He thought he knew all there was to you.

You had met in high school in your last year after you transferred from studying abroad. And he had watched you for the weeks after your arrival, noticing how difficult it was for you to make a friend. Despite being anxious, he reached out to you first and from that first encounter, you soon became someone Minhyun could count on for anything, even calculus help. As you moved easily into your first year of university together, your friendship continued despite studying different degrees.

It was important for you both to make time for each other. You would vent to him the struggles of your science degree and he would run his English Literature papers passed you. Outside of studying you would eat, play, laugh and even sleep together, platonically of course.

Minhyun was comfortable with you.

Or at least he had been, until the arrival of someone new.

You had both dated since being friends, and it had never bothered him to see you doting on another man. But it was different from the way you looked at the blonde haired guy who seemed to appear out of nowhere.

He had been talking to you about an upcoming music festival when you let out a sudden squeal, speeding around him and towards the campus exit, running as fast as your legs would carry you.

And then you leapt into the arms of a man, hugging him tightly.

Minhyun could tell he was several years older than you both, which made him concerned. You had always hung out with people around your own age, and he had never heard you mention of someone out of university before.

The way the guy kissed your cheek and then spun you around didn’t help. Minhyun wasn’t even aware of how staggered his breathing was until another student collided against him with a laugh. Looking up at his friend’s arrival, he then honed his focus back onto you and your interaction. Seongwoo gasped noisily. “Who the heck is that?!”

“Don’t know.” His voice sounded lower than it ought to be, but he dismissed it as you jumped back down to your feet and waved goodbye to the mysterious person who got into a car and drove off. You watched until the car was out of sight and then came bounding back up to Minhyun and Seongwoo, grinning dreamily.

It left a sour taste in his mouth.

Seongwoo leaned down to you, his index finger waggling in your face. “And Miss, who did that happen to be?”

“Oh him?” you asked, pointing in the direction you had just been. Your face was flushed from your excitement, and Minhyun eyed your expression a little coldly. Mostly because he hadn’t seen you like this before.

“Yeah, the handsome guy with the fancy car!”

You blushed and giggled before responding. “My Oppa.”

 

 

The word oppa became the bane of Minhyun’s existence after that day. As time travelled, you seemed to fall more in love with the guy that you referred to as oppa every time. Minhyun hated it. He disliked the way it rolled off your tongue with happiness every time. He detested how you would whine it into the phone whenever he rang whilst you were out with Minhyun. And he couldn’t fathom it whenever you turned down time that you would normally be busy with him, for this elusive man.

He despised your oppa. He hated him, even though he never knew a thing about him.

Minhyun realised he was jealous not too long after the hatred began. After the concern for your safety with this older man waned, he realised the reason he didn’t like you spending time with him was because he was so used to being with you. It made him feel frozen despite the warming temperature of Spring.

Minhyun had tried, for your sake, to understand this person. You didn’t really give much information over other than you had known him for your whole life and he was your favourite man in this universe, passed your father.

It was like a punch in the stomach to him, and he didn’t really want to know more after that.

Being jealous confused Minhyun. He had never really been the jealous type, normally complacent to most situations that arose with you. He had been at your side every day since your friendship blossomed. There had never been an oppa mentioned except for your brother on the odd occasion. But he knew that your brother was overseas studying at some fancy American university, getting his doctorate. And now you weren’t at his side every day, Minhyun realised he was lonely. You were the warmth to his days, and the wind went through him easily, seeping down to his bones. He had never realised just how in depth he considered your friendship until then.

With the change of season, your outfits grew less layered. You had never been the y type; at least, he had never considered you that way. You always dressed casually around him, whether it be long dresses or jeans. Minhyun’s interest in fashion hadn’t really led him to seek yours out passed knowing you were all about comfort.

