At the age of 6, Daehyun knew he had fallen in love. When he had mentioned this to his older brother he had laughed in Daehyun’s face. His father had given him a glum look as if to say “oh you’ll grow out of it one day boy”, whereas his mother had simply given him a bright smile of encouragement.

The problem was, Daehyun had no idea how to express his love to the girl he had fallen head over heels for. Daehyun knew that winning her heart wouldn’t be easy, and he knew that his feelings were not going to fade.

Throughout his primary days Daehyun had made her life a living hell in hopes of gaining her attention. Sure enough his constant pranks on her had gained all of her attention but by the end of the year he had only fallen one more step behind. They finished primary, but still she hadn’t noticed Daehyun the way he had wanted her to.

In highschool Daehyun’s feelings had remained. On the first day of school he had been shocked to see that she had cut her hair during the summer holidays.  Her long brunette curls were now replaced with slightly shorter brown waves that hung just below her shoulders, and yet she still managed to steal Daehyun’s breath away. He had spent most of his highschool years tormenting her over everything new she did. New haircut, new clothes, new anything and it had only seemed to irritate her more.

Highschool had come and gone, they graduated, but still Daehyun had failed to show her his love.

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Daehyun stood facing a crowd of familiar faces, most of which he had grown up with. To one side sat another crowd, all of them sporting large white smiles and a few shedding some tears. Amongst this crowd Daehyun could see the tear-streaked face if his mother, and his smiling father *something he found rare.

Daehyun was graduating, no not from highschool but from university. He had slaved over almost 7 years of his life in University, and now he stood in front of a hall full of many faces holding his completed degree.

One face stood out the most though. There she was, still as beautiful as the day Daehyun had first laid eyes on her at the age of 6 in their neighbourhood park. Her hair had grown long again, and Daehyun could see that she was nervously fiddling with her fingers in her lap. Daehyun’s feelings for had never died nor did they ever falter, if not his feelings had seemed to have grown more and more each day. It was now or never.

He made his way slowly towards the podium where the school principal now stood closing their graduation ceremony with a formal speech.

“uhm…excuse me sir” Daehyun asked nervously while scratching the back of his head

The principal stopped mid-sentence a bit confused at the sudden interruption, before giving Daehyun an odd look and a sharp “what” in response.

“I’m really sorry to interrupt sir…” Daehyun apologised while bowing “…but there is something I should have done years ago and… I don’t think I’d ever get to say this to her again…”

“Say no more boy” The principal interrupted with a bright smile “I went through the same thing when I was your age”

Daehyun was surprised, needless to say speechless that his principal had not blown his top off at him.

“Sorry for the delay fellow students and more importantly our visitors for the interruption, but to end our ceremony I wish all the best to the futures of our graduated students and I am proud to announce you all as the calss of graduates for 2013!” The principal swiftly ended.

Hats were thrown into the air and Daehyun lost sight of her. This continued for almost 5 minutes with the graduates gladly chatting amongst themselves.

“Attention please I’m sorry to cut your celebration short students but please settle down for another special announcement.”

The principal then turned towards Daehyun with a large smile “the stage is all yours boy”

Daehyun took in a shaky breath before standing in front of the microphone to face the gazing eyes of everyone in the hall.

“H-Hi everyone…. F-For those of you who don’t know me, I am Jung Daehyun. I would firstly like to apologise to everyone for the change I have caused in today’s graduation ceremony.”

He took another steady breath while looking into the crowd, he could see her but she still hadn’t looked at him yet. He could see his mother too; she gave him another one of her encouraging smiles and a pair of thumbs up.

“T-This may sound ridiculous but I’d rather embarrass myself knowing that I gave it a try…… instead of leaving with regrets where I ask myself everyday “What if” “

It was now or never Daehyun thought.

“Choi Sooyoung” Daehyun stated while keeping his gaze on her.

At the mention of her name she looked up in surprise, while pointing to herself in confusion.

“Yes you, Choi Sooyoung…… I-I Have been in love you since the day I first saw you in the neighbourhood park, I was six at the time and some of you may think that I must have been crazy to have been in love at 6 but my heart knew. I have tormented you throughout our school years but it was always to get your attention, everyday my feelings for you only grew more and I always tried to reason with myself that I was going through a phase but I never could….”

“Choi Sooyoung, I was, am and always will be in love with you” Daehyun finished breathlessly

His heart was racing, throughout his confession she had looked at him with a look of pure shock on her face. At least he got it off his chest Daehyun thought before walking out of the hall with his head held low and numerous pairs of eyes on him.

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Outside he took in a deep breath of sweet air in attempt to calm his thoughts. “rejection” filled his thoughts and Daehyun only sighed in frustration, when the doors suddenly burst open behind him.

He turned, and there she was, in her graduation gown with tears gently flowing down her cheeks.

She stormed up to him before punching his chest with her fists in annoyance; Daehyun didn’t know how to respond so instead he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in to a tight hug. She sobbed into his chest soaking his gown before mumbling “pabo”.

Once she had calmed down Daehyun softly wiped away the remaining tears on her cheeks before apologising to her.

“You should be apologising you pabo” She pouted

“Why didn’t you just ask me?... You made my days a living hell when all you could have done was ask me” she sobbed again

Daehyun didn’t know what to do and stood there rooted to his spot when suddenly Sooyoung wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

She broke away with a small smile on her lips “ I love you too you pabo”

Daehyun was over the moon, it had taken him years to figure out if she had loved him too, when all he needed to do was ask. He still couldn’t believe that she had accepted his confession, he felt as if he were dreaming, Daehyun hoisted the brunette up before his lips came crashing onto hers again.

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Daehyun felt like he was a million dollars richer, he had graduated from university, finally had the courage to confess to the girl he had loved for so long and now held that same dream girl in his arms. What more could he ask for?