So, I was walking home one snowy December afternoon when suddenly, I felt a snowball collide with my back.

            “OW! What the ?!” I cried as I spun around to see who’d thrown the snowball.

            “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

            There he was, Yang Yoseob, laughing his off. I felt my nostrils start to flare as I stomped up to him, my shoes making prints in the fallen snow.

            How can I start to describe Yang Yoseob? He’s my arch nemesis, my best friend, and my punching bag all in one. And…I…might…be completely in love with him BUT

            Let’s not get to that topic (:

            So, anyways, I was ing pissed at this freak because now my back is freaking cold and feels like ice.

            “YAH! What was that for, you ?!” I yelled.

            Yoseob shrugged innocently. “Maybe I just felt like hitting you with a snowball.” He leaned in closer to me. “Got a problem with that?”

            But before I got a chance to reply Yoseob continued. “So, what are you doing this Christmas?”

            And just like that, I forgot about everything that’d just happened. The two of us started walking side my side, down the snowy road, and I said, “I don’t know. Usual dinner with family and cousins, I guess. You?”

            “Same.” Yoseob sighed. “We should do something different this year, you know? It’s our last Christmas in high school. It should be unique.”

            “Hmm…I guess so. But what do you want to do then?”

            “We should jump off a building.”

            “WHAT? Are you crazy?!”

            “Yeah, yeah! We should do that! C’mon ______, let’s go bungee jumping!” Yoseob said excitedly.

            “No way in hell am I bungee jumping off of a building. Never, ever. Think of a different idea Seobie,” I said.

            “But that was such a good idea…,” Yoseob mumbled.

            The two of us were still walking, when suddenly one of my classmates runs up to us. It was Lee Joon, one of the most popular guys in school. I’d always found him really, really cute, and he had awesome body too. I guess you could say that I had a teensy tiny crush on him but nothing more. Although, Lee Joon was definite eye candy fosho.

            “Hey Yoseob, hey ______,” Joon said with one of his killer smiles.

            Oh my god, I’m melting :3

            “So, ______, are you doing anything this weekend for Christmas?” Joon asked me.

            OMG was he going to ask me out?

            “Um, no, nothing at all! Why, were you going to ask me something?” OMGee!!! Joon was gonna ask me out!!!!

            “Great! So, uh…there’s this whole Christmas dinner party thing next week.” Joon bit his lip and smiled at me. “Can you be my date?”

            OH MY ING GOD JOON WAS ASKING ME OUT!!!

            I wanted to jump and dance around in happiness but I kept my cool. “Oh, yeah, sure! I would love to-

            “Sorry, Joon, but ______ and I are going to be at my parent’s house on Christmas,” Yoseob suddenly said, swinging his arm around my shoulder.

            What…the……why was he touching me? What was he doing?!

            “Oh, really?” Joon looked at me. “So you can’t go?”

            I was going to respond but Yoseob clamped his hand over my mouth. He chuckled, “Nope. She can’t. So maybe you should ask someone else, Lee Joon.”

            Joon looked from me to Yoseob. “Are you guys dating?”

            Yoseob looked at me, and smirked. “Yes, yes we are. You should get that to your head, you hear me? Me and this beautiful girl right next to me named Lee ______, are yes, indeed, dating and very much in love. So why won’t you run off now, Lee Joon.”

            Joon looked at him weirdly and turned to me. “Well, see you after the break _____. Maybe another time then? When you’re not taken?”

            I rapidly shook my head and tried to protest but Yoseob’s hold onto my mouth was too strong.

            When Joon left Yoseob released his hold on me and prepared for my lecture.

            I punched Yoseob in the arm and shouted, “WHAT THE WAS THAT ALL ABOUT SEOBIE?!”

            “Whoa, whoa, calm down will ya? I was just protecting you,” Yoseob replied, rubbing his arm. “Ow…that hurt…”

            “Protecting me? Joon’s student body president and is number one in all of his classes! He has an awesome toned body, is funny, cute, and awesomely good looking!  What would a good guy like him ever do to me?!”

            “You never know, he could be using that image as a façade to hide his internal motives. He could be a secret for all we know,” Yoseob said in a somewhat weird, mysterious tone. “I’m your best friend, I was just doing what I thought was right.” He ruffled my hair. “You’re welcome.”

            “You’re so annoying,” I said, fixing my hair back into place.

            “And also,” Yoseob continued, ignoring my insult, “You can’t ditch me. Especially this Christmas.”

            I laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

☆

            “What do you mean I can’t do anything this Christmas?!” I cried.

