“Dear… The Love of My Life,

I can’t remember how I should address you. Maybe one day, I will be able to forget that I… loved you.

Signing off, 
J. Daehyun”

I penned down my last thoughts for the night and closed the leather-covered book. I put the book on my side table and took my phone that was right beside. I sighed softly as I looked at his phone for the last time. It was late, 2AM in the morning. The wallpaper was a picture of the two most important people in my life, a girl, a guy and myself. All three of us hugging and smiling warmly in front of the fireplace during our last vacation together. I ran my finger past the girl’s lips and smiled. Without noticing, I slowly drifted to sleep.

A strong smell of fried bacon woke me up slightly, and I squint my eyes when the curtains were drawn and the sunlight shot directly at me like machine gun bullets in a war zone.

“Oppa! Wake up!” I felt that hot sunray mercilessly burning through the lace curtains. I flipped to the other side of the bed and tugged the ends of my quilt and covered myself from head to toe. “Oppa! Today is the day!”

“Eunrae-ah… what… are you talking about?” I groaned under his blanket.

“Valentine’s day! It’s today!” I felt a sudden weight on top of me and jotted up immediately, part of my natural reflexes. She had done her infamous climb onto my bed and straddle over me to wake me up tactic. 

“You need to stop doing that!” I pushed her off and slammed back down under my covers.

“Daehyun oppa,” she whined, “You said you’ll help me out to prepare my special Valentine’s Day present for Youngjae oppa…” She roughly pulled the heavy quilt off me.

“Yah!” I kicked her off my bed with my eyes still closed and pulled the quilt back onto my topless body.

Right, that is my roommate, Lee Eunrae, she is also my best friend’s girlfriend. This pretty, long haired girl, always a sunshine, but sometimes pain in the . I had to babysit her ever since her boyfriend went overseas for his study trip. Half a day more to his return, the night of Valentine’s Day and which makes it half a day more to spend with her alone, and that is when she no longer belong to me.

“Fine, you better be up when I’m done bathing!” She yelled and then shut the door with much force. 

I lied still on my back. I closed my eyes and recalled the fun times we had. We were friends way before she knew Youngjae.

I still remember how I enjoyed throwing small rocks at her window every night. The times we sneak out late at night without her parents knowing. She would open the window and smile brightly at me. Then jumping down from the window, knowing I would always catch her.

Maybe I shouldn’t have brought her to meet Youngjae that night, maybe that way, she wouldn’t have fallen in love with him. Maybe if I treat her less like a brother and more like a girl.

I stretched and sat up from my comfortable bed, untangled my messy bed hair with my fingers and slowly strolled out to the living room.

“Bacon again?” I exhaled upon seeing the breakfast laid out of the table.

The delicacies that she prepared during the special occasions, and that she liked to top anything and everything with those bits of fried bacon. I used to dislike those bacon bits, but I got used to it. I got used to her style of cooking and it only took a year of staying together under the same roof.

Eunrae walked out with two glass of orange juice and pouted at my words. Saliva accumulated in my mouth as I swallowed them hard down my throat. I felt the same feeling when I first saw her. I looked away quickly and settled down in front of the table.

“What do you want me to help with?” I unenthusiastically asked.

“Help me choose a gift for Youngjae oppa!” She said excitedly. I wonder if she was ever so excited when she was choosing my birthday present.

“Fine. Let me wash up first.”

I pushed the chair backwards and stood up from the table. Then I ruffled her hair like I always do and shook my head lightly with a faint smile. I couldn’t bear reject her not with her intoxicated grin smiling at me when I agreed. As I walk past her, the scent of her strawberry shampoo lingers in the air I breathed. Some times I wished I had lost all my senses when she is around because every move she makes made me go crazy.

---

“The present has to be something that is suitable as a welcoming gift and a Valentine’s Day gift!”

“Chocolate?” I randomly chose the easiest gift for a girl to give to her boyfriend on Valentine’s.

“It’s too common. And wouldn’t be making it be more suitable?”

“We wouldn’t people to be poisoned by your inedible cooking, do we?”

“And you just ate the breakfast I cooked.”

“I’m immune to your poison after eating it for an entire year.”
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