“No!” you cried, your eyes wide with distraught. “No, no, no, no, no!”

“Instead of saying no, you could tell me what’s wrong so I can with panic with you or calm you down,” your friend Wonpil offered and as you started to bounce around in your chair in distress, he grew concerned. “Y/N, talk to me.”

Looking away from your phone and blinking back your tears, you stared at him desperately. “They changed the date.”

“The date?” he repeated and then let out a hiss, jumping to your side. “To when?!”

“Five pm today!” you answered, collapsing onto the top of the lecture hall’s desktop, letting out a muffled wail. “I can’t! I need more time!”

“What’s this about?”

“Y/N’s having a meltdown,” Wonpil explained sombrely to Brian as he sat down beside you, Wonpil now petting your back gently.

“About?”

You shot your head up, pouting at Brian as he pulled out his things for class. “They’ve brought the date ahead on the writing competition.”

“You wrote the story though,” he commented, shrugging off your tearful disposition as he slung his bag over the back of his chair. “So submit it and stop making a big deal about it.”

“The date was meant to be two weeks from here, Brian,” you told him, shaking with your emotions. “I wrote the story but I wanted to check over it again before submitting it. How can I do that when they’ve changed the submission date to today to suit one of the judges?!”

“Do it now,” he prompted and you nodded, reaching down for your laptop bag. Pulling it out, you were still nodding away as you pressed the power button.

Except the device didn’t turn on.

“Wait, why isn’t it working?!” you exclaimed, growing distressed again. “This cannot be happening!”

“Looks like the battery is dead,” Wonpil pointed out, his index finger outstretched to the indicator on the side. “Did you store your piece on a cloud service or something?”

“I … not the final product,” you murmured, all hope draining from you. “I had it on my computer at home, this, and my external. But I left that at home too!”

“You sent it to me to read the other day on your phone, it should still be retrievable in our chat,” Brian piped up, and giving him a grateful smile, you pulled out your phone from your pocket.

You did have the document, but making any final changes to it on your phone would be kind of dangerous. You knew it wasn’t a reliable place to try and edit from and standing up, you collected your bag in the process. “I’m going to the library.”

“Or not,” Wonpil breathed as your lecturer entered the room, her stern expression halting your plans entirely.

It seemed foolish to be this worked up over a writing competition. After all, there was no guarantee you would win just by entering. But there was still a chance and as an aspiring writer, you knew you had to give it a shot, especially with what it could potentially offer you. The prize was to be taken under a publishing house to have your manuscript produced into a novella. That would give you the first step you needed towards your dreams.

And you had lost too many nights perfecting this part of your story to share in the competition to miss out on the chance all because of a sudden date change.

Still, with the way the lecturer’s hawk-eyed gaze pierced through your out of place position, you couldn’t quite take the risk to dart out now in front of her. Sitting down jarringly, you tried your best not to break down or hyperventilate.

And then Brian swiftly started shifting things around in front of you. He took your laptop you had placed back down and put his in front of you with the document all ready to go, opening yours and pretending he was using that instead.

Glancing in his direction, he merely arched an eyebrow at you to silently ask why you were stalling and to get on with it.

Taking a deep breath, you thanked him quietly and then began your thorough final edit, unaware of anything that was happening around you. You scrolled through, corrected minor structures of some things you had since sending Brian this copy, and then you finally submitted it to the competition, your heart thudding in your chest. You had sent your precious words off and now it would be up to the universe – and a panel of judges – to decide of their worth.

You were exhausted and exhilarated in the same moment, the emotions of this afternoon being all too overwhelming to deal with.

And then you blinked slowly, realising the lecture hall was empty for all but you and Brian.

“I’m sorry,” you breathed, as you looked around yourself. “How long ago did class end?”

“Twenty minutes, I think. Wonpil had another class to get to so he told me he’d message you later. Get it all submitted?”

Nodding, you slid the borrowed device over to its owner and smiled. “Thank you. Honestly, you are a lifesaver.”

“You worked too hard for it to be a missed opportunity, Y/N.”

“Exactly! I worked so hard and even with this sudden change, I’ve managed to get it done. Oh my God, I hope they love it! And if they don’t, then someone will hopefully.”

“Take the hopefully out, you’ll get there. It’s good. Real good.”

You grinned at him. “And all thanks to you, I got to submit it! Ah, I’m so excited! If I could, I would kiss you right now!”

You were buzzing from the hype of achieving a goal of yours that the words slipped out without even meaning them to. You were good friends with Brian and normally he was used to your dramatics statements. But this one stilled his movement, his dark eyes flicking back to your face.

Which turned pink under his stare. “Oh uh, well-”

“What’s stopping you then?” he murmured and you blinked rapidly. “You could.”

“Don’t be silly, it was a slip of-”

He regained the ability to move then, shifting over into your space and cupped the side of your face in his hand, kissing you softly. It stunned you for only a moment, your eyes snapping shut as your mouth moved against his. What started out gentle gained some traction and by the time he pulled away, you were both breathless.

And for once in your life, you were lost for words.

“Payment for using the laptop,” Brian announced hurriedly and you nodded just as fast, getting up and gathering your things blindly. Brian went down one side of the room and you took the other, your mind reeling from the kiss.

You had kissed Wonpil once, as a friend, and that was entirely different from this one with Brian. You were certain, for one, Brian’s tongue had found yours at some part of that kiss. Your lips had also been pressed into his for easily five times longer than your appreciative peck with Wonpil.

Still, you didn’t want to challenge the reason; rather, you were too weak to even construct the words needed to. When you got to the bottom of the stairs along the wall, you looked up at Brian waiting at the door and tripped, missing the final step and reached out for the stray chair beside them in hopes you wouldn’t fall flat on the ground.

