They say you don't know what true pain is until you watch the person you love, love someone else. What they should have said was, watch out for your best friend, he is going to steal your girlfriend. That would have been more easier to understand. 

"Wow. She is beautiful." Mir said taking a sip of his drink and checking out the only girl in this bar dressed in casual clothes. 

"Yah, that's my friend." I said nudging his arm.

"Really?" He said as he tilts his sunglasses to get a better look of her.

What a ert. I don't know how many girls he hits on in one night. More importantly, I don't know why am I still his friend. I share no interests with him and we are complete opposites. So why in the world am I sitting next to this guy every Saturday night at this bar?

I sighed and started tapping my feet impatiently. He senses my eyes burning a hole in his midnight blue , freshly ironed, Armani suit and rolls his eyes at me. " OK! I get it. I will keep away from your woman."

For the past couple of weeks since Jeon's phone call informing me she would be back in Korea, all I've been able to think about was our past. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Now that she was standing 10 feet in front of me,reality finally hit. No matter what happened in the past, right now was all that counted. 

 "You really are a nice guy. If I was friends with her I would have made her mine already." Mir's mouth stretches into a smile. " A long time ago." He mumbled as he continued to check her out.

"Well at least all the girls in this bar don't know me as "Mr. trouble Mir." I said punching his shoulder.

He pats me on the shoulders and takes off his sunglasses tucking them in his suit pocket. 

"That's the difference between you and me, Cheondoong. Girls love me cause I'm bad, girls like you cause you're cute. You're forever friend-zoned. I guarantee she has no interest in you, but she does have interest in me. I can make her fall in love with me in two weeks. No problem, it's as easy as .. well, calling you cutie."  He sets his cup down on the metal surface of the bar, taps my cheek with the tip of his fingers, and gets up from his seat just as Jeon made her way over to me.

"Why would you think that I'm cute?" I shouted at him.

"I'm the definition of manly!" I mumbled. "And no tricks, none of your womanizing tricks. Jeon is a proper girl." 

"How do you know? For all you know.." Mir stopped mid-sentence and leaned in closer to me. "She could be a naughty girl in disguise." 

I rolled my eyes at him and pushed his face away from me.

"Cheondoong oppa." Jeon said sending my heart soaring as she smiled sweetly at me. I noticed the look in Mir's eyes as he stared at her. I touched his arm and warned him not to mess with her. 

"Mir." He said shaking Jeon's hand and walking away. She looked at him strangely as she watched him walk away. He turned around and winked at her. He clearly knew the effect he had on girls, he knew that she would be looking at him. 

I glared at him and quickly averted her attention to me. "Jeon, how have you been?" I said patting Mir's seat. 

"Busy, school has been hard on me.How is that doctors degree going for you?" She asked. I flinched at her question feeling guilty.

I forgot that I had told no one but my family that I wanted to become an idol. Of course, my family was not supportive of my decision because my older sister's marriage fell apart in the public eye. Naturally my parents didn't want another child who would be followed by paparazzi and had their life publicly destroyed. 

Instead of telling her about my secret life I settled for a simple answer. "Ah, good. Two more years and then I can get my Bachelors then off to medical school for me." I said lying through my teeth.

"It has been so long since I've seen you. You still look cute as you did before." She said pinching my cheeks. "So? Are you so busy that you forgot to tell me you had a girlfriend?" She said taking off her jean jacket.

I flinched again and immediately defended myself "No. No! I don't have one." Making sure to emphasize the word don't.

"Still the same, never was there a girl to capture my Cheondoong oppa's heart." She giggled and turned to the bar to order a drink. After she settled in with her drink we took a seat near the pool table. 

"How about you? Still with George?" I said tiptoeing around the delicate subject of George.

She laughed patting my leg. "Oppa. We broke up a long time ago. Remember?" 

Of course I remembered. It was the night I almost confessed that I had secretly loved her for the past two years. 

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"Jeon, what are you doing?" I said picking her up from the ground. "It's cold out here, why don't you come in?"

"I just wanted to feel the coldness. It was better than feeling nothing." She said with a vacant look in her eyes. 

"What did he do this time?" I said wrapping my jacket around her shoulders as I settled down next to her on the cold cement ground.

"Oppa." She sobbed into my shoulder.  "George cheated on me." I held her hands in mine, rubbing her cold hands with my own warm hands. 

"It's okay. It's okay." I said tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "Actually, I don't know if you will be okay since George is your first love, and that's okay. But Jeon, you shouldn't waste your love or time on someone who doesn't treat you like the princess you are."  

She wiped her nose on her sleeve and with her eyes all red, she stared at me with a smile. "I'm glad I still have you, Cheondoong oppa." She blinked away a few more tears before standing up and pulling me up with her.

"Do you have ice cream?" She said wiping her tears.

"Silly, I always have ice cream, just in case you randomly decide to cry in front of my house and want ice cream." I touched the tear that was sliding down her cheek. "Come on."

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"I was so whiny." She said chuckling at the memory. 

"Yeah, I don't know why I even invited you in. Should have let you become a popsicle."

She hits my arm and smiles at me. "Thanks."

"You've said that a million times before. I get it."

"I'm just really thankful that you stayed by my side and persuaded me to go back to school."

"Yeah, yeah." 

"Oppa, you're my hero." She said smiling at me.