“You know, this is the first time I’ve seen you in so long without your boyfriend tagging along,” Henry said cutely as he toyed with the straw in his hand before taking a huge sip of his iced milk tea.

I laughed and pushed my drink a little closer. “Yeah, and it actually feels kind of weird, to be honest.”

I admit, it sure felt funny going out with someone else other than Hyukjae. We’ve been together for nearly a year already and we have been practically glued at the hips ever since day one. In fact, if Henry hadn’t insisted on our having lunch together today, I would definitely be running over to Hyukjae’s place already although he had to work today.

Henry and I have been really close friends way before our high school days, and we even witnessed each other’s experimental first kisses in middle school (that sadly were given to girls before we noticed our preference for the other gender). However ever since I got myself into this relationship, I’ve seen very little of Henry, and even all my other friends also complained about me distancing myself too much from them. Well, it wasn’t my fault that I simply preferred Hyukjae’s company more than the others, right?

Actually, Hyukjae has been telling me quite often to hang out with them more instead of alienating from the others but I still stuck to him like glue all the same. He never complained about it anyway, and like I said before, if Henry hadn’t insisted on us meeting up for lunch today – his treat, I probably wouldn’t even have realized that I’ve actually been spending almost every waking moment with my boyfriend for a whole year already.

Wow.

 “Hyuk’s taking me to Jeju next Friday,” I exclaimed happily, attacking my kimchi spaghetti like a hungry wolf. “We’re gonna be there till Monday!!”

“Really?” Henry asked, blowing on top of his cheese-baked rice before taking a small bite. “What’s the occasion?? Oww I think I burnt my tongue!!”

I laughed when he stuck his reddened tongue out and handed him his drink, watching as he dug out an ice cube and on it with a pout on his face.

“It’s our first anniversary soon, can you believe it? We’ve been together for… Three hundred and fifty-seven days already,” I sighed dreamily.

“So fast?” he asked, eyes widening in surprise. “You guys have been together for a year? And you’ve been missing from me since then?”

“I think so?” I giggled, twirling my spaghetti and jabbing the lot into his open mouth. “Here, taste the pasta, it’s really good!!”

Henry chewed and swallowed his mouthful obligingly, nodding in approval as the food went down his throat. “I know, I come here quite often. Try mine too. But don’t change the subject,” he said, as he brought up another spoonful of rice to feed me. “I can’t believe you two have been dating for so long already!! It seems like just one month ago when you introduced him to us.”

“I know. Time sure flies when you’re in love…” I smiled happily to myself, ignoring him as he shook his head in amusement.

“How did you guys meet anyway?” He suddenly asked.

I raised my eyebrow in surprise. “Haven't I told you before?”

“No…” he frowned.

“Really… Well Hyuk and I met under such funny circumstances that I literally told almost everyone… I can’t believe I never told you.”

“I can’t believe you never told me too,” he pouted, narrowing his tiny eyes at me, which honestly wasn’t really scary at all but rather cute. “I thought we were best friends.”

“Ahh don’t get too worked up. I’m sorry for not telling you before,” I apologized, and began telling my story.

“So, you know how my last relationship with Siwon never really worked out, right?”

“Yeah, I was quite surprised when you announced your breakup though. I thought you both were perfect for each other,” Henry answered. “I mean, he was a pretty famous model after all, and you both looked really good together.” He then smirked. “If you don’t mind my asking, who dumped who?”

I cocked my eyebrow before answering him. “He couldn’t find time between his work for me so we ended on a mutual agreement, but that’s not the point. You remember that I was single and back on the market for maybe… eight months?”

“Yup. I even tried dragging you to all those night clubs but you refused to go.”

“Nightclubs never were my kind of places, I thought you knew that?” I asked in confusion. “Anyway, at the end of that time I was starting to feel really lonely, and I didn’t like how my mom kept setting me on blind dates with those girls all the time—”

“Your mom made you date girls??” Henry nearly shrieked but covered his own mouth before he could. “Didn’t she know that you swung the other way? And I thought she was okay with you like this?”

“Yeah, but she never stopped hoping that I would perhaps change my mind some day. Anyway,” I stressed, sipping my drink before continuing. “I told myself that I ought to find someone who would just love me for who I am, and was willing to make time for me… that was all. Of course it would be a huge bonus if he was really tall and handsome like me,” I added with a chuckle.

“So this one night when I was already in bed and almost drifting off to sleep, I had this sudden urge to check my chatroom because I had a feeling in my gut that my future boyfriend was online. At first I was too comfy to move, but the feeling nagged on until I finally dragged myself out of bed and unplugged my phone from the charger. I signed in and found more than a hundred people online.”

“More than a hundred?” Henry gasped. “And you found Hyukjae amongst the hundred?”

“At first I shortened the list to those who were living in my area. Then I dismissed whoever didn’t post a profile picture of themselves. Can’t have pedos after my ,” I giggled while Henry rolled his eyes.

“You’re already twenty-four, hyung.”

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t pedos after my . Since I do have a cute squishy after all,” I winked.

“TMI, hyung!!” he complained, faking gagging noises. “I didn’t need to know that!!”

“Don’t worry, you won’t be seeing it though. Only Hyukjae gets to see that,” I laughed when Henry groaned since I probably mentally scarred him for at least a week. “Back to the topic, so after determining that these people were ‘safe’, I started going through their personal profiles one by one.”

“Stalker much?”

“I guess you can say that. I’d hate to find out that my future boyfriend was only thirteen, or older than my mom. Eventually I was only left with two choices: an Eunhyuk and a Cho Kyuhyun.”

“What about Hyukjae?”

“Patience, Henry. I’m getting to that part soon. So I was debating between these two people, and I nearly dismissed Eunhyuk because I thought Kyuhyun looked slightly more handsome than the other—”

“I thought you said you didn’t mind if he was handsome or not?” Henry interrupted.

“I never said that!!”

“But you… never mind.”

I gave him a weird look before twirling another strand of pasta onto my fork. “I almost ignored Eunhyuk, but thought that I would give him a chance. So I sent messages to the both of them. I promised myself that I would get to know better whoever replied first. I was surprised when Eunhyuk replied only five seconds later, while Kyuhyun… let’s just say I’ve never even heard from him at all.”

“Wow, I didn’t even know you could get a boyfriend like that.”

“I have my ways,” I smiled. “Eunhyuk’s profile picture was so small and so blurry that I asked him if he could send me a picture of himself taken at that time. I already knew we shared the same hobbie