My eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my head. I froze in my spot and forgot concepts of time or place until someone spoke up again. 

"Girlfriend?" Danny looked at me with pleading eyes before looking back at Chanyeol.

"Yeah, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to hold her like that." Chanyeol bluntly spat out. He grabbed my hand and tightened his grip just a little bit. 

"Soo Min, when did this happen? I-I mean I know that you left for America, but I didn't know you already had a boyfriend from that short time away from me."

His words sparked my interest and I finally spoke up. "Short time? I was away from Korea for 2 years. Hell, I went to America partly to get away from the likes of you. You know how badly you hurt me and you can't go back on your actions." I felt my voice getting higher as tears started to spill out once again. "You know what you did to me. I was so in love with you that I couldn't see past your fake feelings for me. I knew they were there but I kept pushing it off because I loved you. You were everything to me...." I pulled my hand out of Chanyeol's hand and walked closer to Danny. "But you were just using me." I turned to walk out of the resturant once and for all, but turned back to say my final words.

"Like I said before, I never want to see you again." I wallked out of the resturant, not even waiting to see if Chanyeol was following behind me. 

All I heard behind me was, "No, Soo Min! Wait! Please let me explain!" 

I walked about 14 steps before I was twirled around, and a pair of lips crashed into mine. My eyes widened and I looked at the person kissing me. I kissed back until I realized that it was completely idiotic of me to be doing this. I can't let feelings for him grow again. I pushed him away from me and wiped my lips with my arm. 

"What the hell was that for?!" 

Danny looked at me with worried and loving eyes, the look he used to give me when I was upset and he wanted to console me.

"Soo Min, I said I wanted to explain, so please let me."

"No! I told you I-"

Chanyeol ran up and punched Danny in the face.

"Chanyeol!" I kneeled down to Danny, who had a hand on his face, along with a red spot that was sure to turn into a black eye sooner or later.

"What the hell, dude?"

"Don't touch her like that! Why did you kiss Soo Min?" Chanyeol was defending me and protecting me, I felt so helpless. I took a deep breath and walked over to stand by Chanyeol.

"I know she still has feelings for me." He looked away from Chanyeol and at me, standing behind him, not saying a word. "You know you do."

He made it sound like I was the only one who loved him in the first place, which I guess turned out to be true. Anger flared up inside of me once again and I spoke up.

"I don't care about you anymore. If I did, I would've been naive enough to run back into your arms after you kissed me just then. Does it look like that's the case right now?" I walked over and stood directly next to Chanyeol and grabbed his hand, intertwining mine with his. 

"I have someone else to care about me now." I looked up at Chanyeol, to find that he was already looking down at me with a small grin on his face. I know this wasn't all exactly true, but Chanyeol had saved me before, and he seemed to be caring for me now, even if he wasn't really my boyfriend. 

"Soo Min, please, don't do this. You never gave me a chance to explain."

"I don't need an explanation. I've moved on, so should you." I walked away, forgetting that my hand was still intertwined with Chanyeol's hand. As soon as we turned the corner, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for what you did back there." I looked down at our hands. "Even though I'm not your girlfriend." I said as I finally let go of his hand. I felt empty once I let go. My heart fluttered a little bit just thinking about actually being something more with Chanyeol, but that was never going to happen. 

"Yeah.. sorry if saying that made things worse."

"No, it's okay. I don't think he would've ever left me alone if you hadn't said that. He needs to move on."

"Have you?"

I had an answer to his question, but I wasn't sure if it was 100% true. "Yes."

"Good. Now can we continue the rest of our day together? I don't want you to be sad anymore." He bent down and pulled the corners of my lips up with his fingers to form a smile on my face.

I laughed. "What are you? My dad?" I slapped his hand away and he stood up straight. 

"No." He huffed.

"I'm just kidding, come on." He dragged me back to his car so we could continue to hang out the rest of the day. 

We spent the rest of the day driving around Seoul, stopping at the cheesy tourist sights, pretending to be tourists even though we knew the area very well. At around 5:33pm, we sat down at a park bench with some ice cream we had bought. 

"Had fun today?" Chanyeol asked as he his ice cream.

"Surprisingly, yes, I did. Thank you Chanyeol. I seriously don't know what I'd do without you. I know that I've said that a million times, but it's true." I looked up to the sky to see that it was getting darker. "Should we start heading home? I know it's still early."

"Anything for you." 

"You make it sound like we're dating." I chuckled.

Chanyeol was quiet for a while and I thought he had just ignored my statement. I awkwardly stood up. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

"Soo Min?"

"Yeah?"

"We're not dating."

