There I stood, on the driveway that led to my new house, my luggage was standing next to me. I was not complaining though, my new job was awesome and my new house was huge. Big enough to share it with someone, preferably with her, but that would never happen, of course. I mean, I’ve been so stupid and…

No.

No, I promised myself to not think about her anymore. She wouldn't be able to make me happy anyway. It was over now. No more games, she probably didn't feel the same about me. I would never ever see her again. Why did I even keep thinking we would work out all this time? That we would fall in love? I’ve been fooling myself all these years. It was time to let go, like she had done years ago. She had a boyfriend, and yeah, although he was a prick towards her and I didn't like him at all, she seemed to love him a lot. They had been a couple for years, two years and approximately three quarters, if I'm correct. But she deserved so much better, he didn't seem to love her as much as she loved him, he took her for granted. He didn't like me either, I’ve always been very close with her, like her best friend. He got jealous at me and told her not to see me as much anymore. Our friendship weakened. I missed her a lot. It was not as if she and I never met each other again, but every time we went to drink something somewhere, he had to come along. It made me cut down on appointments with her, they were not as fun as they used to be. Why did he have to be with her? She was way too precious to be with  someone like -...

Damn, I'm talking about her again, aren’t I? She was not my problem anymore. There was no need to care about her. She didn't even come to say goodbye to me when I left the country. I guess that even our friendship was over, all thanks to that bastard. Well, I didn’t need her. I could also live my life without her. Or… Could I? I don’t know, I don’t remember any time she wasn’t there. I’ve known her since I was five years old, we’d always been best buddies. I was smart and scored very good grades, slightly better than those of others in my class. I always helped her with her homework. Once we fell asleep together, she was holding my hand while she was asleep. I’ll never forget that moment. I’ve kept helping her till we both got out of university and I found a job. She, on the other hand, found a boyfriend.

It wasn’t hard for her to live without me, apparently, so why couldn’t I live without her?

I opened the door and got inside my new house, far, far away from where I used to live. Even before I sat down on the couch, my Kakaotalk alarm rang around 3 times.

‘I’m so sorry, so, so sorry, I went out with JongHyun and… He proposed to me, there was a party after that, I feel so bad that I couldn’t say goodbye to you…’

‘Is there a way for me to make up…?’

‘:(’

It was her. I didn’t know what to say, proposed? So it was official? Why would JongHyun propose to her while I’m leaving? Did he plan this out? Whatever, none of my business. I will play it cool.

‘HE PROPOSED?? CONGRATULATIONS, MY LITTLE GIRL!!! I’m so happy for you! It’s okay, don’t worry, you can come over whenever you like, so you can hide from your soon-to-be-husband, kk!’

I felt terrible, I was not happy for her at all.

Months passed, life over here was pretty good. I did well on my job and had many friends. I had finally let her go, we did text sometimes of course, but I felt that I was finally over her. Until one, random, rainy but warm day in April, it was almost midnight and I was about to go to bed.

The doorbell rang and I opened the door, something that looked like a drowned cat stood on the doorstep, complete with luggage, but I could directly tell who this person was. It was her. I couldn’t believe it.

‘Why are you here?’

 ‘JongHyun… He has been cheating on me for years…,’ she told me.

I looked at her, I knew it. I knew he was not right. I opened my arms and she walked into them. She started to cry again.

‘You know what’s the worst part of this all? All this time I’ve been ignoring you, while you’ve always been there for me. I don’t understand why I wanted to be in his company, but I do know that now I don’t want to anymore.’

I finally forgot about her, let her go, life was good enough to me and now she was back. I was not sure whether I could take this. I stopped hugging her.

‘And what are you going to do next then?’ I asked her.

‘I’ll stay over here for some time, I know this is selfish, but I really need you. I’ll book a hotel, because I understand that you hate me at the moment.’

‘No, it’s ok. You can take the room next to mine. The hotels over here are really expensive. I’m going to bed if you don’t mind.’ I smiled at her. ‘Goodnight.’

I hopped into bed, not sure if I made the right decision. I knew that I was not going to reject her either, she was still special to me. While my head was filled with chaos, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I noticed that I dreamed about her. I hoped I didn’t go back to seeing her in my dreams every night. This was just a one timer, my mind let itself slip, or that was what I hoped.

