Forever

“Do I have to eat this?”

She nodded vigorously.  There was no hint of anything of not seriousness on her face.

“Do I have to do this?” Yunho asked his best friend again.  It’s not that he didn’t trust her, it was just that she was full of mischief at times. 

“Yun-yah, if you don’t trust me, you could just tell me, you know.”  She turned around and started to walk away.

“Aish.  Fine, I am going to eat this,” he said and gingerly held the red pepper.  She turned to him again and looked up at him expectantly.  “But you have to promise me that no more of this stuff.”

She nodded again.  He put the pepper in his mouth and anticipated the painful consequence.  “You have to chew it, Yun-yah.”  He looked at her with narrowed eyes but was challenged with a cute eye smile.  It was a lost battle for him so he slowly chewed the pepper in his mouth.  He knew that he was going to regret it, and then it happened.  The hotness and spiciness just exploded in his mouth that his face became instantly red.  He could feel his ears smoking with the painful hotness in his mouth.

She grinned.  It was the way his beautiful best friend of smiling at him.  It was a special privilege as what she had told him that he gets to witness her brutal amiability.  She has different ways of showing her friendship to him and he always became a willing victim.  She has satisfaction in doing this so. 

Kwon Yuri has become his best friend even before she was born.  The newly-wed Kwons bought their neighbor’s house.  Mrs. Kwon was already pregnant then.  Yunho, who had always been left alone by his parents, would always come over and entertain Mrs. Kwon with his dancing skills.  He was more than glad to do so and she would let him talk to her baby bump.  When Yuri was born, Yunho promised baby Yul that he would always be there for her.  The bullying, on the other hand, started as soon as Baby Yul could lift her arms.  She slapped the three year old Yunho and he, of course, didn’t retaliate as she was just a baby.  Baby Yul acquired her first talent by then: smirking.

“You should have seen your face!” she exclaimed.  “You would put Elmo to shame with that red face.”  Twenty years have passed and the bullying worsened.  The more she learned, the meaner she gets.  But Yunho still considers her a baby so no retaliation comes.

The grin became evil laughter.  She continued laughing while he struggled to neutralize the painful explosion in his mouth.  After a while she gave him some milk to help it subside.  The amusement was still all over her face.

“I am glad that you found satisfaction at my painful disposition.”

“Sheez.  Yun-yah, stop whining.  That was just a piece of pepper,” she said.

“That pepper happened to be one of the spiciest pepper in the world!  How did you get a hand of it anyway?”

“You know Shim Changmin, right?  He’s one of my classmates in the university.  He’s pretty cool.”  Yunho grimaced at the thought of Changmin.  He was a teammate in basketball during high school.  He gotta agree that he was pretty cool but hearing Yuri saying that didn’t settle well with him.

“You’re friends with him?  That guy is not a very good influence to you.”

“He’s just fine.  C’mon buy me some ice cream or something.  Laughing makes me hungry all the time.”

‘Hey, you just reached y Kwon Yuri’s voicemail.  You know what to do at the beep.’

Yunho has been trying to call Yuri for the whole morning but all he could reach was her voicemail.  It was pretty unusual because she usually keeps her phone with her at all times.  And it was a Saturday.  She usually sleeps late on Saturdays.  It has been almost a week since the last time they have been together.  He could still feel his cheeks hurting because of all the candy grapes she made him eat at the same time.  He endured those hard sour candies because she threatened that she would not talk to him for the rest of the day. 

He missed his best friend despite of the misfortune of having her as one.  But he would never switch Yuri for anyone as a best friend.  She always knew how to cheer him up, to encourage him she he needed one.  She was the only one that he could talk to about everything.  She was always the reason that he could get the girls that he wanted and she would also be the reason that his relationships fail.  Somehow Yuri would still manage to occupy his time and his girlfriends would get jealous and he’d always choose Yuri over them.  It was never a question who to choose between those girls and Yuri.  His life wouldn’t be complete without her.

“Yun-yah!”