Ouch. I knew this wasn't going to be more than just a simple friendship. "Y-yeah I know I was just-"

"But, can we give it a chance?"

"No, seriously I-" I looked him in the eyes. "What?" 

"I know that I haven't known you for too long, but everytime I see you, I get nervous. And I have this feeling of wanting to always keep you safe." 

I stared at him. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You... want to date me?"

"Well not date you.... yet. I just want to make it clear that I might possibly, maybe, want to be more than friends at some point." He mumbled the last part. "I just want to get to know you better too. That's why I'm saying it's no rush really. I know this probably sounds really stupid."

"Oh, no it doesn't sound stupid at all! I promise, its just that-"

"You don't want to be anything more than friends. Okay."

"Yah, Park Chanyeol, can you stop cutting me off?"

"Sorry... I just don't want to hear what I know was gonna come out of your mouth." He pouted.

"And how did you know what I was gonna say?"

"You just sounded like you were leading into the whole 'that sounds great, but...' kinda speal. Isn't that what you were gonna say?"

He could be such a pain in the . "No. Surprisingly that is not what I was gonna say." I sat back down on the bench and looked at him. Eye to eye.

"Chanyeol. I get what you're saying about wanting to be more than friends at some point. But, and please hear me out." I placed my hand on his. "You are going to be a worldwide celebrity, along with the rest of EXO. I can't go into this whole 'getting to know each other thing' that could possibly lead into becoming more than friends, knowing that. Let's just say that in the end of all of this, I ended up really, and I mean really, liking you. What the hell am I supposed to do when your fame grows even bigger? I don't want to be hurt again like I was with Danny."

"I wouldn't even think about hurting you in that way. I know that I haven't been able to spend so much time with you, but that's because you got away from me. I want to make up lost time from the 2 years that I wasn't able to see you..."

"It's just hard for me to open up to anyone anymore. That's why the only person I'm close to at the moment is Ha Yeon. If you haven't noticed, I don't have many friends. It's hard to trust anyone."

"Danny hurt you that bad?"

"Hmmmm." I thought to myself, contemplating whether or not to tell him. "Imagine the worst kdrama backstab in a relationship, and.... times it by 1000." 

It was true. 

"Okay now I understand."

I looked at the sky again and twiddled my thumbs. "And even that's an understatement." I sighed.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I wondered whether I should or not, but maybe if I told him, I would stop thinking about it all the time.

Danny and I had the best relationship I could ever ask for. If I had to put our relationship into one phrase, it would be #relationshipgoals (lol). He gave me everything that a girl could ever ask for. He treated me like his princess in public, showing me off, but not in the way a jerk would. He took me out to special dinners and he never forgot our anniversaries or other special dates in the year and a half that we dated. I loved him. And it just happened to be a bonus that he was extremely good looking, even though that's not all of why I fell in love with him. 

Having a 'hot' boyfriend around school proved to be a challenge. I experienced all of the cliches that came with dating the high school hottie. Girls in the halls glared at me and eventually got on my case for 'stealing away their boyfriend.' Weird how people think they have a boyfriend just because they go to the same school right? Danny protected me and made it very clear that I was his girlfriend, which didn't seem to help. He promised me that he wouldn't let anything happen to me ever. And nothing ever did happen to me. No one hurt me physically or mentally past the occasional glare or whisper, which I had eventually gotten used to. I'd expected it for dating the boy everyone craved in high school. I only got hurt one time, and it was because of Danny.

One day I was waiting for Danny after school, we were supposed to go to our usual 'date spot' which was at a frozen yogurt shop downtown. I had waited for him for 30 minutes, and called him at least 3 times. I began to freak out, thinking that something had happened to him. I even called his mom asking if he had gone home. When she said no, I paced back and forth outside of the school, thinking of what could've happened. I was outside for another 15 minutes, with still no call or text from Danny. I decided to walk back through the school, while thinking back on the day. I thought maybe he could've told me he had something to do after school and I just wasn't listening. 

I went looked through the small rectangular windows of every classroom door, hoping to see his face. I spent another 25 minutes running through all the hallways, not finding anyone but some people studying in the library. I didn't know what else to do, so I decided to go head back out into the parking lot so I could drive home. I didn't know where he was, but I was hoping he'd text me soon. I was become worried by the minute. 

The parking lot was already pretty deserted with the exception of some cars here and there for the students who stayed after school to do sports. I stepped onto the concrete, heading towards my car, when I heard whispered voices.

"Shh. No one knows we're here, and I'd like to keep it that way." I heard a male voice.

"Why? No one else is around here! Your girlfriend probably already went home!" 