I had a hard time living with her, she suddenly was everywhere around the house. We didn’t talk that much, we both minded our own business, and that was ok for now. We lived like this for 3 days. That night, when I was almost asleep, I heard someone crying in the room next to mine. I walked over to her, and saw that she was indeed crying. I asked what was wrong. She kept crying and crying. I kneeled next to her, and got patient. I got the whole story out of her, apparently JongHyun had already been cheating on her after they had dated for only a few months. I comforted her, scolded at him with her, laughed with her. At the start of the night, I was sitting on the bed, but somehow I ended up lying next to her. I held her hands tightly, she slowly fell asleep. I held on to her hands all night, determined to not let them go again. After this night, we talked quite often again. We even went out to clubs. We had lots of fun. After a week, I felt the infamous feeling of butterflies flying around in my stomach again, I felt it more than ever before. I thought about her almost every minute. Damn, this wasn’t supposed to happen. I liked her again. Or well, liking? Perhaps this was love. I loved her again. This time I wouldn’t mess it up. I would get closer to her, step by step.

The next day, I made sure we prepared and ate every meal together, we watched movies and played games. We had so much fun till midnight, I fell asleep in her bed again. The next day, we went out, I loved being together with her, she was wonderful. The third day, I took her to a restaurant. Did I still dare to confess to her? What if she really didn’t feel the same? She would leave me heartbroken and I would be devastated. I couldn’t chicken out now, I would do this. We finished eating and walked through the streets. I put my arm around her waist and pulled her closer to me. She looked at me and asked what I was doing, she was blushing a bit. I wondered how I was going to confess to her. I sighed.

‘I’ve been liking you for many years now, and I really liked you a lot. But one day I suddenly noticed that I didn’t like you anymore. No, I started to love you. You, however, didn’t acknowledge my love and I don’t think you ever felt the same. You got a boyfriend and well… I was done for, you could only look at him. But I kept loving you, it hurt so much. I was relieved when I was able to move to here, away from you. I could finally forget you, and now you decided to come after me. Just as I managed to live in peace with myself again, you had to mess it up. When I saw you standing on the doorstep, my heart stopped. I wondered whether it was a dream or not. You and your silly ideas.’

I chuckled and paused for a bit. While I was talking, she had laid her head on my shoulder. I could feel that my heart stopped and the butterflies in my tummy went wild. My head felt light and I could hear my heart beating. I looked at her and her beautiful eyes stared back at me, curiously and patiently waiting for me to continue my story, she was absolutely a wonderful girl. I shook a bit because I was so nervous, I’ll confess to you now, pretty girl.

‘I took you in, I don’t know why I did that, but I did. And, I guess I wasn’t over you at all. The last few days, I’ve been so happy to have met you again. Since you’re here, I’ve dreamed about you every night. I laugh whenever I see you, you make me so happy. Perhaps, this is love from my side again. If we’re together, I’m totally okay. My heart beats faster when I look at you. I can’t stop thinking about you, I think about you every day. Yes, this is love. I love you so much, I don’t understand that you didn’t find out about my feelings. When I see you in my dreams every night, when my heart beats fast while I look at you, I can feel it. And do you remember how we fell asleep with our hands held tight? According to me, we belong together. So I’ll confess to you now, I wonder if you feel and think the same as me.’

We were quiet for a while. I could feel my heart beating, I didn’t think it would work out. It was over, I ruined our friendship and I ruined myself again.

She suddenly spoke up, ‘I’ve always liked you too, but I thought you didn’t feel the same. I thought I annoyed you, then I met JongHyun and I hoped he could distract me from you. It worked pretty well, but since you were gone, I kept thinking about you. I missed you so much. And when I found out what JongHyun did, I really needed you and no one else. I was so happy that you let me in. It would mean the world to me if I could be your girlfriend. If I could be loved by you.’

I hugged her tightly. She lighted me up, a little more every second. Sweet girl. So, after all we actually did fell in love with each other. I started laughing to let go of my nervousness, but I felt like I never wanted to stop laughing, there was nothing better than this. I’m sure she could feel my beating heart. I looked into her eyes.

‘Good, my girl,’ I told her while I chuckled. ‘You can stay with me for as long as you want, it will be our very own Sweet Holiday,’

And then we kissed.

Want to read another story from the book, 'In Between'? Check out this story called 'Monday' written by Tara Lee! :D