Karina doesn't know how it starts.

She has been crushing on Winter for almost 3 years now-- Is it still a crush? she doesn't know.

Because day by day, it feels like her feelings for her are growing and it scares her. It scares her to the point that she doesn't want to admit it to herself-- which she knows she's just going to make herself look like a fool. It's like she's trying to make herself believe that her feelings for her weren't real.

Falling in love is really not in her priorities right now, it's probably the last on her list but then, things always don't go as planned and unexpected things always bound to happen.

One day, she just finds herself getting interested in her, she just finds herself wanting to get to know her more, she just finds herself starting to notice every little detail of hers.

How her eyes will turn into the crescent moon and how adorably her dimples will appear on her face when smiles, how she claps her hand when she's laughing, how her laugh sounds like music to her ears like it is the most addicting sound in the world, how she gets shy when someone complimented her, and many more.

Karina is becoming aware of something growing inside of her and it's getting harder and harder to control it.

There's no day that she didn't think of her. Winter just keeps on messing with her head and it's driving her to go crazy. At first, she finds it weird how she can't stop thinking of her because this is the first time that she takes a liking to someone for too long.

It's crazy, right? all her ex-crushes were just silly crushes that only last for weeks or maybe months but never a year, let alone 3 years. Only Winter made her feel like this.

She also wonders why she only noticed her too late; they've been classmates since they were in 7th grade, but she only started to notice her and develop this feeling for her when they were in 10th grade.

What's funnier is that her original crush is not even Winter but Winter's best friend-- Shin Ryujin. She still remembers how she was originally crushing on Ryujin (or maybe that's what she thought) at the start of their school year in 10th grade and at the same time, that was also the time when Karina started to slowly notice Winter's existence as the two of them were always together as if one of them will die if they get separated.

Don't get her wrong, she feels like she got confused especially if the two were always hip-attached then one day she had a realization that made everything becomes clear when she just finds herself more looking forward to seeing the certain black-haired girl who goes with the name Kim Winter aka Ryujin's best friend-- or shall we say the person whom she thought 'her crush' but not anymore.

All of her friends were close to Winter, except for her. They're not even friends, to begin with, they're just simply acquainted with each other because of their friends.

She also doesn't understand why they're not friends when all of their friends are close to each other, they're sharing the same circle of friends, yet they rarely interact with each other. They just offer each other a small smile or small talk and that's it.

She's actually closer with Ryujin than with Winter--her actual crush.

Do her friends know about this crush of her? Yes. Of course, they know. They are very well aware of it, and she actually gets a lot of teasing from them up until now in their 12th grade, their last year in high school as they always caught her staring, but the thing is they thought it was still Ryujin even though she keeps on saying that she doesn't have a crush on her anymore.

Karina eventually gets tired of correcting them and just lets them with Ryujin. Them being close with each other actually adds more to the suspicion of her friends that Karina still likes her after all despite all of her tries to deny the accusation. 

Ryujin is actually too kind not to mind all of Karina's friends' teasing-- no, it's actually just Ningning teasing them most of the time. She also had a talk with her ex-crush about it and made it clear to her that it was just a silly crush that had already faded away and nothing more.

"So, it's Winter, huh?"

The small-faced girl flinched on her spot when someone talked behind her, snapping her back to reality. She turns her head and saw Giselle, her best friend, who is standing behind her and giggling after seeing her flinch.

She furrowed her brows as she turns around and face her, feigning ignorance. Of course, Karina knows what she's talking about, but she won't admit that so she asked "what do you mean?"

Karina watched her best friend drag the chair in front of her and sits on it. Their instructor was nowhere to be found and Karina didn't bother to know why their instructor is not around, it's not like she cares anyway. It's actually good news for her because she wouldn't have to endure sitting and forcing herself to stay awake during his boring lecture.

The girl in front of her let out a chuckle, it's not like she didn't notice all of her subtle look at her crush "Your secret glances to her"

Giselle doesn't need to explain what she means by that statement because Karina already knows what she is talking about, but she remains feigning her ignorance, acting like she doesn't know what she's talking about.

"What?"

And if you ask her, she will actually believe Karina's act if she didn't know her any better but oh well, she's Giselle Uchinaga aka her best friend who knows her so well and there's really no secret that she can hide from her as she can read her like an open book.

It sometimes amazes Karina how her best friend can know everything as if she has the power to read her mind

Giselle also feels betrayed how can she keep that to herself? for almost 3 years, she's clueless that her best friend has been crushing on Winter, not on Ryujin whom they thought and Ningning claims as Karina's crush. Not until she finally noticed and realized that it was actually Winter.

How did she find out? She caught her best friend staring again in her crush's direction, it's actually tricky since Ryujin is sitting beside Winter but when Ryujin stands up to get her pen from one of their classmates, she noticed that the direction of Karina's stare remains even if Ryujin is not there anymore and that's when she realized, oh, it's Winter.

"You know, I actually believed that it's Ryujin and I feel really dumb for believing that but oh well at the same time I feel like the smartest person in the world when I figured out who is your real crush."

Karina didn't give her any response, so she continues talking.

"But well, I can't blame you for liking her though," Giselle said, trying to make her fall into the trap she's making since she won't admit that she has a crush on Winter even though she already caught her in the act. "She's a nice, smart, well-mannered, and easy-going person, and oh, not to mention that she has an overflowing charisma that makes almost