It had been a while since I was last in a relationship. I had kept my distance from boys, to be honest. In my limited experience, relationships generally led to nowhere. I was tired of dating these boys and expecting something that would never happen. I actually didn't even believe in love. I know that people usually say that I'm too young to say things like that, but like I said, I've had experience. I've dated long term, I've dated casually and I've never found any potential in anyone. Besides, love was a giant waste of time. Love made people do stupid things.

Lately I had been focusing on my career anyway. My schedule had been filled with meetings and preparation for the next big step toward the future I wanted for myself. I didn't need or want a distarction at the moment. I was perfectly content with my life. People thought I would get lonely, but they were wrong. I had great friends who were always there for me. Whether I needed a shoulder to lean on, or to just go out and have a good time. They were always there and I appreciated it more than they knew.

I had made a new friend, GD. We got off on the wrong foot at first. Despite his objections, I know that the first time we met he was hitting on me. I think I bruised his ego a bit. though he denies he was hitting on me. Everything in his stance and way of speaking screamed flirting and he knows it. After a small arguement on whether or not I knew what hitting on someone looked like, we hit it off. As friends that is. I've known GD for about 3 months now. He had easily become one of the people I leaned on the most. He was always there when I needed to talk to someone and he always knew how to make me smile. I loved him for that. When we went out, he would give me the space I needed when I saw a guy I was interested in, but he would also play the boyfriend role when I needed to deter the losers and I would do the same for him.

It was actually funny how close we had become in such a short time. Everyone who saw us together would swear we were dating, but we would always set them straight. Today was no exception. I was waiting for GD in the lobby of my office building and SeungHyun, a mutual friend of ours, stops to ask, "Waiting for GD, hm?"

"Yes, how did you know?", I asked knowing that it wasn't that hard to figure out.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you two are constantly together. Just get married already! Geez!", he joked.

"Ha. Ha. You know that we're just friends. I don't know why everyone is so intent ono us becoming more than friends."

"Well, if you guys didn't act like such a couple when you were together, people wouldn't be so intent. Just something to think about. I'll see you later. Tell GD I said hi."

We finished saying our goodbye's and he was gone. I sat there staring into space thinking about what he had just said. We don't act like a couple when we're together, do we? I mean, I know that we are very close, but that doesn't mean anything. Maybe we should spend some time apart? No. I couldn't handle that. Why torture myself when I know what is really going on. Which is absolutely nothing. I was lost in my thoughts and didn't notice that GD had arrived.

"Helloooo~ earth to Eve!!!", GD said loudly waving his arms around in front of me.

I quickly shook my head of the ridiculous thoughts swimming in my head and snapped to attention.

"Oh! Hey! Sorry. I was off in la-la land I guess.", I said with a slight blush and GD chuckled.

"I can see that. You ready to go? It's my turn to pick what we do today, so get ready for the best date you've ever been on!", he said excitedly and I tensed up at the word 'date'.

"Uh, it's not really a date...", I said feeling stupid for letting SeungHyun's words get to me.

"Eve, are you okay? You know what I meant. We could do it another day if you're not in the mood.", GD said looking at me with so much concern in his eyes, my heart sped up it's beating.

"No, no. I know what you meant. Sorry. I don't know where my mind is. Let's do it. I'm ready for whatever obnoxious day you've planned for us.", I said with a giggle and he laughed with me.

We got into GD's car and sped away from the building. He wouldn't tell me where we were going and I was getting annoyed. We were driving for a little over an hour and I was getting restless. I didn't mind long drives, but I did mind surprises. I hated getting caught too off guard, but I was with GD and I trusted him completely. Soon I saw from afar a ferris wheel and a couple of roller coasters and I laughed. Of course he would choose to come here. He was such a giant kid at heart. He looked over at me and smiled, knowing what I was thinking. We parked the car and walked to the ticket booth where he got us two tickets. I tried to pay for my own, but he told me it was his day and we were doing it his way. I couldn't help but feel as if this were a real date, but I quickly reminded myself that we were just friends and that love ruined things. Not that we were in love, but you know what I mean.

When we walked in, we automatically went to the games. We were both very competitive so we wanted to be the one to win the stuffed animal for the other. We would nudge eachother or block the others view, anything to be the winner. We were both so into making the other lose that we both ended up losing to other people that we hadn't realized were even playing with us. It was as if we were in our own world and nobody else really mattered. I left GD to go get some cotton candy and was looking around to see which ride I wanted to get on when I felt a pair of arms wrap around me from behind. I squealed and started trying to wriggle out of the grip, until I heard that laugh I knew so well.

