She stood outside the entrance of the cinema, looking at her watch for what seemed like the hundredth time this evening. It was already 9pm, half an hour past since the movie had started. Surely he couldn’t have forgotten about it, I even informed him when I was leaving the house, she thought to herself, when her phone suddenly rang.

“Hey Yul, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the movies with you today. Jessica’s sick and I couldn’t just leave her alone. I’ll make it up to you next time, I promise!” came Changmin’s voice from the other end of the line.

Yuri sighed, replying meekly with an “okay” before hanging up. She left the cinema, with thoughts filling up her mind.

Changmin and Yuri had been best friends since they were really young. In high school, Yuri discovered that the brotherly feelings she had for Changmin had gradually turned into love. However, in order not to risk their relationship, she decided to not tell Changmin about her feelings. She had once thought that looking at Changmin from afar would be enough.

She even knew about Changmin crushing on Jessica during their university days, and she was the matchmaker that brought Changmin and Jessica together. Thinking about it now, she had been plain stupid.

Jessica, on the other hand, was a really sweet girl. She was clever, kind, and beautiful. Yuri had always thought that she paled in comparison to Jessica, although her other bestie, Sooyoung, told her differently. “Everyone’s beautiful in their own way, Yul. If he can’t see you, that doesn’t mean other guys can’t. Come on, don’t give up an entire forest just for the sake of one tree.”

Yuri didn’t want to just focus on Changmin too. However, he just occupied her mind every single time. Whenever it was lunch time, she would think if he had eaten, or whether he was so busy that he had ignored his mealtime. Whenever she saw a movie she liked, she wanted to share it with him. She wanted to share her happiness, sadness, everything with Changmin. She was always the one initiating in their friendship, and she was tired of it.

Yuri continued to walk on, although her legs were tired. She had been walking from the mall back to her house, which was only a 5 minutes’ walk. However, it felt like she had been walking for an hour. When she finally reached home, she lay on the couch, drifting off to sleep, thinking that tomorrow will be a better day, and just maybe, she would try to forget about Changmin,again.