You sighed into your coffee cup for the umpteenth time, aware of your best friend’s eyes boring holes in the top of your head. The judgement rolled off him in waves, and you knew that it was definitely well-deserved.

“It’s been four whole months.” Hakyeon took a loud sip of his tea and stared at you across the table. “I know that he was your first love and everything, but you didn’t even date. He just said that he wasn’t interested in you. Isn’t that better than being in limbo, not even knowing if he was into you or not?”

Groaning, you let your head bang on the table. “I know. But he’s just so cute, and when he smiles it’s like all the clouds clear up, and he makes me laugh…” All of the reminiscing wasn’t helping. Hakyeon shifted across from you, and cleared his throat. “...do I not make you laugh?”

It might be your imagination, but he sounded a little hurt. You raised your head and stared at Hakyeon. “Well, of course you do. But it’s different,” you tried to explain. Hakyeon was your friend, someone you cared about, but he wasn’t your crush. You didn’t get that fluttery feeling in your stomach when he smiled at you, for example. Hakyeon chewed his lip thoughtfully.

“Okay, regardless. I have an idea.” His eyes were suddenly shining, the way they did when he had a (potentially bad) idea. “Let’s finish our drinks and get out of here.” You sighed, knowing it was pointless to resist, and began sipping your now cold coffee.

-----

After a day of nonstop shopping, browsing, and sampling, you finally begged Hakyeon to let you sit down and take a break. He seemed to have boundless energy, as usual, but he wasn’t generally so insistent on dragging you to every single store in the mall. He sat down next to you with a frown, complaining about all of the other places that he wanted the two of you to go, but gave in and went to buy the two of you some snacks. As you leaned against the back of the bench, bags gathered around you, you idly wondered why Hakyeon needed to buy three very similar white shirts as he returned.

“Smoothie and chips for my lady,” he mock bowed as he offered them to you. Shaking your head at his antics, you snatched them out of his hands and began to eat. The chips were your favorite flavor, you noticed absently, and just as you had settled in to eat you felt a strange tickling sensation on your back.

Whipping your head around, you came face to face with a soft, pink, fuzzy belly. “Hi there! Are you my new friend?” Hakyeon was speaking in a squeaky falsetto voice, and just the sound of it made you crack up. He pulled his hands away from your face to reveal he was holding the pink teddy bear you’d been thinking about buying earlier. Setting it down in your lap, he gave you a shy smile.

“You looked like you wanted to buy it earlier, so...I thought you might like it.” Hakyeon scratched his head awkwardly as you ran your hand over the bear’s fuzzy head.

“Yeah...thank you,” you replied, a fond smile settling on your lips. “I really like it.” Hugging the bear to your chest, you let Hakyeon pull you back to standing so that you could continue the shopping spree. The rest of the day passed in a blur, but the comfort and peace that settled over you was something you hadn’t felt for a long time. After such a long time, you could finally feel the cracks in your heart beginning to heal, your first love far from mind.

Maybe, just maybe, you could start to move on.