Avoiding Dominik wasn’t Keo’s first plan of fixing the Soonyoung issue; not for a moment did she think it was ideal, but after a blazing feud with the jerk, it only seemed fit.

                “Why can’t you understand and just accept that Soonyoung is my friend? He doesn’t have to be yours, just don’t rip on him!”Keo shot at him while she stood at the doorway, prepared to leave at any time while Dominik sneered at her.

“He drools all over you. It’s pathetic to watch in the first place, but to think that he’s drooling over my girlfriend just grinds my gears. Why can’t you understand and accept that?” Dominik waved his finger around, taunting Keo further. She was glad she sent Soonyoung home for the day before inviting Dominik over to talk. “I can’t believe you want to be friends with him either. Look at him, what’s he worth?”

                Keo was becoming very irritated with Dominik’s endless way to pick out Soonyoung’s flaws or even make new ones. Or maybe it was the fact that he repeated the same tired features day after day. In her eyes, the older boy didn’t have very many of them. Soonyoung didn’t have flaws; he was who he was and there was nothing wrong with that.

                Soonyoung’s hair was always nice and fluffy, his eyes always cheerful and childish. He had this sense of innocence about him that made Keo smile at all times. He didn’t seem to hang around too many people, and was completely oblivious to almost every girl at the school who swooned as he smiled and waved or even just passed by.

                “Why do you have to hang around with him? Why can’t you go hang around with girls like you usually do?”

                “What? Why? Is it because you can’t hit them?”

                Dominik’s lips twitched from the snarl he was going to give.But he controlled himself. “That idiot hit me first.”

                “And you rightfully deserved it, being that much of an to him.”’ Keo stared defiantly at Dominik while he processed what she said.

                “Did you just call me an ?” He scowled angrily while she just nodded.

                “Why don’t you like him?”

                “He’s dense as . He doesn’t take a step away from you. He’s always around. I don’t like anything about that kid right down to his beady little eyes. How does he even see? It must be an Asian thing.” Dominik slurred earning a glare from Keo. “No offence.”

                She couldn’t believe how calm she was being about this. At this moment she’d been so level headed with Dominik when she really just should have slapped him, it was unbelievable. He was letting all of her rantingjust bounce off, not taking anything she said seriously.

“I can’t believe you just said that,” she hissed under her breath.

                Dominik breathed deeply taking a step towards her. He didn’t want to fight with Keo, he’d been avoiding it for two weeks. “Look, I’ll forget what happened if you do and stay away from that kid.” When she shook her head, he started a new tactic – whining. “Why not?”***

                “He is my friend, Dom.”

Dom grabbed her necklace off her chest. “Friends don’t give each other matching necklaces.”

Keo slapped his hand away hiding the necklace down her shirt. “Nicole and I do!”

Dominik held up his hands, refusing the information.“That’s different. You two are girls. Guys don’t do this sort of thing with friends.Unless they’re looking for something more.”Dominik held his hands to his hips, ignoring her rolling eyes, facing his back to Keo as he paced. “What can I do to make you forgive me?”

                Keo thought about it for a long while. She liked Dominik a lot, but he punched the one and only best friend of hers and that seemed pretty unforgivable at the moment. This whole jealousy deal wasn’t working for her.

                “Apologize and accept Soonyoung.”

                Dominik groaned running his hands through his hair. “Okay, anything but that. I am not apologizing to that baboon”

Keo shook her head, frustration gripping her. “No! I refuse to take anything less than that. He deserves an apology and I’m not staying away from him just because you don’t like him. He tolerates youat least!” Keo snapped, taking steps towards him as her voice rose higher. “He comes over and we talk about school and life and how things are, but all we ever talk about now is how much you hate him being around. He’s tried to be your friend and is a really nice guy! But you don’t know that because you are too busy pushing him out!”

                Keodidn’t realize she was banging her fists on the counter as she yelled at him.

 “Are you saying you’d rather pick THAT IDIOT OVER ME?!” Dominik screamed, inches from her face. Keo was stunned.

She froze. Dominik had never dared speak to her like that before; they’ve never fought this intensely. She could feel tears start to prick the back of her eyes.

                “Don’t call Soonyoung an idiot.” She mumbled wanting to pull away from Dominik’s close fiery temper.

Dominik’s eyebrows furrowed slightly and he continued using his outdoor voice. “What?”

