It was a well known fact that Chen was a noona-lover. Not even for a specific noona, but in general, for all older females of all shapes and sizes. I was never quite sure when this obsession had started, but from the time we were young, while the rest of us children played games such as hide-and-seek or tag, Chen would be sitting with the older girls; braiding their hair, telling jokes, and making them laugh. The boys had at first, causing Chen—previously Jongdae—to turn an impossible shade of scarlet and profusely deny the statement. However, over the years he embraced this fact and took it as a compliment, morphing the then bullies into followers who sought his wisdom and polished ways of wooing the opposite gender. Even with his sagely experience, there wasn't much Chen could do to help these needy individuals. What he did came very naturally, and there was no way in heck was he ever going to let those grimy, greasy, hormonal boys lay a finger on his beloved noonas. Unfortunately, I didn't fall into the this category which is why whenever I was brought to subject, Chen would immediately say: "Go ahead, mess with Melli, she's the least of my concern." Or at least I would assume he said that. We'll talk more on this later.

Chen loved his noonas, and they in turn loved him. They loved his laugh and the way the corners of his mouth curled up when he smiled. They loved how he whined and drawled out the words 'waeee' and 'hajimaaa.' They loved his Adam's apple and his left piercing that gleamed in the sunlight. They loved his crystal clear singing, dansheen masheen ways, and how great he was in his rice-to-water measurements—or at least I appreciated that last bit.

Overall, Chen was an amazing guy, and upon entering high school, noonas and younger girls alike were practically throwing themselves at his feet, causing him to drop his old name Jongdae and pick up the new 'Chen.' But besides that, he basically kept all his old habits and ties the same, that included keeping me by his side: Melli. The bro. The homie. The compadre. The chingu. Someone he was comfortable enough to have skinship with. Viewed in the light of everything ranging from clever, witty, funny, athletic, but God forbid girly and feminine. How it had turned out this way was probably due to the fact that Chen and I have known each other since preschool, when I laughed at him for wetting his pants and his older brother had to come rescue him with a clean pair. Tears and fighting ensued, including the telling of a teacher, which led to the beautiful relationship we had to this day. However, the boy still denied the incident ever happened.

Another strange thing that took place upon entering high school was that I had reached some form of revelation. Seeing all these girls pining after Jongdae—the boy was obviously loving the attention—caused something to stir in me. I initially thought that it was just me being overprotective, or jealous, or envious, but it wasn't any of those. I was angry... and afraid. Angry because I was here all this time but Chen only had eyes for the noonas and hardly saw me as a girl. And afraid because the noonas were finally taking notice of him. I feared that I was going to lose him.

They would never be able to appreciate Chen as much as I would. They wouldn't know his quirks, how his mind functions, that Saturdays were holy days for all-nighters and Sundays were for sleeping in. They wouldn't know a lot of things. And with all these strange thoughts that had kept me up nights on end, what I could not wrap my head around was the very reason why I was thinking like this. The idea of Chen dating someone else, or the fact that he hardly viewed me as a girl wasn't supposed to bother me so much. I was the bro. The homie. The compadre. The chingu. It didn't make sense. That is, until I came to the realization that I wanted to be his noona.

Wow.

I wanted to be Jongdae's noona.

I must have been crushing on him hard for quite some time now.

And I was already in too deep to quit.

~~~~~

"Hey Melli, have you ever met Gayeon?"

The two of us were now trudging through a field of freshly-cut grass; the shoelaces of my cleats knotted tightly and duffel bag hanging low from his shoulder. It was the day before Valentine's, and throughout the entire month of February, I had been working up the nerve to confess to Jongdae.

"The senior?"

"Yeah, the one with the sparkly eyes."

"What about her?"

He smiled. "Today she heard me singing in the halls with Chanyeol and the rest of the team. We weren't even being serious. Just singing along to Uptown Funk. She stopped to listen to the chorus part, and then after we got past that, she came over and tapped me on the shoulder to say that I sing well. Can you believe that? Just me! There were ten of us and she only stopped to tell me!" Chen sighed dreamily. "What do you think, Melli? What could she have meant by that?"

"I think she was just saying that you sing well because you actually do, Jongdae."

"But couldn't there be a possibility that she actually likes me? You can never really tell."

"Well a lot of girls like you, but I just think Gayeon was giving you a compliment. That's not something to overthink."

Chen stomped his foot and jutted out his bottom lip. "Why do you have to be like that," he whined. "At least let me dream of dating a noona."

I rolled my eyes at his childish behavior. A few yards away, I spotted our teams gathered at opposite ends of the field, preparing their gear.

Turning back to a pouting Jongdae, I said, "Enough with your noona obsession. We're already here at pract