Since I was a little kid, my height always been a problem between my friends and me. I reached over 150 cm in my elementary school days, which was pretty tall among my friends.

When I played with my friends, I always looked older than them. They often complaining when we took pictures together because they just reached the height of my shoulders; which made them look so small in the picture.

And I look like a giant.

But there is this friend, who never complains about my height since we used to play together every day during our childhood time. His name is Shin Dongho, he is actually two year younger than me. But because we already been together for 17 years since we born, we are like a same age friend. He also never use honorific when he talk to me.

At that time, our parents got close when Dongho’s parents invited me to his birthday party, which also at the exact date with mine. So our parents combined our birthday party together to make a big party.

It was Dongho’s first birthday party and my third birthday party. Even though he barely can talk, but we sang together, we cutted our big cake together―of course with mom’s help, and we ate our birthday cake together. From that moment, we always become close like this.

We even go to the same school from my elementary days until I reached high school. We are just two years apart, but our five centimeters height difference makes it like we are ten years apart.

To speak the truth, Dongho himself is already tall for his age. It’s just me who has this abnormal height. Boys naturally grow faster and taller than women, but I am one exception; I am taller than most of males in my school. When we go to school together, many people looking at us―or me― weirdly.

I often look at Dongho with my uneasy expression when people looking at us like that, but he just smiling at me with his angelic smile, telling me it’s alright with his eyes.

“Minji!” a voice calls my name from behind. I look behind me and find my seat mate in the class running toward me and Dongho while waving her hand.

I give a smile and waving back to her. “Good morning, Hyunju.”

She pants from her little run and then look up in order to see my face. This is the other thing I hate from my height; people must look up and tiring their neck just to talk to me. “Morning Minji! Morning Dongho!”

“Good morning, noona.” Dongho throw his cute smile that made Hyunju have a little heart attack. “I guess I will go first. See you after school Minji!” He then runs to his school that’s just three blocks apart from my school, leaving me and Hyunju.

Hyunju still looking at Dongho’s back that slowly disappear from our sight. She always admires how cute Dongho is. When we start walking to our class, Hyunju asks, “Hei Minji, just tell me, do you like him?”

“Of course I like him. Even though he never use honorific with me, but he is my childhood friend,” I simply says.

She dissatisfiedly groans at my answer. “I don’t mean that kind of ‘like’. I mean ‘like’ like a lover.”

I furrow my eyebrow; don’t understand at what she says. Probably my expression saying my thought because Hyunju start explaining what she means, “I mean, you two really close together, right? And from what I saw every day, it looks like Dongho have interest in you. Don’t you think he like you more than a friend?”

I cough at that thought Hyunju give to me. My face flushes red and suddenly I cannot speak normaly. “What are you thinking about? We are just friend!”

“I just saying my thoughts, why are you flushing red like a crab?”

***

The thought Dongho likes me still lingering at my head, making me awkward being around him right now.

Like usual, we are going home together by walking side by side and telling story. Dongho keep telling story that he experienced at the school just then, and I, who still have that weird thought, doesn’t respond much which make the atmosphere become more awkward.

Dongho seems to notice it because he keeps looking at me when there is this silence between us, probably thinking what’s wrong with me. I know he keeps looking at my expression change, but I pretend to ignore it and keep looking forward.

We are reaching the park, which is one of shortcut we take when going home. Dongho, who is still looking at me, then speak, “Are you alright?”

Dumbfounded, I answer his question nervously, “Yeah. I am alright.”

“It doesn’t look like that. Is there something happen at school?” he asks me again. Seriously, why this kid always have question prepared for everything he saw?

Because my original self is a person who cannot hold any secrets, I open my mouth and tell him everything that Hyunju told me back then at school.

After finishing my story, I let out a nervous laugh. “Hyunju always had weird thoughts, right? Ha-ha…” My laugh really sounds stupid.

Dongho just keep a silence. I look around to find something to talk about. But then Dongho suddenly saying something weird to me, “Actually, what Hyunju noona said was right.”

