“Can you come over?”

That alone was enough to make Youngjae drop everything he was doing without any questions and run over to Saerin’s. He didn’t even have to ask her what it was about. Just hearing her quiet sobs on the other line was enough for him. Plus, he had heard from Daehyun about her crush Lee Seunghyun and his new girlfriend.

Angry didn’t even describe Youngjae when he found out. Seunghyun had led Saerin on. He knew she liked him – heck everyone knew she liked him – and he strung her along like a little puppy. He flirted with her, playfully, asked her out to lunch on several occasions, acted like a true gentleman, and he did all of those things only to crush her heart. Youngjae knew he was bad news but Saerin, being the stubborn girl she was, didn’t listen. And now she was crying because of a broken heart and it was all because of him. She deserved so much better.

“Saerin-ah, it’s me,” he called out to her as he knocked on her front door. It went quiet for a bit and then he heard quiet shuffling and sniffles.

The moment she saw him she flung herself at her best friend and sobbed on his shoulder. If it was any other girl he probably would have been a little uncomfortable and disgusted at the amount of tears and not that they were getting on him, but this wasn’t any other girl – this was Saerin.

He wrapped his arms around her tightly, pulling her closer into his chest protectively. No one will ever hurt Saerin without going through Youngjae. Seunghyun had it coming.

Pulling away, he looked at her face. She still looked pretty, even though her eyes were all red and puffy and her nose was all snotty. Saerin was always beautiful to him, no matter what anyone else said.

“Do you want to go in?” he asked her softly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She nodded weakly and went inside with Youngjae following behind.

She sat on the sofa quietly and looked down at her lap where she was playing with the hem of her shirt. Youngjae stared intently at the upset girl in front of him expecting her to say something. She looked up, feeling his gaze on her, and met with Youngjae’s warm brown eyes.

She bit her lip, “S-Seunghyun, h-he... Y-you-” she began before Youngjae interrupted. He knew what she wanted to say. She didn’t have to finish her sentence for him to know. They had been friends for far too long to know what each other’s train of thoughts were. Youngjae, of course, was more difficult to read than Saerin was.

“I know. I heard Rin. I’m truly sorry. But he’s an and you’ll find someone better. I don’t want to say the cliché thing, but, there are other fish in the sea,” he whispered and walked over to her to wrap her up into another hug.

“I just want to forget about him right now,” she hiccupped in between sobs.

Youngjae nodded. “Do you want to watch a movie or something then?” She shrugged. He sighed and ran a hand through his blond hair. “Movie it is then,” he mumbled under his breath and flashed her a small reassuring smile whilst placing a hand on her knee as he got up to go to the movie shelf in the Kim household. “What do you want to watch?”

“I don’t k-know... Um... I g-guess Tangled,” she answered with another shrug and wiped the remaining tears with the corner of her sleeve.

He nodded with a smile and turned back to the shelf to look for the DVD. In fact, Youngjae probably didn’t have to ask her what she wanted to watch because he knew she was going to say that anyways. It was either Tangled or The Notebook. Both of those were her favourite movies.

---

Youngjae sat and watched Saerin recite every word perfectly. He found it absolutely adorable that she could be so entranced by a animated children’s movie. She was a hopeless romantic and that worried him sometimes. Guys took advantage of that.

She was an easy target for guys to charm. If they were nice to her and did everything that a gentleman should do then she was charmed by them. Most of the time anyways. Youngjae would always tell her to be careful but she never listened and then she gets her heart broken. It was the same cycle that she couldn’t seem to break out of.

Saerin sighed heavily and pouted.

Youngjae nudged her gently with his knee. “What’s wrong?”

“Why can’t guys look at me like he does?” she asked him without taking her eyes off the tv screen.

He bit his lip wondering if he should answer that question or keep quiet. He decided on the former. “They do. You just don’t notice it. You’re too busy looking at the other guys that will treat you badly that you never see the ones that will treat you right,” he commented, avoiding her gaze.

She stayed quiet, unsure of what to say back to him.

Maybe Youngjae was right. Maybe she spent too much time focusing on the people that didn’t care about her at all and too little on the people who genuinely cared about her.

She almost scoffed at her own thoughts. No guy cared about her in the way she wanted them to though.

“Yeah, who? What guy do you know that will treat me right? All of my boyfriends all turned out to be jerks. The guys in our class objectify me and are jerks too. The only guys that treat me nicely are you and your friends and I only know that they aren’t jerks towards me is because you tell them not to be mean.”

He inwardly groaned. Why was this girl so stubborn? Why did she always have to argue with him on everything? “That’s the point that I’m trying to make. Maybe the people you’ve dated are jerks because you’ve chosen the wrong guys. Whereas for my friends, it’s because they’re nice people. They like you. I didn’t tell them to not be mean to you, it’s because they genuinely like you. Isn’t that proof enough that the whole male species aren’t jerks. I’m not an .”

“Yeah, but you’re you. Youngjae, you’re just that nice guy that everyone likes. No one can dislike you,” she replied with a sigh.

Her words hurt. They weren’t meant to but he realised that to her he’ll probably always be that nice guy that is always there for her. He’ll always be a friend.

That was unless he could change that.

He had nothing to lose now, except maybe a friendship if it went terribly wrong.

“And referring back to your earlier question. I will. I will treat you right. I won’t cheat on you, I’ll be there 24/7 if you need me, I’ll be your rock. I’ll treat you like a princess. But I’m just a friend to you right?” he paused and took a deep breath, “I like you Saerin. I don’t know when I started liking you but I do. And this might completely screw up our friendship but whatever, I’m tired of seeing your heart get broken by douchebags. I’m willing to take the chance if you are.”

She didn’t reply.

She sat there, shocked at his sudden confession unable to form any words.

How was she supposed to react when her best friend, since birth, confessed? There wasn’t a guidebook on that unfortunately but if there was she would have sure be first in line to buy it. These situations always seemed so much easier in dramas. They weren’t that easy to deal with in real life unfortunately.

The thing was, she liked Youngjae too. Maybe that attraction had always been there but she never realised it until he had confessed but she liked him. His words made her heart beat quicken and her palms all sweaty. He made her want to attach onto him like a koala bear and never let go. But, she didn’t want to lose him as her best friend. She didn’t want them to become a couple only to break up and lose their lifelong friendship. That would be worse than losing a boyfriend.

“Say something Saerin,” he begged her.

She in a breath and grabbed his hand, “I guess if you’re willing then so am I. I like you too Youngjae. I don’t know why it has taken me such a long time to figure that one out, but I do.”

“Then, I guess that leaves me with one more question to ask you,” he said with a boyish grin. She cocked an eyebrow. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

She laughed softly, pressing her lips lightly against his and pulled away quickly. “Hm, I’ll think about it,” she replied cheekily, “Of course, you pabo. You didn’t have to ask.”

He shrugged innocently, “I just wanted to make sure.”

---

I hope you enjoyed this. Let me know what you think down below please. I like reading through comments. Comments make me happy :D

And here, have a mini Youngjae gif spam hehe

(I don't own any of the gifs posted)