So there's this guy. I haven't been able to get him out of my head for weeks now. Kinda tall. Thin. Softer features but drop dead gorgeous. Never says a word to me. I don't mind though. Honestly, I don't think I'd know what to say if he did start talking to me. Every time I see him he's got a book in his hand and it has been a long time since I've had enough time to myself to actually pick up a book for my own enjoyment. But he's been here a lot lately – at my favourite coffee shop – and I can't help but stare a little when I'm waiting for my drink, before I have to run off.

My life is hectic right now. I'm taking a semester or two off to work because god knows university is expensive, but I keep busy now since outside of my actual job my master asked me to help teach the children at my dojjang and my friend and I have begun volunteering with the elderly. Yet despite all the work, I'm happy. I learn far better on my own than if I'm trapped in a classroom, and I'm able to choose what I do now. To some extent, I can set my own hours. I sigh to myself, both exhausted and content, as my drink is slid across the counter to me and I put a lid on it. I glance back at him one last time before I have to head over to the dojjang.

Warm brown eyes lock with mine and I freeze. Seconds feel like minutes as we stare at each other until he smiles kindly and waves. I feel my whole face turn pink at having been caught staring and turn to walk swiftly away.

How awkward am I?

Pathetically so.

Over the next two weeks, I notice that he's always there. If he's not there when I arrive, he walks in while I'm waiting. Either way, I'm making every effort to not actually look at him while I'm there for fear of him assuming I'm some kind of stalker. As the weather gets colder I find myself in the shop more often, hoping to glean some the warmth from my coffee for myself and today is no different. Stepping up to the counter I ask for my usual, but when I try to hand her my money she waves it away gently and smiles.

"Someone paid for it earlier."

I'm shocked but leave it alone after she shakes her head with another smile when I ask who. Wandering over to wait, leaning against the wall as I text my friend to tell her about my day.

"How's your day going, white chocolate?"

I nearly jump out of my skin as the velvet voice interrupts my thoughts. There standing before me is the guy I can't get out of my head, his eyes on me with a smile resting on his lips. No matter what I might be able to make up, there's no bull excuse that would convince anyone he's talking to anyone other than me.

"I'm sorry?"

"How's your day going?"

"F-fine… What did you call me?"

"White chocolate. Like the mocha you always get, right?" he replies with a smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling cutely.

I'm not sure what to feel about the nickname, but as we talk it seems to have stuck. By the time I leave my drink is cool, I have missed the first class, and there's a new number in my phone. My partner leads the rest of the classes for the night and though I'm correcting the kids, my mind is still back in the coffee shop. So distracted am I that I barely flinch when I fail to pull a punch and my knuckles connect with the brick wall with a sickening crack. No broken bones. Just a bruised ego and a lecture at the end of the night from master for not concentrating better. By the time I get home, I'm exhausted… until my phone chimes.

Youngjae
 - So… I'll see you tomorrow maybe?

He does.

And the day after.

A month passes and it's mid-January when he asks me out. We're sitting in large overstuffed chairs by the window, coffee mugs resting in our cold hands as we watch the snow drift softly through the air. I backed out of teaching first class more than a month ago just to give Youngjae and I more time to sit and talk. Though our conversation today started with my frustration with one of my coworkers, he's quick to encourage me, his sweet words giving me a warm feeling in my chest.

"We always go out for drinks on our birthdays, and I was thinking that it seems a little weird that we've been talking for two and a half months but we've never left this shop. I mean, I've mentioned you before and they've been asking about you and I thought maybe I should introduce you to the guys? I don't know if the other guys will be bringing their girlfriends this time, but…"

I tease, a smile tugging at my lips. "Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?"

He pauses for a moment and looks at me with surprise before leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, a smile spreading across his lips. "Will you?"

It's my turn to be shocked. "Actually?"

He nods sincerely and I feel a blush creeping up my cheeks, my smile widening as heart soars. "I… Yeah. I'd like that."

Barely a week later I find myself at the bar with Youngjae and his friends; though somewhat rowdy, they're all good people.

"So when did he ask you?" Himchan asks.

"Last Tuesday."

"Seriously? Jae, you haven't shut up about her for four months and you just asked her not even a week ago? What the hell is wrong with you!" Daehyun jokes, punching him in the shoulder.

Four months? As best I can remember, we didn't even make awkward eye contact until maybe three months ago. I'm pretty sure I give him a weird look because Youngjae squeezes my hand under the table but I just smile. I can ask him about it later so I instead wish him a happy birthday and kiss him on the cheek. As the night goes on though, it slips my mind. It is well after midnight when he finally calls a taxi.

"Come back to my place?"

"It's okay, I can walk from here."

"No funny stuff, I promise. I'll be sleeping on the couch if that makes you feel any better. I just don't want to send you home alone after we've all been drinking." He tugs at my hand. "I promise. All I want is to see you safe, white chocolate."

The sincerity in his tone strikes a chord with me and I stop to stare at him.

"Okay."