My eyes widening, and my ears don’t know whether it should believe or not believe what it hear just now. My laugh become even more stupid each second passed. “Ha-ha… you… how funny. I know it’s a joke, don’t try to fool me, ha-ha…”

Dongho don’t respond my dull laugh. Instead, he keeps looking at me. He tries his best to match his eyes with mine. I also try my best to avoiding his eyes at least until we are at 50 meters from my home.

In order to avoid his eyes and not making eye-contact, I keep looking forward to the tall building that can be seen from here. But my plan doesn’t seem to work; I still can see him looking at me from the corner of my eyes.

I have a little conflict with myself inside my head whether I should look at him or not. If I look at him, he may find my eyes trembling and that will be the most awkward moment ever. If I don’t look at him, he may find me weird and actually believes his lame joke.

But in the end, it isn’t me who make the decision; it is him who makes it. “Look at me,” he demand, still looking at me.

I try to look more natural and try to look at him as I force my eye to keep looking at the cute creature in front of me. And it’s a big fail. “Why?” I ask him with my trembling eyes and forced smile.

The time I see him, I see this serious expression which is hard to be find between his angelic smiles. The last time I saw this expression was when he studied really hard during middle school entrance exams two years ago in order to enter the same school with me. And I know this mean he is really serious right now. “Why?” I say my second ‘why’ question because he don’t respond my first question.

“Do you still think I am joking?” he asks in low voice.

“Uhm… yes―eh, no?”

“I really am being serious right now. I like you. I always like you since we were kid. I never see you as a noona, I always see you as a lady. I love it when you brightly smile over a small thing. I also hate it when you cried because of me. I always want to protect you, but you always protect me because you are older than me. Despite being tall, you have tons of good points which only me who can see it.”

Dongho stops for a while to catch a breath and I took this opportunity to speak, “But… having relationship with middle scholar is rather… well… you know, , height gap, there are many gaps between us. There are many cute girls out there; you don’t need to choose an old hag like me, right?”

He cut me off, “Maybe you don’t know how much effort I put to reach my current height right now. I drink milk when I have my breakfast, when I have my lunch in school, and before sleep. I also go to the pool every weekend to swim so I will grow taller fast.”

Dongho stops for a while, hesitating. “About our age… I know I am still in middle school and you are in high school. I cannot do anything about it. But you maybe already notice it since you ask me about it over and over again the reason I change my appearance. I will tell you the reason right now, I change my hairstyle so I will look cooler, I change my clothing so I will look more like grown-up, I change the way I speak and the way I act in front of people so they will not think me as a child. I already do this much...”

I gulp my saliva down while listening to his explanation. At a loss of words, I try to speak but get cut off by Dongho, “Will you become my girlfriend?”

My tongue is curling up, removing every words that’s already at the tip of tongue. He looks at my eyes with that serious face again. My eyes cannot stay calm with him staring at me. I looking everywhere but not his eyes; the ground, the sky, the street lamp…

In the end, his strong gaze forces me to look at him again. I don’t know what I am doing. It feels like there is a ghost behind me who moving my head up and down and making me nods at his ‘proposal’.

My face blushes really hard right know seeing Dongho eyes get bigger at my answer. I cover my face with both of my hand while Dongho keep asking, “Really? Really?” dozens of times.

After I calm myself down, I face him with a smile. “But…”

“But?” he repeats my word.

“But, to be having a title as ‘Minji’s Boyfriend’, you must grow taller than me. I will never admit you as my boyfriend before you at least reach my height,” I naughtily say.

“Don’t worry; I will grow taller than you within a month!” He say jokingly.

“So you aren’t my boyfriend until then.”

“Yah! You mean!”

***

Dear diary,

I reach 172.8 cm today. I need more five cm. I guess waiting and keep trying five more months isn’t a bad thing after all^^ Minji said she will become my girlfriend if I am tall enough for her. Isn’t that a ‘yes’? I just need to keep working on my height ^^

5 August

Soon-will-be-Minji’s boyfriend,

Shin Dongho

***

~THE END~

Err… it isn’t that bad right? ^^’ *nervous*

Thank you for reading~! :D

Poster and background credits to: Lumière Shop — graphic & review shop