            My parents swallowed their food before replying to my astonished face. “There’s a masquerade ball being thrown and Yoseob’s dad wanted us to come. There’ll be a ton of celebrities! I thought you’d like it, ______. I heard that Bi Rain’s going to be there,” my mom said as my dad rolled his eyes.

            Oh yeah, Yoseob’s dad is a really, really famous actor in Korea. So he gets backstage passes to everything but I’ve always refused his offers. As much as I love B2ST, I’m pretty sure that I’ll die if I ever meet them and I don’t want that to happen. It’ll be too embarrassing on my part. And Yoseob’s met SNSD before. God, after that day he had bloody noses for a week at most.

            “A masquerade ball?” I asked. “Like with masks and dresses and stuff?”

            My parents nodded with a smile. “Just like that time when you were 9.”

            Oh yeah. That time where I met that really, really fun boy and we played around the vicinity all night. That dress was freaking itchy though.

            “And Yoseob’s going to be there too. So maybe you guys can hang out together,” my dad added.

            Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrate. “Hello?”

            “_____! Did your parents tell you?” Yoseob’s asked.

            I sighed. “Yeah. Are you going?”

            “It seems like fun. You should go, I’m going,” Yoseob said.

            “But c’mon, a masquerade ball? How cliché is that?” I said.

            “It’s not cliché, it’s a classic Christmas. Perfect for us, right? C’mon childhood buddyyy,” Yoseob melodically whined.

            I sighed again, secretly rolling my eyes. “Alright, alright. I’ll go.”

            “Yes! But make sure to wear a mask! I need to look for someone,” Yoseob replied as I heard him shuffle a few things.

            “What? SNSD? So you can have nosebleeds for a week again?” I asked.

            “Noooo! And that was a one time thing! I bet the next time I see them I’ll only have nosebleeds for one day.”

            I laughed. “Whatever you say Seobie.”

            “Aight. Wear something pretty best friend.”

            “Will do. By the way, were you planning anything anyway?” I asked him.

            “Umm….” Yoseob paused. “I don’t know, I forgot.”

            “What?! How could you-

            Fzzzzzz, fzzzzz, fzzzzzz.

            “_____! ______! I can’t hear you! You’re breaking up!” Yoseob cried.

            “What the , you’re rubbing a potato chip bag into the receiver! You’re-

            But before I knew it, Yoseob had hung up.

            Hmmm…why didn’t he want to tell me what he’d been originally planning? Wait…was he going to confess to me? 0______0

            AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! YEAH RIGHT! Like Yang Yoseob would want to confess to me!

            But, I guess, if he did I would’ve liked it…

            Eh, whatever, time to go pick out my dress ^^

☆

            So on Christmas Eve I was getting ready for the ball. I got a new mask and had my hair and makeup all prettily done.

            Oh! And I actually picked out a pretty nice dress.

Your dress: http://fashion4us.com/wholesale-fashion-detail.action?id=190111

Your current mask: http://www.successcreations.com/product-p/b-0163.htm

I hope Yoseob actually reacts to me when he sees me this time. Cause he never does, even at prom he just looked at me with a straight face and went, “______, I’m freaking cold right now in my awesome tux and my date’s waiting in the limo so hurry up and get chur over here!”

            Yeah, we didn’t exactly go to prom together. That was back in sophomore year and I don’t think I really liked him that much back then. He was still the obnoxious random boy I’ve known since I was born.

            As I was just finishing the last of my mascara, I heard Yoseob’s voice downstairs.

            “Hey Mr. Lee,” he was saying. “Is ______ done yet?”

            Oh , I needed to hurry. I grabbed my bag and my mask but I noticed that the stick was a little loose. I seriously didn’t want to be walking around the party being the only one without a mask, so just in case I put my pink and gold mask in my bag. I’d worn it to the masquerade ball when I was 9, and it still fit me…kind of…

            But it was better than walking around without a mask.

            I held the stick to my golden mask and hurriedly ran downstairs in my heels to find Yoseob standing there in his tux.

            And he looked damn fine in his tux.

            But I tried not to stare too much as I walked towards him, looking to see if he had any reaction to me at all.

            “______,” he said to me.

            I smiled. “Yes?”

            “It’s weird…one of your eyes looks bigger than the other.”

            0_0 “What?” I quickly pulled out my compact mirror and to my dismay, Yoseob was right.

            I FREAKIN FORGOT TO PUT MASCARA ON MY LEFT EYE.  

            Geez…that must’ve been embarrassing. So while Yoseob drove us to the party (cause my parents and his parents are coming later) I completely finished my makeup.

            “Where’s your mask?” I asked Seobie.

