Dear Minho,

They say that there will be two people you will love all your life: the person you’ll spend the rest of your life with... and your greatest love.

Lucky are those who found both in the same person. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.

The first time I saw you Minho, I knew you were going to be a really special person to me. You made my years at SM the best. But nothing's better than knowing that the person you've fallen in love with fell for you too.

We were trainees when we met. We entered at the same year, shared some singing and dancing classes and became close. I don’t exactly recall how but ever since then, we were inseparable. We belong in the same circle of friends, shared the same passion and dreams. Everything we do, we do it together. We were so close up to the point where our friends and even our families ask why we weren’t dating. Some say that it isn’t even about the “why” but rather, the real question was “when”?

They tease us, always asking why do we even have to be friends when eventually, we’d still be a couple. All those years, we didn’t care about what they say, for us, nothing else mattered.

Often times, we’ve talked about love. You’ve once told me that you’ve never been in love in a way that actors did in the movies. You’ve never felt the kind of love where you’d do all sort of things… the love you’d be willing to kill and die for. You didn’t believe in it, nor did I. I told you that it was all fiction, that kind of love simply does not exist.

I was wrong though… because I fell in love with you.

You were my first love. It was a deep and consuming love, and all I knew then was that I badly needed you. I wanted you to be a part of my life from then on until forever. But of course, you didn’t know that. How could you? I wasn’t brave enough to confess and I was too scared to lose you.

Then one day, things changed. You’ve seen me differently, not as your best friend, not as a younger sister but as a woman capable of love. If my memory serves me right, it was after an SM concert abroad when I was feeling so sick. I was alone at the hotel room, I didn’t want to make people worry so I didn’t tell anyone. So you could only imagine my surprise when you came that night.

I thought you already took the flight back to Korea, but you didn’t, instead you took care of me all night. You were so patient with me, even when I was crying because of so much pain, you never did once complain. You were there for me. You constantly reassured me with your embrace and you even cheered me up with a song. I’ll never forget that song, “Hello”, it was one of your own. So whenever people ask me what my favorite Shinee song was, Hello was my earnest and only answer.

That same night, you showed me how important I was to you and I couldn’t help but fall even deeper. That’s why when you asked me if I wanted to go on a date with you once we were back to Korea, I was so overwhelmed with happiness. Whether to shout or jump out of joy, I didn’t know. It was all surreal. I’ve never expected that it was possible for you to love me as well.

I thought it was the start of a beautiful relationship. And for the