Two.

They say a person falls in love more than just once in a lifetime. You fall in love, you fall out of love.

They also say girls like me fall hard when we truly fall for someone. We get in by the powerful grasp of love and it’s so hard to crawl back out. We find ourselves lost and so very vulnerable. Our feelings, our emotions, get played and tossed around by that one guy. Yet somehow, we still love him to the core.

My mom used to always tell me that “love is never what you expect it to be”. She’d smile and I would ask, “Does love hurt?” She’d nod her head slightly and I would wait because she’d always end it with “but it’s all worth it in the end”.

I think I finally understand what she means now.

But lately, I hear girls talk about love like it’s overrated. The word in itself is overused and as a result, often neglected. They say it’s simple: you either love him or you don’t. No questions asked. No second thoughts.

Then what if it’s not all that clean and clear? What if I need to ask questions? And what if I have second thoughts? What if…

I know, I know. “follow your heart” and “only your heart will tell you the truth”, blah blah blah. Don’t give me all that crap because I know it all too well.

It’s just not that easy. It really isn’t.

------

Three weeks ago

She watched him walk across the room towards the kitchen. He tripped. She laughs.

He frowned. “Soojung, why do you always mock me?”

The amused girl laughed once more and he stopped in his tracks. Seeing that she had made him upset, she quickly covered to muffle her giggles. But her tiny crescent eyes gave her away immediately.

“I’m sorry Sehun-ah. I wasn’t really mocking you! You’re just really cute,” she said with a huge grin plastered on her face.

Then she hopped off the couch and approached him with her cheeky smirk. She carefully placed both of her pinkies on the side of his mouth and teased, “Now turn that frown upside down because you’re supposed to be getting me some ice cream!” She turned him around and gave him a slight push.

Sehun sighed. No matter how demanding and capricious Krystal was, he would always comply with her every whim. That was part of their life-long friendship. And she wasn’t a bad girl. She simply knew what she wanted in her life and was just a tiny bit spoiled. Okay, maybe a lot spoiled.

Ever since junior high, she had every guy trailing behind her. Sehun was one of them, but she usually managed to have him walk beside her, rather than follow her like a puppy. He was no dog and she would never treat him as one. He was different from the others (though Sehun was too dense to see her care for him) and Krystal appreciated that. Plus, they had known each other since they could barely rea