I can’t exactly say when it was I started feeling differently about my best friend.

Tora and I met during a crash course on Korean language during high school, back when I was the freakishly tall Chinese exchange student and she was the weird Italian kid with no friends. We’d been partnered together for a writing assignment, and kind of…hadn’t separated since. She was my first point of contact when things got out of hand in my life, and while she couldn’t fix most of it she always listened to me when I ranted. Similarly, if she needed someone objective to talk to about her problems, I was number one on her speed dial. A fanclub had been formed around our friendship in high school, our ‘ship’ name being ‘The Dragon Couple’. I’d heard that there was even a bet going around to see when we would finally become a couple.

Now that I look back on it, I wonder why we hadn’t.

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We’re the best of friends and we share our secrets

She knows everything that is on my mind

But lately something’s changed as I lie awake in my bed

A voice here inside my head softly says

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It was well past midnight, and I should have been asleep. But the potent cocktail of heavy summer heat and heavy thinking about my best friend had me wide awake and wishing I could turn on the air conditioning for at least twenty minutes – long enough to fall asleep to my troubling thoughts.

Why were my thoughts troubling? Because lately I’d been thinking of Tora in a different way. Not in a bad way, but in a way I’d never thought of her before. What kept me awake, though, was the thought of revelation – why hadn’t I noticed how amazing she was before? Before, when we hung out with each other every available moment we had. Before, when we helped each other with assignments even though neither of us had no idea what we were doing and still got good marks for them anyway. Before, when it was just the two of us against the rest of the world. Tora was always by my side through everything – crash Korean courses, lousy teachers giving lame excuses for marking us down because we didn’t understand the language, all that sort of stuff.

I growled quietly and to my side, facing my bedside table and my phone. I grabbed at the device and turned the screen on, a selfie of Tora and I standing on a bridge overlooking a river flashing into view. Tora wore a beautiful smile while I had my trademark cool face on. I unlocked my phone and smiled at the second photo that appeared, an image of Tora smiling at me as she walked a little way ahead, twirling about in the spring sunlight. I traced my finger along the long strands of hair that caught the light and glimmered with life, wondering how I was so lucky to have someone like her in my life.

The device in my hand began to buzz, and I quickly answered it. “Can’t sleep either?” I asked my caller.

“It’s too hot…make it cooler, Kris!” Tora complained on the other end. I laughed quietly and got comfortable on my side so I could talk. I had the feeling this call was going to last a while.

“If I had that sort of power, I’d be a superhero working for the government.” I said to her, “We’d never see each other.”

“No! What would I do without my Galaxy?!” Tora mock-gasped, “That’d totally be your superhero name. Galaxy, the flying weather changer! And his sidekick!” There was a beat, “Who’d be your sidekick?”

“Well, what superpower would you have?”

“Hm…” I imagined Tora tapping her chin as she hummed, the way she always did when she thought about something, “I’d probably have camouflage. Or invisibility. Or maybe something snake-related.”

“What about shedding your skin? Spitting poison? Unhinging your jaw to eat things ten times bigger than your mouth?”

“Oh God Kris, I could never unhinge my jaw.”

“So you wouldn’t mind spitting poison?”

“Nah, that’d be pretty cool.” I laughed as I imagined the bright grin on her face. I knew her well enough to gauge her reactions to things, did that say something about me? Probably, and it would probably be that I was in deep for this girl.

“Maybe I don’t need a sidekick. Maybe I just fly around, save the day, then at the end of it all I return to my mansion and my amazing friend who lives with me.” I said, sounding more childish than I’d intended. My bottom lip jutted out automatically, me quickly retracting it as Tora’s giggles rang through the receiver.

“With the number of times you fell over during PE? You wouldn’t be allowed out of the superhero lair unless you had a sidekick, Kris.” she stated. My pout returned again, “Stop pouting. I can almost hear your lip jutting out.” I blew her a raspberry. She laughed, me joining in with her.

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Why don’t you kiss her?

Why don’t you tell her?

Why don’t you let her see the feelings that you hide?

