title : 20 reasons why i hate anh nguyen
pairing : jeon wonwoo & anh nguyen
genre : romance; light humor
originally published : february five, twenty-fourteen
originally completed : february five, twenty-fourteen
short summary : with anh out of the house, jeon wonwoo was alone at home.   but what started off as a search for a box, ended up in a bittersweet trip down memory lane.

“And no matter what, you do not touch any of my things while I'm gone under any circumstances!”

Yeah... that.

Jeon Wonwoo wasn't planning on conforming to society any time soon, you know. Which is exactly why he was digging through the depths of their shared walk-in closet to see if he could find Anh's personal treasure box. As terrible as that sounded out of context, one couldn't blame why the boy was behaving in such manner. See, he had seen her take out the plain white shoebox with her name written on the side in big blue bold letters several times before, and each time, she would open it with her back turned to him claiming that the contents were 'for her eyes only'. Well not today.

Scratching the back of his neck, Wonwoo pushed himself up from his knees and looked down at the now messy closet. Their previously neat clothes piles were shoved over to the side with a big gap in the middle where Wonwoo was looking at earlier. The wall stared back at him, mocking him with all of it's blankness. This frustrated Wonwoo. For the past two hours, he had completely turned the apartment upside down, searching in every possible nook and cranny to find this Godforsaken box. Turning back around, Wonwoo grabbed the cup of water sitting on the dresser and took a long, needed drink. But it wasn't just any mug, of course. Oh no – on the side of the dark blue mug, in white block letters, was Anh's name printed so that anyone in broad daylight would see it.

Once he returned the mug to the dresser, Wonwoo sighed and took a look at the clutter around him. There was no way he was going to return the apartment the way it had been before Anh came back from the grocery store. Oh well. Looks like he was just going to have to sleep in the living room tonight. With his shoulders drooped, Wonwoo approached their bed, the only neat and tidy thing left in the house just the way Anh had left it. You see, in the public's eyes, it was pretty much Anh that wore the pants in the relationship. Being an Asian woman raised in the teachings of America, she had brought over her leadership with her to Korea to keep Wonwoo in check. She was the one in control of their relationship and usually she had the first and last say in anything so obviously, whenever she wasn't under the same roof as Wonwoo, he used it as an opportunity to bask in the freedom and do whatever he wanted.

As Wonwoo was passing by Anh's dresser, he realized a rather familiar piece of sky blue parchment sticking underneath a stack of clothes. His eyebrows raised as he stopped right in his tracks to turn around. With his curiosity heightening, he approached the dresser with a vague idea of what it might have been. A wide grin settled onto his face as he sat on her side of the bed realizing it was the one of the most (if not the most) important item in their relationship - his middle school love letter. But it wasn't just a regular, written-in-one-shot letter. It looked like a page ripped out of a notepaper pad and judging by the different colored pens and pencils, things were written on different days. It was much like a diary, only instead of a book, it was just sheets of paper. A rush of images flooded into his head as he turned the tightly folded paper in his hands; navy blue and grey uniforms, crowded student hallways – everything. His fingers traced the jaded crease in the middle of the rectangle, remembering the way it had been poorly crumpled in his blazer pocket as if it were only yesterday.

“Five years,” Wonwoo breathed out when he unfolded it and saw the almost-ancient date, “It's already been five years, huh?”

A chuckle escaped the back of his throat when he noticed the god-awful handwriting, looking like there was some attempt at making it look neater. Back then, Anh was fresh from America, so instead of the regular box-like Hangul characters, roman letters looked back at him from the choppy, and terribly written English sentences. Wonwoo had learned a lot more English throughout the years thanks to his extensive English class drills, and the numerous tutoring sessions from Anh, so looking at the letter now, he couldn't help but laugh at how terrible his grammar was. Taking a deep breath, Wonwoo read the letter out loud to himself, filling in and correcting the sentences as he went:

Twenty Reasons Why I Hate Anh Nguyen

20th Reason: Anh is probably the most annoying person I have ever met. Not even going to lie. Like in class, whenever I raise my hand to answer a question or something and I get it correct, she'll always roll her eyes at me. I mean, come on! We're seatmates for Christ's sake! My eyes might be small, but I'm not blind, you know? ...but even though it bugs me, it makes me want to try harder for some reason. Something inside me wants to show her that I'm not just all talk.

19th Reason: This girl lacks a sense of humor. I don't know about you, but whenever I try to crack a joke in class, she'll have the blankest expression on her face. You know what, maybe it's not me. Maybe she just doesn't understand my joke. Western humor is probably different from Eastern humor, right? Yeah, that's probably it. I'm a funny guy, okay? Anh, I promise you that I will make you laugh at one of my jokes, okay? I promise you.

18th Reason: I hate how on the rare occasion that she does smile, I can't help but feel faint. It's like I was in the presence of a queen or something. My knees would start knocking, and my palms would start sweating – it's literally the only time I wouldn't know what to do! And whenever she smiles at something I say...damn. It's like the world just ended, you know? That needs to stop like right now. I, Jeon Wonwoo, am not weak. Especially not when it comes to Anh's heart-stopping smile.

17th Reason: Her voice just can't seem to leave my head. That sweet, American accented Korean of hers is in my ears 24/7. It has it's own melody, an own tune that makes it more unique than anyone else's voice that I've ever heard. You know those songs that are always replaying in your head because you can't stop thinking about it? Yeah, it's like that only ten time worse. Oh and don't even get me started on when she sings. That's a song that will never leave my head.

16th Reason: Although she's the shortest kid in the first year class, she sure is strong! You would never expect someone who was less than five feet tall would be any good at self-defense class. When we first started gym class, I tried everything in my power not to be her partner. Unfortunately, the gym teacher and made me her partner. Okay, so I laughed it off...but boy was I wrong. Before I knew it, I was staring at the ceiling with Nurse Lee hovering over me. But unlike the rest of the school, she never talked about my embarrassment again. Thanks, I guess.

15th Reason: Too smart for her own good. I'm not going to lie, I love myself a smart woman. But Anh? She's like Einstein times a