Kwon Soonyoung is easily the most annoying human being you ever had the displeasure of meeting. And no, it’s not just that he stole your dolls back in kindergarten or made a joke out of you when you got your braces in elementary school. He lived around the block and he was always there when you spent time at the close-by playground. He was way too competitive in building castles from sand or in the game of who could go to the highest with the swing and you remember crying to your mom that you hated him. But you were kids and you, as a decent human being, could be able to move on, forgive but never forget if it was all.

However, it started getting out of hand when the two of you attended the same schools after one other. Soonyoung was known to be clingy because he didn’t know anybody but you while you preferred to be alone. He was just too loud and attracted too much attention, damn. You had no energy to deal with him but fate somehow found every possible way for you to be attached by the hip: sitting next to each other in middle school, having your lockers next to one other in high school. It wasn’t that bad… not yet. It only started to get worse when he called you his childhood sweetheart in front of his friends and they teased you with this every single time they could.

It was Valentine’s day in your senior year when you finally snapped. It was supposed to be a day like any other. However, his stupid little prank changed everything. You had a bad feeling as soon as you approached your locker because dozens of school girls stood there already, whispering about something you couldn’t make out. You tried to not pay attention to them but it was hard to when their gazes followed you closely as you went to retreat your history book. It was only then when you moved to actually open your locker that you saw the reason of this havoc, that flimsy pink paper stuck to the metal with Blu Tack. What the hell?
You tore the paper down immediately and folding it into your pocket, you acted like nothing ever happened. Because it meant nothing to you. Being Valentines? Good joke. With him? Hilarious. Sadly, those girls who knew Soonyoung as the dance group’s y leader instead of the dork he really was didn’t agree and the bad mouthing started immediately. It was high school after all, the best place for false gossips to be born and damage anybody’s reputation. However, you wanted none of that. No talk behind your back, no whispers in the toilet and absolutely no guessing games of the possibility that you and Soonyoung might be together. No way.

So you made a plan to make everybody know that.

“It was a really childish joke, I hope you know that. Be happy with your Valentine, Soonyoung, but I, for sure, won’t be that,” you told him, words slurred a bit from speaking too fast, too loud and your fingers slipped when you stick the paper - asking you to be his Valentine - to his forehead. You just wanted to get over with it as soon as possible. So not even waiting for his answer you turned around and left him there in the canteen where everybody could see. Everybody who laughed together with him as he made a joke about you playing hard to get.

But after that you never talked again.

So a few years later finally getting rid of even the thought of Kwon Soonyoung, it’s an understatement to say that you are shocked to hear the fortune teller’s prediction.

“Come again?” you blink rapidly and trying to convince yourself that you must have heard it wrong.

Not that you believe in this kind of stuff anyway, that your future is written in a book unable to change.  You don’t even believe in crystal balls and Ouija boards so when on this very Valentine’s Day walking home from work a woman stopped you and offered her services that could reveal your future, you only agreed merely for entertainment purposes. After a long, tiring day, especially on an over-commercialized holiday like this, you didn’t want anything more than something funny or hopeful that could simply make you smile. But instead, you flinch when the woman in million accessories starts discussing the relationships she ‘sees’ written in your palm.

“Your heart line is telling me that you have already met the love of your life. Quite some time ago actually. A childhood sweetheart, maybe?” she winks at you, earring tingling as you pull your hands away.

“I don’t have such thing,” you murmur bitterly and has the sudden urge to get up and leave. To Hell with that few thousands won the woman asked of you as a donation.

“My bad, darling, my bad. Let’s see what the crystal ball tells us,” she takes your hand again gently and puts it onto the spherical object that immediately stirs as it makes connection with your skin. The glass is cold and transparent under your fingertips but it’s getting filled up with some kind of smoke. The fortune teller, Lady Moonlight as her slogan says, leans closer so she can see the forms better. “Oh I see now, how lovely! You will meet him very soon, both of you will be so surprised since you haven’t met for so long. On your wedding you will joke about Valentine’s Day post-its and you will wear a ring with his initials in it. Let’s see… K. S. Does that ring any bells?”

The woman looks up at you curiously as all colours drain from your face. You know K. S. isn’t a rare initial pair in South-Korea yet you can only associate one face with it, only one guy whom you have known since your childhood, who has a questionable history with you and Valentines… but no, no way, that must be some kind of joke!

“I won’t marry him,” you shake your head as if the statement itself could make it real. How could you? You have never liked him, but on the contrary!

“Sweetie, the future doesn’t lie,” Lady Moonlight pats your hand sympathetically and you stand up abruptly. “Oh you don’t want your tarot card prophecy? Just to make sure?”

