Ring Finger; for the one we really love
Five Points: Behind Our LoveFor as long as I can remember, Taemin hasn’t been completely open about his feelings because he doesn’t want to be a bother, not that he ever could be. And because of that, my one-sided love always hopes that he loves me just as much as I love him, but any chance of that now is very thin. There’s nothing huge I have to worry about, apart from the fact that I may have bruised our friendship.
I know exactly where Taemin is right now, that’s the perk of being his best friend. I know him so well that I’m able to locate all of his hiding spots, but I have to hurry. I rushed out of my house without a jacket which I now regret because it’s freezing cold outside.
Who cares? Taemin’s probably freezing too!
It didn’t take me long to find him because he was exactly where I knew he would be. Whether he ripped up those tickets or not, I know he’d still want to go to the amusement park. But because he ripped them up, he wouldn’t be able to enter, so he’d watch it from afar from the best spot in house-a large hill that gave whoever was seated on it a magnificent view. I took light footsteps and tried my best not to be heard or seen by Taemin. I didn’t want to be too far away from him in case he tried to run off because then I wouldn’t be able to catch him.
When I reached him, I asked him the same question I did when we met. “Why are you sitting by yourself?”
Startled, Taemin nearly jumped out of his seat and almost turned around to face me. When he knew it was me, he chose to keep his back to me. I heard him sniffle and I watched as he brought up his sleeve to wipe a tear away from his left eye. “My best friend left me for girl and told me that I’m a spoilt brat.” Taemin answered.
So this is why. Oh, Taemin, if there has ever been a time where I haven’t been this blind or foolish then I surely want to remember. “Take no notice of that, he didn’t mean it.” I said.
Taemin scoffed. “No offence, hyung, but are you sure there isn’t something else you could be doing right now other than sitting here and talking to me?” He mocked, thinking back to the time we met just like I was.
“What makes you say that?” I asked. “Don’t you want us to be friends?”
“Not anymore, no.” Was his answer. My attempt to bring our innocent past back up to help shift things in the right direction had backfired and failed miserably, so I thought. With a sigh, he turned to look at me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. Your friendship means a lot to me but sometimes…It’s just too hard! Especially when you do something like this to me!”
Inside, a small hopeful smile was dying to be shown. At least my friendship with him wasn’t totally demolished, so I could still make everything right. “There’s something you have to understand.” I started as I came over and sat dow next to him crosslegged. I frowned at how he shuffled away from me.
“I understand everything.” Taemin said with his arms folded arms in a stubborn manor. “You like JiHae-noona more than me, and why wouldn’t you? She’s pretty, kind hearted, nice-”
“You have those qualities too, you know.” I told him.
“Well she’s not a spoilt brat, is she?!” He shot.
“Taemin, please listen. I honestly don’t think you’re a spoilt brat of any kind, I just said those things because I couldn’t understand why you were so upset with me.” I explained. “But now that I’ve had time to think about it, I understand everything.”
“You do?” Taemin wearily wondered.
I nodded. “Yes, and I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel so unimportant, it’s just that JiHae really wanted my help-or so I thought.” I chuckled at the end of that to steer Taemin away the path of asking me what I meant by that. “What I’m trying to say is that you mean a lot more to me than you realise. And for you to still see us as friends tells me that I mean a lot to you too, right?”
A blush became noticeable on Taemin’s face and that told me everything. “Don’t assume that you know everything.” He said.
“I’m not assuming, I know!” I strongly protested.
“How? How could you possibly know how I feel about you even now?!” Taemin argued confidently as he pushed himself up from the ground and decided to stand up and tower over me.
The sudden difference in height caught me off guard. “W-Well I…I just-”
“You obviously don’t because you chose JiHae-noona over me and I’ve never once confessed to you!” Taemin exclaimed. “So how could you possibly know that being with you makes me feel happy, protected and loved or that being with you is the best thing in this world? How could you know how my heart beats when you hold me in your arms as a way to calm me down when I’m upset?! Aish, do you know how crazy you make me?! I’ve also never once told you that I can’t stand it when we’re apart and I definitely haven’t told you that knowing you is the single most perfect thing in my life!”
I expect a lot of things from Taemin because I know him, but hearing all of those wonderful thoughts about me is something I never would’ve anticipated him to say. Taemin likes me but usually just in my own world. And now my own world was our world because my love was no longer one sided.
When Taemin realised exactly what had came out of his mouth, he quickly placed both hands over it and gasped. “Omo, what have I just said?!” He questioned himself.
“Something I’ve been waiting to hear for a very long time.” I answered as I stood up, ready to hold him. But Taemin started backing away from me, stumbling over small bumps in the hill as he did so. “Taemin, it’s okay.”
“How can it be okay to you?” He asked as he shook his head from side to side. “I was mad at you and now…I’m saying all these things! It doesn’t make sense!” He brought his hands up to hold his own face but I replaced them with my own.
With my hands on both sides of his face, I stared deeply in to his eyes. “Love doesn’t have to make sense to be perfectly real. In all honesty, I’ve loved you since the first day we met.” I confessed.
“Even though nobody liked me at first?” He asked.
I shrugged. “That only made not sharing you with anyone easier.”
For the first time in a week, I got to see the thing I loved seeing. Taemin’s smile was brighter than any star in the sky and his laugh was more angelic than any lullaby. I could feel myself becoming drawn to him even more and an unnatural force was pulling me closer to him. My lips were inches away from his soon enough, and I could feel his breath hit me. I cupped his chin and pulled him in for a kiss, but it ended sooner than I wanted it to when Taemin pushed me away.