His thoughts were distracted by that call.  He wasn’t exaggerating when he would say that he would know Yuri’s voice anywhere and anytime.  And he knew that the voice that called him was Yuri’s.  He turned and saw Yuri excitedly making her way to him

 “What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” she returned the question as if it was more sensible if she would ask him instead.

“I was about to ask you to meet me here but you were not answering your phone.”  He knew that Yuri would be the last person who would feel guilty for even offending him but he would just try to make her so.  She smiled ruefully.

“I left my phone at home.  I had to wake up early and I forgot to bring it in my haze.”

“You woke up early?  Who are you?”  Yuri never woke up early her whole life and it is the one of the things she hated doing.

“There you are!”  Before Yuri could say anything, someone butted in.

“Min-oppa!” Yuri exclaimed.  Her face was lit up with her one million watt smile.

Min-oppa?! She never called him oppa even it caused him a lot of physical pain.  Yunho eyed the taller guy who was smiling cheekily at his best friend.

“Yunho hyung, long time no see,” Changmin greeted him.  Darn, he was never this polite in high school.  He just nodded at him.

“You were with him?” he asked and feared the obvious answer.  Yuri nodded.

“We had to finish something for our Natural Science class,” she explained.  She was some of her hair which was a sign of guilt. He smiled. Yuri feels bad when she thinks she had not done something to him.

“Hm.  It’s good that you are finally doing something for your class,” he said.

“Yuri, we have to go.  Hyung, I’m sorry but we need to get going.” Changmin said as he half pulled Yuri with him.

“Yun-yah, bye!  See you around!”  He watched as Yuri walked beside Changmin.

He didn’t know why but he felt a little pain seeing Yuri with another guy.  It truly doesn’t matter who the other guy is.  The thought of losing his best friend to another guy seemed unbearable enough.

Yunho didn’t care if his back was already wet.  He gripped the other umbrella on his hand as he scanned the area for Yuri.  It was already late and it was raining hard.  Mrs. Kwon called him and asked him to fetch Yuri.  Without a second thought, he came to her university and checked for her.

“Yun-yah!”  It was her.

She was with Changmin again.  But thank God that she was still dry.

“Yun-yah, thank you for coming.  Min-oppa was kind enough to stay here with me.”

Yunho wanted to throw a fit.  How could she think that staying there with her was far greater a favor than fetching her?  There was a sudden need for him to be the only guy that Yuri relies on.  The feeling was no alien to him but the intensity of the feeling was.  He was suddenly afraid of how his best friend could affect his feelings.

Yunho chose to keep quiet the whole ride home.  He couldn’t look at her anymore.  He seemed to see her in a new light now.  He was afraid that if he looked at her in the eyes, he would realize that the sisterly love he had nurtured through the years had already changed.  And he was afraid that it would ruin their friendship. 

The silence was mistaken as another feeling.  Yuri thought that Yunho was not happy of the arrangement.  He could’ve been doing something and she was disturbing him.

“You could’ve told my mom that you were doing something if you were really busy.  Min-oppa-“

“Why can’t you call me oppa when you call Changmin Min-oppa?”  It was a sudden outburst.  He didn’t even know where that came from did but it was already too late to regret saying it.  Yuri chuckled.

“Yun-yah, your jokes a lot these days.  Anyway Min… I mean Changmin could take me home.”

“Can we stop talking about him?” Yunho said.  He was gonna burst out of jealousy when Yuri would mention Changmin’s name again.

“No, seriously.  Changmin could –“ he  Yuri wasn’t able to finish what she had to say because she was thrown heavily on the dashboard.  Her mind spun a little at the impact.  She heard the tires skid through the wet asphalt.  She gave him a defiant look.

“What’s wrong with you?!  You could have killed us both.  You could have passed up if you weren’t really sincere enough to take me home.”

Her face was full of rage and she has never looked as beautiful.  Yunho tried to harness himself but the look on her face made him undone the seatbelt.  He reached her head and captured her lips. He could feel her stiffened at his sudden attack but she never resisted.

