“Have you finally calmed down?”

Jiwoo looked at him with a disgruntled expression and Tae-hyung flinched. He pushed the tissue box on the space between them on the bench closer to her and she plucked one out. Then she blew her nose for the fourth time.

Tae-hyung his lips nervously and looked at the massive fountain spurting water ahead. They’d move to a nearby park after a company guard found them still inside the company well after working hours and asked them to leave. He bought her a drink from the convenience store on the way, bought her a lot of chocolates and candies also because he had heard somewhere that eating sweets could make a girl’s disposition sweeter too. He was banking on that fact. He needed Jiwoo in an amiable mood so he could talk to her without her biting his head off or running away again.

“Where is it?” she suddenly asked.

He twisted his neck to her direction so quickly he gave himself whiplash. “What?” he said with a wince, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Your explanation.”  

Tae-hyung let his hand fall to his lap. Looking at her, a smile formed on his laps.

“Don’t just smile,” she told him irritably, tearing open a part of a chocolate bar’s wrapper before biting in. “Tell me.”

He waited for her to swallow. Then he said, “Can’t I just ask you out already and kiss you after?”

Even in the semi-darkness of the park, he could see her blush. “No. And you’re awfully sure I’ll say yes.”

“I like to think positive.”

“And you like to sidetrack people and change topics,” she pointed out with a sigh.

“Because it’s embarrassing,” he muttered.

It was embarrassing to tell her now that he thought about it.

“I love you, Tae-hyung.”

Jiwoo told him this, wringing her hands together with her face in flames.

Tae-hyung swore his eyes bulged out of their sockets.

Did he hear her right?

Did she just say she loved him?

He threw back his head and started to laugh.

Damn.

Damn, it was mutual all along.

She felt the same way he did all along and he was so damn pleased.

He thought it was a coincidence when he found her name in most of the books he’d read. But he knew it wasn’t when he began to mark all the books he’d borrowed  and found out she’d read all of them, even the weird ones. He’d also recently started to notice her staring at him when she thought he wasn’t looking, even following him around the library as he weaved through the shelves.

Tae-hyung wanted to beat himself up for not noticing this sooner. Finding out that she was stalking him in the library while he’d been so focused on studying, reading or thinking of ways he’d get her to be aware of him made him feel so stupid because of all the time wasted. She must have liked him if she was stalking him like this. So he waited. He waited for her to make her move but when she didn’t, he grew impatient.

So he confronted her. Finally found the gumption and the reason to do it.

And he was so pleased she’d felt the same way as he did.

Then Tae-hyung felt pissed.

He stopped laughing and muttered, “What the hell?”

He was supposed to be the one who confessed, not her. He’d already planned it out with the library staff, asked them to close the library for the two of them so he could talk to her properly. . Damn, maybe he shouldn’t have ambushed her. He’d just been just too excited to finally be able to speak to her that he didn’t think this through. Has he always been this awkward?

Tae-hyung looked down to tell her that he too felt the same way and that they probably should get married already.

But to his surprise, she was gone.

“Oh,” Jiwoo softly murmured whenTae-hyung finished speaking.

Tae-hyung looked a bit disconcerted after his explanation. Jiwoo bit her lip to stop herself from smiling. He was right. It was embarrassing. She’d never guessed he’d been so scared to approach her back then because he was quite the brazen man right now.

“Yeah,” he mumbled. “It’s my fault too. I at this. I’d had all of this planned out before I left for the conference, you know. I was going to ask you out over a candle light dinner when I return and tell you I love you. If I hadn’t come here, I would have lost you all over again. I shouldn’t have waited. I shouldn’t have been so pathetically gutless.”

“All this time, we’d be running around in circles,” she muttered wistfully.

“I should have explained to you everything right away when we first met.”

She shook her head. “You didn’t know how I felt. I shouldn’t have run away too. Sometimes, I do think about how I should have just stood there and waited for you to reject me properly rather than leaving like that.”

He looked upset when he said, “I really did hurt you right?”

“But you didn’t mean to," she rushed to say. "I also hurt you right? Not coming back to the lib?”

Tae-hyung chuckled. Then he put his hand on top of hers, curling his fingers around hers and Jiwoo felt her heart flutter.

“We can both make it up to each other now,” he told her.

“You… you don’t really know me,” she stammered. Tae-hyung was now pushing the food and tissue box aside to sit closer to her.

“We both don’t know each other well. But this is a chance for us to do it.” He wagged his eyebrows suggestively. “Up close and personal.”

Jiwoo shook her head, laughing softly. If he was gutless before now he was complete shameless and brazen to the point of arrogance. “I may not be the person you think I am.”

“And am I? I’m sure you think I’m annoying.”

“That you are,” she said in total agreement.

He wasn’t offended. He burst out laughing instead. “So will you still run away?” he asked teasingly.

Will she?

He bent his neck down and brushed her lips against hers.

Jiwoo blinked when it was over. Then she blushed.

No. She didn’t think so.

This time, when Tae-hyung touched his lips to hers, his kiss was long, gentle and sweet and she kissed him back.

“Have you fallen for me again?” he asked when their kiss ended.

She smiled.

“I’ve never really stopped loving you, Tae-hyung,” she admitted. “I’ve tried so hard to deny it but I never really did.”

Never.

Ever.

And he smiled.

End

Not really. 

There will still be an epilogue. 

(*^▽^*)