“No, thank you. I have to go,” you excuse yourself hastily not wanting to hear any more of this nonsense.

You basically run out of the little shop on the corner, rushing towards the underground station to catch a train home. You and Soonyoung? What an absurd joke! Right? You haven’t heard of him for years, you don’t even know what he…

“Oh I’m terribly sorry,” a nice toned voice apologizes as a solid body bumps into you passing by a famous coffee shop. Luckily, his drink to go is safe and sound and not sprayed all over your thin blouse like in cliché fanfictions.

“It’s okay,” you reassure the man as he helps you steady yourself on his forearm. Looking up you find yourself staring into chocolate brown eyes, familiar ones under a black fringe. With a sharp jawline, pink tinted cheeks, messy hair and a leather jacket thrown over his wide shoulder he looks so different from the boy you once knew. He seems more mature and more serious which was everything you wanted him to be back in high school yet now you just want to scream. What kind of coincidence it is?

“Y/N… Is that really you? You have changed a lot,” he gapes at you dumbfounded but not as much as you do. Fate seems to really enjoy going against the odds today but of course, it doesn’t mean anything. Not for you. Not when it concerns Kwon Soonyoung.

"You as well,” you nod brushing a reckless lock behind your ear.

You wanted to forget high school with all the insecurities it caused you. Since then, your hair got longer, your fashion became more defined and you finally feel good in your own body, so yeah you changed and you were happy he didn’t make any comment about your weight or something like that. You hate that usually that’s the first thing the long-seen relatives tell you.

“Are you working as an editor now? Which paper?” Soonyoung’s gaze falls upon the folder hanging out of your bag and you’re even more taken aback that he remembers your old dream. It even brightens up your mood a little.

“Well yeah, at Metropolitan. And uhm… you? Still into dancing?”

It’s awkward to say the least, the two of you at the entrance of some coffee shop among the crowd of people rushing home after their shifts. You try your best to stay the civic, reasonable adult you are while all your teenage dislike is bubbling up from deep inside. In every memory you have about your childhood Soonyoung is always there watching you suffer but how could he or anybody knew about the chaotic turmoil you had in you? How could you blame them for not seeing if you never bothered showing it?

“I work at a dance studio teaching kids but one day I wanna have my own. I mean studio… well kid too but not so soon,” he corrects himself, his well-guarded child spirit glimmering in his eyes and you can’t help the giggle rolling down your tongue. You can imagine him getting along with kids just well while teaching them to love dancing. The picture itself is heart-warming and suddenly you don’t know if you would rather punch or kiss him…

Wait what? That weird woman got into your head.

“Hey uhm… are you free now? Maybe we could catch up over a cup of coffee or tea… Do you still prefer tea?” Soonyoung fumbles with his watch nervously and it’s weird, you don’t remember seeing him nervous at all. Like ever.

You glance at the underground station’s entrance on the other side of the road full of honking cars in the afternoon rush and you let a sigh escape you as you weight your options between  staying here for a friendly chat or going home to do the laundry and watch a movie alone.

“I… yes. Okay.”

Two old acquaintances having a coffee. It doesn’t have to mean anything just because it’s Valentine’s Day or because that crazy woman told you so. There are no such things like prophecies and you are going to prove that, you swear but it’s easy to forget when Soonyoung tells you a funny story while holding the door for you or how genuinely interested he seems as you mention your promotion. Hours pass in a blink and you only realize how late it is when in the evening couples start to swarm the coffee house. That’s when you both decide it’s time to leave.

“Thanks for agreeing to the coffee. I had a nice time,” Soonyoung comments as he walks you to the station, then he laughs a bit. “It feels like I got a second chance after you rejected me in high school.”

The two of you managed to avoid high school as a topic up until now for which you were eternally grateful but now it’s all back in full force and you feel your throat close up.

“That was just a prank,” you grimace bitterly reminding him that he couldn’t be taken seriously back then.

However, Soonyoung stills beside you and looks down at you with sincerity swimming in his eyes.
“For me, it wasn’t. I liked you. It’s just… you know how I am, right? I smile and make a joke of it even if it hurts.”

“Oh,” you blink stunned and try to gulp down the lump in your throat. Soonyoung doesn’t seem mad as he smiles at you fondly and the rush of wind blowing your hair into your face signals the arrival of your train.

“It’s okay. Happy Valentine’s Day, Y/N! See you around,” he bids his goodbye with a little wave of his hand and as you get on the vehicle.

You can still see him watching you across the glass as he keeps tapping on the phone is his hands with a grin all over his face. You don’t get what he wants, not until you get a notification of a new friend request with a ping. That stupid prophecy doesn’t even cross your mind when you accept his request with a silly smile.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Soonyoung. Sorry I made you wait five years.