He loves me? I can’t believe my ears. I’m at a loss for words that I don’t know how to respond properly. “Y-you love me?” I stutter in disbelief that this is actually happening. I lightly pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming this.

            “Yes, I love you. Even if you don’t love me back or feel the same way, I just needed to tell you how I felt and I hope this doesn’t ruin anyth-” I cut Eunwoo off midsentence by crashing my lips onto his. I can’t believe I just did that! I’ve always dreamt of this moment and I never thought it would happen, ever.

            It takes a moment, probably from shock, but Eunwoo starts kissing me back. I can feel the butterflies in my stomach exploding. I pull away from the kiss first but Eunwoo keeps his face close to mine. “I love you too,” I smile.

            “Then I have a very important question to ask… Would you be my girlfriend?”

            I kiss him again, “Does that answer your question?” I pull away, smirking.

            “Yes,” he smiles. I can’t believe he’s mine…

-

            It’s been about three weeks since Eunwoo brought me to Paris and just under three weeks since we’ve started dating. I know there’s the looming problem of his arranged marriage but he says he doesn’t want to be in this arrangement. Maybe there’s something we could do to get him out of it…

            “Hey babe,” Eunwoo interrupts my thoughts.

            “Yeah?”

            “You’re phone is ringing… It’s Eryn,” he tells me as he sets my phone down on the table next to the chair in our hotel room. ! I totally forgot the missed call from weeks ago. I haven’t even looked at my phone.

            “Hello?” I quickly answer before it becomes another missed call.

            “Where the have you been?” Eryn practically yells from the other end of the line.

            “I know; I’m sorry. I’ve barely checked my phone since we got here…” my voice trails off. I feel like an awful person right now. Eunwoo and I were only supposed to be gone maybe two weeks, at most, and here we are at three weeks gone. Even better, we’re both in Rocky and Eryn’s wedding party and their wedding is in about a month.

            “My wedding is in, like, a month! Why aren’t you back yet?” She sounds stressed but I totally get it; her wedding is in a month, two people in the wedding party aren’t even in the country, and I don’t even know about other details that could be stressful for her.

            “I know. I’m so sorry but we’re coming back tonight. Even if Eunwoo hasn’t bought the tickets yet- wait, let me ask Eunwoo about plane tickets. Eunwoo!” I call for him while covering the bottom of my phone where the speaker would be. “Have you bought plane tickets back yet?”

            “No! Not yet!” He sounds a little suspicious.

            “Eryn, can I call you back in like, five minutes?” I return to the phone call.

            “Yeah, and I’m sorry for freaking out on you.”

            “It’s totally fine; I understand the freaking out,” I laugh. We say our goodbyes and I go into the other room to find Eunwoo. “Hey, do we not have tickets to fly back home?” I ask him.

            “No…” his voice trails off.

            “Why?” I ask him, concerned now.

            “Because I bought one way tickets before coming; I wanted to run away from my problems, I’m sorry baby.”

            “I’m going to go buy tickets for a flight out tonight; can you please pack everything up while I do that?” He nods. “And it’s okay that you wanted to run away from the stress, just as long as we go back,” I joke and kiss him on the cheek.

            I walk back over to the chair I was sitting in originally and open my laptop again. I try to find the soonest flight back home and I call Eryn back at the same time.

            “Hey, we’re getting a flight back tonight so we’ll be back by tomorrow, probably extremely tired but we’ll still be there,” I chuckle.

            “Great, we’ll see you tomorrow then. I’ll just talk to you when you get back,” she says.

            “Okay, I’ll text when we land later just so you have the heads-up if you have anything planned.”

            We bid our goodbyes and hang up. I check up on Eunwoo again to see him still packing everything back up. “Hi,” I greet him again with a smile and a kiss on the cheek.

            “Hey baby,” he smiles back. “How’d it go talking with Eryn?” He sounds almost upset and nervous. He must be thinking about going back and having to plan his own arranged wedding… I feel bad now. I wish there was something I could do to help in some way…

            “She was a little mad that we’ve been gone for so long, she swore, but I told her we’re going back tonight so it’ll be fine,” I tell him. “Almost packed? Our flight is in a few hours…”

            “Yeah, just have to finish packing the rest of my clothes and we’ll be good to go. I assume we’ll go to the airport right away?” he asks.

            “Yeah, we probably should anyway because it’d be very easy for me to get distracted by this beautiful city,” I playfully nudge his arm with my elbow.

            “Well for the record, no matter what, I get distracted by the beautiful girl I fell in love with so many years ago,” he kisses my forehead.

            “Wait, what? ‘So many years ago’?”

            “I never told you but I’ve had feelings for you since high school…” his voice becomes quite, almost as if he’s embarrassed.

            “Don’t be embarrassed,” I laugh. “I’ve liked you since seventh grade,” I look down. “Now I’m embarrassed.”

            “Don’t be embarrassed,” Eunwoo repeats my words now. “I think it’s cute,” he places his hand under my chin and lifts my head so I’m looking at him again. “You’re so cute,” he smiles his signature smile and kisses me once more. “Let’s go home,” he sighs

-

            The wait at the airport seems almost never-ending, especially when you’re trying to get home as soon as possible.

            Eventually after boredom and waiting, our flight is finally called. We board the plane and there’s one very prominent thought going through my mind: Although I had fun in Paris with Eunwoo, it’s time to go home.