I didn't have much time to think about his feelings, because the next second he was moving back to me, fast. One of his hands reached up to my face, fingers threading through my hair, while his other hand had reached down to grab my waist. I probably would have been more shocked by his hand if he hadn't also stepped so close to me that he was pressing his body against mine as he began kissing me again.

I was so suprised by my thoughts that I didn't respond to him at first, just let him kiss me as I balled my hands that were stuck between us into tight fists. I was trying to get my brain to focus on what was happening now, with Jong In, but part of it seemed to desperately want to explore the idea of him being in love with me; whether I liked it or not, what that would mean, if I thought I could feel the same way.

It didn't take him long to realize I wasn't recipricating anymore, and he pulled back. His face still looked pretty much the same, but I could see a question in his eyes now.

I honestly almost asked him right then and there, actually almost spoke the words "do you love me?" but I managed to catch myself because I didn't want to ask. What if he said "no"? What if he did, but didn't want to say anything about it yet because he wasn't ready to or some other reason. I didn't want to try to force him to say anything, and while I wasn't sure if I really wanted his feelings to have progressed that much yet, or at least to know about it, I knew I'd be a little hurt if he did deny it. Stupid pride and all.

I had to do something, though, as he was looking at me, waiting for an explanation. I felt my hands unfurling, almost of their own volition, to grasp onto his shirt instead of air. I looked down over his shoulder at the ground behind him while I thought, suddenly remembering we were in public again. Secluded, but still a place anyone could happen upon quite easily.

"Do you want to stop?" he asked as he pulled back a bit, straightening up while still looking back down at me, concerned.

I was suddenly struck by just how tall he was compared to me.

"It's not that," I breathed, only then realizing I had been out of breath.

"Then what is it?" he asked, leaning his forhead against mine, looking me directly in my eyes.

He adjusted his hand in my hair to pull his thumb out and placed it on my cheek before gently it. I clutched onto his shirt tighter, feeling my knees give out a little beneath me, but not stumbling or falling as he was still pressed against me, holding my body up against the tree. I couldn't believe I had such a strong reaction to just that after he had kissed me so much.

"I just..." I began, not actually having anything to follow it with, just wanting to buy some more time while I thought.

I didn't come up with anything, though. My brain was just so clouded by his nearness that for a moment I couldn't even remember why I had pulled back in the first place.

"I just..." I said again, not being able to help it as I glanced down, my head tilting up without my brain telling it to, bumping my nose with his as my body apparently was trying to strain for another kiss. I, somehow, managed to manouver my head so my lips were near his, and I felt them spread, tighten, like he was smiling. I glanced back up to his eyes and saw some playfulness in them.

So a smile, or a smirk.

I was suddenly irked, feeling like I was being laughed at, even though he was the one who had me pushed against a tree. True, I was the one who stepped up onto the roots, but he was the one who dragged me all the way to the park from the ice cream shop.

Which reminds me.

I pulled my head back, far enough that no part of our faces were touching at all anymore. I didn't try very hard to withhold the annoyance his look had sparked in me as I said to him,

"I was just wondering why you dragged me all the way out here."

From here I could see his expression better, and that before he had been, in fact, only smiling, and at my statement his smile only grew more. The playfulness in his eyes growing.

"I figured at this point it was pretty obvious."

My face flamed, and I couldn't believe that not only had it taken this long for me to be embarrassed by what we had done, but that it wasn't until he said something that I blushed, not the way he had kissed me, or even when he had pressed his body against mine. Which it still was.

"You brought me out here just for that?" I asked, wanting to make him feel as silly as I did.

I should have known it wouldn't work.

"I didn't think you'd appreciate me kissing you in the middle of the ice cream shop."

He definitely smirked then. 

My face turned another shade darker as I looked down, unable to hold his gaze after he said that. I stared quite determindly down, not looking at anything in particular, but definitely not looking at his eyes.

He used his hand in my hair and cupping my face to urge me to look back up at him, which I did with much reluctance. When I had, he pressed himself a little closer to me, bringing his face closer to mine, our lips centimeters apart.

"And I had to kiss you."

My knees gave out entirely.

I knew he felt my body try to slide down as it's main support had decided to quit since his eyes widened a bit and he pressed himself even closer, pinning me to the tree as his hand on my waist tightened it's grip.