Until the short skirts appeared. He tried to be logical, the weather was warmer. But he’d known you last year in the sweltering summer sun for your long skirts or shorts that went to your knees. He had never seen so much of your bare skin before and it made him uncomfortable, half because he was a man with eyes and you had a stunning set of legs, and the other half because he knew you only wore outfits like that on the days you would leave to go out with your oppa.

He wanted to burn every damn short skirt and dress you owned out of existence.

It didn’t help that you didn’t seem to realise the change in your friendship dynamics. You thought Minhyun was tired. Busy. Stressed. He had shown you all these signs before as a friend, and you had just assumed his jealousy was one of those. He couldn’t blame you; he had never been envious in front of you before. And the way you stared at him pitifully made him so annoyed that he didn’t bother to correct you. He was willing to let you believe whatever you wanted about him.

He was doing more than enough judgement over your own change in actions anyway.

He was tired though. Exhausted of laying down to sleep at night, and only seeing you in his mind, your smile dazzling him. Only to realise it was the smile you shot at the other guy. It would make him restless, tossing and turning as he conjured up images of you kissing him, or worse, heading south. He wasn’t sleeping enough because his dishevelled thoughts would keep him up at night.

And he was busy now too. Trying to avoid you at all costs, so he didn’t have to see you smiling to yourself or gushing over how your oppa had taken you and your Mum out to a fancy steakhouse. It hurt Minhyun to realise he hadn’t even met your parents once, yet this guy knew them like it was his own family.

With the lack of sleep and the many detours he would have to take in his day on campus, Minhyun was stressed. It was showing in his grades, and it was making him feel completely wound up.

He had never been so affected by someone before.

It made sense he fell victim to a seasonal cold then, with everything that was keeping him distracted, worried, and petty. At first, he didn’t tell anyone, staying in his dorm room and shivering under his blankets as he tried to sleep the fever off. But it was violently attacking him that soon he was throwing up, and barely able to crawl back into bed.

So he texted you in his delirious state. Within the next thirty minutes you arrived, worry etched into your face as you opened his door with his passcode that you knew off by heart. A bag of supplies was in your hand, and you placed them down on his desk, coming over to lay the back of your hand over his forehead. He watched you from under his heavily hooded eyes until he felt your touch, closing them and sighing in relief.

It felt stupid to feel this happy to be sick.

You nursed him all day, studying in between his naps, and feeding him medicines and soups to help keep him afloat. When night time arrived, he had just woken from another nap to find you curled up beside him, holding a face cloth in your hand that you had no doubt been dabbing onto his face as he rested.

It was then that clarity hit Minhyun. The jealousy, the pain he felt. It was because he was in love with you. For that night he entertained the idea of you being his, holding you in his arms and falling back asleep into a world where you would only smile at him.

 

 

Knowing that he loved you made things harder. He wasn’t the type of guy to make a scene, or encourage a person to leave someone they were dating. It made him miserable that he was better from his illness and that you didn’t need to be at his side like you had been. And every time you were close to him he would itch to wrap his arm around you, to link hands with you, and kiss the side of your head. Or worse, he would get lost staring at your lips whilst you talked to him and Seongwoo at lunch, not understanding a single word you were saying, but instead wondering if your mouth would be as soft to kiss as it appeared.

He was forever blushing around you now.

Spring moved through with finals and promises for summer break plans. At first, you didn’t seem to have much going on, and Minhyun was hopeful you would join him and your group of friends at the cabin you had gone to last year. It seemed like you would until you dropped the news on him that you couldn’t go.

“What do you mean?” he asked, glancing down at you as you both walked across to the campus library. His eyebrows knitted together at your statement. “We had planned to go together again.”

He had hoped that during the trip you would forget all about this older man, somehow fall in love with him and he would finally be able to confess his feelings to you. It was foolish to dream, but it was all Minhyun could hold onto.

“I’m going to the beach instead.”

“The beach?” he echoed, his eyes turning steely at the thought of you parading around in swimwear. He became desperate for more information. “With who?”

