(Requested by anon)

She looks so pretty today, not that that’s different from any other today, but still.  She is so pretty, Jonghyun thought.  He can’t help but find himself staring at you from the other side of the small diner.  You work here part time as a waitress and he comes here almost every day.  Well, as often as he can, having to deal with stupid school and all that.

No, she’s not just pretty, she’s beautiful.  The finest girl I’ve ever seen.  My friends would be so jealous if I had a girl like her.  And I will have her as my girl, any day now.  It won’t be long before I confess and she will have no choice but to fall for me.  I mean look at me.  He smirks to himself, thinking about his dark hair that was always perfect and his body, which he took such good care of.  He also has that killer smile.  All the girls at school go crazy for it.  Even you.  Even time he gives you that smile, you giggle. 

Jonghyun felt proud of his skills for catching women.  He hasn’t found a girlfriend yet, but that’s only because the girl’s get too shy around him and he was saving his confession for you.

However, there was one thing standing in his way.  Him.  He glared at the waiter that was always hanging around you and smiling in such a cute and girly way.  That’s no way to catch a woman.  You need to be strong and manly, like me.  Jonghyun smirked as he continued to insult the doe-eyed waiter who was currently helping you clear a table.

Jonghyun doesn’t even notice when you come up to his table.  “How are you doing?  Was there anything else you needed?” you say in a very cute and polite voice.  Jonghyun snaps out of his inter thoughts.

“Oh..uh…” he stutters.  You smile sweetly realizing you had caught him off guard,

“Oh, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to distract you from your thoughts.”

“Oh..no,” he recovers.  “I was just thinking about-“ you? “-fish.”  Face palm.

You glance over at the aquarium just a little ways down from the table you were standing over.  The fish were calmly swimming around, just like they always did.  The customer did seem to be looking in that direction when you came over.

“Fish?  That’s neat.  Are you interesting in them or something?”  You decide to humor the poor guy.

Come on, Jonghyun.  You gotta recover from that fish statement.  Say something smooth.  “Not really.  I was just thinking about how they gracefully glide through the water, looking soft and beautiful at the same time.  Kind of like the way you glide around the room so smoothly.”  He added a little smirk on the end for effect.  Oh yeah, I nailed that.

You respectfully hold back a little laugh, but instead let out a little giggle.  “You’re cute.”  You walk away after that, covering your mouth to hold in the rest of your laughter.

Jonghyun sat there, dumbfounded.  Did I say something wrong?  A voice in the back of his head said, “You idiot!  You just compared her to a fish!”  Jonghyun groaned and slammed his head on the table out of his own stupidity.  But wait, she said I was cute.  Which means she actually thinks I’m cute.  Jonghyun cartwheeled in his mind as his cell phone went off.  He rolled his eyes as he saw the number, but answered it anyway.

You walk into the kitchen still covering your mouth.  Kyungsoo comes up to you, his big eyes curious.  “What’s so funny?” he asks.

“Oh nothing.  Just a cute boy, nothing else.”  You smile, still internally giggling.

“Cute boy?  He better not be any cuter than me.  Where is he?  I’ll set him straight.”  Kyungsoo starts to walk out the door, but you catch his arm and spin him around.

“I don’t think so.  Just leave him alone.  You afraid of a little competition?” you tease.  Kyungsoo has confessed to you multiply times now and you know that he has had a huge crush on you for like two years, but you continue to withhold your answer.  You weren’t ready for a boyfriend anyway.       

~<3~

When Jonghyun got home that afternoon, he went straight into his bedroom, face-planted into his bed and sulked.  How could you be so stupid, Jonghyun?  “I was just thinking how gracefully they glide through the water?”  I have got to be the biggest loser in the world to come up with something like that.  Maybe I should coming up with things to say before I go to the diner tomorrow.  There was only one thing that stood in his way with that.  Money.  He did not have the finances to keep going to that place every single day.  Granted, he only ordered a drink or something, but he was low on cash as it was.  And of course, he had to buy something while he was there.  He couldn’t make it look like he was only there to see her.

Jonghyun lifted his face off the bed finally taking a much-needed breath.  He needed to figure out how to confess.  He wanted to do it in a cool, manly way, but trying to figure that out would require brainpower and brainpower hurts.  He was sunk.

He jolted off the bed and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, quickly dialing the number he knew best besides his own.  While Jonghyun was not very romantic, he knew someone who was.

“Hello?”

“Kibum.  Hey.  There is something very important I need to talk to you about.”

Jonghyun heard him sigh on the other end of the line.  “You say that every time you call me, Jong.  What is it now?”  There was irritation in Kibum’s voice.

“I want to confess to a girl in a very manly and cool way, but still be like romantic or whatever.  You’re good at that kinda stuff, so you should help me.”

There was a pause over the speaker.  “Really?  You can’t be serious right?  I’m not good at that romantic stuff.”

“Then how come you are always hanging around girls?”

“Because I have a lot of friends who happen to be girls.”

“Yeah right.”

“Whatever.  So who’s this girl you want to confess to?”

“The girl from the diner that I told you about.  The one with the long hair and the beautiful eyes and the….”

“Yeah I get it.  That one girl huh?  Let me think.  Uhm………Yeah I remember.  Dude you do realize that she’s…”

“Yeah, that doesn’t matter.  I can look past that.”

There was another pause on the line.  Jonghyun was starting to get desperate.  “Come one, man.  Please.”

“Alright, alright.  Do you have any idea what her type is?”

