He had known her forever, or it seemed that way.  It happens when you live next door to each other since you were toddlers.  They were best friends.  Sometime in high school, she changed.   She because quiet, withdrawn, and no matter how hard Taemin tried to make her laugh with his outrageous cute acts, how often he bought her favorite brand of banana milk, she never smiled.   After a year of silence and sad eyes captured in photographs when they went out with friends, he got frustrated at her apathy. On the long walk back to her house he finally grabbed her, shaking until her hair flew in every direction.   “Snap out of it, idiot!  What is your problem?!?”

“Why do you care?” she yelled back, shocking Taemin into a brief silence.  He opened his mouth to reply but she cut him off,   “It’s because I like you, like A LOT, and I know that you just like me as a friend, and I don’t want to mess that up, or make you feel awkward, and God, now I’m babbling and it’s  ALL YOUR FAULT!”

Taemin stood there, hands clamping down on her shoulders once again as he gave her another shake, gentler this time.   “I care because when you smile, I absolutely love you.”