‘Cause she’ll never know if you never show

The way you feel inside

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I grunted noncommittally, hand supporting chin as I tried to read the next chapter of a class textbook, as Kyungsoo deposited himself next to me in the library and opened a thick textbook in front of himself. “So when are you going to ask Tora out?” In traditional knee-jerk reaction time, my elbow slipped out from underneath my hand and my forehead connected solidly with the book on the table. I groaned aloud, earning amused stares from other students and a disapproving stare from the librarian. Lifting my head, I met Kyungsoo’s impassive gaze with my own pain-laced one.

“What?” was my intelligent answer, a tingling on my forehead that alerted me to a red mark.

“It’s painfully obvious to the rest of us save her that you’re in love with her or something close, so just be a man and make her yours already!” Kyungsoo threatened me with a smack, and I flinched away. Just because he was shorter than me didn’t mean I couldn’t be afraid of him most days.

“Is there another bet going that I should know about?” I asked, narrowing my eyes a little.

“That’s not the point.” There was, and it sounded like Kyungsoo was losing it, “Look, at least kiss her, okay? Neither of you are getting any younger.” Ouch, right in the mid-life crisis.

“I think I’ll take things at my own pace, thanks.” I was probably going to regret sounding so y, but at the same time what right did my friends have to intrude upon my love life or lack thereof? They weren’t in my shoes, they weren’t in danger of destroying the relationship that meant more to me than the relationship I had with my own family.

I looked down at my book again. Wow, I was in it so deep.

Kyungsoo huffed and turned his attention to his own work, the conversation clearly over. I ignored his staring as I focused on my own notes, my concentration wobbly now. Thanks Kyungsoo for putting those thoughts into my head. Now I’m going to be thinking about how I’m such a coward all day.

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Oh, I’m so afraid to make the first move

Just a touch and we could cross the line

Every time she’s near I want to never let her go

Confess to her what my heart knows, hold her close

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Movie nights with everybody in the gang were a weekly thing, held at a different house every week with a different theme every week too. This week it was Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s turn to host the movie night, with the theme being comedy. I sometimes dreaded this genre, especially if it happened to fall on Chanyeol because he had a nasty habit of picking obviously cheesy comedies that you couldn’t help but laugh at and later shame yourself over.

Said person was busy setting up the DVD player when I arrived, having picked Tora up first. He looked up as we entered the living room, trademark grin on his face. “Baek! The lovebirds are here!” Tora and I scowled at him as Baekhyun entered the living room, holding two bowls of popcorn. His rectangular smile was fixed firmly on his face when he saw us, my scowl deepening.

“Don’t you dare…” came the snarl from beside me. The smile dropped a little, and the resident diva said nothing. He moved to place the bowls on the coffee table, Chanyeol moving to their DVD cabinet to pick out the first movie. Tora walked past me and deposited herself on the loveseat, folding her arms while trying to smooth out her scowl. I sat next to her, our legs brushing, as the others began to file in slowly and take their spots in front of the television.

“So what’s the first movie?” asked Jongin from the floor in front of Tao’s legs. Chanyeol proudly held up the case to the movie, earning a collective groan.

“Really?” asked Jongdae.

“Shut up, you all love it.” The movie was inserted into the DVD player, and the opening titles rolled.

About a third of the way through the movie I felt weight on my shoulder, so I looked down. “I’m tired…” Tora yawned, rubbing at one of her eyes with a fist, “I have a project due next week that’s only halfway finished, Chanyeol missed my text about not being able to eat the popcorn Baekhyun made, and…and…” She yawned again, wider, “And I’ve had to clean Gran’s house this week because she’s been doing double shifts at the hospital.” My heart pulled for my best friend, so I let her stay there.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought you here.” I said, grabbing her hand. She tightened her grip and shook her head.

“It’s not your fault, Kris.” She got comfortable against the side of my body and continued to watch the movie. When it ended, she felt heavier than before.

“You might want to be careful with your Sleeping Beauty when you take her home.” Yixing pointed to Tora’s sleeping form as he stood up to leave. I nodded at him and carefully edged myself away from her so I could take her home. When I pulled up out the front of her apartment block I took some time to study her sleeping face. She looked so peaceful, so much more carefree than what she is in the real world. A lock of hair had fallen in front of her face, my hand reaching up shakily to move it. Would this be the tipping point for us? Is she just pretending to sleep, in which case she’ll know what I did? Is she playing a cruel prank on me?

