“You should go ask her out,” Sandeul’s best friend, Minhyuk said, pushing Sandeul along the path to go talk to Lila who was sitting over with her friend under the shade of the tree. It looked like they were intently talking and Sandeul didn’t want to bother them, and he also didn’t want to ask her out. He was worried about what she would say. Would she end up rejecting him? Would they end up having a loving relationship? Sandeul was uncertain and he was happy staying in that uncertainty no matter how much it hurt.

            “No,” Sandeul said objecting and moving away from Minhyuk, otherwise he would’ve kept pushing him until he smacked himself with the tree that Lila was under with Mir. Sandeul felt jealous at the thought of Lila and Mir together. He knew that the two claimed that they were only friends, but in the relationship world, only friends could mean anything.

            “Why not? You’ve liked her for the longest time. She’s a year younger, what’s the worst thing that could happen?” he asked.

            Sandeul didn’t know the answer to that question; he only knew that he didn’t want to ask her out. He was supposed to be the cool one since he was a year older, but he turned into an idiot whenever he was around Lila. It just happened that way; he would turn into a bumbling mess always talking about useless things. When Minhyuk would see that Sandeul would start to get that way, he would always start intervening and bring Sandeul away before he could make a bad impression on Lila.

            “Let’s do it another day,” Sandeul said walking away and grabbing Minhyuk by his tie. “Class is going to start soon.”

            “Of course,” Minhyuk said rolling his eyes and giving up on the fight temporarily. He didn’t need Sandeul to freak out, it was only the morning and Minhyuk didn’t want to see what would happen if Sandeul was embarrassed and flustered for the rest of the day. Minhyuk already had enough problems when Sandeul was embarrassed and flustered for barely a half an hour and he surely didn’t want to experiment on an even longer time than that.

“Why don’t you just go talk to him?” Mir suggested to Lila.

            “No thanks,” Lila said halfway chuckling as she thought about it. Mir was her good guy friend that she grew up with ever since she was younger. They were next door neighbors and their mothers were good friends with one another, it was a natural friendship despite the age difference between them. Lila never had feelings for Mir, but the same thing couldn’t have been said the other way around.

            “Why not? You like him, go confess,” Mir said as he attempted to pick Lila up off of the ground.

            “A girl confessing, that’s just weird,” Lila said shaking her head at the thought.

            “Hey, I’ve had it happen to me before,” Mir said attempting to defend himself.

            “Of course you have.”

            “I’m being serious, Lila.”

            “And I understand your seriousness,” she said attempting to stifle her laughter from coming out. “But I don’t think confessing to him will solve anything. How do I even know that he’ll accept?”

            “Who wouldn’t accept?” Mir seriously asked. He liked Lila for a while, but Lila had also liked Sandeul for a while and Mir didn’t want to do anything to be in the middle of something that could possibly make her happy. Like a good friend, Mir wanted what was best for her, no matter what his own feelings said.

            “You,” Lila attempted to joke, but only earned a bitter laugh out of Mir that she couldn’t detect.

            “Yea, me,” Mir said as he looked off to the side and pretended to look at his watch. “Well, look at the time, I should get going. We’ll catch up later Lila, alright?”

            “Okay,” Lila said waving to Mir as she watched him disappear before she continued the way to her class.

            Mir was two years older than she was and Sandeul was only one, even so, she didn’t have any classes with either of them due to the age difference. Although, she did hope to have more classes with Mir than with Sandeul, even if Sandeul was the one that she liked. Lila figured that if she had classes with Mir, things would be less awkward than with Sandeul, but because of the age difference, things didn’t work out that easily.

            The days’ classes passed easily and within no time, Lila was able to meet up with Mir again by the outside gate. “So, I’m guessing no improvements throughout the day?” Mir asked as he crossed his hands over his chest.

            “Why would there be?” Lila pouted. She wasn’t in any classes with Sandeul so there was really no way that they’d be together with one another in any circumstance.

            “I don’t know, maybe he decided to do something first?” Mir asked as he came dangerously close to Lila’s face but quickly retreated after feeling his own heart beating faster than he originally expected.

            “Is there something wrong with you?” Lila asked upon seeing Mir’s sudden behavior.

            “No,” Mir said shaking his head. “Anyway, we should get you and Sandeul set up and squared away for a happy relationship.”

            “I don’t even know if he likes me, though.”