Keo balled her fingers into her palms, feeling her nails cut into her skin. She reached her limit. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, and screamed at the top of her lungs.“DON’T CALL SOONYOUNG AN IDIOT!” Keo’s eyes watered until tears started trickling down her cheeks. “He hasn’t done anything wrong!”

 Dominik pointed to himself and hollered back while Keo tried to walk away. “And, what, I’m the bad guy!? He had it coming! Even you know that! Are you seriously picking him over me?” He was seething, and her lack of answer didn’t help. “Give me a damn answer, Keo!” She began to cry more when he spun her to face him. “Soonyoung or me. You get to choose.” He grabbed her cheeks so he could see her face.

                Keo couldn’t answer. Her feelings were conflicted and her hiccupping breathes were making it hard to speak in general. She couldn’t focus. She could feel his fingers digging into the meat of her cheeks. She kept her eyes down towards the ground, while her hands tried to push some space between them.

 “This is your last chance to give me a chance or else we’re through. You better have the right answer.” Dominik hissed, releasing her cheeks only to hold her shoulders so she couldn’t run away.

                Stuck in a mess of exasperation, Keo looked up into Dominik’s eyes. She must have taken too long to respond, because when her eyes met his, he let go of her arms and stormed out of the house. Slowly, she sunk to the ground, staring at the space where he was.Half of her waited for him to come back, to tell her they would work it out.She waited, but the door stayed shut. She was crying now. She called out his name, again hoping he was just outside the door, but nothing. More tears. And then suddenly she was weeping. She began pounding her fists the ground to release anger until her hands were sore. Who she was angry at, Keo didn’t really know. And then she just lay on her back with her limbs stretched out, wallowing in self-remorse.

                The next couple of hours were hell. Keo would spend about ten minutes telling herself that it was good that Dominik was gone, because now she was free to live as she pleased. She could choose the friends she wanted, keeping Soonyoung by her side, and she wouldn’t have to put up with Dominik’s obsession with restricting her circle.

                Then the ten minutes after that, Keo would spend thinking about every good moment Dominik and her shared over their almost four month long relationship. Actually, it was much longer than ten minutes. That in itself took maybe an hour. She remembered how proud he was that she was his girlfriend, as if she were the most sought-after girl in the world. He liked to show her off to his friends and brag about how pretty she was.

She found herself cursing Soonyoung’s name. She didn’t know when she started, but she caught herself saying things like, “Why did Kris have to make me responsible for him?” and, “Why couldn’t he just like some other girl and not get involved in my relationship?”

                It was getting hard for Keo to keep her eyes open by the time five o’clock rolled around. Her tears had stopped shedding tears at some point earlier and she somehow managed to drag herself to her room. Now she was lying lifelessly in bed. Her mom had come up calling her for dinner, but left her alone after Keo said she wasn’t hungry.

                Keo wished her mom had stayed to comfort her, but then again she wouldn’t know how to explain to her that Kris had bought her a boy for her birthday that, coincidentally, screwed up her relationship.

                By five thirty Keo was passed out and gave way to a thankfully dreamless sleep, only to be woken up again late the next morning.

“Keo,” a voice whispered. Keo could smell fresh rain coming off the boy’s body, “Keo wake up, it’s almost lunch.” Her eyes fluttered open locking on Soonyoung who was awfully close to her face with his hair sopping wet. He smiled that stupid grin that always made Keo smile back, but this time she only felt a hollow hatred.

“Get out,” she said.

Soonyoung blinked in confusion, which frustrated her more.She pushed him away and sat up on her bed. He continued to stare at her blankly. Dominik was right; he was as dense as a brick.

“Get out!” she screamed, pulling him up on his feet and pushing him towards the door. “You ruined everything! I hate you!” Her tears had come back and she managed to shove Soonyoung past the doorframe, slamming it behind him. “I hate you! I hate you!I hate you!” she yelled to the door, knowing Soonyoung was listening on the other side.

Soonyoungwas indeed on the other side, standing there quietly as she cursed him. When her wails had stopped, he quietly tapped on the door. He thought about slowly opening it, when it was ripped open with a red-eyed, red-faced Keo glaring at him.

“I told you to get out! Don’t you know what that means!?” She watched as he backed away from her yelling, looking at her with that innocent like, as if he didn’t ruin her relationship. “Dominik left me because of you, so just leave. Just leave my house like he did. I don’t want you here!”

