SEUNGHYUN   I’m a prick.   I’m an .   I’m a bastard.   I’m selfish.   I’m a sadist.   Or maybe a masochist.   What did I expect to get from this? I think I’ve seriously gone crazy.   “But the wedding’s tomorrow!” she cried.   “I know,” I said with a sigh. Yes, I very well know the wedding’s tomorrow. I don’t need reminders. I ing know it every second ever since they decided when they’ll tie the knot.   “Then why?” she asked. “Why can’t you go? Why are you canceling on me now?”   She has always been a cry baby. I reached out to wipe the tears away from her face. “I just can’t. . .”   “I want you to be there,” she insisted. “Tomorrow’s a very special day for me and I want everyone special to me to be there. Please.”   How did I end up here? I suddenly want to turn back time and just lay in my bed or play with Hye Ji all day. But nope, I can’t turn back now. So I stayed in my bed the moment I woke up a while ago, staring at the ceiling, thinking about her and her wedding tomorrow. Next thing I know, I was already standing in front of her telling her I’m ditching her wedding.   Yeah, i’m considerate and sensitive that way.   “I thought seeing you happy would be enough for me to move on,” I started. The moment the words left my mouth, I suddenly want to take them back but instead of stopping, my mouth seemed to have find a brain of its own. “I thought seeing you happy would be enough to give me strength and courage to stand there and watch you being taken away from me forever.”   She shook her head. “I’m still going to be here, Seunghyun. Yes, I’m going away for our honeymoon but you still have me.”   I laughed and I flinched at how empty it sounded. “You know what I’m talking about, Sandara.”   “I love you,” she suddenly said. “You know that, right?”   I know. I ing know that but I also know it’s not enough for me to be in Jiyong’s place. I know it’ll never be in the same way I love her. “I know that, Dara.”   “But I want you to be there,” she mumbled helplessly.   I suddenly want to punch myself and realized how desperate I’ve been to see how much she’d care. I was being petty. I was being desperate. But I’m starting to wonder if seeing her distraught like this was worth it to soothe my pettiness.   “I can’t. . .”   I’m a ing coward.   I’m a ing spineless being.   We stood there in silence. She silently let her tears roll down. I wanted to wipe her tears away again but I didn’t because I didn’t deserve it. I don’t have the right to dry her tears away when I was the cause of it. I’ve seen her cry and break down a lot of times before because of Jiyong and I hated him for it, I even thought he didn’t deserve her for all the pain he put her through but I’m doing the same thing to her now. It may not be as cruel or as hurtful as what he did, but the end result’s still the same. I’m hurting her.   It was a while later when her tears finally stopped flowing. She then started doing weird faces, making me raise a brow at her. “What are you doing?”   “Exercise,” she answered. “My face gets bloated whenever I cry. Jiyong would take just one look at me and would know I’ve been crying. Although I don’t really like you right now since you’re ditching me on a very special day, that’s really not enough reason for me to not want you in one piece.”   “I think I could take him,” I told her.   “I know you have skills,” she agreed, still doing weird faces. “But you do realize he is Kwon Jiyong, right? He might have been behaving really well recently, thanks to yours truly but I don’t want to risk it.”   I snorted. “Look at you boasting your man to me.”   She stopped doing weird faces and turned serious. “I love you, Seunghyun. I do. I want you to be part of my life, our lives. I don’t want us to be awkward. I know it’s difficult right now but I hope. . . I hope you won’t totally shut me out of your life. I don’t have a lot of true friends and I’ve already lost some of them. I don’t want to lose anyone anymore.”   “That’s not fair. . .” I accused her.       JIYONG   I looked up the moment I heard the door to our room opened and closed. I immediately frowned the moment I saw the forced bright smile on her face. But the forced smile was immediately replaced with something else the moment she saw me. Her eyes got fixed on my bare chest. “You took a shower!” she said in an accusing tone.   “Yes,” I stated the obvious as i dried my hair with a towel. “Why do you sound like I’ve done some heinous crime?”   “We could have showered together!”   “We did shower together a while ago but you decided to get sweaty and all,” I returned in an accusing tone.   She blushed hard and I could just tell she was reminded of the things we did a while ago before she said she had to meet up with someone. I was itching to ask her who that person was but I didn’t. She’ll eventually tell me, when she’s ready. It wasn’t a nice feeling - waiting for her to tell me who it was and what they talked about. It’s difficult but I know I had to wait. It’s not that I don’t trust her. I trust her. I just don’t trust people around her. I’ve witnessed how gullible she could be. I’ve experienced it firsthand.   “We could have showered together again!” she suddenly burst out.   I can’t help but chuckle. “Come here,” I gently ordered and suddenly had the urge to laugh my head off. I’ve never associated myself to softness. . . well, not until I met her. But any thought of laughter was knocked out of me as she ran the distance between us and threw herself at me. It took me by surprise that it made me stumble back down to bed. I wrapped my arms around her waist, enjoying the feel of how soft and tiny she is.   My chest suddenly swelled with pride upon seeing her genuinely smiling this time. I put that there. I tucked a few strands of her hair covering her face back into her ear. “There’s my smile,” I murmured as I lifted my head up to give her a quick kiss on the lips.   She frowned and pouted at the same time. “What was that?” she demanded.   “That was a kiss,” I answered.   “That wasn’t a kiss!” she huffed, glaring at me.   Damn but she’s so ing adorable. “If that wasn’t a kiss, then I don’t know what is.”   Her expression suddenly changed. A knowing grin lit up her face and I could just spot a glint of mischievousness in her eyes. “I think I should teach you what a kiss should be and how to properly kiss.”   “Would you, now?”   “You should not get yourself into marriage if you don’t know how to please your woman, young man.”   My eyes narrowed. “What other pleasures does a woman know aside from clothes and jewelries?” I asked, playing along.   “Tsk, you sure are so naive, mister. I confess myself, disappointed with this discovery.”   I smirked. “Then I am at your mercy, madam.”   She giggled and the sound of it made me smile. She suddenly gave me quick succeeding pecks on the lips. It wasn’t long before it turned into a full blown openmouthed kiss. . . with tongue. I started rubbing my hand up and down her spine while my other hand went to her nape, keeping her in place. She then broke the kiss only to start kissing her way along my jaw and eventually to my collarbones. “Hmm,” she humbled as he a droplet of water off of me.   “Shirt off,” I hoarsely whispered.   She straightened up and adjusted herself to straddle me. She looked down at me with a grin and raised her arms up. “Take it off of me,” she returned.   I pushed myself up and complied. My mouth immediately attached itself on a sweet spot on her neck as I reached out behi