“Eunjin-ah! Hurry!” she heard Taemin call from outside the door. He was impatiently tapping his foot on the ground while waiting for her – something he always does every single day.

Eunjin bit back a smile and didn’t make an attempt to hurry up.  Taemin keeps complaining but he sticks with her anyway. “You can always go ahead if you want to, you know,” Eunjin said ending her statement with a yawn.

“But I didn’t want to,” he replied.

She was never a morning person. She wakes up late every morning so she’s always late for school and Taemin who lives next door would always wait for her (although she has no idea why he should. She could remember Taemin saying something like, ‘for the good of humanity I have to walk you to school’) and they would go to school together both missing the first half hour of their first class.

Despite being always late Taemin A’s all of his classes while Eunjin barely passes hers. Although they go to the same school, unfortunately they don’t share the same classes so she couldn’t bully him into sharing his notes for all those lectures that she missed.

They were bestfriends to say the least. She couldn’t remember when exactly they started to become more. But she could remember bits and pieces of the moments they shared together – moments that made her love him more and more.

During grade school, she once hid in a cabinet after the teacher scolded her for something she didn’t do. The teachers kept looking for her but it was Taemin who found her inside the dark cabinet teary-eyed and very much upset. Until now she still couldn’t figure out how Taemin always seems to know where to find her. She even stopped playing hide and seek with him the moment she realized he always wins and she’s always the one losing.

When Taemin opened the door of her hiding place she had to squint because the light hurts her eyes and she was pretty sure Taemin added more to the brightness by simply being there.

“I knew you’d be here,” he said before pulled her up and wiping the tears that were streaming down her face.

“Why didn’t you just go home?” she asked him although her heart swells after realizing he decided to search for her instead of going home.

“Babo. How can I go home without you?” he said. The tears suddenly stopped and a smile formed on her lips without her noticing.

When they were old enough to start liking people her feelings for Taemin grew from friendship, to infatuation, and eventually to love. It wasn’t really surprising because Taemin is someone anyone would be lucky to have. Eunjin was really convinced that she must have done something good in the past because of all the pretty girls in the world Taemin chose her. Even if he was popular in school and almost every girl in class confessed their love for him, Taemin decided to stick with her. Eunjin prays her luck never runs out because being with Taemin is the best thing that happened in her life.

Needless to say, days without Taemin are the worst days of her life. When he’s not around everything seems to go wrong.

One day, Taemin had to stay at home because he was running a fever after he decided it was a good idea to dance under the rain outside her window. He was practicing for a dance performance and there’s this one part that he couldn’t seem to get right. When he finally perfected the steps he went out of their house and performed in front of her bedroom window under the pouring rain.

The next day, Taemin called in sick and so Eunjin had a really really bad day.  

That particular morning she lost her notebook with her homework that she spent the entire night working, then got injured in PE class after she bumped with her teammate in volleyball in her attempt to catch the ball – her teammate was perfectly fine while she on the other hand broke an arm, then she had to stay at the clinic alone for the rest of the day while everyone else was having fun.  To top it off, there was no Taemin to comfort her and tell her everything will be fine. She was pretty convinced it was all Taemin’s fault that she had to go through the worst day of her life simply for not being around. Maybe she was being punished for keeping Taemin all by herself all those years. Maybe her luck had finally run out.

She walked home with a splint in her arm and just when she thought her day couldn’t get any worse, she ing tripped, her knees started bleeding and her eyes tearing up. She cursed the stupid stone for being in the way and she had the urge to kick it just to give herself the satisfaction only to realize that it would be just a waste of time and effort.

“You can never live a day without me can you?” she looked up to see Taemin in front of her and her mood soared. He was panting hard obviously from running all the way to meet her (She wanted to believe he missed her just as much as she missed him)

“Shut up. I need a hug,” she muttered.

Taemin smiled and gave her the hug that she badly needed. She noticed his skin was warm and that’s when she realized he still had a fever. She pulled away from the comfortably warm hug although her heart seemed not too happy about it.