            Yoseob pulled it out from his jacket and handed it to me.

            “Oooooo! That’s pretty tight,” I said as I examined his mask

Yoseob’s mask: http://www.successcreations.com/product-p/a-1078b.htm

            “Of course it is! I picked it out, after all,” Yoseob said. “Can you put it in your purse? I don’t want to carry it in my jacket.”

            I laughed. “So can you tell me NOW about what were you planning before we knew about this party?”

            Yoseob looked at me and smiled. “Do you really want to know?”

            I nodded. “Yes, yes I do.”

            “Well if you really want to know…” Yoseob paused and took in a breath. “I was gonna sneak you into Big Bang World.”

            My eyes widened. “What? Isn’t it closed on Christmas?”

            “Exactly. And I know this guy who could get us in but then he backed out right after my parents told me about the party because he didn’t want to get ‘fired’.” Yoseob chuckled. “What a .”

            “Why’d you want me to sneak in to Big Bang World with you on Christmas?” I asked him.

            “Well…because you’re my best friend. And, I don’t know, it’s our last Christmas before college starts and I felt like it had to be special,” Yoseob said quietly, almost shyly. “For some strange reason.”

            When he said that I just seriously felt like I was starting to melt into a pool of butter. I stared at him, for a long time because I couldn’t believe the words coming out from his mouth.

            “Oh, and you look pretty today.” Yoseob smiled at me. “Except for that booger on your cheek.”

            “WHAT?!” I took out my mirror again to find…

            No booger on my cheek.

            “YAH!” I shouted.

            And Yoseob started laughing, his melodic laugh filling my ears with pure joy.

            Oh, Yoseob. If only you knew how I felt. And if you ever felt the same way I’d be the happiest girl in the world.

☆

            When we got to the mansion where the masquerade ball was being held, it was already packed with people. I saw various limos and paparazzi, just waiting for their celebrities to make the wrong move.

            Ha, good thing me and Yoseob weren’t celebrities.

            I got out of the car and the two of us started up to the front door. Yoseob held out his arm.

            “What?” I asked him.

            “Don’t you think it’s a little weird for a guy and a girl dressed so awesomely to just be walking side by side?” he inched his arm closer to me.

            That did make sense, so I hesitantly slip my arm into his.

            Sigh…we really did look like a couple.

            “Your names?” some girl said at the front door.

            “Yang Yoseob and Lee ______,” Seobie said.

            The girl looked at him and then at me. “Are you two dating?”

            Oh my god first Joon and now her?! What has this world-

            “No, no we’re not. She’s just my cousin.” Yoseob grinned.

            “Ohh, really?” the girl blinked and her long lashes went up and down.

            W…T…F…was she flirting with him? Was she flirting with my Seobie?!?!

            She pulled out a card with her number and said, “Well then, call me anytime. I’ll pick up, I promise.”

            “Ahaha, alright then. Thanks.” Yoseob winked at her and the two us entered the mansion.

            When we were out of earshot I punched Yoseob in the arm. HARD.

            “OWOWOWOWOW!” he glared me and stopped linking arms. “WHAT THE ?!”

            “Don’t ‘what the ’ me! What was that over there?”

            “Oh, her?” We looked over at the girl who was STILL looking over at Yoseob and clearly checking him out. She waved but we paid no attention to her. “What about her?”

            “How can you hit on a girl when I’m standing right here?! Do I look like your cousin? No! Why did you tell Joon that we’re dating but you tell her that we’re cousins?”

            “Whoa, whoa, calm down will you? It was just a joke.” Yoseob leaned closer and smirked. “Why? You jealous?”

            “Psh, no! Why would I be jealous of you?” I replied. I flicked Seobie on the forehead because I was really starting to feel claustrophobic about his face being so close to mine.

            “Fine, whatever, don’t admit it. But don’t come crying to me when-

            “______?”

            I turned around to find Lee Joon, standing there in a tux and a small glass of punch.

            Ohhhhh dayummm, he looked pretty darn good in a tux also.

            “Joon?” Yoseob looked at him in somewhat disgust.

            “Hey Yoseob.” Joon didn’t seem to notice the way Yoseob was looking at him.

            Joon said to me, “______, I thought you were spending Christmas with your parents.”

            “I thought so too,” I mumbled. “But we got dragged here last minute. So THIS was the dinner party you were talking about?”

            Joon nodded with a smile. “Yup! And now that you’re here it makes this party even better. Did you bring a mask?”

            “Oh yeah!” I took out the gold mask from my bag and held it on my face. “You?”

            “Of course.” Joon strapped his mask onto his head and smiled again.