The hair was moved, and Tora remained asleep.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d held and carried her inside her apartment, using the key she’d given me to let myself in. The smell of cherry blossoms assaulted my sense of smell as I navigated all the fallen paper and art supplies to Tora’s bedroom, laying her gently on the emerald green comforter she liked to sleep with regardless of temperature. Brushing more hair from her forehead, I smiled softly at her before quietly leaving her apartment and locking the door behind me.

Again, I exhaled a breath and put a hand to my racing heart. When could I tell her?

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Why don’t you kiss her?

Why don’t you tell her?

Why don’t you let her see the feelings that you hide?

‘Cause she’ll never know if you never show

The way you feel inside

=^w^= =^w^= =^w^= =^w^= =^w^=

“So Kyungsoo tells me that the Dragon Couple isn’t a couple yet.”

“Go drown in BB cream.” Baekhyun crossed one leg over the other in a prim fashion, fixing me with a pout that had me ignoring him in favour of eating my lunch. Sitting in front of me was Luhan, who gave Baekhyun a pointed look.

“We just want to help, Kris.” said my fellow countryman, “We know how much your friendship with Tora means to you.”

“Oh good, at least you two aren’t afraid of destroying a relationship built over many years.” I rolled my eyes and returned my thoughts to my food, ignoring the whispering Baekhyun and Luhan were doing in front of me. I get that my friends are trying to help me and that’s great, but really. This is something I want to do on my own, to show Tora that I’m serious about her and not just trying to alienate myself from her. It had taken several all-nighters and three more movie nights of her falling asleep on me, but I’d finally settled my feelings.

“So what are you going to do?” Baekhyun asked, snapping me from my reverie. I turned my head slowly to face him, still wearing my unimpressed face.

“I’m planning that out.” I replied.

“You mean you’re going to ask Tora out on a proper date?” Luhan sounded more excited than I felt.

“I was going to disguise my intentions, but yes.” Both my friends began to squeal, drawing the attention of passers-by to our table. I buried my face in my hands as talk turned to why Luhan and Baekhyun were behaving like children. As they continued to behave childishly I picked myself up and left the scene.

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What would she say?

I wonder would she just turn away

Or would she promise me that she’s here to stay

It hurts me to wait

I keep asking myself

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“What would you do if someone wanted to confess their feelings for you?”

I didn’t have to look at Tora to know she was giving me a confused look. would be open slightly, her eyes would be wide and her eyebrows would be raised to her hairline.

“Where did that come from, Kris?” she asked me. I shrugged.

“I’m just curious. So what would you do?” I repeated. Tora hummed, rolling a little closer to me. The grass felt warm under my exposed skin, but now that she was closer to me it felt downright freezing.

“I’d probably ask them to check their eyesight.” she chuckled, her body quivering with her laughter. Her answer didn’t help my nerves any, even though I knew she was joking, “I’m joking. I honestly don’t know what I’d do; it’d probably depend on who was confessing to me.” That made me pause.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, you know I’m not the most typical looking of the girls out there…” That didn’t matter to me; you’re beautiful! “But if it were someone I knew, for example you, then I’d probably return their feelings because I’d feel the same way.” I balked. Was that…a roundabout confession on her behalf? No, I couldn’t get my hopes up. Not yet, anyway; I still had time.

“Okay, so let’s say I did confess that I liked you. More than a friend. What would you say?”

“I’d say that it was about time you said something.” I sat up and stared. Tora had a serious expression on her face as she looked right back at me, something unreadable in her eyes. That threw me off. I was used to reading how Tora was feeling just by looking into her eyes, because she was the sort of person who could hide her body language but not her true emotions.

“You mean…you’d like it if I confessed to you?” I stammered. She sat up also, me moving back before we bumped heads. One of her hands reached out to mine, placed over the top of my own to prevent movement on my behalf. Her skin felt warm and slightly calloused from her weaponry training, her nails gently scraping across my skin.

“I wouldn’t like it.” She leaned closer to me, “I would love it.” Her face flushed the colour of a strawberry, while mine felt like it was the colour of a cooked lobster. She stopped moving closer to me when she was only a breath away, her expression changed from nothing to slight rejection and hopefulness.

