The first time when I ever felt something for him, other than being 'just friends'. 

Maybe I was just too naïve to ever notice or was this all just a misunderstanding.

I used to help all my classmates, also other students, helping them with their studies. You can imagine being the topper of your class. Pretty much all teachers recognised me and they thought of me as a sincere, innocent, quiet girl and when they got to know that I was best friends with him, they became as surprised as the other students in school were. 

How can two different personalities be 'best friends'?

Well, as for you, I would like to tell you that I wasn't the one who they supposed to be well familiar with. They all had wrong assumptions about me. As for me, I was the one with dual personalities that changes depending on my surroundings. Baekhyun knew that. I was as crazy as him, as mischievous as him, and as loud as him. We were completely different when we were together. Well, he was the same in school too, but I kept this side within me. Our families knew each other very well, and were fully aware of our 'best friendship'. 

The first time I met him was on the first day of my elementary school. My mother came to drop me there and then go to her office. I didn't wanted to go to school, it was an everyday routine, I hated school. The other students there and everyone. I didn't want to be friends with anyone in school. Just like all my usual school days, I was crying, pulling down my mother's oversized coat, and asking her to take me back since I didn't wish to go inside. On the other hand, my mother encouraging me to go and make new friends, explaining me how exciting my day would be, and so on. It was all usual until a boy came to me and patted my shoulder. I wiped my eyes and nose, and looked back at him. He had a bright smile on his face, showing off his teeth, his hand extended towards me, offering me a chocolate bar. I sniffed and took the chocolate, since I loved chocolates. He then offered me his hand to go with him, I looked up to my mom and she smiled widely at him and then encouraged me to accept. I looked to the direction of another lady who I supposed as his mom only to find her smiling at me. I put my hand in his and then eating our chocolates, we went inside together. 

Since then, our mothers became friends and he also visited me a lot. We had a lot of fun, we played games and me, being the only child of my parents, I had all the toys, ranging from the stuffed toys to remote control cars. Since I never liked barbies and dolls, my parents stopped buying me that. Instead, they gifted me cars and racing games, which I found thrilling. We played all day long, and when they had to leave, I used to hug him tight, not letting him go, and making his clothes all wet from crying. I wanted to play more!

He was my only friend until we reached middle school. In the middle school, I started becoming more open to the girls and befriending them. I made a few friends, the more closest ones being Jihye and Taeun. They are friends with me till now, just the fact that we are somewhat more busy in our respective lives now.

I was 18 when I was on the verge of going to a lot of house parties when their parents were not home. We would have the home by ourselves.

Me and Baekhyun were still best of friends. I used to hangout with my girls. The house parties, you know..

We had a lot of fun. Though Baekhyun and me still had a different friendship than the one I had with them, we still used to go out together but he didn't accompany me to the house parties since he tried to avoid 'girl groups' . 

The party was usual. The music being loud and the chit chats going on. It was not legal yet for us to drink. And so there were no drinks. Just the normal parties of school girls, as Jihye's parents were not home. So do mine. It was pretty late and some of our friends had already left. I was cleaning the kitchen counter when I glass suddenly slipped from my hands and shattered in tiny pieces. "Woah, be careful." It was Chan Myeong. He was on my right side and me being startled by his sudden presence, stumbled back a bit. 

To my surprise, he didn't let me fall and grabbed me by waist. I was surprised for a moment but when regained my conscience, I said, "Thanks", I smiled at him and he did the same. I heard someone clearing their throat, so he quickly helped me get up. When we regained our posture, I looked in front only to see Baekhyun. He was staring at us blankly. On his other side, was Yoona. She had a mischievous smile on. I couldn't make upto why she had that expression till she finally spoke, "Baek, can we go now? She is busy right now, you can tell her later about 'us'." 

'Us'?

Yoona has always been one of my rival. Well, I never considered her as one, but from her point of view, she was. Not only in academics, but also in all other activities where our participation clashed. When she found out about me and Baekhyun being friends, she suddenly started being all nice and friendly with me. I knew where this all was going, but I didn't mind. Since I heard a lot that she was mean only to me, and that she was quite nice with others. She was pretty too. And the fact that she started to work out, to have a slim figure, also worked well in her way. She announced it to everyone in the school, that she liked Baekhyun. Many people already started shipping them. I had no problems if I knew she was going to be the best for him. 'Only mean to me'. But I guess, she started to contradict that too, because we started to get along really well. 

She changed, I guess.

Well, that's good. I accept her then. I mean, why will I have any problems as long as they like each other. It's completely Baekhyun's choice. I don't mind anything. And, the fact that I slowly started to get along with her was also quite helping. 

"I came here because she called. We will talk later, I need to drop her to her house. See you later, Kim So Yeon."

