It’s finally the day. Yes, THE day. You are finally turning 16, and you’ve never felt so carefree in your life. Maybe because your parents promised to give you more freedom once you turned 16, or maybe it’s the fact that you are now not a little kid everyone assumes you are. Hey, it’s not your fault you were born with a small built and that you still have a baby-face at the age of sixteen.

You were at the mall with your best friend, celebrating your newfound freedom over ice-cream at Ben & Jerry’s. You’ve got to admit, before you turned sixteen, you were pretty much ignorant to your surroundings because you never really went out of the house much. All the clothes you had, you bought them online. You never understood why you had to leave the house to buy your clothes when there are much prettier clothes online. “The Internet has everything!” you once wailed to your best friend when she tried to get you out of the house.

Your best friend stopped eating her ice-cream and took a small box out of her bag. It was a robin blue box with a white ribbon tied neatly around it, with the words “Tiffany & Co.” embossed in small font at the centre of the box. She pushed the box towards you and grinned. “It took me almost a year to save for this,” she snickered. “Go on, open it.”

You stared at the box and hesitantly opened it. Inside was a simple silver ring with an infinity loop and “Always ♥” engraved on the inner side of the ring. You gaped and looked at your best friend, who seems to enjoy the sight of you unboxing the gift. You felt your cheeks burning and tears starting to form in your eyes. Your friend’s eyes widened before she started saying “No… no please don’t cry is my gift really that bad? Oh no I should’ve gotten the necklace instead, right? Ah how stupid of me…” You laughed at her continuous ramblings before gathering your composure and replying “No, it was perfect, actually.” You tried to sound happy but your voice came out wobbly and weird instead, to which your friend giggled.

“Well… aren’t you going to ask me why I engraved ‘Always’ in the ring instead of your name?” your friend asked, obviously excited to explain to you what it meant.

“Shoot, I’m all ears.”

“You know how people always engrave cheesy stuff in rings, right? Yeah, I didn’t want to be like the others and I thought really long and hard about this… and voila. ‘Always’ can be broken down into 2 parts, ‘always’ and ‘all ways’ so if you join those two together, it basically means that in the future when you look at this ring, you will always be reminded of how we were when we were sixteen, in all ways.”

You blinked, registering everything into your mind.

“Wow… I didn’t know you think that far.”

“Thank you, I shall take that as a compliment,” your friend chirped. “This ring will go on your left index finger like mine!” she said, waving her left index finger in front of your face.

You never noticed that she had been wearing a ring. Well, you did, but you thought it was just some accessory that she wore and did not think much of it.

“What are you waiting for, woman? Aren’t you going to wear the ring and show it off to the world or are you waiting for me to get on one knee and put the ring on for you?” your friend joked.

You took the ring out of its box and wore it on your left index finger where it fit snugly. You smiled at the sight of the ring on your index finger and hugged your best friend.

“Gosh, I hate how emotional you get over these things. It’s like you do it on purpose while knowing that I cannot console a person in any way,” your best friend lamented, rolling her eyes.

“I love you too,” you grinned.

You both left the café, walking towards the main atrium of the mall to go window shopping. You spotted Starbucks and your eyes lit up.

“Let’s go to Starbucks!”

“Are you kidding? You just had a double scoop cup of ice cream and now you want to go to Starbucks?”

“Suit yourself,” you said and stuck your tongue out at her. You skipped off to Starbucks happily, leaving her in the middle of the mall.

She caught up with you while you were on your way to Starbucks. “Go ahead and get your drink, I’m going to go answer nature’s call,” she said before running off to the restroom.

You laughed at your friend’s reply and walked over to the counter to order your drink.

You made payment and headed to the collection counter at the side of the café. You smiled to yourself thinking about how it is such a blessing to have such a great best friend.

“Here you go, miss. Someone’s looking happy today~” the barista smiled.

You smiled in return and bowed slightly.

“Enjoy your day~” the barista continued.