Trust you to become just like one of your characters when they realised something about a friend.

Because you just had realised how much you liked Brian.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he came over to your side, holding out his hand for you to take so you could get up from the chair. You merely stared back at him.

You had always laughed at those stories when someone in the protagonist’s world stood out in a different way suddenly. You had many a time rolled around on your bed reading stories with Wonpil and ridiculed the notion of not being able to define someone as handsome from the get-go.

But you got it now. The dependable friend you had come to appreciate in Brian had changed with that kiss. You admired the strong shape of his nose and the unique slant to his almond eyes. Were his cheekbones always set that high and had his jaw been that handsomely shaped? Your eyes fell to his lips, those that had just been pressed against yours. Your mouth fell ajar, a short huff expelling from you and Brian smiled.

If you weren’t winded before, you were now.

“Stop being dramatic,” he told you and pulled on your hand, the force springing you up. You weren’t prepared for it and stumbled again, his other hand moving to balance you. Every place he touched you now felt on fire. And you were concerned for the remaining part of your sanity.

You weren’t meant to be thinking of Brian as ridiculously handsome now, right?

“Do you need to sit? Or drink something? Maybe I need to just leave you to it?” he offered and on the last option you shook your head, though you felt faint soon after. Gripping on more tightly, you attempted to smile.

“Why did you kiss me?” you mumbled, unable to keep quiet after all. “We’re friends.”

“Friends can kiss,” he answered slowly as you both began to walk to the exit. “Plus you said-”

“So it meant nothing? That kiss? That went for so long?”

“It meant something,” Brian confirmed and you stopped, looking up at him again. His eyes shifted to yours and he smiled that handsome smile of his. “You mean something. I didn’t just give up an entire hour of one of our hardest classes where the notes aren’t put up on the student portal because of pure friendship, Y/N. You matter.”

“Matter how?”

“Must you know everything?” he murmured and you nodded in answer, causing him to chuckle.

Your knees lost their strength.

“Of course, you need to know everything.”

“Occupational hazard, I know,” you quipped and Brian sighed. “How do I frame this in my mind, Brian? You’re telling me I matter, but I want to know if it’s okay that I’m now thinking of you in a way that a friend shouldn’t.”

“Thinking of me how?” he questioned curiously, his eyes lighting up.

You weren’t sure how much more you could take from this epiphany of finding your friend to be the type of man who could make your heart flutter this much with one look.

“I asked you first,” you responded pointedly.

“It took you so long to like me back; surely I get rights to find out more first.”

“So long?” Brian nodded and you gasped noisily. “Wait, you’ve liked me all this time?!”

“Not from the start, no,” he corrected, looking around you both at how loud your voice had risen. Thankfully classes were still in session and the hallway was mostly empty.

Still, you winced apologetically. The last thing you wanted was to bring more attention to the unfolding situation.

“But one day, I woke up and I realised I liked you. So since then.”

“You just woke up feeling that way? Had I done anything the day before to spark it?”

“No, you were just how you usually are.”

“And you simply accepted it?” you wondered and Brian chuckled again.

“It helped me understand some things about myself actually.”

“Like?”

He nudged you playfully. “I’d get annoyed with Wonpil quite often. I realised it was because I was jealous.”

“Of me and Wonpil?!” you squeaked out and then shook your head and hands repeatedly. “There’s nothing there between me and Pil. I couldn’t imagine liking him like that.”

Brian snorted. “Seems like you didn’t imagine me like that until I kissed you either.”

You fell silent, trying to decipher more of the situation. With Wonpil, you had no hesitations to be who you were. And the same could be said about Brian, but it was different. You just hadn’t put it together as well as you were now. You had always hoped Brian would see you differently than Wonpil did. Now knowing that he did, well, you couldn’t stop the smile that spread across your face.

“I’ve kissed Wonpil.”

Brian’s teasing expression drained away. “Y-you have?”

“Mm, like I would a friend, just a little peck. Should I peck you too? Maybe you’re right; I should try and imagine him actually kissing me.”

“Or you could not,” Brian offered, causing you to laugh at him.

“You could kiss me again too,” you added and Brian didn’t hesitate to lean in and do just that.

It was brief, given you had just stepped outside and people were milling around. It was one thing to kiss on campus without a care in the world, but it was dinner time, and most people didn’t need such a display of affection before hitting up the cafeteria.

Still, you almost complained when he pulled away. Brian pushed your hair away from your face affectionately and then smiled. “How’s that?”

“Hm, I think I might need to-”

“Can you stop with the teasing and just answer me straight?” he pleaded with a laugh and you looked down to see your linked hands. You hadn’t even realised you were still holding onto him this whole time. It made you swoon, especially when he picked up on where your focus was, his thumb gently running circles into your skin.

“I like kissing you,” you admitted and Brian’s lips curled up with satisfaction. You blushed, yet you couldn’t stop smiling back. “I like you.”

“Good because it’s been hard being the only one with feelings between us. Especially when you sent me a manuscript about a couple falling in love.”

You gasped, looking at him suddenly. “You’re right, I forgot all about the competition. It feels weird to think I was so wound up over that before.”

“You were close to your ugly sobbing face for sure,” Brian pointed out and you groaned, letting go of his hand and stalking across the grass atrium.

He caught you then, pulling you back and smiled another of those handsome smiles that you were certain you wouldn’t get enough of now. “It’s a good thing I saved you from having to let it out.”

“Saved me?”

“If it wasn’t for my computer, you would have most definitely had a meltdown.”

“Would you have kissed me if I did my ugly crying face?” you asked and Brian nodded.

“I would kiss you with any chance I get.”