'Kim So Yeon'?

He never calls me by my full name. He calls me 'Yeon-ah', 'Soo', etc. etc. but never 'Kim So Yeon'. That's only when he is serious. But, why is he serious right now? And what did he had to tell me?

He held Yoona's hand, she looked up to him with affection. 

I stared blankly on her hand in his, looked upto him, but his eyes never left Yoona's, like mine never left him.

"We should go now", he asked her. " 'Kay", when they disappeared from my sight, Myeong spoke, "Your bestfriend is in a relationship now. Yoona proposed to him when you were here. She called him beforehand. I didn't know that he accepted. You must be knowing. Care to share it with me?"

"I-I-I don't know. Maybe he liked her", my eyes never leaving the door. 

When did all this happen? How did he agreed in one go? Was it because Yoona has many times indirectly approached him or because she was vocal about her feeling? He liked her all along the way, when this was all happening?

Next thing, I knew I needed to talk to him once. Not that I objected his decision, but to know when did he got all these feelings? 

When?

How? 

Where? 

And why?

"I am sorry but I need to leave. I will go after I clean this up. Can you move aside a bit?" He moved away. But Jihye came, "It is okay, Soo. I will clean that and also I think it is important for you to go right now. It's getting late." She gave me assuring eyes. I knew why she offered me help. I mouthed her 'thanks' and 'sorry'. She just smiled in response. 

Oh, she knew me very well.

I took my overcoat, wore it on top of my dress and rushed to my car. Since I knew he went to drop her off, I waited outside his home. Aunty saw me and asked me to come inside. I wondered why was she awake. I asked in curiosity, "Aunty, why aren't you sleeping yet? It's late."

"I tried to but since I know now that my son's out after he received a call that late in night, I couldn't help but wait for him. What happened, Yeon-ah?"

"Ummm. I am not sure aunty. I came here to ask him the same. How it all happened?" 

"What all?"

"He isn't arrested for something, is he?"

I let out a small laugh.

"Oh, no aunty. Nothing like that. He is dating one of our schoolmate. And I didn't know. Someone told me. I just came here to know more about the gossip that's going on."

"DATING? Who's that girl?"

"It's Yoona. Rin Yoona. You know her, right? The second topper of our school."

"Ahh, that kid. She has been hitting on my son ever since. I know that. She isn't friends with you, is she?"

"She's changed, I guess. She is much more friendly to me now. Maybe, she is mature enough now. She doesn't play those childlike games on me anymore." I smiled.

"But I didn't know that he likes her too."

The smile which soon disappeared. 'Me too', I thought. 

The bell rang. We got up. 

"It's okay, aunty. Please. I will get the door."

I insisted and so she sat back and signaled me to open the door. I did and I saw Baekhyun standing in front, his eyes glued to the phone. He looked up to see me.

"How come you are here? At this time?" He said as brought his hand up to check the time on his watch.

"Shall we go to the rooftop? I think we need to talk."

" 'Kay, did you tell mom about me and Yoona?"

"Well,... yes actually."

His eyes grew in shock. "Yah, I wanted to tell her myself, why did you?"

"Sorry sorry sorry. I told her before you. Leave that thing and come with me." I held his wrist and started walking to the rooftop.

When we reached there, I proceeded further to rest my arms on the railing. I motioned him to do so too. He obeyed and then spoke softly, "Now, tell me, what is it that you want to talk about?"

"Yoona and you."

◇◇◇◇◇◇

" So, you are telling me that you accepted that because you THOUGHT you should be in a relationship now. Perfect age!? What the , Baekhyun?"

"What? That's not the only reason. She is pretty, smart, and attractive. She has changed a lot with you, right? She has become matured now, so she knows what she is doing. I like her. She is completely different from you."

I rolled my eyes and asked, "Now, what does the last line means? How am I part of all this?"

"You are a part of my life, a significant one and you will always be, Yeon-ah. My love for you is irreplacable but that doesn't mean I should not find 'the one' sent by Him for me. The one to spend rest of my life with. The one whom I call my 'girlfriend', then 'wife'. "

"Woahhh woahh woahhh, now you are exaggerating it Baekhyun", and I laughed at him for speaking such 'weird' things.

"What's funny about that? I am thinking of my future", he said as he looked in front, replacing his view of the front with mine, and pouted as if he is angry with me.

I brought my hand to his cheeks and squished them. They looked so adorable. 

He removed my hands from his cheeks, "I like her", he said that, looking at me, I don't know why but it felt 'weird' or I should say I didn't like him saying that.

Isn't it 'weird' of him saying these things?

I removed my hands from his as he held them all the time when he confessed. "It's late, I see. I must go home now."

"I will drop you."

"No, no, I will go myself. It's okay. Sleep well, goodnight Baek".