“How would I know that?”  Jonghyun thought for a minute.  “Well, she’s always hanging around with this guy she works with.  He’s got these really big eyes and he’s always making her laugh smile and laugh and…”

“Wait a second.  There’s another guy involved who works with her?”

“Yeah?  So what?”

“Dude, you are so screwed.”

“Don’t say that!  You are supposed to be helping me.”

“Alright.  You can try…”

~<3~

Jonghyun clung to the little package, holding it close to his chest.  He was actually getting nervous.  Which was strange considering how confident he was when he left the house.  But the closer he got to the diner, the more his heart began to race.  He kept his lips that kept getting dry.  He had practiced what he was going to say about 30 times in front of the mirror.  He had to admit, Kibum really was a genius.

He entered the diner and took his normal seat at one of the small tables.  He glanced over at the small aquarium cursing its existence.  Remembering his slip up the day before was making him lose his nerve.  The small box was sitting on his lap, out of sight.

“You’re back again today, huh?  Did you want to look at the fish again?”  Despite the fact that this comment was very degrading to Jonghyun’s pride, his heart jumped into his throat at the sound of the voice.  He looked up to see you looking down at him with an amused smile.

Now don’t mess this up.  Just breathe and go for it.  “No.  There’s another reason why I’m here again.”  He gave you the smirk that you seemed to like.

“Oh?  And what’s that?”  You look at him, completely intrigued.

“Well, I just wanted to…”  Jonghyun is interrupted from a voice coming from the kitchen, calling your name.

“Yes?” you call back.  You can see Kyungsoo’s face through the small window.

“Can you come back here for a moment, please?”

“Sure thing.  Be right there.”  You turn back to Jonghyun who felt like he was going to be sick.  He was squeezing the package out of your sight.  “I’m sorry.  Let me go that care of this and then you can tell me all about it.”  You smile and tilt your head to one side.

You run off back toward to kitchen.  Jonghyun wanted to bang his fists on the table and throw a fit like a child.  He clenched and unclenched his fists multiple times.  If he was going to have to wait much longer, he might burst. 

He glanced over at the little window where that stupid guy had called from.  He could see you facing him, but your face was turned away.  Curiosity was getting the better of him.  He slipped out of his chair and quietly walked over the window, ducking down just under the edge.

“Will you just get to the point, Kyungsoo?  I have customers to attend to.”

Yeah, like me, Jonghyun thought.

“What I’m trying to say is that, I don’t know how much longer I can wait.  I like you so much and I just can’t take this in between stage anymore.  Can you finally just give me an answer?  You mean everything to me and I don’t know what I would do without you.  So please, will you just tell me how you feel about me?”

Jonghyun was boiling.  That stupid, wide-eyed jerk was going after his girl.  He ran around to the entrance of the kitchen.

“Kyungsoo, I…”

“Get away from her!”

You turn and see the guy from one of your tables.  He was holding a small package in his hand, the wrapping paper starting to rip from his firm grip on it.  He looked to be incredibly angry and it took you by surprise.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t be back here…” you start to say.  Then Jonghyun runs toward you and slams right into Kyungsoo, not knocking him down, but defiantly making him stumble.

“You get away from my girl!”  Jonghyun growled.  He was so mad at this guy that the poor package was thrown to the ground.   

Kyungsoo, did his best to try to restrain this crazy person, but the guy was going nuts.  Jonghyun flailed in arms around hitting Kyungsoo as hard as he could, but he seemed to make no progress.  Man, this guy is tough.

Then he felt someone grab his arm and he tried to resist it.  “Stop it!”

He instantly stopped at the female voice that came to his ear.  Next thing he knew he was being dragged away. 

You drag him by his arm out the back door and into the ally between your diner and the grocery store next door.  You finally let him go after the door closes.

“What the heck was that?” you ask sternly.  You cross your arms over your chest, holding the small package in your hand.

She even looks good when she’s mad, Jonghyun thinks.

“My name is Kim Jonghyun and I’m in love with you.  I came here today to confess to you properly, but when I heard that Kyungsoo guy saying those things to you, I got a little mad.”  Might as well go with the direct approach, now that I’ve messed everything up anyway.

“A little?  You had no right to eavesdrop and then barge in and start a fight.”  Your voice was commanding and Jonghyun had to admit, he was a little scared of you.

“So what’s this?” you ask holding out the package.

“It’s for you.”

You your head to one side before ripping off the rest of the already half destroyed paper.  It’s a ring box.  Is this guy insane?  Is he seriously giving me a ring?  You open the top to see the sweetest thing you have ever seen.  A small flower, tied into a ring shape.

“I don’t have the money to get you a real ring right now, so I thought that maybe this could suffice for now.”  Jonghyun scratched his head, now embarrassed by the stupid idea.

You had to admit that this was cute.  You start laughing at loud at the whole day.  Jonghyun looks at you confused by your laughter.

“What’s so funny?  Is it really that stupid?”

You recover and put a hand on his shoulder.  Jonghyun felt the blood in his body get hot.

“No it’s not stupid.  It’s actually very sweet.  But Jonghyun, I’m sorry but I can’t be with you.”

Jonghyun’s heart sank.  “What?  Why not?  You just said that my ring was sweet and the other you called me cute.  Is it because of that other guy in there.  I swear I’m going to….”

You put your finger over Jonghyun lips.  “That’s not it, Jonghyun.  It’s just that it won’t work out between us.”

“Why not?”  Jonghyun felt close to tears as he whined.

“Because I am 20 and you are how old?”

Jonghyun didn’t answer.

“Jonghyun?”

“13.”

 

~Emi

Now that you know the secret, I suggest you go back and read it again.  It makes the story so much funnier J lol