“Oppa, and a couple of his friends,” you answered with a smile and Minhyun stopped walking. You frowned. “Min?”

“You’re not going.” His voice was darker than he had ever spoken to you with and you flinched at the command, your eyes widening in the process. You stepped back to him and blinked a couple of times. Minhyun was shaking, the anger enveloping him instantly.

“I’m sorry, but you know how special time with him is and I don’t want to miss out on making as many memories as I can.”

“I don’t want you to go.”

You huffed with annoyance, placing your hands on your hips. “Well it’s not up to you if I go or not is it?”

“Do you know what happens to girls who travel with men to beaches?” he spat out, shaking his head at the awful images now racing about. “Are you stupid?!”

“Stup… what the hell is wrong with you?! Why are you acting so unlike yourself?!” you cried, uncaring of the scene you were both making as people hurried by, eying your argument curiously.

“I don’t want you getting hurt by him, or his friends,” Minhyun retorted and you scoffed at him, narrowing your eyes. “What, it could happen!”

“He’s my oppa Min, not a freaking stranger!”

“I know he’s your oppa, you mention him to be your ing oppa every god damn time!”

Your eyes flew wide again at his curse, and Minhyun panted for a moment before turning to walk off, knowing he had ruined any chance of confessing now.

 

 

It was three weeks of silence before he saw you again. It was by chance as well, Minhyun going to your favourite coffee shop to buy himself a much-needed beverage to get through the rest of his day. He had chosen to not go to the cabin either, and picked up a part-time job assisting one of his lecturers prepare their thesis they were submitting into a research journal.

To say Minhyun was surprised to see you in Seoul and not at the beach was an understatement. You smiled happily at him as well, which made him feel anxious with the unaired apology he wanted to give you. After ordering his drink he went and sat down across from you, smiling weakly.

“Hi,” he said and you smiled again, nodding in greeting. “Why are you here?”

“I’m meeting someone. It’s actually really great that you’re here.”

“It is?” he asked, but was thrown off when you waved to someone behind him, the person soon sitting down beside you at the table. It was him. Minhyun instantly felt uncomfortable, avoiding your gaze and playing with the buzzer that would signal when his drink was ready. He willed it to go off now so he could escape and leave you alone with your boyfriend.

“Minhyun, I want you to meet my oppa. This is Yoseob.”

“Uh, it’s nice to meet you,” he politely greeted, barely looking up as he bowed his head quickly.

“Is this, your friend?” Yoseob questioned and Minhyun saw out of his peripheral that you nodded happily. It made his chest ache and he longed to get away so he could breathe properly. “The friend?”

“Oppa!” you whined cutely and slapped his arm playfully, a blush rising on your cheeks. Minhyun swore he felt that smack across his face.

He had to go. He was standing all of a sudden, his hands wringing together with the buzzer and bowed again. “I think my drink is read-.”

“Minhyun, his name is Yang Yoseob,” you stated clearly, your eyes urging him to meet yours. The last name sounded all too familiar and with a tilt of his head, he thought back to where he had seen Yang on a name tag for an entire year. His mouth fell ajar as the realisation hit.

Yoseob was laughing, his mouth curling up in a very similar way as yours did, and the longer Minhyun watched the older man laugh, the further he noticed the features on his face. Your nose was the same as his, and your eyes were the same colour and shape. You both had small faces too.

The humiliation was strong.

“How about you sit down, Minhyun-ah, and I’ll get your drink,” Yoseob suggested and Minhyun nodded softly, dropping back down with a thud.

“You know, I thought for a while you were distant with me because you figured it out, but then when you blew up and Seongwoo mentioned you hated the word oppa, I slowly started to realise that you thought Yoseob was someone more than my brother.”

“Well, you never explained it to me,” he said numbly, looking down at his hands over the mistake he had made. His jealousy had made him a right jerk of a friend.