            Ahhh…I’m melting….

            “Yoseob did you bring a mask?” Joon asked him.

            Yoseob gave him a ‘get lost you bastard’ look and didn’t answer. He was being rude and I didn’t want things between me and Joon to get awkward so I said, “Of course he did!” I took it out from my purse and put it on for him. “There!”

            “Nice mask,” Joon complimented.

            Yoseob looked at him. “Thanks,” he said flatly.

            “Cool. So ______, do you want something to drink?”

            “Sure! Yoseob, you want anything?”

            Yoseob shook his head and said, “I need to go. I’ll see you guys later.” He coldly walked away, leaving me.

            “What’s up with him?” I asked myself.

            Joon put his hand on my shoulder and said, “C’mon _____, I’ll show you around.”

            “Okay.” I looked at Yoseob’s departing figure one last time before following Joon.

            Throughout the rest of the night I was basically with Joon. He introduced me to a couple of stars that he knew and I got an autograph from Kwon BoA. It was amazing, amazing I tell you.

            “So are you and Yoseob really dating?” Joon asked me.

            I laughed. “No! He was just making things up.”

            “Haha, really?”

            I nodded. “Yup.”

            “So you’re single?”

            “Yes.”

            “Great! So, if you still want to, you know, go out sometime then we can-

            “Lee ______!”

            , why are people always getting interrupted?

            “What?” I turned to whoever called my name and saw Yoseob, walking towards me, with his mask off. Where was he all night? I hadn’t seen him since he took off.

            “Hey Yoseob,” I said. “What’s up?”

            “______, can you go somewhere with me?”

            “Okay, where?”

            But instead of replying Yoseob took my hand and pulled me away from Joon.

            “Dude, what the hell, we were talking,” Joon said. He obviously wasn’t happy that Yoseob was interrupting his second time asking me out.

            “ off. She’s with me.” Oh my god that was freakin hot ^_^

Yoseob pulled on my hand and I followed him off to who knows where.

           

            He and I walked to the backyard of the mansion, which was more like a huge golf course with a bunch of fountains and gazebos.

            Yoseob slowed down his pace. We were walking now, side by side, and he was still holding my hand.

            Which gave me major butterflies BTW.

            The two of us ended up sitting under the gazebo, our backs resting on the wooden rails. The sound of the party was distant, and I heard crickets chirping. It really was a beautiful moment.

            I felt Yoseob looking at me so I said, “What?”

            He cleared his throat. “N-Nothing.”

            “How can it be nothing? You drag me away from Joon and now we’re sitting here, in silence. Was this what you wanted?”

            “Not the silence part. But I did want you away from Joon,” Yoseob replied, not meeting my eyes.

            I sighed. “You couldn’t at least let me have one moment.”

            “______?”

            “What?”

            “Do you like being with Joon that much?” Yoseob asked me quietly. “Is he better than me just because he has good grades and ?”

            The atmosphere got really serious all of a sudden. “I didn’t say that, Seobie. Of course you’re better than him.” 

            “Then why do you ditch me for him?”

            “And why are you acting like a little kid right now? I didn’t ditch you Seobie you’re the one who ran off.”

            Yoseob swallowed and said, “Can I ask you something?”

            “Shoot.”

            “That boy you played with here, 8 years ago, when you were 9. Do you remember him?”

            Where was he going with this? “Yeah, I remember him.”

            “Can you…tell me about him, a little bit? And that night too?”

            “Why do you want to know?” I asked Yoseob.

            “C’mon, I’m your best friend, I should know about this.”

            “How do you even know about this?”

            “Your…your mom told me,” Yoseob replied. (he was lying XD)

            “Oh, ok, well. I don’t remember the exact details but I remember bumping into him and he fell down and got a scratch and it bleeding so I helped him patch it up because he didn’t want his mom to get overprotective and embarrass him. And then I guess we started playing that way. You know, hide and seek, tag, and stuff like with a couple of other kids,” I said.

            Yoseob peered at me. “Do you remember anything else?”

            “Hmm… before the both of us went home we wrote our names on a….” I stopped, sudden realization dawning upon me. “…a rail of a gazebo….”

            Yoseob finally looked at me in the eyes. “Look at the rail behind you.”

            I did and I was surprised to find 2 pairs of initials carved into the paint of the gazebo. Very vaguely, but still noticeable, I made out the two initials:

            Y Y

            L _  (the first letter of your first name)

            My eyes widened. I looked at Yoseob and he was staring right back at me. “Do you remember what happened after you and that boy wrote your names on the rail?” he asked me, softly, quietly.