"I said to shut up."

"Oh stop being so paranoid. You're wasting time."

"No, listen to me I need to talk to you about-" 

There was silence and I could hear their lips smacking together. Ugh, that is so gross. I absolutely hated when people did too much PDA. And what's this I hear about someone's girlfriend? I peeked around the corner to see who they were.

'D-danny?" The two figures seperated and he immediately came over to me. 

"Soo Min! Please let me explain! I was tryin to tell-"

"No! Stay away from me!" I pushed him away and looked at the girl. "You're cheating on me with Seojun?"

"No, Soo Min, listen-"

"I don't want to listen to you. I never want to see you again." I ran towards my car without another word. I didn't look back at the people standing there, especially when one of them was supposed to be someone I trusted. 

About 2 weeks passed since the whole incident. Technically Danny and I didn't break up ever since the incident. 1 week of the two that had passed by was our high school spring break, so it was easier to avoid him. The other week we spent at school, but everytime I saw Danny, I walked in the opposite direction, never giving him the chance to talk. He didn't need a chance. If he didn't want to get caught, he should've just broken up with me. 

Ha Yeon tried to help me through the whole process, but I always felt gloomy. I missed Danny's hugs, cuddles, and kisses. I missed having him around everyday, and having him there when I needed him. 

Another 2 weeks passed by and I still avoided Danny. 

"Honey, are you okay?" my mom sat down next to me on the couch, my dad standing close by. 

"Not really."

"I know that this is hard for you. We know how much you loved Danny."

"I know how much I loved him too." I blankly stated. There was some awkward silence before my dad cleared his throat.

"Honey, do you remember when you said you wanted to go to America?"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?" 

"Well, a while ago we signed you up for the foreign exchange program to go to live in America and attend school for a year. They just got back to us today. Even Ha Yeon is going. Do you want too?"

For some reason I was really excited, and for a moment, I forgot about Danny. 

"Yes! Are you serious?!" They stood together and nodded at me with smiles on their faces. I was actually going to America, and with my best friend!

We would be leaving in about a week, so I stopped going to school since I would be continuing my education in America. 

I was so excited to be in another country for a year, I could forget about all my worries, leave them all here in Korea. I didn't see Danny in the time before I left, although he left me a million messages and I had a lot of missed calls. I never bothered to read any of them to extensively. After all, I was trying to forget him. 

When we reached America, my mother advised me to use the new iPhone she gave me, and to register it with a new number at the nearest cellular store. So with that, I disconnected my old phone, a galaxy I had been using back home. Before disconnecting and handing it over to the cashier to trade in for money, I checked to see if I had any messages I got but forgot to read from my parents. 

The only text that was there was a new text from Danny, sent just 2 minutes ago. 

Soo Min, please talk to me. You never let me explain. I didn't kiss Seojun, I swear. I was with her to meet her and talk to her about-

My phone died out and I tried to turn it back on to read the rest, but I didn't have my old charger since I knew I'd be trading this in anyways. I was angry for a while because I wanted to know what he had said, but realized that none of it would've made a difference.

And with that, I took my new phone and began my year with Ha Yeon in America.

Chanyeol was quiet. 

"I know it doesn't sound as bad to you, but I was heartbroken."

"No, I understand how heartbroken you must've felt." He stood up.

"I'm sorry, Chanyeol."

He sighed and closed his eyes. "That's okay, I get why you don't want to get involved with me. Come on, we should head back now." He started walking towards his car.

I sighed when he turned away and held my hands in fists. Take a leap, Soo Min. You can do this.

I jogged to Chanyeol, who had already gotten pretty far, and grabbed his wrist, spinning him around.

"I-I want to give this a shot." I tip-toed so I could reach his face and pecked him on the cheek, before standing straight again and hugging him tightly. "We're not dating or anything, but I think you're worth getting to know. I know you just want to protect me."

I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. No, we're not dating or anything yet, I'm just letting him know that it's okay for us to get to know each other better and become better friends. I was ready to trust another person besides Ha Yeon.

Chanyeol was still for a while. A few moments later, I felt his arms slowly reach up to my head to hug me back. 

"Thank you." He smiled.

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Hi guys! Pretty long update for today! So I decided to write the little backstory, haha (finally, right?!) 

Like Soo Min explains herself above, her and Chanyeol are not dating. Nor are they bf and gf, she's just opening up again to another human being besides Ha Yeon, and she feels like she can trust Chanyeol enough to do so. And maybe if later on, feelings develop, it will be easier because she'll know who he is.

Okay I'm done ranting and explaining! Love you guys! 

XOXO,

Mae