She hasn’t recovered at the shock Yunho gave her when he pulled the brakes and here he was, giving her one of the biggest shock of her life.  She didn’t know how to respond.  Her head started spinning again and her stomach seemed to go upside down.  She felt him nip at her lower lip and she felt herself giving in.  She was lost in the sensation and the next thing she knew, her hands are tangled his long hair. 

Yunho pulled away as soon as he could get a hold of himself.  They were both panting, trying to catch their breaths.

“Yuri,” he tried to hold her hand but she swatted it away.  He heard the car door’s unlock.

“I want to walk home.  My house is not that far away anyway,” she said in a low voice.

Yunho dragged himself from the couch to the fridge.  He took a month leave from his work and slept himself off.  His parents are away in Thailand for a vacation so he could mess up around the house.  He slept on the couch for three weeks now.

Yuri hasn’t spoken to him yet.  It wasn’t like she didn’t want to talk to him.  It was because he never tried to do anything.  He just couldn’t see her turn her back on him.  It would be the most painful thing that could happen to him.

He took a chug on a fresh milk carton.  He’s living a pretty much loser’s life.

“There are eggs Benedict on the table if you want to eat.”  He grunted for acknowledgement and continued drinking.  Then he choked on the milk and his eyes widened.  He didn’t care if he looked like a two year old kid with milk poured all over his face to chest.

Yuri was sitting on one of the chairs on their dining table.  The pizza boxes on top of the table last night were already gone.  In fact, the house seemed to be their old home again.  She must have cleaned it when he was still asleep.

“Good morning!”  She smiled brightly.  Contrary to his face full of stubbles, her face was as flawless and beautiful as always.  He tried hard to remember if it was a Sunday because she was wearing a yellow sundress that could have been her Sunday’s best.  He just assumed so after realizing that he didn’t really kept track of the time.

“I haven’t seen you for a long time.  So how are you?” she asked, flashing him a beautiful smile.

“Yeah, fine,” he answered airily.  How could he think straight when she’s like this?  She chuckled.

“So about the last time… Why did you kiss me?”

Why did he really kiss her?  After weeks of wallowing in self mockery, he finally admitted to himself that the once platonic feeling he had for her his best friend, turned into a romantic one.  He never planned on doing so, he just did.  He.  Is.  Deeply.  Madly.  In love.

He sighed.  So how could he say this to her now?

“Have you fallen in love with me?”

The bright smile was gone.  She has a serious face on but there was a quiet anticipation in her eyes.

“Yes.”  He was already there.  He could gamble everything for this chance.  “I didn’t know how it happened.  At first, I thought I was just threatened by Changmin’s presence with you always spending time with him and you even call him ‘oppa’.  But it was more than that.  You bring out all my extreme feelings.  You are the only one who could.  And I thought, I’d always want you by my side.”

“I guess I have fallen in love with you.”

Yuri sighed.

“It took you three weeks, huh?” she smiled.  “I know I have fallen to my best friend right when he kissed me.  You are the only one who could make me feel complete.  I waited for you to come to your senses but I guess, I had to make a move when you still wouldn’t come out of your shell.”

“You love me?”  He had to hear it from her to believe.

“Yes, I do love you.”

He was filled with extreme happiness that he lifted her and spun her around.  She could just scream. 

“Yun-yah!  You should eat those eggs before they get cold.”

He was glad.  They’ve known each other for forever and now they’re embracing a new relationship they have.  He took a bite of the eggs Benedict she prepared for him.  He regretted tasting the meal.  The bitterness and the hotness just exploded in his mouth.  His face was all red and he gaped at his brutal bestfriend-turned-girlfriend.  She was wearing a mischievous grin. 

“I took the liberty to pour more salt and Changmin’s pepper.  I wanted to give you a little reward for making me wait for three weeks.”

And forever goes on.

A/N: Happiness sometimes needs life's little sacrifices.