That night I'm left well enough alone to sleep in his bed while he crashes in the living room and in the morning he's gentleman enough to give me a ride home. As I walk in my door, I realize there's something I was supposed to ask him about but it stays just outside the reach of my memory until I decide it can't be important if I can't recall it. Eventually I forget altogether that there was something I was meant to remember and the months slip by slowly, happily. I've begun school again, studying languages in the hopes of becoming a translator or a teacher, and Youngjae is more than happy to meet up with me between my classes or after I am done studying for the night. We begin spending more of our spare time together than separate and I'm more than content. He loves to talk, to learn and explain new things, and I'm happy to listen. He's captivating when he has found something new and exciting. Sure we have spats once in a while, what couple doesn't, and with a personality like mine it's inevitable. When I decide something, there's nothing and nobody that can change my mind aside from myself. This doesn't always go over well when your boyfriend has a perfectionist streak in him. Yet despite all that, as the months pass, we are practically inseparable – so much so that in August he asks me if I would prefer to simply live with him. We'd had before, but the night I moved I wouldn't be surprised if the people in our surrounding apartments slept as little as we did.

Eleven moths later it's Christmas eve and I find myself falling asleep in his arms when he drops a gentle kiss on the crown of my head and buries his nose in my hair.

"I never thought that I would actually be able to have you," he mutters softly.

"Mm?" I'm half asleep and my words don't want to work.

"All the times I saw you, I always thought you were unattainable. I don't know why.  I don't know when I fell in love with you, but I do know that you quickly became like a precious gem I wanted to keep selfishly to myself – that I still want to keep to myself."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know I love you, right?"

"Yes."

"And you love me?"

"Of course I do. Youngjae, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Do you remember when I called you white chocolate for the first time?"

"Mm… That was cute."

"What would you say if I told you that I already knew your name?"

That made me sit up. "… Excuse me? How would you know that?"

"I had seen you around before."

"But you never talked to me, I would remember that."

"No, I know that. If we'd talked before I think I wouldn't have been ready and probably would have frozen up. I mean from years ago."

"What?!"

Now I'm ready to panic. Had he stalked me all this time? Is that why he was there every day after the time he smiled and waved at me? Because he suddenly knew he had my attention? He reaches out to me to cradle my face, to my cheeks like he always does to calm me when I'm upset, but I knock his hands away as I stand up from the couch.

"Don't touch me. Oh my god, what the actual ?"

"It's not what you think, I swear!"

"Then you better start explaining pretty quick because I'm ready to walk out. You sound like you've been stalking me for years, Youngjae."

"No no! Please don't think that. I promise that's not how it is. When you were in high school, you always kept to yourself. You knew one two or three people but everyone else bullied you so much. Do you remember? How you'd hide in the library during breaks and you knew the librarians enough that you'd just sit and talk. Do you remember when the other students tripped you on the track and you had to go to the nurse to get bandaged up? There was a boy in the corner with a bloody nose. That was me. Daehyun and I were late to class and the teacher was just shutting the door. He managed to slide through as it was closing but I hit the door face-first."

I put a hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing. I know I shouldn't because this is a serious conversation, but I know how he can be sometimes and it's endearing.

"It's okay, sweet. You can laugh. Trust me, it makes me laugh when I remember it, too," Youngjae tells me with a soft smile, recognising that I'm trying to keep it in. "But when she was done and you were gone, when she thought I wasn't listening, she started talking to the other nurse on shift. That wasn't the first time you were in there, was it?"

I drop my eyes to the floor and wrap my arms around myself – I don't like remembering the past. It may have made me who I am today, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about how it all came about. He stands up and wraps his arms around me, resting his cheek against mine.

"They had a lot to say about you. And about what the others were doing to you. About how you were strong enough to fight back but never did because you didn't want to hurt anyone. That was the day I started to notice you, the day I started to wish I could walk beside you without you worrying I was playing you. That day stayed with me all these years." He kisses my cheekbone and pulls away to look me in the eye. "When I saw you in the coffee shop last year I wasn't sure it was you at first. You changed so much. You were taller than I remembered. Thinner. Sharper features but still drop dead gorgeous to me. Honestly, I didn't think I had a ghost of a chance until we caught each other staring."

I bury my face in his shoulder and wrap my arms around his waist. "You can stop explaining now."

I feel him laughing silently as he runs his fingers through my hair. Pulling away to take me by the hand, he brings me back to the couch and seats me on his lap, cupping my face gently with his left hand and resting his forehead against mine.

"You okay, white chocolate?"

I laugh quietly. "I'm fine."

Taking his hand away, I kiss his wrist gently before I drop his hand to my lap.

"Sleepy?"

"Mm hmm…"

Stretching out on the couch he pulls me down to lay beside him, a cushion cradling his head as he rests mine on his shoulder. His fingers run through my hair lazily as I slowly drift off to the sound of his heartbeat, our legs tangling together as we get close. Here with him, I am happy and I wish to myself that tonight will never end.

When I wake up in the morning, he is gone but there's a note on the coffee table.

White chocolate,
Went to grab coffee for us before we exchange presents. I gave you one early, though. I hope you like the design. I remember when you said you don't like diamonds because everyone has them and it seems obligatory, but emerald holds a special place in your heart. See you when I'm home, sweet. Merry Christmas!
Love Youngjae.

I look down at my finger and smile.