You walked out of Starbucks, happily sipping on your white chocolate mocha frappe. You were looking down at the ground, trying to walk without stepping on the cracks. You giggled to yourself but stopped when you saw a foot in your way. You looked up, only to crash into someone’s chest. Hard.

You looked up to see a handsome face looking down at you. You stepped back and bowed to apologize, and also to hide your face that was starting to heat up. “Gosh, he’s just so good looking…” you thought to yourself, forgetting that you were in the middle of a shopping mall in an awkward bowing position in front of a complete stranger.

“Hey now, you’re not going to bow to me for the next half an hour, aren’t you?” the guy mused.

You got up and smiled at him sheepishly. You nodded your head slightly before saying “Sorry about that. I was just… trying not to step on the cracks.”

Oh boy, that sounded really stupid.

“No no, I meant that I was…” you continued.

“Nah it’s okay, I get it. I do that too and I’m like what, 20? I don’t see why a kid like you can’t do it.”

You looked up at him, shocked that he’s 20 and the fact that he called you a ‘kid’.

“Okay, I know you’re a complete stranger and all, but I am not a kid. I’m turning sixteen today, for your information.” you said, trying not to sound rude or anything. “And wait, did you just say you were twenty?”

He smiled innocently at you, his brown poodle-like hair complementing his boyish smile. “Oh well, in that case, happy birthday!” he said, jumping up and down on the spot.

Wow, who is he to call me a kid? And he said he’s 20?! Well, look who’s talking.

You smiled up at him. “Gosh he’s so tall,” you thought while staring up at his innocent, child-like smile and his big eyes that seems to sparkle every time.

You snapped out of your daze and thanked him for his birthday wish.

“Wow, I’ve never gotten a birthday wish from a complete stranger before” you smiled.

He stuck his hand out and said “I’m Park Chanyeol, by the way.”

His low voice is soothing yet manly, and you begin to wonder how a child-like guy like him can have such a masculine voice.

You smiled and returned the handshake and told him your name. You swore you felt electricity passing through your body and your heart was about to ignite within you, but those things only happen in lame stories, don’t they?

“Well, what are you doing here at the shopping mall alone? It’s your sixteenth birthday, isn’t it?” he asked.

Oh shoot, you completely forgot about your best friend who went to “answer nature’s call” like… fifteen minutes ago?

“Did she flush herself down the toilet or something…” you mumbled under your breath, hoping that Chanyeol didn’t hear what you just said.

He chucked, revealing his boyish smile that seemed to make you spazz inside.

At that moment, your phone vibrated.

“From: Your wonderful best friend in the whole entire universe

No way, did you just ditch me for an incredibly hot guy? Why wasn’t I this lucky on my 16^th birthday? It’s okay, go ahead. I APPROVE OF HIM (Y) You /must/ call me and tell me anything and everything about him tonight xx ”

You chuckled to your phone before keeping it in your pocket.

“My friend… left me. She had a manicure appointment to go to…” you trailed off, hoping he would buy your obvious lie.

Oh boy, was this guy naïve.

“Really? That’s a pity! Do you want to hang out with me instead?”

Scratch that, this guy is naïve and blunt.

You stared at him, wide-eyed before he continued “Oh! You have a boyfriend, don’t you? I’m so sorry.” He apologized, his eyes lingering on your left index finger.

“Boyfriend? What…. Oh. The ring? No. No way, my best friend is not my boyfriend, Chanyeol.”

He looked up and smiled at his new found friend. “Really? Wow thank goodness, I don’t want to get killed by a pretty girl’s boyfriend-” he blurted. By instinct, he covered his mouth and said “Sorry, you weren’t supposed to hear that…”

You chuckled at his child-like innocence and shook your head. “Nah it’s okay, it kind of does look like a couple ring anyway. So, where to now, Chanyeol-ssi?”

“That’s Chanyeol oppa for you,” he said, his boyish smile replaced with a smug grin.