"Ugh! GD! You scared me!", I whined.

"Why? Did you think some stranger was giving you a back hug?", he laughed.

"Duh! Why else would I scream. I don't care if you hug me, but there would be a problem if a stranger did it.", I said stating the obvious.

"Fine, then I'll stay like this all day so no strangers will hug you, okay? Now give me some cotton candy.", he said jokingly and opened his mouth, ready for some cotton candy.

His words made my heart skip a beat and I froze, before composing myself and feeding him some cotton candy. Staying true to his words, he back hugged me all the way to the ferris wheel and only let go when we had to get on. I got in first and he got in right next to me, but his face looked a little off.

"GD, are you okay?", I asked him worriedly.

"Yeaaaa. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?", he said weirdly and gripped tightly onto the bar in front of us.

"GD, are you scared of-", I started to ask but was cut off.

"No. I'm not scared, Eve.", he scoffed and I rolled my eyes at his macho man act.

"What ever you say, GD."

"Oh, I wanted to talk to you about my name."

"Your name?", I asked him confused, certain the fear had taken over his mind.

"You know that GD isn't my real name right?"

"Well, I always figured it was short for something..."

"I want you to call me by my actual name. It's Jiyong. I mean, we're close enough. You should know my real name."

"Jiyong? I like it.", I said with a smile.

Soon the ride was over and he practically jumped off of the ride and I laughed. He walked in front of me and I ran behind him to give him a back hug and he leaned back on me.

"Thank you, GD. I mean, Jiyong. That'll get some getting used to.", I giggled. "How come I've never heard anyone call you Jiyong?"

I thought it was strange that i had never heard anyone call him by his actual name.

"I don't know.", he said with a shrug.

I was going to get into it some more, when he suddenly pulled away from me and ran toward the roller coaster. I laughed and followed him. We had fun. We rode most of the rides and had eaten so much food, we felt sick. All too soon the park was starting to close and we had to head home. As we got into the car I couldn't help but think back on the day and back to what SeungHyu had said about us and I realized he was right. To anyone who didn't know us, we didn't look like just friends. We looked like a couple who were in love with one another. My stomach clenched at the thought, because he was GD. Well, now he was Jiyong and somehow him sharing his real name with me, made me realize that I was open to being more than friends with him. Maybe there was a chance we could make it work, because no matter how I tried to hide it, I was in love with him, but where did he stand on this?

Today had been great and he had shared things with me, but he could have still seen me as his friend. As his best friend. He knew where I stood on the subject of love and I'm sure he remembers the night we first met. Like I said, love makes people do stupid things and I didn't want anything to ruin what we had. For the nth time today, I was completely lost in my own thoughts and was completely oblivious to the fact that we were at my house and that Jiyong was holding my door open, until he coughed. I snapped out of it and got out of the car. I was about to say goodbye, when he insisted he walk me to my door. When we got to my door, I wanted things to be normal, but there was something different in the air and I decided this was it. This was the make it or break it of our friendship. I in a deep breath to confess when he started talking first.

"Eve, just listen to me full out before you say anything, okay?", he asked and I just nodded my head. "I know where you stand on the idea of love and I have tried and tried to respect your opinion, but I can't. I think it's ridiculous. I don't know if you're trying to protect yourself or what, but I want you to know that I've been attracted to you from the first time I saw you. I know I said I wasn't hitting on you, but I was totally trying to. I love that you called me on it because we've become great friends. You're my best friend, only I want things to get more serious between us. I want to stay best friends, but I also want to be your boyfriend. I want to be able to thank strangers who think we're dating instead of having to correct them. When I told you my real name earlier, I did it to show you that I want there to be nothing between us that the other doesn't know. Eve, I love you. There, it's out there. Go ahead."

I stood there, in awe. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. Tears fell from my eyes without me even realizing and I couldn't say anything.

"Eve, don't cry. Don't worry, we can stay friends. Don't cry. Don't cry. I'm so stupid, I shouldn't have said anything. I'm sorry.", he said wiping my tears away.

"Jiyong,", I said and waited for him to look at me. "I love you, too."

And that was all that needed to be said. He quickly closed the space between us and his lips were on mine, for the sweetest kiss I have ever had. It was then that I realized that love always seemed like a waste of time because I had never found the right person and now that I had found him, it didn't seem so dumb and far fetched. I knew from the moment that his lips touched mine that Jiyong and I would be fine. We would be more than fine. We would be happy.

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written by: sam

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