"Thanks," she said weakly as they walked back to her apartment. He was still holding her hand, but neither tried to let go. He had a firm but gentle grip, and she had a small, soft hand. She felt safe with him, a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. As they were strolling back to her place, she unconsciously started telling the story of her life.

After her father died when she was young, her mom had a hard time coping with the loss. Her mother would come home late drunk, and eventually left her with her grandmother. She grew up under the hands of her grandmother who was too old to get her completely under control. She was the neighborhood bully,but once her grandmother passed away she had to go up to the big city to live with her aunt. But her aunt couldn't handle this rebellious teen. She was soon out on her own and trying to earn enough to pay for the bills. She probably tried every job out there, from being a waitress at a top class restaurant to delivering the newspaper and milk on her bike. She only applied to college because her grandmother wanted to see her granddaughter get an education she never had the privilege to. She and her friends were not part of a gang, unlike all the rumors about them. They never beat people up and never even killed someone. They may have ganged up on people and intimidated them, but never physically hurt them the way the rumors all said about them.

She also had a number of boyfriends, but each one turned out to be violent or selfish or dumb or inconsiderate.

"And your current boyfriend is one of the violent ones," Dongwoo commented. They had already reached her apartment and were sitting on the floor. He was so focused on her. Never once did his chocolate brown eyes leave hers, even though she was sometimes uncomfortable under his intense stare. They had already been talking for hours, but to them it felt like there was so much more to say. But it was time for Dongwoo to go home. It was getting late, and he didn’t want his roommates to worry.

As soon as he opened the door, he heard his friends running toward him, bombarding him with questions. “What happened? Woohyun never told me the whole story. What girl? What does she look like? What’d you do after the party? Why are you so late?” The questions seemed to never end. Dongwoo had to push them out of the doorway just to get to the shoe rack to take his shoes off, and he refused to answer any of their questions until he got himself a hot cup of green tea.

“Dongwoo, come on. You can’t torture us like this,” Woohyun whined. He was the most impatient out of the trio. He had already recalled everything Dongwoo told him earlier to Hoya, but Woohyun was still eager to know more of the “juicy” details.

“What were you doing with her so late into the night?” This time Hoya was the one who asked. Hoya was generally a quiet guy who talked when he thought it was absolutely necessary, but that was only in front of people he wasn’t close with.

“Sshh. Let me finish this cup of delicious goodness without hearing your whining.” Dongwoo walked into his room and locked the door, but he knew they would never stop bothering him until he told them everything. He was extremely tired and just wanted to shower and go to bed.

“Jang Dongwoo! You come out of that room right this instance.” Hoya and Woohyun were pounding at the door, and Dongwoo couldn’t stand all the noise so he walked out of his room to the living room. Once he seated himself on the couch, he simply explained how they just talked.

“That’s all you did?” Both Hoya and Woohyun looked disappointed. They imagined something more exciting, but what did they expect? It was Dongwoo they were talking about.

Weeks passed since that fateful day, but he kept thinking about her. He wondered what happened to her and her boyfriend and how she was doing and if she still went to a lot of parties. Whenever he was at school, he would look around to see if she had happened to come to school. He was tempted to go to her apartment, but he wasn’t sure if she would be happy to see him.

On the other hand, she was busy trying to manage a multitude of part-time jobs.. She would be at the counter of a café for a few hours, serve at a restaurant the next few hours, and work at a gas station the rest of the day. She was too busy even to think about school, but she would think about Dongwoo especially when she was having a bad day. She wanted to call him and ask him to just be by her side, but she didn’t know how to reach him.

She finally decided the easiest way to find him was go to school, so that’s what she did the very next day. She got to her first class fifteen minutes early, but she wasn’t the only one who got to class early. As soon as she entered, she quickly recognized a familiar backside.

“I never noticed we were in the same class,” she said as she sat down next to him. She tried but couldn’t hold back a smile as Dongwoo stared at her with a surprised expression. Throughout the class neither of them were focused, and they continued passing notes back and forth. By the end of class, she managed to persuade Dongwoo to skip the rest of the day and just hang out with her. Even though at first, Dongwoo was worried, he was soon having so much fun he was the one dragging her around.

They went to numerous places like the mall, the café, and the movie theater. They took sticker pictures together and bought each other small stuffed animals. It didn’t really matter what they did or where they went, as long as they were together.

The day seemed to end too quickly for them. By the time, Dongwoo dropped her off, it was already dark outside.

“Will I see you soon?” he asked. She responded with a slight nod and walked into the apartment. When he got back home, Woohyun and Hoya noticed how cheerful and jubilant their friend was. The only thing they could get out of him was a laugh and a hug. Dongwoo was literally skipping around the house, spinning in circles, occasionally twirling one of his roommates with him.

As he laid in bed, he couldn’t get himself to sleep. All he could think about was her. Her eyes, her smile, her hands, her laugh. Just the thought of her made his heart flutter. He knew he was falling for her, and he was more than ecstatic to accept his feelings for her.

“She might be the one.”

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Mmm.. First of all sorry for the late update. I'm on break right now, but I got super lazy... (Back at school tomorrow!) But comments are more than welcomed! It might inspire me to write more (: 

Thanks for reading~!