iv. If a girl admits she likes you, know that it took every ounce of courage for her to do so.

2 Years Ago

Being a senior was scary. Not because of bullies or students that are condescending because they thought you were old, but because students were judgmental with how you looked and acted and everything was always about love.

Senior year was when I met her. She was beautiful in my eyes. Her eyes always formed crescents when she smiled or laughed, and her hair was a dark shade of brown and smelled like strawberries.

I was known as the cold city boy. Usually, my face showed no expression, and I often had little words to say. People would often whisper behind my back, saying things like “Myungsoo-sunbae is really handsome, but his cold attitude is scary. It feels like he’s judging me every time he looks at me.”

The only girl who wasn’t scared of me or thought I was as cold as an ice cube was her. I don’t know how, but she somehow saw through my facial expressions and she could read me like I was transparent. And by the second semester of senior year, I had fallen hopelessly in love with her.

“Hey, Myungsoo, what did you get for question twenty on the Calculus homework?” she asked me, tapping her pencil on the desk and staring at the paper in front of her. “You see, I was planning to do it yesterday during the study session, but then we had an essay due! It’s so unfair!”

I laughed and shook my head. “I had an essay due as well!” I pointed out and flicked her forehead lightly. “Yet I still get all my homework done. Look, there are twenty more questions to do, and if you get stuck on number twenty, skip it and move on. Hurry up and finish it, you have calculus third period, don’t you?”

“Myungsoo, you’re supposed to help me!” she whined.

“I’m tutoring you because you’re failing, not helping you cheat on homework. Sometimes I wonder whether you’ll even pass senior year. I’m really worried for you,” sighing, I returned back to reading my book.

“Harry Potter is over rated,” she said, knowing it would make me pissed. “Besides, if I fail, then you’ll fail with me, right?”

“Hey, don’t drag me down with you!”

She was a spoiled princess (and still is), everyone knew it. But I just couldn’t stop thinking about her. Although she may have been bratty and arrogant, she was the cutest to me, and her personality actually had flavor.

“Please tell me why you guys are in my house?” I groaned at the sight of my six closest friends sprawled all over the living room, eating chips and playing games. “And who the hell even invited all of you in?”

“Guy talk!” Sungyeol said simply, munching on a bag of my favorite chips.

I grabbed the bag of chips from his hands and let out a large sigh, “Alright, everyone, get out!”

They all looked at me instantly and gave me puppy dog eyes.

“W-what? You think that will get you anywhere?” I stuttered, avoiding their eyes.

They continued to stare at me with large eyes.

“Fine! Stay!” I groaned, giving in to the innocent, sad looks on their faces. “Just tell me, what do you guys want?”

“We came here to talk about your love life!” Sungjong appeared by my side suddenly and poked my cheek lightly.

“What love life? You guys should know best that I have practically no love life!” I stuttered and glared at all of them.

“Practically,” they remarked, smirking knowingly at me.

Oh god. Please no. Just no. No. No. No. No. No. God help me, I thought helplessly. If they knew that I liked her, oh god, I would be bombarded with questions.

“We know who you like, and we think she likes you back,” Sunggyu said, staring at me to watch my reaction.

“And just to make you feel better, we fully support your new relationship!” they smiled brightly.

“Someone, help me,” I muttered.

As I sat down in my seat, I spotted a folded paper in my seat. I picked it up and inspected it. On the front, it read ‘To: Kim Myungsoo’ along with a heart next to my name. What an awkward place to put a heart, I thought. And that, my friends, was my first love letter.

Myungsoo,

Meet me at the park after school. I have something to say to you.

And that was the only thing it said after I unfolded the letter. But I was thoroughly confused. Meet at the park? What did this anonymous person have to say to me? Is she (or he) going to confess? What was I going to say?

When I arrived at the park, it was practically vacant other than the girl sitting at the bench. I began walking toward the girl, curious as to whether she was the one who left me to not. And that was when she stood up from the bench and walked cautiously toward me.

It was her.

“Kim Myungsoo, I like you,” she said, taking a deep breath and keeping her eyes shut while she said the five words.

I stared at her in shock. I hadn’t planned for the person to be her. I couldn’t say anything, I was frozen and I didn’t know what to do or say.

“That is all,” she said with authority before walking away.

Still shocked, I stood in my place and watched her leave.

“You’re a complete idiot!”

I sat on my knees and winced at the almost shrill tone to her voice. Im Haneul, she wasn’t the best person to hang around because of her background, but she was as loyal as a guard dog. Her loyalty and mother instincts were almost creepy.

“How could you just stand there? Don’t you like her back? Why are all guys completely retarded?”

“Just because you’re her best friend doesn’t mean that after I “accidentally break her heart” you can treat me like ! I said I didn’t mean to, I was shocked, wouldn’t you be shocked if Woohyun confessed to you?” the atmosphere became so tense that you could cut it with a knife.

“Kim Myungsoo.”

“Im Haneul.”

“You fool, it took her three months for her to finally gain the courage to confess to you, but what did you do? You gave her no reply. You could have said “sorry” or something if you didn’t want to date her,” she crossed her arms and glared at me.

“I said I was sorry, didn’t I?” I frowned.

“Yeah, you said you were sorry to me. Go say sorry to her,” Haneul pointed to the classroom down the hall that she was in.

“I’m not going to say sorry to her,” frowning, I courageously spoke back to the she-devil.

“What?”

I took a deep breath and looked at her best friend straight in the eye, “I’m going to confess to her.”

A small smile appeared on Haneul’s face and she began laughing.

“You both are a pair of idiots.”

“Why are we doing this again?” Sungyeol held the party popper in his hand as he sat behind the bush.

“I’m going to confess to her, that’s why,” I replied, blushing furiously when the other guys began hooting and hollering.

“Well then, we have to make this the best then, don’t we?” Dongwoo winked and passed me a large bouquet of pink roses to me.

I smiled brightly and the guys all situated themselves behind a bush to watch the scene of my confession, “Thanks, guys.”

She appeared from around the corner of the school. Startled by her appearance I quickly hid the bouquet behind my back and stood in the school garden stiffly.

“Myungsoo?” she tilted her head to the side, her puffy eyes making me feel guilty.

I held the bouquet out in front of me and looked down, blushing, “I’m sorry for what happened yesterday. The truth is, I like you as well. So, will you go out with me?”

It was silent. 

I peeked up at her through my fringe. She smiled at me sweetly and took the bouquet out of my hands.

She smelled the roses and smirked, “I’ll think about it.”

“Wait, what?”

-§-

And the two of us are still together, even after two whole years.