"Are you okay?" he asked, brows furrowed, concerned, no longer playful.

"I'm fine," I said, my face only getting darker. He didn't look like he believed me, and the last thing I wanted was for him to start asking what had happened, so instead I asked him the first question that came to mind; "Why did you have to kiss me?"

In other circumstances, the fact that I asked that question would probably make me blush. Given the current situation, though, I'm not sure it had much affect on the exact shade of red my face was.

Jong In looked back at me in wide-eyed confusion before he seemed to remember what we were talking about before I nearly fell.

"Because of... you" he said, not very descriptively. It was my turn to look at him confused. "It was what you said and how you said it." I continued looking confused, trying to remember what we had been talking about before our abrupt departure. "When I said we should tell each other we like each other more often, I expected you to get flustered and argue with me about it, but instead you..." he trailed off here and the affection re-entered his face... along with some of the desire. It wasn't nearly as strong as before, but it was definitely there. "Instead you looked at me the way you did and said it out right. You didn't hesitate at all. I-I had to kiss you."

I didn't know what way I had looked at him that seemed to have affected him so much, I don't remember making any face, just looking back at him and smiling. It wasn't exactly something he hadn't seen before. He did have a point with the words, though. If my brain hadn't followed the trian of thought about us having a future together, and how happy that idea made me, I definitley wouldn't have said that I liked him, not so easily, and especially not so up front. I would have argued. he probably would have won, and then forced me to say it back, but I wouldn't have said it like that. So evenly, no hesitation, looking directly at him. I would have blushed and bumbled my way through it, only maybe keeping eye contact.

"I had to kiss you," he said again, moving his face so his cheek pressed against mine. "That was the first time I completely believed that you liked me." He turned his face and kissed me, centimeters from my lips. "I had suspected it for a long time." He moved back a little, kissing my cheek, his lips brushing my skin as he did, and I clutched harder onto his shirt, my body definitely straining into his now. "And you said it a few days ago." He moved again, kissing the area just below my ear, where my jaw ended and my neck began. "But part of me thought you only said it because I asked you to." His face moved down my neck a little bit. He kissed there, too. "Because you knew I wanted you to." He trailed a little further down until he reached where the collar of my school uniform began, kissing the skin right next to it before pulling back to look at me.

The desire was back in full force in his eyes.

"But when you said it like that, with that look, I knew for sure."

It was honestly like he didn't want me to walk anymore.

"I like you, Jong In," I said without thinking, the words slipping out on their own.

He smiled at me, and I couldn't find it in me to regret saying what I had.

"I like you too, Soo Young."

I had to kiss him. The only problem was that I was still a novice at it and I was in such a state emotionally that I didn't trust myself to do any better than the last time I had kissed him. So instead of leaning forward, like I wanted to, I raised my chin and parted my lips, hoping he would understand. His eyes flashed down to my mouth, then back up to my eyes, and I knew he had.

He was kissing me again, and I was happy. I was floating, but I was very firmly rooted to this spot.

I was actually in the middle of having that cliche thought of not wanting this to end, of wanting it to go on forever, when I heard a twig snap nearby, but not near enough that it was me or Jong In that had done it. My brain was sluggish in understanding exactly what that meant, but as soon as it did, my body froze and my eyes shot open. I'm sure I looked like a frightened animal, because I very much felt like one. Jong In pulled back to give another confused look that turned slightly fearful when he noticed my expression.

I whirled my head around the next instant, trying to see if there really was anyone around and that it wasn't just a squirel or some other wild animal living around here. My heart sunk as I saw a guy walk into my line of sight, followed by another. They had their backs to us, so I tried to push Jong In away, hoping that if we at least seperated we would look less suspicious, and also hoping that we could get ourselves looking like we hadn't just been kissing with me pressed up against a tree.

It felt like it took longer than it should have for Jong In to notice the guys as well and then move away, because he didn't until he saw them. That was all we could do before the guys turned and noticed us. My face was still flushed, and I saw Jong In's was as well as I heard one of the guys say "Oh, sorry!" with a Chinese accent. I couldn't help but look up at the guys who had just, apparently, caught us, once I heard the accent, finding it strange that I was running into and meeting so many people from China recently. 

My body tensed as I recognized them immediately, the odd pair were hard to forget.