“Y-Yah, what are you doing?!” He demanded to know while trying not to draw attention to his blushing face.
“I’m trying to kiss you.” I said bluntly.
“N-NO!” He cried.
“Taemin, I love you and you obviously love me. I just heard you rant about it!” I pointed out in an obvious way.
“I-I-I did not!” Taemin lied. “I just started saying a bunch of stuff you liked!”
I chuckled “You’re too cute, really.”
“You forgot perfect.” He added.
“And you forgot beautiful.” I mentioned as I stepped forward and caressed his left cheek lovingly.
Taemin placed his own hand over mine and smiled. And this time when I leaned in closer, he allowed me to kiss him. He must’ve been nervous about how he’d respond back to it, but he was fine as he was. It was the best kiss I’d ever have-short, simple and sweet.
“Hyung, I…I really like you too.” Taemin muttered when we pulled away. “And I’m sorry about how I acted today. I’ll apologise to JiHae noona next time I see her as well.”
“Don’t worry about it, she understands and so do I.” I told him as I ruffled his hair affectionately. “Now, is your offer to go to the amusement park still up for me to take?”
“I ripped the tickets up, remember?”
This is where my sweet surprise would turn everything around. “Then it’s a good thing I bought two tickets before I came here to you, isn’t it?” I smiled as I presented two brand new tickets to the new amusement park straight out of my pocket.
Taemin’s face instantly lit up in excitement, mirroring a small child that was being given a bag of candy. “Oh. hyung, I love you!” Taemin cried. And then he clamped his hands over his mouth and blushed again.
“Cute.” I laughed.
While he tried to hit me for making him blush harder, I laughed again and grabbed his hand to lead him down the hill and towards the amusement park. He stopped squirming when we reached the entrance gates and showed the ticket booth guy our tickets to allow us to pass. After he took our tickets, one pointed thumb in the direction of the fun was all it took for Taemin and I to run happily past the gate and start our, well…this is our first official date as a couple, isn’t it?
We played a few games together, the ones where you either had to throw ball at a group of bottles or toss a hoop over said object. It was hard because as terrible as it sounds, games like this are always rigged, so there was no chance of me winning. Taemin was standing behind me with a hopeful smile on his face though and I could tell that he was eyeing a frog plushie hanging above our heads.
I couldn’t back out now. So with a baseball in my possession, I pulled back my arm and then flung it forward, throwing the ball at the bottles. The top one was knocked off while the remaining five stood still, and I had hit the group from the centre! The man in charge laughed at my failure and pretended to be sympathetic. I shot him a glare and muttered a profanity under my breath. I turned around to face Taemin who had a determined expression on his face and watched as he grabbed the ball from my hands and stepped up to the front. The man obviously didn’t think Taemin would be any good because he looked skinny and weak. We were both shocked when the ball knocked down all six bottles and the bell sounded off to say that someone had won. When Taemin reached up and claimed the frog plushie as his prize, he stuck his tongue out at the man and came back to hug me.
“It’s okay, hyung, you can win me something else!” Taemin happily said.
I agreed but knowingly had an alternative idea in mind. Instead of playing games and winning by chance or skill, I led Taemin over to a small selection of machines that gave out different little toys with a small fee. I put in a few coins and turned the knob on it and minutes later, a plastic egg with something inside came out.
Taemin peered over my shoulder. “What is it?” He asked.
“I think it’s a ring.” I said as I opened up the egg. It was indeed a ring and an oddly shaped one at that. It seemed to resemble a mushroom. “This is perfect.” I said in awe, amazed at the irony. This ring would not only represent how much I love Taemin but it would also symbolise our first meeting when he had a bowl cut hairstyle an looked like a mushroom.Without his consent, I got down on one knee in front of him and gently held out his hand.
Taemin became startled again and more nervous when a small crowd started to form around us. “Wh-what are you doing hyung? People are staring at you!” He exclaimed.
“Then allow them to stare and witness this perfect opportunity for us.” I passionately declared. I spread out his fingers a little and then slipped the ring on to his slim ring finer-and it was a perfect fit. When he looked at me in a puzzling way, I told him my intentions. “Lee Taemin, I love you. One day when we’re older, we’ll be happier than we are now and you’ll have a ring as bright as your smile. I will take you as you are now and as you may be later, and I’ll be by your side today, tomorrow, the day after and so on until we are both ashes in the ground.”
A few people gasped at my sweetly romantic speech while Taemin remained speechless. I was full of surprises because being with Taemin made me feel spontaneous all of a sudden, most likely because I was scared that he’d run off again. Taemin breathed out and stared at me with mixed emotions swimming in his eyes again. “Minho-hyung,” He started, becoming silent again. “I-I…I I don’t want to be ashes in the ground.”
“Then…Banana milk juices?” I tried hopefully.
Taemin stifled out a chuckled and nodded. “Yes, I want to be banana milk juices with you!” He agreed before sniffling. A tear out of joy rolled down his cheek and he still held his smile.
I smiled back at him feeling overjoyed, ecstatic and any other feeling I could use to describe my emotions right now. Forgetting that we were in a public place, I stood up properly and pulled Taemin to another kiss, this one more passionate and advanced than the first one.
Banana milk juices, huh?
You really haven’t changed at all, Taemin.
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