Keo beat on his chest pathetically until he finally backed towards her stairs. Slowly, he walked down as she continued to scream for him to get out. At the door, he turned to face her, his face not confused or dazed, but looking concerned. Concerned for her. As if she were the one with the problems. Didn’t he realize that he was the cause of all her problems? She pushed him out her door.

“I hate you. I never want to see you again. You’ve ruined my life.” Before she slammed the door in his face, she hissed,“Go back to Korea.”

It was that that hurt Soonyoung. Keo said she hated Soonyoung all the time. It was a joke. He knew that she didn’t hate him. But never before had Keo told him to go back to Korea. She knew how much he hated it there. Suddenly hot tears stained his cheeks. Why was she being like this? He stood at her door, quietly tapping at it. He softly said her name through the blurred glass.

“Keo. I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I don’t know what I did, but I’m sorry. Keo. Don’t be mad at me, please.” He wiped his nose against his jacket. Soonyoung lightly hit his forehead against the door. “Keo, please. I’m sorry.”

“Get off my property!”

Soonyoung didn’t think twice before leaving that time. He didn’t want to anger Keo anymore, nor did he want to hear such hurtful things come his way.

Keo was supposed to be his from day one. Kris told him that he brought Soonyoung to Canada for her. But he settled for being her friend when she told him about Dominik. He tried his hardest to be nice to Dominik, but he ruined everything. And now Soonyoung couldn’t even be her friend.

Frustration was not the feeling Keo wanted to start her day with. She stomped her way back to her room,glad her parents weren’t home to witness her breakdown. She flopped onto her bed, wiping her eyes with balled fists, when she noticed a large black thing sitting, cross-legged, in the middle of the sidewalk. Keo stepped closer to her window to get a closer look,only find it was Soonyoung.

He was soaked with rain from head to toe, without even a hood to protect his head. Keo swore she told him to leave several times, screamed it even, had even kicked him out, but this boy was resistant. She wasn’t sure if his shoulders were shaking from crying, or shaking from the cold. His knees were hugged up against his chest and his face would pop up and down from hiding from the rain.

Now, with her anger simmering down ,Keo began to feel bad. She was so caught up in her own problems that she had forgotten that Soonyoung had feelings. And frankly, he was a lot more sensitive than he looked. She waited ten minutes, waiting for him to get up and walk away, until she finally realized he wasn’t going to leave. Keo mentally smacked herself. She rushed downstairs, grabbing an umbrella and a large winter coat from the closet, before running outside to Soonyoung.

Soonyoung got to his feet seeing Keo come his way. With an umbrella in one hand and the coat in the other, Keo managed to wrap Soonyoung in it trying to make him warm. His lips were already blue and his face a pale white. She couldn’t believe she let him stay out here for that long. If he got hyperthermia because of her, she would never forgive herself.

“I’m sorry,” Keo said over the roar of the rain. She sheltered herself and Soonyoung under the umbrella. She grabbed his hand and hated how ice cold it was. He was trembling so hard.“I was just so mad about what happened. I shouldn’t have said I hate you. I’m sorry.”

Quietly, Soonyoung nodded, understanding why Keo said what she did, but still trying to fix his heart around it. She continued to apologize profusely. “I just need some time to settle down. Come in. Don’t sit in the rain. It’s February for the love of god.”

Keo took Soonyoung’s frigid hand and started pulling his frozen body to the house. Soonyoung stopped, turning her around, wrapping his long arms around her. Keo could feel that his chest was just as cold as his hands. His wet shirt was soaking through hers. More guilt slapped her in the face. She let him hug her, trying to keep the umbrella steady over his head.

“Are you sure you aren’t mad at me?” Soonyoung whispered close to her ear, his voice shaking slightly from the cold. Keo nodded into his chest, felling her shirt stick to his. “Positive?” 

A knotted feeling in Keo’s chest started to form when she looked up at Soonyoung. He didn’t look angry at her for leaving him outside. She couldn’t describe the look on his face, but that it temporarily made her forget the chill of the rain. Suddenly he was leaning closer, and Keo didn’t move away.

His lips were cold. They trembled slightly as they moved against her lips, but then again so did hers. Her first thought was that maybe she should pull away from him, but something held her there.  She felt herself lean up onto her toes.Maybe it was because she was so utterly confused about Soonyoung that she stayed with his arms around her and his lips on hers. She didn’t know, but she didn’t want it to end when it did.

“Let’s get you some dry clothes,” She mumbled, staring straight into his chest where his winged necklace proudly sat. “I’ll make you soup.”

Soonyoung agreed, letting her small fingers twine with his.