“You need to be faster to catch me oppa!” your little nine year old self yelled as you ran around and in between the tall trees. You looked back to see one of your best friend’s Chanyeol running right on your tail, trying his best to catch up to you. As you continued to run, you reached the end of the forest of trees seeing your mother and Chanyeol’s mother sitting on the park bench chatting. You then looked behind you, not finding Chanyeol anywhere near you. You laughed, assuming he gave up, or he was hiding from you. Just as you turned your head around back to where your body was facing, Chanyeol appeared yelling ‘Boo!’ right in your face causing you to stumble back and fall to the ground.

“Yah! I’m sorry ___-ah!” he yelled, reaching his hand out to help you get back onto your feet again. An evil smirk appeared on your face, as you grabbed onto his hand and pulled him down to the ground with you. He landed chest first on the ground making a loud thump sound, making you burst into your high pitched laughter.

“That’s not funny!” he shouted sitting up from his position and started to pout, folding his arms. You both then sat there, talking about your favourite television shows when another boy walked up to the both of you.

“C-Can I play with you guys?” the boy asked you both. He looked and seemed younger than you and Chanyeol but not by much. Out of your whole life, never did another child ask to play with you. The only friend you really had was Chanyeol. All the other girls didn’t seem to like you growing up as you would rather play in the forest and do many adventurous things instead of play with barbies. You looked to your left looking at Chanyeol to see if he wanted the other boy to join, as he gave you a big smile intending that he was eager to play with him as you were too.

“Yeah sure!” you said excitedly, making the boy grin. “What’s your name?”

“Jong-In…” he said acting a bit shy.

“I’m Chanyeol, and this is ___.” Chanyeol explained, patting the patch of grass in front of the two of you, insisting for the boy to sit down as he did. After talking to each other, you all traded information with birthdays, family members and stuff that you all enjoyed. It looked like you all enjoyed all the same things, as you continued to talk.

“It’s time to go Kai!” you heard another woman yell coming from a few feet away from you.

“Okay umma!” the younger boy yelled back, getting up from the grass.

“Oh, you can call me Kai instead. I like that better, I’ll see you tomorrow?” Kai said, smiling. You and Chanyeol nodded, as you waved goodbye to Kai and his mother.

---

Eight years later, you were in your last year of high school eager to get all of it finished and enjoy some more freedom. The bell then started to ring, meaning it was finally the end of the day. You quickly grabbed all of your books and bolted out the door and to your locker. As you were getting closer to your locker, you heard a familiar voice call you from behind. You stopped in your tracks, looking behind you to see Kai running up to you, panting for air. You laughed and greeted him.

“Hey ___-ah, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out?” he asked, all giddy. A lot of people around you were shocked to see Kai didn’t call you noona, but since he was only a year younger and you never liked it when he called you noona ever since you were young, he was just used to calling you by your name.

“Yeah sure, your house?” you asked.

“Yep! Hurry and meet me at my locker, we’ll walk together.” he stated, already walking backwards to his locker.

“Okay!” you said, turning around, walking a faster pace towards your locker. As you got there, you noticed Chanyeol was already there, him being your locker neighbor. You quickly tried to unlock your lock, twisting and turning your finger to get the correct combination.

“In a hurry ___-ah?” Chanyeol asked in his usual deep voice, noticing your fast pace. You muttered a quick ‘yeah’ as you finally opened your locker and stuffed everything into your backpack.

“I was wondering ___-ah if you-“

“Sorry oppa, I have to meet up with Kai. I’ll text you later!” you said, cutting him off from his question, slamming your locker door shut and running in the opposite direction. Chanyeol sighed, slowly gathering all of his things into his bag, closing his locker. She’s been hanging out with Kai a lot now. Chanyeol said to himself, walking out the high school doors. As he was walking his way home, he didn’t see you or Kai walking together, so he assumed you went to his house. Every day you and Chanyeol would walk home together since you were neighbors, and most times Kai would join even if he had to walk a little farther.

Many thoughts were going through Chanyeol’s mind later that Friday night. It wasn’t a surprise to everyone at school that Chanyeol liked you, everyone thought it was obvious, and of course you would never guess it. He started to have these real feelings about you at the age of fifteen. He knew it would probably never happen of you two dating, but he always imagined it.

