December 25^th that year 07.12 AM

 

I was still sleeping when I heard sounds from my window next to me bed. I tried to regain my consciousness before I get my body up to see what’s up in this early morning. There, on the lower ground, stood a man dressed in all black (except for his shirt that seemed like gray) with a smile plastered on his lips. I squinted my eyes and put on my annoyed face, which made him chuckle and threw a small stone from his right hand to my window.

“Wake up you one lazy girl.” He said

“Make me” I mouthed to him

“I’ll go upstairs! Just you wait.”

 

Kim Myungsoo is his name. He had been my neighbor since years ago, which I failed to remember the exact number, but one thing I remembered is that we started being friends since junior high school. Myungsoo had been the closest ‘guy’ friend available for me out there. Our parents were close as well.

 

I was looking at my wall clock when suddenly the door opened and Myungsoo rushed to my bed as soon as he could

“Yah, wake up. Come on.”

“Myungsoo, it’s 7 in the morning, what do you expect me to do?” I lowered myself and pulled the blanket up to my head to cover myself from Myungsoo

“Come on wake up already. I need you to get up.” He said, by now he has already took a seat next to my body on my bed

“You know it’s been hard to me too right? Waking up early.”

He was right. Kim Myungsoo NEVER wakes up early in the morning, considering how much a deep sleeper he is, except his mother has forced him to move from his slumber land. I got up instantly, slightly annoyed by my best friend’s plea, “What?”

“Accompany me to go shopping?”

I rolled my eyes before fixing my eyes on his, “You woke me up so that I can accompany you to buy things?”

“Yeah,” he scratched the back of his neck, knowing that this was an awkward request, “Well Mom ordered me to buy all the necessity for tonight. You know for our small party.”

“Your mother didn’t tell you to bring me right?”

He grinned, “Unfortunately she told me to go with you.”

I face palmed myself, “Okay. I’ll prepare myself. You go down.”

 

***

 

Later on, we went to shop for everything that were written in a piece of paper with nice hand writing of Myungsoo’s mom. I guess Myungsoo must’ve inherited her talent on writing because Myungsoo’s hand writing is pretty much good. When we arrived to Myungsoo’s house, which is the place where the party will be held later, we saw both our father were busy going back and forth the living room.

“Oh you’re back!” My Father greeted us and picked two bags from my hand, “Your Moms are currently cooking.”

There was a loud voice suddenly echoing throughout the living room. The three of us, My Father included, turned to see where the voice came from and it was from a box that fell. Apparently, the box fell from Myungsoo’s father hands. A moment later, our Moms came out from the kitchen.

“What’s happening?” asked Myungsoo’s mother

“It’s nothing, my hands were kinda slippery and the box fell.” Myungsoo’s father replied

“Should I help you, Dad?” Myungsoo was now walking towards his father to pick up the box and handed it to him

“No!” Myungsoo’s father half shouted, making those who were in the room surprised by his action. Upon realizing what he has done, he added “I mean, you kids should go and play. Things at home will be done by the four of us.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll finish in no time. Go somewhere else. And don’t forget to keep yourself warm.” Said My Father

“We’ll be going then.” Myungsoo turned his body and walked to my direction

“See you two on dinner !” My Mom waved at me

 

I waved back to my Mom before Myungsoo could grab my hand and we dashed outside. “What kind of parents are they to send their own child out to play in this freezing air.” I mumbled

“What? You don’t want to play with me?” Myungsoo pouted

“It’s not that- How can you hear- Forget it. So where to go, Mr. Kim?”

“I don’t know. Yeouido Hangang Park?” He casually spoke

“Like the old times huh? But isn’t it freezing there?” I realized that in winter all the outdoor swimming pools turned to ice skating rinks

“We’ll grab something warm on our way. Let’s go.”

 

***

 

Half an hour or so, we arrived at Yeouido Hangang Park where we used to play and swim when we were little. Now that we’re college students who own different schedules and activities, we rarely hang out in this place. We sat on a bench while sipping our coffee that I bought on the way here. We talked about so many things, including our life, our problems and our difficulties of being young adult.

“You still haven’t got any boyfriend?” asked Myungsoo

I chuckled, “I should ask the same to you. Anybody in your mind?”

“Yes. I-“ Myungsoo suddenly stopped and his eyes fixed on the sky, I looked up to see what’s up there.

“Is it?”

“Yeah.”

A snow landed on the tip of my nose, “Crap I forgot to bring my beanie !” I exclaimed

Myungsoo didn’t have any worry expression or whatsoever, instead he put his hand to his pocket and searched for a thing and when he finally pulled out, a white beanie and a matching color of long knitted scarf folded nicely with a green ribbon wrapped them together were on his hand

“Sorry, got no time to wrap it.” He smiled apologetically, “This is my gift for you by the way.”

