SANDARA POV

I was lying in bed at my old room pondering all about this when Ma entered and sat on my bed.

“Sandara, I know you are confused. But I hope what I am going to tell you now will help you and I hope this remains a secret between us.”

“When I was in high school I fell in love with Jiyong’s father only he didn’t know. He was always the best at everything in school and your father and I stood behind his shadow. He was like an unattainable star to me. He was the perfect guy. I felt that he could never love me back. I spent more time with your father who was always there. He wasn’t perfect but he was real. I grew to love him. I was conflicted who I really loved so I asked your grandma for advice. She told me: if you really loved the first one then why would you be conflicted with a second one?  I thought hard about this and I realized I truly loved your father and up to now I have never regretted my decision.” My mother finished and left.

Oh dear! I never knew our parents’ lovelives were that twisted.

AUTHOR POV

That night Sandara was still deciding what to do next. She took out the Peter Pan book Jiyong gave her and scanned it. The writing on the inside cover said:

Ssantoki ♥ Jiyong

She remembered writing it after vowing to find the boy who took her first kiss and her young heart. She had always imagined herself to end up with him. He was her ideal guy.

She scanned the rest of the book to see the little drawings and caricatures on the borders of the pages she loved then.  Even without having contact with the boy, she felt she knew him because of those sketches.

“They were all Jiyong’s work” she realized.

A note fell which she read.

Sandara,

Do you still remember what you told me about destiny and fate? I believe we met because of the latter.

Saranghae

                                                                                                                        Jiyong

She made up her mind and bid her parents goodbye as she left.

JIYONG POV

I was standing outside her apartment door, about to go away after waiting for a long time when suddenly she came.

“Mianhe, I was not the one you met all those years ago and I am sorry for not telling you the truth way before, I thought it wouldn’t matter. I did not plan to fall in love with you then but I did.  When we broke up I found out you loved me because you thought I was my brother and it hurt me.  But I love you too much so I told myself that if I saw you again I wanted you to love me for me not the memory of my brother whom you thought was me.”

“I could not be jealous of you for loving my brother in the past but I want you to know it is your present and future I want to be a part of.”

SANDARA POV

“You already had me then. My past, present and future will always be yours.”

Jiyong looked confused.

I stood in front of him and I showed him the inside cover of the book.

Ssantoki ♥ Jiyong

“I have been in love with you without the both of us knowing” I said and gazed into his eyes letting him see into my soul.

“You may not be the first, but all my kisses from now on are yours.” I said as I closed the distance between us and sealed our fate with a kiss.

Jiyong was right. It was fate that brought us together. We really had no choice. What with the tangled mess of our lives, making our hearts and souls forever entwined.