The first time I saw Himchan outside of school, and to be honest the first time we ever spoke to each other, was a Saturday morning in August during our 3^rd year of high school. I had just gotten out of the shower and was only wearing a towel as I stood there starting to towel dry my hair with another one. The door to the bathroom opened and I’m pretty sure I screamed not recognizing who it was.

                “Get out!”

                He stood there as in shock so I gritted my teeth and picked up my nearby brush and threw it at him. “I said get out!”

                “Right… take your time.” He slowly backed out and shut the door casually.

                I was dumbfounded. He hadn’t sounded sorry at all! Pissed off, I dressed quickly to go confront the random stranger in my house.

                “Hey you!” I called out after I got out of the bathroom. Luckily for me he was still walking down the hall to my brother’s room.

                He turned around with a smirk on his face as he pointed to himself. “Me?”

                “Yeah you, you . Who the hell do you think you are just walking into the bathroom like that? And why are you in my house?” I glared at him.

                I will never forget how he had the nerve to chuckle.

 “I’m your old brother’s friend and I’m here to work on a group project. My name is Himchan. And I’m not sure if I walked into the bathroom a specific way but I’m sure most people walk into a bathroom the way I did.”

                “Yeah but I was in there!”

                “Yes, but I didn’t know that.”

                I rolled my eyes. “The water had only just stopped running so I don’t know how you could have been that stupid, but even if you really didn’t know I was in there, you could have at least apologized.”

                His eye twitched in irritation as his smile fell. From there we started a yelling match insulting everything about the other until my older brother Yongguk came out of his room to pull us apart and drag Himchan back to their project.

                From then on we continued to sneer at each other whenever we crossed paths in the school halls. We were arch enemies. Not a day went by where we didn’t see each other and every time we did we acknowledged the other’s presence with some type of insult. My intelligence had been called into question so many times I began studying more just to shove my all A’s progress report card into his face. I believe I showed him at lunch and said something along the lines of ‘eat that.’

                The second time I saw Himchan outside of school was again at my house where again he came in at a time where I didn’t want to see him, to be honest though that was always. If Himchan was the hottest guy at school, which even I secretly couldn’t deny, then my boyfriend at the time was the second hottest guy on campus. His name was Daehyun and I thought he was the love of my life. I was in the middle of showing him just how much I loved him as I was kissing him as if my life depended on it. Things were getting pretty heated and may have gone farther, if Himchan hadn’t walked in.

                The bedroom door opened suddenly and there appeared Himchan. “Hey can I borrow—oh, hi Daehyun, anyhow can I borrow a pen? Your brother doesn’t have an extra.”

                Daehyun raised a hand in hello. I sat there on Daehyun’s lap completely taken aback. “Himchan, I’m busy come back later or, even better, never.”

                “Yeah but now that I have your attention and you aren’t eating Daehyun’s face could you give me that pen? Yongguk said you kept all the spare school supplies.” Himchan crossed his arms and leaned on the door frame irritated.

                “Well I’m busy and don’t have time to get you one, so leave.” I bent my head down again pressing my lips once again to Daehyun’s, although this time I was doing so in hopes of getting a certain someone out of my room.

                “Fine, I’ll just look around myself.” Himchan said pissed, not realizing he was starting to get jealous.

                “Hey!” I disentangled myself from Daehyun as I blocked Himchan from opening one of my desk drawers. "Out of my room!”

                Himchan smirked and leaned forward so our eyes were on the same level. “All I ask is a pen. Is the price too steep?”

                I’m sure I cussed as I turned around, opened the drawer and pulled out the whole bag of pens. I threw them at Himchan’s chest. “Take them and get the hell out!”

                “Thank you.” Himchan walked to the door and hesitated. “Daehyun, did you want to do your homework with Yongguk and me?”

                “What are you guys working on?” Daehyun asked.

                “Excuse me?” I asked darkly.

                Himchan’s lips twitched in amusement. “Physics.”

                “Yeah! I really need help with that class. Sorry babe.” Daehyun kissed me on the forehead before grabbing his backpack and walking out the door.

                I stood there dumbfounded as Himchan tried his best not to laugh. “Looks like you aren’t that good of a kisser, huh?”

                By the time I processed what he meant about Daehyun leaving me so easily for homework Himchan had already fled and was safe in Yongguk’s room. Of course that didn’t mean I didn’t give him hell for it for the next week at school. Also, every time I saw Himchan walked by while I was with Daehyun I would start a making out session, but I never understood why that bothered him so much, I just assumed he thought it was awkward seeing one of his friends making out all the time.

                The third time I saw Himchan at our house was in January during winter break. I never realized that Himchan was coming over often enough that Yongguk had told him where the hidden house key was under the loose brick in the front yard. But as I was to learn, Yongguk had told him, a few months prior, just in case he got there before Yongguk was done with his part time job. On this particular day I came home before my parents were back from work and I assumed I was home alone.

                I was letting my tears flow without restraint as I walked to my room. Once I fell onto my bed I started my wailing just happy I was in my safe place. Thinking I was alone, I hadn’t even bothered shutting my bedroom door. I was so distracted in my own depressing thoughts that I didn’t even notice Himchan. It wasn’t until he sat on the edge of my bed that I realized he was even there.

                I practically jumped out of my skin and yelped. “Damn it Himchan! You scared me!” I wiped the tears from my eyes and flipped over so I was facing him now. “What the hell do you want?”

                “You okay?” Those were probably the first nice or caring words he ever said to me.

                Of course, I didn’t think so at the time. I scoffed. “What, came to rub it in that your boy Daehyun dumped me? No thanks, just leave me alone .” I turned around again letting my face bury into my pillow.