“Yah! You’re supposed to be in bed,” she said trying her best to sound authoritative.

“I thought you needed a hug.”

“But you need rest.”

“Nah, I need a kiss,” then he smiled mischievously which made her blush and ran (limping) leaving Taemin smiling to himself.

Taemin rolled his eyes and ran after her. He lifted her up despite her complaints and carried her on his back. The next day his cold got worse as expected. Eunjin ended up skipping school too. She told her mom that her arm still hurts although it’s perfectly fine already. Then she went to Taemin’s house and stayed with him all day.

“Taemin… What would you like to do when you grow up.?” she asked him once when they were at the music room. It was their favorite hangout place after class. Taemin would always play the piano and sing for her.

Without second thoughts he replied, “Marry you.”

“Yah! I’m serious.”

“I am too.”

She blushed and it took a while for her to come up with a coherent sentence. “I-I mean, job. What kind of job do you wanna do in the future?”

Taemin smiled because he loves it whenever she turns crimson red especially when he’s the one who caused it. “I want to be a singer.”

“Chincha?” she asked obviously delighted at the thought. With his talent she had always believed he’s going to be a great singer someday.

“How about you?” he asked her back.”What do you wanna be?”

She gave it a thought although there was nothing to think about really. A smile was playing at the corner of her lips when she replied, “I want to be your fan.”

“Aren’t you one now?” Taemin asked smiling just as brightly.

“I want to be a fan of the famous Lee Taemin, not the I’m-awesome-but-still-have-a-long-way-to-go Lee Taemin,” she clarified.

“It’s a promise then. I’m going to be famous and you’re going to be the president of my fanclub. Deal?”

She laughed hard, obviously having a great time. “Ok. Deal.”

Eunjin have the tendency to forget her own birthday but she never (not even once) did she forget Taemin’s.

“Taemin, what gift do you want for your birthday?”

“A kiss.” He said which earned him a playful punch on the shoulder.

“Something I can actually give you.”

“A kiss is something you can actually give me. You won’t even spend a penny.”

“Urg! Why do I even bother asking you?”

On his birthday, Eunjin got him a bracelet. Taemin thinks it was cool – made of tan leather strap and a silver anchor style hook. At the back of the anchor are initials LT which must stand for Lee Taemin.

Taemin likes it a lot but he decided to a little by faking a sad face, sighing and saying, “I was really hoping you’d give me a kiss.”

Eunjin looked disappointed that he didn’t sound enthusiastic and Taemin couldn’t stop himself from pinching her cheeks. “I’m kidding. I love it.” He smiled to make his point then he added, “But if you kis-“

“Say that word one more time and I’ll take your gift back and you won’t be having anything from me this year.”

“Fine. I was just kidding,” he pouted knowing it always works on Eunjin. “Put it on me,” he commanded then stretched out his arm so she can put the bracelet on him.

Eunjin rolled her eyes but complied nonetheless. It looked perfect and Taemin never took it off afterwards.

“Taemin, let’s go watch the stars.” Eunjin suggested (insisted) that Taemin should come with her at the top of the old lighthouse a few distance away from the school to watch the meteor shower.

“Sure but I heard there are ghosts lurking in that light-”

“I’m not afraid of ghosts.”

“The news said the meteor shower happens tomorrow morning, not tonight so-“

“No, it’s tonight. I saw the news.”

“But Eunjin-ah, it’s already dark,” he complained, already running out of ideas to convince her it was such a bad idea.

“Of course it has to be dark. How are we going to see the stars if it isn’t? Common! We won’t take long.”

“Do we really have to go? We can watch it from our backyard.”

“The view from the lighthouse is prettier.”

Taemin couldn’t understand how the view from a lighthouse would be any different from the view at the backyard but the smile on Eunjin’s face was enough to convince him to come even though at the back of his mind there was a nagging feeling that what they were about to do will be such a bad idea.