Love is the greatest thing we could have in our lives. Like any other teenager, sixteen-year-old Park ShiAe was curious about love and relationships. Everytime she saw her older sister Park Bom and her boyfriend Seunghyun, different questions ran through her mind — What's the feeling of a girl being cared for by a boy? Why do they need one another? What do they share in their intimate moments? Is it really wonderful to have someone beside you and give you inspiration for living? How ShiAe wished she could have a boyfriend too.

One morning, while sitting on the swing in their garden doing her assignments, ShiAe spotted a cute boy across the street. Ooh, the new neighbor, she thought. He looks cool.

His name is Junsu, Kim Junsu. He' s 16 years old. He was wearing a white T-shirt that accentuated his broad shoulders. he was fixing the front lawn of his house, arranging the flower pots his mother handed out to him. ShiAe found out his name when she heard his mother called him.

She wanted to concentrate on her assignments but she couldn't resist looking back to Junsu. He is still fixing the pots, but now a younger guy was with him. His younger brother perhaps, ShiAe thought.

Junsu caught her looking at him. He waved and smiled. "Hi, ShiAe," he said.

Over-confident, she thought. She did not return his smile. How did this guy know my name when they had only moved yesterday?

She saw Junsu approach, one hand behind his back. As he got closer, she felt her fingers and toes get cold. She could feel her heart beat faster.

Junsu whipped out a red rose. "For you, ShiAe. I'm Junsu."

Their eyes met. A feeling she couldn't describe wrapped her whole being. Her hand tentatively reached out to accept the red flower.

"Do you love flowers, ShiAe? My mom adores them, just look at our yard," he proudly said.

"Y-Yes, I love them, too," she uttered, nervously.

"I'm glad to have met you, ShiAe. See you later. I have to finish fixing mom's flowers." As he walked away, he blew her a kiss, "Mwaaahhh!"

"I'll be back later, ShiAe. Let's talk some more, okay? I want to get to know you better," he said.

She didn't say anything. She looked at Junsu, wondering why he acted that way. Not shy and felt comfortable with me. Aish! So confident of himself, she thought.

"Ayiee!" Bom said, tickling ShiAe.

"Bommie-unnie, please!" ShiAe said, backing away from Bom's finger.

"Why? He's cute," said Bom.

"Who cares?"

"Befriend him, sister dear, so that someone could help you on your assignments," she joked.

"Aish! Bommie-unnie, he's just so sure of himself, so confident, you know?"

"Other guys are just like that, ShiAe. Anyway, he's nice and hard-working!"

She didn't like the way her older sister kept on talking about Junsu. She didn't want to hear anything good about him either.

"Isn't Seunghyun waiting for you?" Aren't you watching a movie with him?" ShiAe asked her sister.

"Oh, yeah!" said her sister. Bom slung her bag over her shoulder and quickly left.

ShiAe had no intention of getting to know Junsu. She even left the rose he gave her on the swing.

Her neighbor Yuna found Junsu cute. She tried to convince ShiAe that Junsu was different from all the other boys. They found out that he was an honor student in his school. Coupled with his looks, any girl would want to befriend him, or so Yuna said.

But what kept running trough ShiAe's mind was that Junsu was so over-confident! She didn't want an attention-seeker. In fact, ShiAe wanted to get rid of him. She avoided sitting on the swing. Whenever she was on the store and Junsu would walk in, ShiAe would immediately walk out. She hoped that Junsu was not dumb enough to get her hints.

One afternoon, ShiAe was walking home after class whena heavy rain fell. She was not able to bring an umbrella and she was afraid to get her things wet.

To her astonishment, Junsu came behind, panting. "Here, ShiAe, use this," he said. he opened the umbrella he brought and gave it to her.

She didn't know what to do.

"Take it, you're getting wet."

She had no choice, but to accept.

"What about you?" She noticed that he had only brought one umbrella.

"I'll share this umbrella with you, is that ok?"

Oh my Gosh! she thought. She didn't like the idea of sharing. She didn't want him near her.

"Go ahead, it's ok, I'll just run through the rain," he said when he noticed the look on her face.

"No, Junsu," she offered, "Here." ShiAe moved the umbrella to give Junsu some shade.

"Thanks. Let's hurry, the rain is getting stronger," he said. He offered to carry her things.

They walked quickly, and sometimes theri bodies would bump each other. She hadn't noticed that Junsu had put one arm around her shoulders.

"Come closer, ShiAe, you'll get wet."

Junsu brought her to the front door of her house, gave back her things and bid her goodbye.

"You couldn't sleep after 'that', huh?" Yuna teased. She looked at ShiAe's face and smiled. ShiAe had a glow in her eyes, an aura of being -

"- in love?" Yuna asked, smiling.

"No!" denied ShiAe.

"However much you deny it, my friend, I know you're in love with Junsu. You seem to look beautiful each day. You're practically blooming!"

"Aish! You're just like Bommie-unnie. You always tease me," said ShiAe, pretending to be mad.

"Is he courting you?"

ShiAe nodded.

"I think Junsu is in love with you, ShiAe."

"How do you know? Did he tell you?"

"I saw him drawing your face on his sketch pad. Twice!"

"Really?"

"I'm not kidding!"

As the days went by, ShiAe was able to get past her first impression of Junsu, of being over-confident. Behind that exterior, she found out that he was kind and helpful, and it was a pleasure to be with him. She discovered that they had many things in common.

She accepted his proposal when he asked her to be his girlfriend. She wouldn't forget their first date, because of the way he tenderly held her hand, and how he had nervously kissed her.

ShiAe was very much in love. And if you're in love, she advised, hold on to it before it passes you by.

- THE END -