Kim Junmyeon had always been treated by Amber Liu like a big brother or that’s how he felt he had always been treated by her. She called him her guardian angel and always came to him for everything.  For awhile that satisfied him. She was happy and he thought that was enough for him, because when Amber was happy he was happy.

The truth of the matter was, since the beginning - when he first met the younger girl - he felt his heart thumping against his ribcage so fast, its sound threaten to drown out her little voice of introduction. He knew then that his fate had been decided. From that day onward his heart became hers.

She would always shower him with her bright dazzling smile and his heart would beat with elation.

He tried so hard to hide his feeling for her, for the most part he was able to control himself, but there were times when he couldn’t. Once, when her basketball team won the regional championship, he was bursting with joy that he – unconsciously – pulled the younger girl into an embrace and plated a kiss on her forehead.

When he realized what he had done he quickly released her. She was quickly pulled away by her teammates and friends before he could assess her reaction to what he had done.

She never brought up the incident again. Everything went back to how it was. That had always been the paradigm of their relationship. He would lose controlled of his feeling and she would never ask him why he had done it. Forgotten were the previous incidents, an infinite circle that seems to repeat itself.

Deep down inside he wanted so badly to question her, but for the fear of destroying their friendship he had always avoided it or that was the excused that he decided to use. 

However, lately Junmyeon had noticed boys paying more attention to the maturing girl and he feared that he would lose her to them. He steeled his nerved and decided to visit one of her practice session, with the intention of telling her how he really felt toward her in mind. Come what may, he told himself.

Amber, who had always been clumsy since the girl could walked, had fallen down and twisted her ankle during the practiced. He rushed to her side and now he carried on his back toward his house, which was closer to the practice court than hers.

Her face was so closed to his, her warm cheek touching his, her warm breathe brushed against his neck sending shivers down his spin. He felt the butterflies rustling inside his stomach and he – again – lost his nerves.

She tightens her arms around his neck, not too tight, but tight enough and he reacted by tightening his gripped around her thighs, “Junmyeon …” She never called him that unless she wanted to say something serious.

“Hmm?” he replied. He felt queasy.

“Don’t drop me when I say this okay?” She sounded nervous.

“Okay.” An unsettling feeling came over him.

“I …” she paused for a moment then sighed. The warm breath brushed against his ear. “I … think that I’m in love.” He almost dropped her. She let out a tiny yelped and proceeded to hit him with her hand. “I told you not to drop me!”

He felt like the ground underneath him had disappeared. He felt shattered, broken. He was too late. Someone had stolen her heart from him.

“Junmyeon?” she placed the arm that she used to him for almost dropping her back around him. Amber craned her neck, her face so close to his, so that she could look quizzically at him.

“Who is it?” He asked, unable to control the bitterness in his voice. He wanted to cry. To tell her that she can’t love anyone else but him, but that would be selfish of him and he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“I will tell you who it is only after you promise to still be my guardian angel afterward,” out of the corner of his eyes he saw her bit her lips nervously. “Promise me?”

He resigned to his fate. Whoever this guy was, as long as he made Amber happy Junmyeon was willing to step aside for him, because he wanted the one he love to be happy, even if that made him heartbroken. He nodded, “Promise.”

She let go off him and slit of off his back. She grabbed hold of his shoulders and spun him around to face her. “Remember, you promised.” Again, he nodded.

She closed her eyes for a moment, but it felt like eon for Junmyeon. When she reopened her eyes, there was a small nervous smile playing on her lips. Junmyeon braced himself for the worse.

He was shocked when the younger girl pulled him closer to her, laced her fingers behind his neck and planted her soft, warm lips on his. He was so shocked and awed by the situation that it took him a minute to register what was going on. He then proceeded to wrap his arms around her tiny waist, pulling her even closer to him, tightening his embrace so that there was no space left between the two of them.

All the emotion that he had held within him came pouring out into the kiss. When they broke apart the two of them were both breathless. His arms were still around her waist and hands were still entwined around his neck. He rested his forehead on hers. He couldn’t help but smiled when he saw the tinged of red upon her cheeks.

Bashfully, he asked her the question that was on his mind, “When?” He could see that the younger girl was embarrassed. She tried to avoid his eyes and was gnawing on her lips nervously. He placed his forefinger underneath her chin and tilted her blushing face up toward him.

“I don’t know,” she shyly muttered. “This feeling I have for you kept popping up and I kept pushing it down, but when all the girls in my team started to swoon over you I realized that I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want you to be with anyone else but me, how much selfish that might have sound, and I knew then that I was in love with you. However, I didn’t … I couldn’t risk our …”

“Friendship” he finished the sentence for her. “I know exactly what you are talking about. From the moment I met you I’ve been fighting with that feeling all along. I was so afraid that you might pull away from me if you found out that … I’m in love with you.” He smiled at her. A smile that was full of joy.

She looked at him with wide eyes, full of surprise, “You … love … me?”

He let out a deep chuckled, “Of course I love you silly. I’ve always been in love with you.”

She flashed him with her bright dazzling smile and hugged him tighter, “Me too, I love you too.”

He saw his reflection in her sparkling eyes and promised himself that he will make her the most happiness girl in the universe, because at the moment she was only looking at him and she made him the happiest man on earth.