            “Hey, what guy wouldn’t like you?” Mir asked once again. “Plus, I heard from some of his friends that are in my grade that he actually really likes you, too.”

            “What?” Lila practically yelled in disbelief causing some of the other students to look at her in confusion as they left the school. She and Mir quickly ran away from the school in order to have the talk that they were about to have in private. “What are you talking about?” Lila asked again once she made sure that they were a good distance away from where people could overhear them.

            “I said that I heard his friends talking about how hopelessly in love your precious Sandeul is.”

            “But how are you even sure that they’re talking about me?”

            “Because I heard your name,” Mir said hoping that that would be enough to show Lila that Sandeul actually liked her the same way.

            “Just because you heard my name doesn’t mean anything.” Lila wanted to accept the fact that Sandeul could possibly like her, but she didn’t want to so easily. She figured that there was a possibility that Mir just heard her name in the confusion of the conversation or maybe he just heard another part of the conversation that he thought he heard. Lila just didn’t want to admit to the fact that Sandeul liked her too, no matter how much it would make her happy.

            “Sure it doesn’t,” Mir said sighing in defeat. He knew that there was really no way that he was going to be able to convince Lila that Sandeul liked her in the same way that she liked him. For now, he decided to give up. “Let’s just go back home.”

            “Alright,” Lila said agreeing with that idea.

“Hey, go prepare something,” Minhyuk said practically pushing Sandeul towards Lila once again while she was talking with Mir.

            “Nah,” Sandeul said shaking his head at the sight. He didn’t know that Lila and Mir were only friends. Sandeul believed that Lila and Mir had some sort of chemistry going on between them and thought that they were on the verge of becoming boyfriend and girlfriend with each other. Sandeul didn’t know any differently. “I don’t even know what you want me to prepare.”

            “A confession you idiot,” he said hitting Sandeul on his head.

            “Why are you hitting me?” Sandeul complained as he began massaging the injured part.

            “Because you’re not confessing your undying love!”

            Sandeul rolled his eyes as he began walking away from Minhyuk. He didn’t want to have to deal with that at the end of the school. Not only that, but just seeing Lila and Mir together made his heart break a little. They seemed so close to one another. Sandeul just hoped that that would be him at least once in the future.

            As Sandeul walked home, he kicked a stone along the sidewalk. Minhyuk had gone his own separate way to his house while Sandeul was going back to his. He had nothing planned for the rest of the afternoon and figured that being lazy would suffice enough to be called a productive afternoon.

“Hey, let me take you out tonight,” Mir said as he and Lila neared their homes.

            “You want to hang out together?” Lila curiously asked.

            “Yea,” Mir softly said. He figured that Lila would’ve misinterpreted the meaning, but it didn’t bother him as much anymore. Slowly, he got used to the fact that Lila would probably never return the feelings that he had for her, but since graduation was nearing for him with every passing day, Mir figured that it was either now or never that he was going to get a chance to express his feelings for Lila. Mir wasn’t expecting much as Lila’s response, he only wanted to get it out in the open. After all, he was graduating soon and he was leaving sooner than expected.

            “Oh, okay,” Lila happily said, although she thought that their plans were just going to always be like normal. “What do you want to do tonight?”

            “How about we go to the playground that we used to play together in as children?” Mir suggested. “We could play there again.”

            “Okay,” Lila said thinking about the idea. She liked the thought about just playing around with Mir again like they were children; it was one of the happiest times of her life. She liked having Mir by her side.

            “Well, I’ll be outside of your house tonight at eight and we can go together, alright?”

            “Alright, bye.”

            “Bye,” Mir said watching Lila go into her house before walking one house down and entering his own. His heart was racing, but he knew that he couldn’t expect much because his hopes would only be brought down. There was no way that Lila would accept his feelings, he just knew that it wasn’t there.

            Before either of them realized it, eight had already approached and Mir was waiting outside of Lila’s front porch as Lila emerged from inside of her house. “Ready to go?” Lila asked as she bounced down the stairs.

            “Of course,” Mir said offering his arm for Lila to take. Graciously, Lila slipped her hand through his arm as they began taking the somewhat short path to the park.

