Her mind clouded with too much information and her heart overwhelmed with foreign emotions, Eunbyeol tiredly slumped herself - face first - on her bed as soon as she got home. The whole day was so emotionally tiring that she felt so drained.

She rolled her body and faced the ceiling, her arms spread wide on the soft mattress as if she was trying to size up whatever she’s facing right then. “Stupid,” she mumbled to herself as she felt wetness in her eyes. She was crying. That means it’s becoming too much.

Eunbyeol sniffed as silently as possible. The pain brought by what had just transpired earlier that day manifested in her tears and for the first time, she let it all flow freely. She knew she needed to let it out, amidst the fact that it’s one way of admitting finally that she indeed likes her best friend.

Thoughts flooded her mind as she blankly stared at space. Until a mocking smirk found its way to her lips as she remembered the conversation they had in the restaurant during lunch.

“Do we even need this?” She asked, hoping that this was just Junmyeon’s kind of sick joke. “I mean I don’t think we won’t have a problem living together since we’re practically best friends already.”

Junmyeon shook his head in disagreement. “That’s actually the point,” he said. “We are best friends and I don’t want this marriage to mean anything more than what it should. I don’t want to ruin the friendship we have, Eunbyeol, and we need to set limits because somewhere along the way, there is a possibility that one of us may get overboard.”

Ouch. Couldn’t he have said it a more subtle way? Why does her best friend had to be so direct to the point?

She hastily sat up and wiped her tears as she tried to calm herself down to breathe well. The last thing she needed to experience is another panic attack, although that would distract her from the pain she was currently feeling. She was beginning to consider.

However, her breathing went back to normal when she was close to deciding that having the attack was better. And then her mind focused again on the real situation: She likes Kim Junmyeon and he doesn’t want anything else more than what they have.

Amazing, she thought.

Eunbyeol let out a forced chuckle in attempt to hide the raging disappointment. “You’re being so assuming right now,” she commented. “Even without the contract, you’re safe because you’re just not my type.”

Junmyeon let out a sigh of relief. “Okay,” he suddenly leaned forward with his right arm supporting himself on the table. He then raised his pinky finger in frontof the girl and let out that convincing smile he always wear when he’s making deals. “Let’s promise that we will just stay as friends forever,” he proposed.

The girl could have cried right then and there but reality had pushed her tears away. Without hesitation, she linked her own pinky finger on his and their thumbs touched, and that sealed the deal.

“Promise,” she said.

Eunbyeol sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. A lot of things were still running in her head and it all boils down to the fact that she was easily put in the ever-annoying friend zone; and she agreed to do so.

Suddenly, she wondered how the situation will be once they are officially husband and wife. To convince people that they are a thing would be damn easy because even when they are just friends, a lot would assume that they look good together and is therefore a couple. The problem lies on her feelings, because she thinks it would be like going through hell to live with the person she likes while knowing that they can never actually be.

Dry, bitter chuckles escaped her lips as she stared at her pinky finger. What had she put herself into? She wanted to back out, to call it quits; but as she remembered the face of her best friend in her reverie, she instantly conceded.

She sighed. It’s her battle against Cupid. And no one wins against that annoying and cruel archer with wings.

I'm sorry for the dragging story.

We're speeding things up a bit in the next chapter!