"What are you doing here?"

 

That was a good question. What was she doing here? What had possessed her to do this? Her manager and company would flip out if they knew where she was. And what if someone had seen her? SNSD's Seohyun seen going in to the building where CNBLUE's Jung Yonghwa lives, late at night. Seriously, what was she thinking? Some combination of courage, stubbornness, curiosity, hurt pride, spontaneity, and longing had led Seohyun here. But now that she was actually here, staring at Yonghwa, she felt all her boldness disappear.

They stared at each other for a few moments, neither saying a word. Breaking the trance, Yonghwa cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow at Seohyun. She took took a deep breath. It was now or never.
 

"Um ... hi. I ... um ... wanted to see you."
 

"Okay. But we saw each other yesterday at MBC."
 

"Yeah."
 

Silence filled the space between them again.
 

"Seohyun, is everything okay? I'm glad to see you, but this is so unexp-"
 

"Do you miss me?"
 

There. She blurted out what she wanted to know most from him. Hearing Yonghwa say he was glad to see her made her heart leap and gave her a moment of courage, or maybe delusion, to say what was on her mind.
 

Yonghwa was surprised by Seohyun once again. What should he say? The truth? That he thought about her a lot? That he missed her and wanted to hold her hand? That on at least five occasions, he started ordering an iced Americano but stopped himself because he thought she wouldn't approve? That he wondered if she ever played her pink guitar? But he shouldn't. He couldn't. CNBLUE was still so new in the industry and had so much to accomplish. He had so much to do. And SNSD and Seohyun in particular were so innocent, he didn't want to risk a scandal for her or them. And who's to say if she really liked him? She never had a boyfriend before, never even had a crush. Their relationship was probably akin to a sociology class for her, a case study for how a first relationship might look like, a self-help book on young love.
 

He took a deep breath and made up his mind. He couldn't let her know how much he really cared for her. It was best for both of them. With a determination that was more forced than genuine, he started talking.
 

"Seohyun. You know I think you're great. It's just that ..."
 

His resolve weakened as he saw Seohyun's face fall. Her eyes left his, her face started turning red and she became fidgety.
 

"Oh, okay. Never mind then. I guess it was just me ... it was just an act ..." Stop talking, she told herself. Don't cry, don't cry, keep it together until you get yourself out of here.
 

Seohyun got up to leave. Yonghwa could see she was near tears. Without thinking, Yonghwa got in between Seohyun and the door, grabbed her by both shoulders and stared at her until she lifted her eyes to meet his. "It wasn't an act. I do miss you. I think about you all the time. I read through our old texts far too frequently. I eat sweet potato fries instead of french fries. I thumb through those books you bought for me. I don't actually read them, but I flip through the pa-"
 

"Oppa. How come you never tried to kiss me?"
 

Yonghwa let go of Seohyun. Did he hear that right? "What?"
 

Now that Seohyun knew that he cared for her too, she was determined to get her first kiss from her Yong oppa. She didn't know what the future was going to look like for them, but for months now, she was waiting for Yonghwa to kiss her. She thought he hadn't tried because he didn't like her, but now she knew that wasn't the case.
 

"If you like me, how come you never tried to kiss me? Oppa, you are always looking out for me and thinking of my best interest and I'm so thankful for that. But I've been thinking about it for a long time, and what's best for me is to have my first kiss with you. You're the first boy I had a crush on, that I liked, that I went on a date with, that I held hands with, that I got flowers from, that I got couple rings with ... I can keep going. Do you want me to keep going or are you going to kiss me?"
 

Yonghwa stared in disbelief for a moment, then gave her a lopsided grin. His Seohyun definitely kept things interesting.
 

Yonghwa took hold of Seohyun's hand, pulled her close, and wrapped his other hand behind her shoulders.