            The park held many memories for Mir and Lila, like any park would for any other little child. They spent countless hours there together just playing and talking. Even after the age to be playing in a park, they still went there frequently. When Mir would be having girlfriend problems or Lila would be having other boy crushes problems, they would find safety in the park and end up there together no matter what the time or weather. Leaving the park was something big for Mir, but he had been preparing for the moment to come.

            “Wah, I remember this,” Lila said going over to the swings and immediately swinging. “It was my favorite.”

            “Yea,” Mir said as a smile came to his face just by watching how happy Lila was while she was playing in the park. After a while, Mir took a seat next to her and slowly began swinging.

            “Oppa, is there something wrong?” Lila asked looking at Mir quizzically. Normally he would be the one having the most fun at the park, no matter his age, but Lila detected that something was wrong with Mir. He wouldn’t just settle for the swings, he’d be running all over the park, especially at a time when there was no one there.

            “Listen, Lila…I want you to know something, alright?” Mir asked turning serious and facing Lila.

            “Oh, okay,” Lila said taken a bit aback by Mir’s sudden behavior change. “What is it?”

            “I like you,” Mir suddenly blurted out. “I like you and I’ve liked you for the longest time. I’m not expecting anything in return…I know that you don’t return my feelings, you like Sandeul instead, but I’m just telling you that I like you and I’ve liked you for quite a while now.”

            “Oppa,” Lila began. She didn’t know what to say, she didn’t know what to do. Her best friend of all of those years was suddenly confessing his love towards her. A little sliver of her was happy, but the rest was met with confusion about the entire situation and what she should do.

            “No, you don’t need to say anything,” Mir said in his best attempt to not have Lila talk while he had the courage to say the words to her. “I’m just saying…I like you. I wanted to tell you once before I left.”

            “Left? You’re leaving? But graduation isn’t for a little while.”

            “I’m leaving before graduation, I’ll come back for it, but I’m leaving before it.”

            “Leaving where?”

            “Seoul,” Mir simply said. “I want to explore Seoul.”

            “Is that why you brought me to the park?” Lila asked as the pieces began fitting together.

            “It is,” Mir said nodding his head. “It’s our last night together. I leave tomorrow.”

            “Why didn’t you tell me?” Lila asked as tears began welling in her eyes. She felt hurt that the person who stood by her side the entire time wouldn’t be able to tell her that he was leaving for the city the next day. That was it, Lila wouldn’t be able to see him anymore.

           “Because I’d knew you cry,” Mir said as he knelt down in front of Lila and began wiping her tears. “I’ll be back, I promise, alright? Let’s go back home.” Mir extended his hand for Lila to take, but Lila only stared at it.

            “I think…I think I’d rather stay here for a couple of more minutes.”

            “But you’re a girl, and it’s dark,” Mir attempted to reason, but he knew that it’d be no use.

            “It’s alright, I’m a strong girl, oppa,” Lila said attempting to put on a strong front.

            “Of course you are,” Mir said with a light chuckle. “Remember, if you need anything, just call me and I’ll come running to get you. I’ll even take a plane if I have to from Seoul, alright?”

            “Alright, what time do you leave tomorrow?”

            “Tomorrow morning.”

            “I’ll send you off,” Lila said as she wiped her tears and attempted a smile. “Bye, oppa.”

            “See you tomorrow, Lila,” Mir said waving before he left the park.

            Lila stayed for a couple of more minutes in the park until she felt like it was a good time to go home. She didn’t want her mother asking questions about why she was crying, she didn’t want to explain Mir’s sudden decision to depart towards Seoul since that would only bring up more tears.

            As Lila was getting up off the swing and getting ready to leave, she suddenly felt a pair of arms around her waist and a voice whisper in her ear. “Gotcha.”

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What happened to Lila in the park? Will Mir ever come back? Will Lila and Sandeul ever manage to confess to one another?

I bet you know the answer to most of them, haha. But here's Part I of the past. There might be two more parts considering the flow of this one, there probably will be two other ones. One about the confession and the beginning part of the relationship and then another one about the break up portion. Who knows, in the break up portion you might find out why Sandeul left Lila in the first place. Hmm...

But anyway, here's Chapter 12. Hope you enjoyed :D

And sorry for not updating very frequently...college life, haha. But it's Friday!!! I'm going home this weekend!!! Now off to my next class. Yes, this is written in between classes in the morning after an exam that happened at 8:00. It's like 9:36 and I have one at 10:00. Did I mention that I go to college in the city?