The Twenty-Seventh Tale

Jaehwan swept a few wet strays of hair from his face. He sighed as he leaned onto his seat, staring aimlessly at the pelting rain droplets that remained and skidded along the surface. 

A light sneeze and sniffling noise interrupted the silence. Jaehwan grumbled, giving the girl next to him a fleeting look before distancing himself away from her.

The girl wrinkled her nose. "Mean..."

"You'll pass it on," he flatly remarked.

"You treat it as if I have a disease."

Jaehwan shrugged, focusing his attention on the rain. He refused to meet her gaze, afraid of raising the seething ire within him. He had been in a foul mood all day—cursing, unintentionally breaking things, and making constant irrational mistakes. 

"D-did I... do something wrong?" 

To say Jaehwan was shock was an understatement. The girl had always been awfully perceptive, which should not have surprised him at all. But then again, he always tended to forget a lot of things especially when he wasn't paying proper attention. 

Pathetic, he scorned. They've been friends for as long as he could remember, and yet, he still didn't know her as much as she knew him. 

He didn't know her as much as that other guy did.

He couldn't get off the disgruntled feeling in the pit of his stomach whenever he saw her with that other guy. It angered him how both of them were so close despite knowing each other only a month ago. 

What he couldn't do, the other guy could.

What he could do, the other guy would outclass him.

What he thought was only him and her, had turned into the other guy and her.

Jaehwan felt so out of place, like a third-wheeler in a typical romantic film.

At first, he had thought that the years they've known and spent with each other was nothing compared to the similar interests both her and the other guy shared.

He had been downright wrong.

The two were almost inseparable. He could only stand behind the shadows, left behind as they created their own little perfect world of utopia. Jaehwan felt that it wasn't his place to intervene in their close and sunny relationship.

It hurt. 

It wasn't fair.

He had known her for so long... Everything was perfect until he came.

It pained him even more to know that she only saw him as an over protective older brother who couldn't even remember his own birthday to save his life.

Why?

Why couldn't he break through those gigantic walls? Why couldn't he enter her—their world? Why was it that he was walking alongside them, yet he was unable to reach them? Why was it that he felt as if he was drowing underwater, no matter how much he screamed, no matter how much he cried, no one was able to hear him?

Why, goddammit, did she had to fall for that guy?

"Here."

The girl blinked in shock as a long trench coat was wrapped around her form. Jaehwan patted her head and settled himself right next to her, all the while draping an arm over her shoulders.

A loose smile crept on his lips. 

You weren't good enough to reach her.

He knew that their relationship would always remain the same as it is. He knew that he couldn't win her over like how the other guy had successfully managed to win her. But Jaehwan thought... 

Maybe, maybe things were fine just the way it was. If she was happy, then he was fine too.

He wasn't.

For now, he would cherish every moment of his life that he spent with her. Starting now, he will try to remember—to treasure—and try not to forget all the very special things about her.