He looked at me with a menacing glare. I gulped. “Yunho, are you ok?” I asked slowly.

He didn’t answer. Instead, he slowly walked towards me one step at a time. I started stepping back in fear. Eventually, I bumped into a wall, but Yunho just kept on approaching. I bit my lip and started hyperventilating silently. What the hell was he doing? This was not the caring and over-protective Yunho that I knew. This side of him scared me.

My name is Kim Jaejoong. I am sixteen years old, shy, and make a rather clumsy high school student. Jung Yunho is my long-time best friend and recently discovered crush.

*Flashback*

We have known each other for as long as I remember and grew up together as next-door neighbors. We went to the schools, church, and extracurricular clubs, everything you could imagine. In my eyes, we were brothers—twin brothers. Yah, we are the same age, only separated by a couple months. Ironically, Yunho was taller than me and much more mature-looking even if I was the older one. That was one of the reasons I loved him.

We just finished PE and Yunho told me to wait with him until all of the other students have left. I just nodded. We have been together for so long that I could trust him with my life. Sitting down on a bench together, I could not help but notice how mesmerizing Yunho looked. Sweat rolled down his forehead, his arm muscles tensed every time he moved, and he was not wearing a shirt—showing off his hard-core abs, no doubt. I blushed and looked away, my face heating up exponentially. What did he want anyway?

*End of Flashback*

Yunho leaned in and rested his arms on either side of me as if trapping me. His face was three centimetres away from mine. I practically stopped breathing. He touched his nose with mine and breathed in my scent. Good thing I showered that morning. I turned my head away, evidently uncomfortable, but Yunho cupped my cheek and made me face him. I could see my frightened reflection in his eyes.

Yunho tilted his head, closed his eyes, and decreased the distance between our lips. That was how controlled he was; his actions were always deliberate and purposeful in contrast to my maladroit and mostly involuntary conduct. My clumsiness always got me into loads of trouble, but fortunately Yunho was always by my side to help clear things up for me.

*Flashback*

Clawing my way through the mob of students, I slipped on a wet patch (just my luck) and fell against one of the jocks of the school.

“Watch where you’re going, dorkus!” he retorted as he crashed into a locker.

While instinctively springing back in an attempt to apologize lavishly, I accidently spilled my water bottle on some girl’s white shirt.

“You clumsy brat, look at what you did!” she screamed as she covered her chest with her wet textbooks.

I barely managed to utter out an “I’m so sorry!” when I, once again, bumped into another person while walking backwards. This time, I dropped all of my textbooks and school supplies while most people just started walking all over me, some even kicking away my stuff just for laughs. I cursed myself for such ineptness, and lowered my head in embarrassment.

“Here you go,” a familiar voice reached my ears a few moments later. I looked up and saw Yunho with all of my stuff neatly stacked in his hands. “But really, that was quite a spectacle. Bumping into three people consecutively? That’s pretty impressive!”

I sighed. “I’m sorry.” How come I was so stupid while Yunho was good at everything? Life is not fair sometimes. “I’ll be more careful next time.”

“You always say that, Jaejoongie,” he said with a playful scolding voice, “but you never keep your word, don’t you?” His lips curved up into a wry smile.

Blushing, I looked away from the face that never failed to melt my heart and took my stuff from his hands. Unfortunately, my balance was off as usual, and everything slid off my hands and onto the floor again.

Yunho chuckled. “Jaejoongie, you will never learn, will you?”

*End of Flashback*

Yunho’s lips were in plain view, and a few seconds later… Oh. My. God. The crush of my life was kissing me! Panic attack starts now. At first I was just so perplexed that all I could do was widen my eyes and tense up as he rotated his lips around my non-responding mouth.

I have only dreamed of this kiss. I would never have had professed my love for him even if it tore my heart apart. Losing him would make things worse: staying friends without any awkwardness would be better than confessing the burning love and losing him forever, right?

Yunho broke the kiss and looked at me, still menacing—so unlike him. Whenever I was with him, I would feel protected; when he looked at me like that, though, I could only cringe in fright. “Jaejoongie, although you might still think I only love you as a friend,” he started in a husky voice, “I am sure of it now; I am in love with you, like a lover.”

I looked at him and searched in vain for words. Although he never broke eye contact, I saw his Adam’s apple quiver and his face turned red. I only saw him blush once throughout my duration of my friendship with him.

*Flashback 1*

“Jaejoongie, can I ask you something?” Yunho inquired.

“Of course!” I responded eagerly.

“Do you believe in true love?”

I widened my eyes and felt my cheeks turn red. Damn my pale face! Why is he asking me this? Did he know that I loved him?

“Uh, I-I don’t know, Yunho,” I stuttered nervously. “Do you?”

And he blushed. It was my first time I saw Yunho without his usual placid facial expression. Such a rare sight this was that I widened my eyes and stared at him unblinkingly.

“Yes,” he whispered.

*End of Flashback*

Instead of waiting for my answer to his confession, Yunho hesitantly went back for another kiss. This time, I was ready. I welcomed his tongue to explore my mouth, brought my hands around his neck, and pulled him closer to deepen the kiss. I felt his hands around my slim waist, desperately pulling me towards his warm lean figure.

I broke the kiss this time and looked down at my shoes. Yunho lifted my chin with his long bony fingers. And he smiled the smile that never failed to melt my heart. I felt blood rush up to my face, making him chuckle.

“Does that mean that you love me back?” he asked with his wry smile.

I slowly nodded and felt my face heat up even more. My voice was not working at all, so I just mouthed a yes. Mustering up all the courage I had in my system (which was not much), I kissed him quickly on the cheek, flustering him.

I giggled and pointed at the flushed Yunho in front of me. He looked at me quizzically. “Your face is still red,” I whispered.

“Gah!” he cried out in exasperation, clapping his hands to his cheeks. “Yours is, too!”

I grabbed his hand and walked out the change room with him, officially (tacitly) a couple.