Joon held his breath as he stepped into your apartment when he saw you fast asleep on your couch. The television was on. You dozed off halfway watching his favourite game, tennis. You hated sports. But you watched matches because of him. You wanted to get to know what he loved. You wanted to know what he loved talking about with his friends. You wanted to be good enough for him.

He quietly walked over to you. He stood still for a good few minutes watching you. He was mesmerised.

The way you looked, the way your bangs covered half your face, the way your chest rose and fell in a slow and steady pace, the way your legs rested sloppily on the coffee table, the way your fingers clasped loosely on the remote control, and the little saliva stain at the corner of your mouth.

He let out a soft chuckle. He leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on your forehead. He carefully removed the remote control from your hand and switched off the television.

You stirred a little. He looked at you and froze. You struggled to open your eyes and squinted at the bright lights. Your eyes met his. You quickly shot up from your messy position.

“Oh oppa, you’re here!” You quickly fixed your hair and smoothened out your crumpled shirt.

“I’m sorry. Did I wake you?” His eyes caressed you lovingly. You blushed at how handsome he looked, dressed in a white, body-hugging short sleeve dress shirt, slightly teasing his chest muscles and abs, with a thin, black tie, and a pair of black Calvin Klein low-rise jeans.  

Why is he all dressed up?

You shook your head, rubbing your eyes. Tears formed in your eyes as you let out a big yawn. You quickly covered your mouth with one hand out of embarrassment. He sat down beside you and kissed your cheek, “Happy birthday, babe.”

Oh snap! It’s my birthday!You’d completely forgotten about the occasion after a long and tiring day at a job-hunting seminar.

Joon spotted the little stain near your mouth again. He looked into your eyes, red and puffy from sleep. He laughed softly.

God, she looks adorable.

“Why are you laughing? Is there something on my face?” You touched your cheeks and slowly worked your way down around your mouth. You felt something rough at the corner of your mouth.

Oh my God!!! This is embarrassing!

“Oppa! Why didn’t you say anything?!” You lightly punched his chest. “Stop laughing!” You quickly wiped off the disgusting stain off in a state of panic.

“What? There’s nothing wrong. You look cute, by the way.” He winked at you, the corners of his lips curled up into a cheeky smile which never failed to make your heart skip a beat. “Shall we go for dinner now?” He stood up, gently pulling your arm along.

“Omo! I’m so sorry. I totally forgot about our dinner reservations! I’ll go get ready now. I won’t be long!” You mentally smacked yourself for being so forgetful.

“Why? You look fine now.” He checked you out from head to toe, admiring your beauty.

“Excuse me? I’m all sticky and dull after spending a whole day in that stuffy room. I need a good shower. And how do you expect me to go on my birthday dinner dressed like this?” you looked down at your oversized t-shirt and floral-print shorts.

I can’t believe he’s seeing me in this… on my birthday!

“You look perfect.”

“Of course you’ll say that. You’re my boyfriend. And it’s my birthday. And besides, you’re just saying that so you’ll look better than me. Look at you all dressed up for the occasion. You wanna outdress me?” You shot him a death glare.

“How can you say that? I mean it.” He stepped in front of you and grabbed hold of one of your hands. He’d hold on to it all day if he could. He tangled his fingers with yours and lifted your chin with his other hand. “You look perfect.”

You released your hands from his grab and walked towards your bedroom. “Nobody is perfect. Especially me.” He followed you into your room and watched you examine yourself in the mirror. He stood quietly leaning against the door as he listened to you complain about yourself for the millionth time.

“My eyes are swelled up! Gosh, look at my eye bags. They’re as big as my cheeks.” You pouted, feeling sorry for yourself. “Oppa, before we go to dinner, can we stop by the convenient store? I ran out of eye cream. My mascara and eyeliner won’t help even if I use a whole bottle!”

Joon couldn’t take it anymore. He walked to your dressing table and grabbed your shoulders, turning you around to face him. You gasped at his unexpected gesture. “Why do you like dumbing yourself down?! Why do you see yourself this way? Why can’t you see what I see?!”

You were frightened by his abrupt burst of anger. “Wh…What… What do you see?” You’ve never seen him so upset before. Even when you both had heated arguments, he was always the calm and quiet one.

