forth between her eyes and her lips.

In an instant, his lips crashed onto hers. Anika was stunned for a moment, taken aback by Daesung’s sudden action. She felt a jolt of electricity weave through her body the instant his lips enveloped hers. Closing her eyes, she returned to the kiss, hungrily wanting more. He bit her bottom lip, begging for entrance, which he gained immediately.

Daesung pushed her back on the couch, trailing his hands along her sides. She arched her back as he attacked her neck with butterfly kisses. He trailed along her collar bone, down to her clothed chest, all the while his hands slithered underneath her shirt.

Anika clawed at Daesung’s clothed back as he found her sensitive spot - at the top of her neck, under the bottom of her ear. She let out a low growl when he nibbled on it. “Ahh, so this is your weak spot,” Daesung whispered against her skin, chuckling. Ignoring her scowling, Daesung took this opportunity to attack her weak spot again, this time biting a little bit harder. Out came a short, high pitched moan, sending Daesung into a frenzy.

Here they were, two best friends high off their hormones, as they got lost in the haze of heated passion. However, one of them felt an uneasiness in the back of their mind.

“Stop, stop,” Anika uttered, panting.

Daesung was about to remove the first layer of clothing when he was stopped by his best friend’s words. “What’s wrong?” he asked, breathing heavily.

“We can’t do this, Dae,” Anika claimed.

He eyed her, confused by her words. The mixed girl sighed, unhooking her arms from Daesung’s neck. “Think about it; there’s a lot to think about and consider at the hands of this situation. First, you’d have to get YG’s approval, and we all know that’s not going to happen. Second, would we keep this hidden or go public? If we hid it, it’d soon end up like Se7en-oppa and Han-Byul-unnie’s situation. If we were to go public, we’d have to deal with the media and the fans. The VIPs, not just your personal fans, but the VIPs as a whole. With the media, there’s the strong possibility of you getting backlash because I’m mixed. Daesung, I-”

The logic was cut of by another fevered kiss. Almost giving in, Anika managed to push Daesung off. “No!” she ushered. “Dae, there’s too much with this. You have to face the reality of it!”

The singer eyed his best friend, sadness taking over his face. “Anika, I’d risk everything, and the guys would have my back. Don’t you understand? I’d risk all of this, give all of it up, to spend the rest of my life with you.” Anika struggled to fight back the tears that were begging to escape from her eyes. She wasn’t going to give in. One of them had to be the logical one, for the both of them. “Daesung, I’m not going to let you throw away years of literally blood, sweat, and tears because of these whimsical feelings, for something that might not even work out. You will stay as my best friend, nothing more.”

Hearing her words, hearing her harsh logic, it tore him apart inside. But he wasn’t going to expose his heart break. Looking at Anika, Daesung put on his best smile, the smile loved by many. She knew, though, behind that famous smile, there was hurt. “Best friends, forever and always,” he whispered, planting a kiss on her forehead.

He then removed himself from her, gave her a silent goodbye, and turned to leave. The very second he his heel towards the door, the tears feel freely from her eyes unconsciously.

“That’s all you will be to me; my best friend.”

That was two years ago. The light I saw him in was as a best friend. Now…now… the light I’m seeing him in now. I don’t even know if he feels the same.

…No. I can’t let this continue. I have to put my pride aside, my denial, everything, and focus on what I have to do that will break me away from my beating feelings. I need to focus on why I came back to YG Entertainment in the first place.

“I need to focus on catching up to my best friend who managed to get ahead o me.”

Daesung’s POV

The memory from two years ago.

The words of the reality she spoke of.

The heart that beat for what I thought was unrequited love.

“Youngbae-hyung,” I murmured, falling back into the seat. “I never though I’d hear those words come out of .

“Well, now that you have-”

“Hyung, what am I supposed to tell her when I buried my feelings for her so long ago? What am I even supposed to do?”