                There was a moment where the only audible thing was the sound of my sniffling before Himchan started rubbing my back again. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”

                “You didn’t know?!” I sat up full of anger.

I was about to tell him off for not just leaving but he looked like he was about to cry and it made me start crying harder instead. Himchan pulled me closer and I cried into his chest making a mess of his t-shirt. He didn’t complain the whole time. We just rubbed my back and said kind words even as I blamed myself and explained how stupid I was, Himchan would tell me to stop and tell me instead how amazing I was.

I shook my head. “I’m ugly then! That must be the only reason why he broke up with me.”

Himchan pushed me back so he could look into my eyes. “You don’t truly believe that do you?”

“Why not?” I sniffled. “You tell me all the time how ugly I am!”

Himchan’s eyes showed a pained expression. “I never meant it, not even once. I didn’t realize you took some of it to heart.” I shrugged not knowing what to say. “We lie to each other all the time! Do you mean to tell me that you really think I’m the ugliest, most stuck up guy on the planet?”

I shook my head and looked away from him. “No, you’re… decent looking.”

“Yah you punk I’m trying to comfort you here, but don’t start being mean. This is honesty time.” Himchan chuckled.

“Okay… you are really good-looking.”

“There you go.” Himchan smiled and let me rest on his chest again. “And I think you are one of the prettiest girls at school. Daehyun is an idiot for letting you go.”

After that I was too embarrassed to say anything and I ended up crying myself to sleep. When I woke up Himchan wasn’t there. I didn’t see him again until school started up again and I had spent the week prior trying to think of what to say. When we passed each other in the hall though something completely unexpected happened, something that crushed me more than all his harsh words previously.

“There he is.” One of my friends nudged me in Himchan’s direction. “Go be nice.” My group of friends giggled as he walked closer to Himchan.

“He—hey Himchan. I just wanted to say thank—“ My smile dropped and the only think I could do was turn around to watch him continue to walk away.

It wasn’t just my friends who whispered now. The whole hall erupted with the news that Himchan had ignored me for the first time.

Of course I was furious; who did he think he was ignoring me. That’s what I told my friends but inside I felt lost. Thoughts wondering why he had ignored me plagued me the whole day, and the next as it seemed he was avoiding me.

That day I forced us to meet. I waited in the living room of my house in my father’s armchair which had a clear view of the front door. Yongguk opened the door showing me the two boys laughing. Once they saw me though the smiles left their faces. Yongguk looked awkwardly between Himchan and myself as I walked towards them.

“We need to talk.” I glared at Himchan.

He hung his coat on the rack nonchalantly. “Do we?”

“I’ll be in my room.” Yongguk gave me a warning look before passing by me towards his room.

“What do we need to talk about?” Himchan finally broke the ice between us.

“Why have you been ignoring me?”

“Have I?”

“Yes, you have! And I want to know why!” I stomped my foot.

“Maybe I just didn’t see the point in arguing anymore. You are my best friend’s little sister and I’m sure he hates all of our yelling.”

“That never bothered you before!”

“Well maybe it does now!” Himchan yelled back.

“You’re lying!” I accused as I stepped closer getting into his face.

“Does it matter? Lying is what we do! Why do you even care that we aren’t talking? I thought you’d be happy!” Himchan closed more of the distance between them.

“Of course I’m not happy!”

Himchan scoffed. “What you like yelling at me all the time? Now you just sound crazy.”

My eyes started watering up and I couldn’t help it. “Fine, whatever. I don’t know why I wanted to talk to you so badly anyhow.” I turned to walk away so Himchan wouldn’t see the tears that were about to fall.

I was catch off guard as Himchan pulled me back by my arm making me stumble into his chest. “I’m sorry, don’t cry. I didn’t mean it.”

“I—I’m not crying you .” I stumbled on my words.

“I’m sorry I just didn’t know what to do.” Himchan sighed. “I… I really like you and I’ve been trying to deny it for some time now. You are single now and the temptation to hold you was getting stronger every day. I didn’t think I should say anything since things might get awkward since I visit Yongguk all the time.”

I stood there shocked, staring at Himchan’s serious face. Now the tears fell as I was too distracted to hold them back.

“… don’t cry! Please don’t cry.”

All of our meetings went through my head and I really examined my feelings. Why was it I felt sad when he didn’t talk to me? Why did I smile when he would take the time to insult me even when he was with other girls? Not just because he was acknowledging me but because it showed he thought I was important to talk to at least once a day even if he was with someone important.

“I think… I think I like you to.”

“…what?” Himchan said with his shirt sleeve raised to wipe my tears.

“I,” I laughed at how stupid I had been. “I like you too.”

The hand poised to wipe my tears turned into one cupping my face as Himchan bent his head down kissing me hard, desperately as if he was worried the dream would end any second.

Yongguk cleared his throat from the end of the hall. “I’m glad you two are finally together and all, but could you save the intimacy until I’m not around?”

We both blushed and then laughed as we saw each other’s expression. And that brings me to the fifth time I saw Himchan at my house, and from there I stopped counting because this time when he came by it was specifically for me. I opened the front door in the cutest outfit I had been able to find, to see Himchan standing there looking as amazing as ever with flowers.

“Ready for our first date?”

“And that ladies and gentlemen, is the story of how Himchan and I started dating.” I smiled out at the crowd of fancy dressed people. “And if it wasn’t for that first meeting when Himchan accidentally walked in on me in the bathroom, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”

I looked down at Himchan on my right, and saw he was as close to tears as I was. I grabbed his hand with my free one and looked out to the crowd once again. “So a toast,” I raised my glass of champagne. “To the craziest man I know. Because how insane do you have to be to marry the girl who used to say she hated you at least weekly.”