Light puffs lifted the sheer curtains framing either side of the open window. Soft light illuminated from the screen of the humble laptop, pushing away the darkness in the small bedroom to which you called home. Dimly highlighting your figure, you sprawled yourself on your side, you ran your finger over the mouse pad with the mouse following the movement of your eyes. With a click or two you opened your video calling app on your laptop, clicking once or twice more, a ringtone sounded as it dialed the contact that you had selected. Pushing yourself upright, you glanced down at your nightly outfit. A baseball tee engulfing your figure almost falling off of one shoulder while a pair of black and teal running shorts peeked out from under the bottom hem of the tee. Running your fingers through your hair, you pulled your hair away from your face gathering it in a loosely tied high ponytail. Just as you had tied off your hair, the call was picked up on the other side. 

“How’s my angel doing?” The familiar man on the other side of the screen a relived smile spread across his face. His eyes softened with one glance of you as a non-containable smile transitioned onto his lips. 

“She’s doing good, just missing someone close to her heart is all. How’s my pop star doing?” A soft giggle slipped from your lips as a bright smile parted your lips slowly yet surely.

“He’s tired but you are definitely a sight for sore eyes” A longing sigh slipped from his lips while he adjusted the ear bud in his ear. Watching the lights highlight his face every few seconds, he bundled his jacket against the window of the moving vehicle before resting his head against his jacket. 

“You should get some sleep then, you need all of the energy that you can muster… don’t you have two more concerts tomorrow and then three public events the next?” You questioned, recalling the information from last week when you called him last. 

“Actually two social events tomorrow and a concert in the afternoon, then a social event and another concert the next day.” He corrected you, his heart leaping slightly at the fact that you tried to remember his hectic schedule.

“Ah okay, I’m sorry, I thought I could remember it correctly…” Your voice began to fade while your fingers found the ends of your hair. Beginning to play with your ends, your eyes dropped to your other hand gripping your sheets slightly tighter. 

“Hey…” His soft coo caused your eyes to lift back to meet his digital ones. “It’s okay, you remembered most of it. It’s my schedule, not yours” He tried to reassure you, especially knowing that his schedule could change at a moment’s notice. 

“But I wanted to remember it perfectly…” You pouted a little in a playful manner

“Yah! I can’t even remember it perfectly, how do I expect you to do that if I can’t even do that myself?!” A glint in his eyes allowed his eyes to sparkle, even across the ocean that was between the two of you. 

“I just want to be a good friend…” You shifted your shoulders in a flirtatious manner. 

“Don’t give me that!” His blissful laugh laced his words, “You’re a wonderful friend and an even better girlfrie-.” His voice came to a screeching halt in realization that he actually hasn’t made it official between the two of you, yet.

“You’ll make a wonderful boyfriend, when that time comes” You couldn’t hold yourself back from smiling ear to ear while adjusting yourself on your bed, you soft voice speaking the words slow and clear in hopes of smoothing over the fumbling of his words. Now laying with your head on your pillow, you watched him nod and run his tongue over his soft pink lips. Silence began to take over the call, the lights passing through the cab of the traveling vehicle allowing you to see glimpses of him every couple of seconds, depending on the speed in which the vehicle was traveling.

“Hey” You tried to advert the conversation slightly, feeling the uncertainty between the two of you, “I have something to tell you”

“Oh? What is this that you speak of?” He watched you on the small screen on his phone, intently taking in all of unique and perfect features that he had longed to see once more. 

“I wanted to tell you this the last time I saw you…” Your fingers began to play with one another as your mind blared at you to turn back now from what you were planning to confess. As if to counteract the battle between your mind and your heart, your heartbeat pounded against the cage of ribs that held it in reserve. 

“You mean like when we were laying on the blanket among the blades of grass, watching the bright sun make its descend, the beams of sunlight cutting between the trunks of the trees. With time slowing to a crawl as I laid next to you, thinking how this moment couldn’t get any better? That moment?” He questioned teasingly, loving to watch your reaction to him describing the time you two have spent together. 

“Yeah I think that was it” You with a sure nod of your head, feeling the butterflies fill your stomach once more as it did that very day that you had spent with him last. 

“Ah okay, I got it. Go on.” That true smile impressed itself upon his lips as his full attention turned to you, watching you shake your head from side to side in adoration. 

“I’m not sure how to put it…” Your eyes dropped, you took in a deep breath while your tongue rolled over your lips slowly buying you time to think this over before the execution.

“Take your time” He whispered in encouragement, unknown to him what your message conveys.

I love you

Those three words that you wanted to desperately spill was eating you up for the past months since the two of you had bumped into one another.

“Hey, are you still there?” He questioned not knowing if the call had frozen or if it had been dropped.

“Huh?” You snapped yourself back out of your thoughts.

“What was it that you wanted to tell me?” He inquired, his voice as soft as ever, his eyes so welcoming to anything that you had on your mind. 

“I…. I-I-I-I… I think… I think I’m in love with you…” Your words began to run together towards the end until all of the words that you had longed to say were out in the open. 

“I-Is that what you wanted to tell me?” His question caused you to bite your bottom lip in worry that he might not reciprocate your feelings. 

Inhaling, you gathered your scattered confidence once more, “I love you, Jungmin” 

This time your eyes had met with his as the light from the street remained on his face longer than usual. Hearing movement around him, you kept your eyes glued to his, watching them sparkle under the low light. Biting his lip slightly, his eyes dropped and his jacket fell from the large window onto his lap. The screen cut to black abruptly. Blinking a few times, your hand instantly found the mouse on your keyboard and scrambled to bring back the video call that had ended prematurely.

Your wildly beating heart sunk into the pit of your stomach almost instantly. Pulsing of your heartbeat continued to extend into your extremities. Adjusting yourself, you pushed yourself up off of the beckoning mattress, swinging your legs off of the side of the bed your toes mingled with the plush rug bordering your bed. 

Taking a few large strides, your fingers absentmindedly flipped on the light to your attached bathroom. Bracing yourself on the edge of the counter, your head remained lowered while you focused on your breathing for the time being. Lifting your head slightly gazing at your reflection. A tear slid from your eyes traveling down the curvature of your cheekbone while another tear fell almost in a race to catch up with the other. 

“He didn’t say anything…” You mumbled to yourself, your head dropping back down as the tears fell from the bottom of your jaw into the porcelain sink below. 

“His loss right?” You took in a deep breath, knowing all too well that it wasn’t the first time that you had been rejected by a prospective boyfriend. “Right. Maybe he will call back? The call could have gotten dropped? Or his clumsy fingers might have pushed the button without him knowing?”

Ducking down, your hands fumbled to find the handles of your faucet before searching for the running water below. Gathering a pool of water in your cupped hands, you pressed the liquid against your face allowing the sensation to ground you once more. Repeating once or twice more, you reached for your towel and blotted your face lightly before making your exit. Flipping off the light, you made your rounds around your bedroom, closing the window and the curtains, locking your bedroom door and closing your closet door to match. Turning off the main overhead light in your bedroom, you slipped underneath your covers for the night. 

Leaving your laptop on, you dimmed the screen in hopes that Jungmin would return your call, or at the very least leave you a message. Watching every inch of your screen, time continued to tick as your eyes felt heavy to match your heart filled with growing doubts. 

Drifting off to sleep, the beams of sun shined on your face the next day, waking you up from your restless slumber. Running your finger over the mouse pad of your laptop beside you, you checked for any messages that Jungmin might have left you through the night. No new messages appeared as a sigh slipped from your lips.