He sighed. For the nth time, he sighed. L.Joe couldn’t even make himself to form a smile in front of his relatives. His mum had given several body sign asking him to smile and yeah, socialise. But his head was full of worries and fears of her. He had just received a text from his girlfriend saying, “Hey, we need to talk.”

And hell that scared him to death. Whenever his girlfriend sent him such text messages, his heart dropped a bit. It’s quite often she did this and they would always ended up arguing about whatever topic that she brought up. Sometimes, it didn’t even make sense to him. One time his girlfriend texted him, “Joey, we need to discuss about things.” And they ended up not talking for two weeks straight because she was mad at him for always showing up late to dates.

He had to admit that it was really his fault for showing up late to dates. He thought she was used to that fact since old habits die hard. But she wasn’t, and he didn’t mind a bit because that just showed how much she cared and also, he loved her to pieces. He didn’t care that she was talkative, possessive, clingy and hard-headed… and not to mention about her temper.

He looked passed that though. All of her flaws made her, her. And he accepted her flaws readily because she was always perfect in his eyes. She always caught his breath when she smiled. When she laughed or giggled, his stomach would flutter as if butterflies were coming out. When they hugged or kissed, he felt as if the world was his. And he would do anything to just stop the time and have her in his arm forever. Despite all her flaws, L.Joe thought she was perfect.

They had been in a relationship for over 5 years. It started when she saw L.Joe in the library, quietly reading books. She thought he was totally lost in his world because he was so focused in reading the book. And she was completely focused in watching him without a blink. He tilted his head up to meet a strange girl’s eyes, staring into him deeply. He let out a cough, bringing her back to reality. Ashamed, she looked away quickly and hid her face in her book.

Her friends giggled and she was red in embarrassment.

With the help of their friends, the got each other’s number and friendship started to form from there. After two years of friendship, he finally asked her out, officially making her his girl. It was their graduation day, also the happiest day of her and his lives. Their love story began to develop beautifully. Sure, they had arguments at times, but that was what making their relationship even stronger. As they fell in love with each other every day, over and over again.

Even as they got into separate universities, they kept their promise and stick by each other’s side. There was once when she decided to put their relationship on halt because she was so stressed up about her studies and her problems. But he showed up in front of her apartment’s door at 2 AM begging at her to not leave him. She sobbed a little in his embrace telling him her problems. He whispered sweet nothings at her and calmed her down.

They made up and she was glad that he understood her well. She swore she would never make him sad or unhappy again. She swore she would treasure him till her last breath. Oh no words can describe how she fell in love with that man all over again. She thought she was lucky she had found someone who loved her dearly. She was thankful to God for giving her a chance to be loved by him.

Mrs. Lee kicked her son’s foot rather quietly as he was zoning out in the middle of the party. L.Joe turned to his mum with a questioning look. His mum then glared at him mouthing something like ‘stop zoning out and socialise!’ He gave his mum an apologetic look and stood up, excusing himself from the crowd. He quickly made his way to the backyard and called her. 

“Sujeong-ah...?”