“My gift? Are we supposed to exchange gifts now? Because I didn’t bring yours and it’s still on my table.” I panicked

“No, don’t worry. I chose to give it now since you need it right now. Here, let me put them on.”

He began to untie the ribbon and took the beautiful scarf. He extended his arms to me so that he could wrap the scarf around me easily. Then he took the beanie and put it on the top of my head. He smiled to me while his hands were still holding the both side of my head. Moment later his smile faded and he was staring me with those two sharp eyes. I was really nervous. Although we were best friend, we’re still a boy and a girl.

And then, something I never expected happened.

He leaned his head towards me and our lips met for a few seconds before he pulled away and smiled again. My heart was beating faster and faster every seconds. He never look away from my eyes as I stared back at his handsome face.

“You know, I think now is the right time to tell you this.” He said, “I’ve been loving you for all these years. Despite I dated Suji, I know she’s not the one for me. It’s you instead.”

I furrowed my eye brows when he was talking, or confessing, or whatever you think it was. Myungsoo closed his eyes and inhaled a quite amount of winter air and exhaled, “I know exactly it’s weird but I was saying the truth. I even have liked you before Baekhyun came into the frame and dated you.”

“But some time later you-“

“Suji came and confessed to me. I know I told you about me liking Suji but that was just a school infatuation. Later on I realized that it’s just a crush. But me, a man who had just experienced a heart break, wanted to heal myself and I thought Suji was the answer but apparently I was wrong.”

Myungsoo made sense. He never tried to please his own girlfriend back then when he still dated Suji. I was too clueless about his true feelings towards me because of some reasons. One, Kim Myungsoo is only my bestfriend. Two, Byun Baekhyun is my clingy boyfriend. And three, Bae Suji is Myungsoo’s girlfriend and he told me he likes her.

“But moving on to the current situation. We’re both single and I’ve been sick of this friend zone thing. I know I sounded selfish but this is what I truly feel. I’ve always loved you.” He finally blurted all the things that he had always wanted to say to me and now his next move was to wait for my answer, and he did

It took a good one minute of an awkward moment for me to open my mouth and speak, “Myungsoo, listen. I’ve never expected you to do things like this, okay? I was surprised. You did all these confusing things to me in one moment.”

He cut me, “If you want to say no I under-“

“Hear me out, Kim Myungsoo.” I exclaimed, “The thing is, you were once my crush. I know it’s stupid and cliché to have a crush on my own friend. But I can’t help it too. Then I ignored all those weird thoughts about me liking you and then Baekhyun stepped into my life and I couldn’t lie that I loved him. Gosh, he’s my first love and you know that as well.”

I stared at his sharp eyes and continued, “I have to admit that nowadays I would be affected by your actions towards me. When you wiped those dirt on my lips, when you came to fetch me on rainy days, those actions made my heart to flutter. And and…” I put my two hands to cover my face, “Oh My God this is embarrassing.”

Myungsoo took both of my hands and held them in his and smiled, realizing that this conversation would lead to something he had expected to come true before he confessed his heart, “Say it.”

“I- I love you too, Myungsoo. I do.”

And that’s all that he needed to finally pull me to his embrace

 

***

 

A few moment later, we were walking side by side and him holding my hand in his. I was embarrassed at first but then I became more relaxed and let him do what he wants. We’re now officially a lover now.

After fifteen minutes walking, we arrived on Myungsoo’s house. I was hesitating to enter when we reached the door.

“Myungsoo, I don’t think this is a wise idea to go inside with our intertwined hands.” I said

“I want to make it official to our parents, okay? Besides, trust me.” His grip on my hand tightened

And when we finally entered the house, the chatters between our parents came to a stop and the four of them were looking at us, especially where our hands became one.

“So, any good news, Myungsoo?” asked His Father with a satisfied smile on his lips

Myungsoo’s face reddened and he turned his head to look at me, “I guess uhh you can guess.” His free hand scratched the back of his neck awkwardly

“Congratulations, My Daughter ! It’s about time for the two of you.” My Mom exclaimed

Upon hearing my Mom’s reaction, I widened my eyes, “What? All of you know about this?”

“Yes, Dear. All of us do. Myungsoo made it clear for us last year. We’re happy for you !” Myungsoo’s Mom said

I face palmed myself, realizing that I was the clueless one here

“Come on, what are you two doing by standing there? Dinner won’t start when we don’t have our main character of the day tonight.”

 

Myungsoo and I walked forward and reached for our seat, which is next to each other. And later on that night, our family gradually became closer and closer than we were before.

 

 

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The last portrait in my imagination

Now has become reality and brings her back