            “It…it snowed…for the first time the whole year.”

            “And what happened after that?”

            “We played in the snow.”

            “And after that?”

            “We…we said that we’ll…” But I couldn’t even finish.

            “…that we’ll see each other again,” Yoseob finished for me. “It took me a long time to find you princess. Every year I’ve been searching for you…only to find out that you’ve been with me all along.”

            “Wait, but how’d you find out it was me?” I asked him.

            “When you opened your bag to put my mask away I saw that pink mask…the one you’d worn to the ball when we were 9. It’d only been a glimpse, but it was enough to make me believe that you were her.” Yoseob smiled at me. “I’d always felt like she was next to me. And in reality, she was.

            “I really couldn’t believe it though. I mean, you’re my best friend! And she was my first love. It just didn’t make sense. But then I thought back to how I felt when you were with Joon…and even in the past when I felt so ing pissed when that guy broke your heart.”

            “You and Kikwang beat him up right after school,” I said with a small laugh, playing with my mask in my hands. “And then you guys got suspended for it.”

            Yoseob smiled even bigger. “Yeah. I didn’t regret it though. I really didn’t. He deserved it. But…that night when you came to my house crying, I remember feeling so helpless, like I couldn’t do anything. So violence was the only choice left for me. And tonight…when I saw you in your dress…you really did look beautiful. I meant it when I said that I thought you looked pretty tonight. And seeing you, dressed so nicely, going off with Joon like that, pissed me off so much. Especially when I just figured out that you and her were one in the same. I was so frustrated, and I spent so much time thinking about my feelings for you…”

            “Yoseob…,” I said quietly, not knowing what else to say.

            Yoseob met my eyes and said, “You know the reason why I flirted with that girl?”

            “Tell me,” I replied.

            Yoseob laughed a small bit. “I’m pretty sure it was for getting you to feel what I felt when Joon had tried to ask you out the other day.”

            “Are you serious?”

            “Yup. I’m stupid, aren’t I?”

            “The stupidest guy in the world.”

            “I may be stupid…but I’m not dumb.”

            “And why is that?”

            “Because I met you, right?”

            I smiled. “Right.”

            Yoseob ruffled my hair again and that smile of his came across his face.

            “_____?” he said softly.

            “What?”

            “I think I love you.”

            I smiled and my heart started to burst. I’ve wanted to hear those words for so long already…and now that I’m actually hearing it, I could feel myself to be the happiest girl in the world.

            “I don’t know when it started, or how it happened. But I fell in love with my best friend. I think I’ve always been in love with you but was too blind to see it. Even if you didn’t turn out to be my first love…I think that I’d still end up feeling this way.”

            I placed my hand over his and intertwined our fingers. “Yoseob…,” I said quietly. “I think I love you too.”

            Yoseob smiled. “I’ve never been so happy to hear those words in my entire life.”

            I laughed. “Oh really now?”

            “Yes.”

            “You know, you look really nice in that tux,” I commented.

            “Really?”

            “Uhuh.”

            “HA! Thought so! You know you were staring when you came down the stairs,” Yoseob said.

            “No I wasn’t!”

            “Yes you were!”

            “Okay, maybe I was, but that’s not the point now, is it?”

            “______?”

            “What?”

            “How’d we get from I love you’s to tuxedos?”

            I laughed. “I don’t know how either.”

            “Do you think this will work out, you and I? I don’t want to lose you.”

            I sighed. “I don’t want to lose you either. But if the both of us really do love each other as friends, and/or lovers, we should give it a try right? You never know if you never try.”

            “I guess so…”

            And just then, a slow song could be heard playing inside the mansion. Through the windows I could see couples getting together to dance. Poor Joon…I should apologize to him later…

            Yoseob got up. “Will you dance with me, ______?”

            I smiled. “Yes, I will.”

            So the two of us held each other close, and I rested my head on Yoseob’s shoulder, enjoying the moment when he finally became mine. I guess happy endings do exist after all.

            Then, suddenly, I felt something wet on my nose and I realized that it was snowing…

            “It’s not the first snow of the year…but it is of the night,” Yoseob said softly into my ear. “Isn’t it amazing?”

            “Yeah…it feels nice,” I replied.

            I felt Yoseob pull away and for a moment we just looked into each other’s eyes, before he leaned down and kissed me. I’ve never thought that this would happen in a million years but I guess some things just happen for a reason.

            While the first snow of the night fell down softly around us, Yoseob and I kissed. He was holding his first love in his arms. And I was giving my heart to my best friend.

            This will definitely be a Christmas to remember.

The End <3