“I did, I don’t think you wanted to listen,” you said soothingly, smiling over at him before Yoseob returned, placing the tray of drinks down and handing them out as he sat down.

“Have you told him then?” Yoseob enquired and Minhyun looked up at you and then your brother, his eyebrows furrowed. You blushed and shook your head, and this confused Minhyun greatly. Yoseob sighed heavily. “That was enough time to admit it, Y/N!”

“Well, I’m not exactly the quickest at saying stuff like that!”

“You promised you’d confess when you saw him next. Imagine what it’s like to sit here across from us in the dark about your feelings and not understand why you were spending so much time with me trying to come up with plans on how to get his attention!”

Minhyun’s eyes were wide now and you were slapping the arm of your brother repeatedly, who cringed when he realised what he had done. He then chuckled. “Well, I did it for you. Minhyun, my sister has driven me insane about this handsome guy she’s loved since she first returned back to Korea from America. Can you please just let me have a break from her incessant whines of needing to know how to approach you and tell her either way how you feel?”

“I cannot believe you, oppa!”

Yoseob nodded a little too much and checked at his watch. “I need to go. I trust you’ll take good care of her?”

Nodding softly and bowing at his departure, Minhyun then sat there, staring at his drink for some time.

Your oppa was your brother. He wasn’t in America anymore but back in Korea. Something had he known, he would have easily been able to decipher this situation weeks ago.

Your brother had just confessed on your behalf that you liked him. And had for some time. All this internalising over how to tell you how he felt had come to a simple resolution, set by a man he barely knew but hoped he would get the chance to in the future.

And you were staring at him so hard that he was certain you were attempting to drill a hole into his head with your eyes alone.

Minhyun cleared his throat and finally gazed up at you. “W-what he said-”

“I’ve always liked you, even before we became friends,” you cut in, blushing a little as you played with the straw of your frappe. “When you first approached me I was worried you had somehow found out from all my staring in your direction. But you were blissfully unaware until, well, ten minutes ago.”

“But you dated in front of me,” he mentioned and you laughed awkwardly.

“My attempt to show you I was more than capable of being a friend. Though, I did like Jaesun, just not nearly as much as I liked you.”

“And now?”

You smiled weakly. “Even though you thought the worse of me, I still like you. Because you’re my Minhyun.”

My Minhyun. His mind was literally combusting with the amount of happiness he felt as it repeated your sentence over and over.

“I’ve recently realised I’ve been in love with you for some time too,” he admitted and your eyes widened at the L word he used. Minhyun felt hot from his slip up, and your hand reached over the table to grab his, surprising him somewhat. You rubbed it gently as if to relax him.

“You can’t possibly be ahead of me in feelings,” you said with a pout, and he couldn’t help but laugh at your playful approach. “That’s not fair!”

“Do you want to play catch up then?” he asked boldly, your lips curling up into a smile. He couldn’t help but feel like he was staring at the most beautiful woman in the world. You were his now.

It was all too giddying.

“I’m going to the beach next week,” you mentioned, giving his hand a light squeeze. “I was wondering if you wanted to be the guy to take me there.”

He gulped; he knew what happened at the beach. Nodding his head repeatedly, you laughed, leaning over the table towards him with a little smirk adorning your lips. He ached to kiss you, and you were so close now…

“My oppa will be there though, so I don’t think you can show me everything. I’m hopeful though, that I might get to at least kiss the guy who claims he loves me whilst I’m there.”

Minhyun grinned and tilted his head to the side again. “Maybe I could answer that request tonight? I finish work at five.”

“Movie night at yours then?” you suggested, standing up and picking up your cup whilst sliding your free hand up his arm, before leaning down to peck his cheek. “You and your mind sure have a lot of answering to do, you know.”

He blushed as he gazed up at you and then you waved in farewell. He didn’t know what movie you’d be watching, and frankly he didn’t care. Because his mind had thought of many things since realising he was in love with you.

And he was ready to make sure you knew all of them.