He stared deep into your eyes. You felt as though he was burning holes in them. You felt uneasy and awkward. He didn’t say anything for what felt like hours. You looked around the room anxiously, and back into his brown, almond-shaped eyes.

Those eyes…

Those eyes that brought you into a different world whenever you looked into them.

His words snapped you into senses again. “When I look at you, I see your eyes. Your eyes that make the brightest star look dull and dim. Your eyes that form crescent moons when you smile. Your eyes that dance whenever something excites you. Your eyes filled with love and passion when you look at me.” He gently kissed your eyelids as you closed your eyes.

You opened your eyes and smiled. “Okay. Maybe I have nice eyes. But I should have a right to complain about my hair. Look at this mess. It’s so thick and dry. I never knew what to do with it. Now I have to think of something to look good for our dinner tonight.”

“Don’t do anything. I love it the way it is.” He pushed your bangs away from covering your eye and ran his fingers through your thick locks. “It’s perfect. Don’t ruin it with useless product and junk.”

“They’re not useless!” you objected. You looked proudly at your vast collection of hair product, facial care product, make-up, nail polishes, all piled up on your dresser.

He rushed out of your room all of a sudden, leaving you dumbfounded. He returned minutes later with a plastic bag. He walked over to your dresser and started pushing all your products into the bag.

“Hey! What on earth are you doing?!” You screamed in horror. “Do you know how much this cost me?”

“Yes! Yes I do! And it turned you into a girl obsessed with her outward appearance and addicted to beauty. You’re wasting your time trying to earn more money just to buy more of this nonsense. You’re just a student! So just stop it, okay!” he growled.

Your eyes welled up in tears. Why is he being like this on my birthday?

“I’m doing this all for you. You know that. I wanna look good for you. I wanna look good enough to be your girlfriend. It’s hard enough to be dating a hot celebrity loved by every single woman in the country. I just wanna look compatible with you.” Your eye sockets were too full and heavy to continue holding back your tears. Your cheeks were now soaked. You looked down at your toes. You couldn’t face him. Not in this manner. Not the way you looked right now.

“Don’t you get it? You ARE good enough for me. Without all this rubbish you put on yourself.”

He cupped your cheeks and slowly kissed away your tears. “You’re beautiful.”

Tears continued to roll down. You didn’t understand. You couldn’t understand.

He lifted your chin and made you look straight into his eyes.

“Two years ago, I fell in love with an amazing girl. A girl who didn’t bother asking me how she looked every day.  Who didn’t care about which eyeliner or nail polish to put on. Who grew prettier by the day even without changing her hair into weird and funny styles.”

You smacked his arm for teasing your hairstyles. You slowly broke out into a smile. Butterflies fluttered in your stomach, begging for freedom, anticipating what he had to say next.

“... Who had a smile that made the whole word stop and stare, and she still has it.”

You giggled.

“... Who drove me insane whenever she laughed or giggled like that. Who was more concerned of whether she had saved a puppy that day than whether she had bought the latest designer clothes. A girl whom I’ll never trade anything in the world for. A girl I wouldn’t dare ask to change anything of herself. I fell in love with a girl whose imperfections made her perfect. Perfect.”

“Anything else?” you leaned closer to him and placed your hands on his chest. You felt his heart beating fast and strong, just like yours.

“I fell in love with you. And I’m still madly in love with you. Just the way you are. Right here. Right now. In your most natural self.” He turned you around and reached his hand deep into his right pocket. He fished out something shiny. He put it around your neck and hooked it on.

You looked at your own reflection in the mirror and saw the beautiful necklace in front of your eyes. You touched the pendant lying elegantly above your collarbone. It was a shape of a heart with three letters in it – YOU.

He wrapped his strong arms around your waist and rested his chin on your shoulder. “Happy birthday, baby.” He planted a long and loving kiss on your cheek. As though he was putting as much love and passion into that one simple kiss as he could. As though he was convincing you that you were perfect. Perfect for him.

You felt your cheeks flush. You couldn’t help but tear up again at his romantic gesture. You turned around and look into those eyes that you loved.

“Let’s cancel the dinner reservations tonight. To have you here with me is the best birthday present. To finally realise that I am good enough for you is the best birthday present.

Please promise me that you will remind me every day?” You ran your fingers along his strong arms.

“My pleasure.”  he kissed your lips passionately, bringing you into a totally different universe.

This is the best birthday ever.