Chanyeol looked out his window to see if your bedroom light was on but it wasn’t, giving him the hint you weren’t home. As a kid, you and Chanyeol would chat late at night through your windows since they were right in front of each other. He started to miss the days where you two were just kids, having fun and no serious feelings were being tossed around. It wasn’t his fault that he thought you were perfect in his eyes. He then started thinking about how things started going between you, himself, and Kai. Ever since Kai entered the picture, Chanyeol noticed as you all got older that you started to act different. At first he thought it was just the process of girls going through stages, but he noticed you didn’t stop this habit. What if ___ liked Kai? That question then started to pop into his head.

“If only I had the courage to ask you out ___-ah…” Chanyeol muttered, frustrated with what to do. He sighed, and decided to go downstairs to eat something since it was already 7pm. As he was in the kitchen quickly making him a sandwich, he glanced out the window which faced the front of the house to see you and Kai standing on the side walk talking. His eyes widened, and then he ran towards the light switches and turned off the kitchen lights. He didn’t feel like he was spying on the two of you, but he didn’t want to look like he was. He then walked closer to the window, but made sure you couldn’t see him. Of course he had no clue to what you were saying, but once Kai hugged you, that set off the trigger. Yes, you and Kai have hugged before, but never in this sort of way. It looked more affectionate in Chanyeol’s eyes, which broke him.

---

The next day Chanyeol was desperate to talk to you. He thought about it all night, he wanted to express his feelings to you, it was killing him inside. He also wanted to know if you actually liked Kai that was no doubt. He tried calling your cell phone and house phone but got no answer. He thought about everywhere that you could be and decided to try the park that you and he played at. No surprise, he saw you sitting on the swing set alone, all bundled up in a jacket. He made his way over and sat on the swing beside you. You looked upset, but he didn’t do anything. Chanyeol opened his mouth about to say something, but quickly lost it. How was he going to do this?

“Um…How come you’ve been hanging out with Kai so much recently?” he asked, looking down at his feet. You shot your head up, confused with his question.

“A-Am I not allowed to?” you asked in a serious tone. Why was he asking this?

“Well…” he started, but his mind went blank, scared to continue his sentence. Your furrowed your eyebrows, annoyed by his mood. You asked your question again, wanting an answer from him.

“I don’t know ___-ah!” Chanyeol shouted, still staring at the ground. He sighed, all of a sudden feeling this anger boil up inside of him.

“You have other friends, you know that?” he said, tensing up. What was his point? You didn’t understand his sudden anger with you; of course you knew you had other friends.

“Look Chanyeol…”

“Just forget it! Go back to your best friend Kai!” Chanyeol yelled louder than before shooting off the swing and walking back to his house in the other direction. You were in shock, already feeling hot tears appear in the corner of your eyes. God, you never felt so confused.

“But…I love you.” you whispered, crying into your trembling hands. Why is it so hard to love your best friend? You never had a fight with Chanyeol, ever. You both agreed to almost everything, why did he all of a sudden have this jealousy? You couldn’t think properly, all you did was sob. You felt so hurt by his words and actions, you never meant for this to happen. You slowly stood up from the swing, but felt your legs give out on you, collapsing to the ground surrounded by wood chips. You cried harder, you ruined everything.

“___-ah.” you heard your name be called out, you covered your mouth as you turned around to see Chanyeol, looking tall as ever stand behind you. You turned your head back forwards and continued to cry. Hearing shuffles of Chanyeol’s feet, he then sat beside you wrapping his arms around you, pulling you closer to him. You didn’t bulge as he brought you closer to him; all you did was lay your head on his chest as he tried his best to comfort you.

“I’m so sorry ___-ah.” he whispered, rubbing your back.

“I love you ___-ah. Yes, as a best friend, but also so much more. I originally came over here to tell you that, but my anger towards your relationship with Kai got in the way. I don’t know if you really do like him or not, but I love you ___-ah. I want you to know that.” You sniffled, touched and relived by his words. He felt the same? You could feel more tears come, but you felt so happy. As you sat up, you started to laugh, feeling embarrassed for Chanyeol seeing your state right now.

“I-I love y-you too Yeol.” you stuttered, making his face loosen and light up.

“Seriously?” you nodded which made him give a big smile.

“I do love you Chanyeol, and I’m so happy you feel the same way…” you said, caressing his cheek.

“Yeah, I feel so relieved.” he exclaimed, making you both laugh. You both then sat still on the cold ground, holding each other.

“So, do you forgive me?” he asked, staring into your eyes. You smiled, reaching forwards and kissed him on his cheek, making you both blush.

“Of course I do.”