I sat silently, staring at the night sky.  Thousands of stars glittered, greeting and accompanying each other in the vast sky while I was alone.  A sudden rush of loneliness hit me.  My thought s went flying to the past, to that day.  The day that changed my whole life.

*****

“Dara-ah!” I heard someone call me.  I turned and saw Youngbae jogging towards me.  Youngbae is my best friend.  He has been since we were both in junior high school.  At that time, he was just a dorky little shy boy.  I never expected he would turn into this cool and well, pretty hot guy that is now standing in front of me.  Not to mention he has recently become very popular among the girls.

“What’s up?” I asked him.

“Nothing.  I just wanted to go home together.” He answered nonchalantly.

“What? Why?” I asked, eyeing him sharply.

“Do I really have to have a reason to wanna go home with my best friend?” and without waiting for my answer he just took my hand and started walking to the front gate of our school.  I pulled my hand back and walked beside him.  We used to always walk home together but he’s been busy lately so it was surprising that he suddenly wanted to go home with me.

“Don’t you have any club activities or something today? I mean, you usually go home late.” I asked him while my eyes roamed the schoolyard; unsure of what it is exactly I was looking for.

“Actually, I wanted to go to that place with you today.  There’s something I want to tell you.”

“oh, what about? Is it really important?” I questioned.  At that moment, from the corner of my eye, I caught what I had been looking for.  He was standing near the front gate with his friends.  My heart started to beat wildly out of control as if I had just been running hundreds of miles.  I didn’t realize that I kept staring at him, unable to remove my view.  My eyes were locked on him.  Everything else, all that surrounded me seemed to disappear.  He was breath taking.  Well, maybe that’s a bit much, but that’s what he was to me.  His bleach blond hair, his bad attitude, his cute one sided smile that always made my heart skip a beat.  He was my definition of a perfect guy.  I felt myself start smiling.

“Dara-ah, what are you looking at?  You look stupid you know..” Youngbae’s voice woke me up from my mid-day dream.

“hah? What? Nothing.” I answered him and started walking again.

I really didn’t want Youngbae to see that I was staring and even more day dreaming about Jiyong.  Yep, Jiyong is the guy I’ve had a crush on since the first day of high school, and unfortunately he is also the one guy that Youngbae hates the most.  The two were sworn enemies.  I don’t know how it came to be, and I was too scared to ask him.  All I know is that even just hearing the name Jiyong could put my best friend into a very bad mood.  That’s why I never told him about my crush on Jiyong.  It was my biggest secret. Well actually, it was my only secret from Youngbae.  I didn’t want my feelings to ruin my friendship with him.  I didn’t want him to think that I betrayed him or something for liking his enemy.

“hey, were you looking at Jiyong just now?” Youngbae suddenly asked me.  His question totally took me by surprise.  I felt as if my heart literally stopped for a second.  I stopped my steps and turned to face him.

“tsk, seriously Bae? Come on.. why would I be looking at him? I was just thinking about something that came to mind.”  I lied.  Thank God my brain was good at making up excuses.

“oh, right.  Mianhe.  For a minute there I thought you actually liked him.  I’m really stupid, huh?”  he chuckled at his stupidity.  He smiled softly at me and took my hand before starting to walk again.  My heart slumped hearing his words.  It hurt me to lie to him like this.  How much longer will I have to hide this from him?

“Pabo..”  I whispered to myself.

I followed him to the hill near our house.  It was a small hill in the middle of our regency.  Yongbae and I only lived five houses apart from each other.  That was another reason we had become best friends.  Since junior high we always came to this hill when we wanted to be alone.  Away from everyone else.  It was our reverie.

We had both remained silent the whole way to the hill and Youngbae never let go of my hand.  He just intertwined our fingers and held it tight as if he was afraid I might run away or something.  I didn’t understand what was going through his mind because he had never been this way before.  We sat under the tree that was located on the very top of the hill.  The silence felt so awkward.  I gently pulled my hand from his hold when we were both seated.

“So, what did you wanna tell me? It seemed really important. ” I asked him breaking the silence between us.  It was starting to make me feel very uncomfortable.

“Well, we’ve known each other for a long time right.. I mean, it’s been six years now.” He paused.  “The thing is, I really love you.”