“I probably took your chance away, didn’t I?” She leaned away, turning her head away from me, “I got in first, and that’s probably not what you wanted; you’d have wanted to get in first and…” She kept rambling on and on about my missed opportunity. All I could do was listen, a smile on my face as she grew more and more flustered with the situation. I couldn’t help but think that it was adorable, her worrying about my reaction more than anything. To silence her I used my free hand to pull her into my chest, her face squishing against the right hand side. The hand I used settled on her upper back in a hug, my other hand going to her lower back.

“It’s okay. I know the feeling’s mutual now.” I replied, lowering my head to run the tip of my nose along her jugular vein. She relaxed against me and shifted to better lie against me, most likely feeling my racing heart beat underneath her ear.

“You have to do it properly now.” she stated.

“What?”

“Confess to me. Properly. Right now.”

Challenge accepted.

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Why don’t you kiss her?

Why don’t you tell her?

Why don’t you let her see the feelings that you hide?

‘Cause she’ll never know if you never show

The way you feel inside

=^w^= =^w^= =^w^= ^w^= =^w^=

“I would’ve written something to say if you’d given me some time…” I put on a pout as Tora turned to face me front on, sitting upon her knees with her hands on her thighs. I rubbed my sweaty palms over my own thighs as I struggled to find words to come out of my mouth. Who knew that improvisation was so hard?

“It was either this, or just up and kissing you one day. I think you can deal with a little embarrassment.” Tora stated, bouncing a little in her spot. A kiss, eh? Now I had an idea.

“Tora Bianca Altona,” I grinned at her when I used her middle name because I could, “I like you. I’ve liked you for a long time and it’s really hard to put a start time on these feelings I have. I didn’t want to tell you because I was afraid of what this would’ve done to our friendship. I was scared that it would’ve ruined any chance we would’ve had of staying together. I’m sorry about that, by the way.” Tora giggled and motioned for me to continue, “I guess…what I’m trying to say I’ve already said before. I like you.” There was a long silence afterward, the both of us just soaking in the other’s presence.

“Wow…” Tora exhaled, blinking, “That was…impromptu. But it was really sweet. And exactly your style, too.” She laughed as I blinked at her, the joke already overused. I smirked, pushing her down onto the grass with my upper body. She squealed as I ran my fingers up and down her sides, tickling more of her beautiful laughter out of her beautiful mouth. Speaking of …

“Are you ready to give up yet?” I asked, pausing in my torture of her. Tora gasped as she caught her breath slowly, her chest heaving each time she air into her lungs.

“Never!” she cried, laughing again. I smirked again and leaned down, swallowing her sound with my mouth. I felt her tense underneath me for three seconds before slowly returning my kiss. Her lips tasted of mango, which – coincidentally – was the flavour of the smoothie I’d bought for her only a couple of hours ago. Funny how coincidence works, isn’t it?

My lungs scratched at my ribcage, demanding at me to reinflate them, so I slowly pulled away. “I think that’s my style, too.” I murmured, reaching to Tora’s forehead to brush stray hairs away. She took a few moments to breathe, reaching up to my face to run her fingers over my cheek.

“Can we do that again?” she asked timidly, “That was really nice.”

“From now on, I don’t think you need to ask.” I replied as I was pulled down again.

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Why don’t you kiss her? (Tell her you love her)

Why don’t you tell her? (Tell her you need her)

Why don’t you let her see the feelings that you hide?

‘Cause she’ll never know if you never show

The way you feel inside

=^w^= =^w^= =^w^= =^w^= =^w^=

Another movie night, this time at Jongdae’s house. His theme was animation, and he thought it’d be a great joke if he played ‘Mulan’ first. Yixing, Luhan, Tao and I all gave him sarcastic laughter to which he replied with a bow and a mock salute. As the movie rolled through the story, I was distracted by the burrowing creature into my side trying to get my attention.

“What?” I whispered to Tora. She looked up at me with a wide grin on her face.

“You’re tickling me.” she whispered back, pointing to the hand on her side moving in small circles. I smirked and moved it a little faster, feeling her squirm against me and watching her kick out.

“Ow!”

“Sorry, Jongin.”

“Just keep your lovemaking to a nothing, you two.”

“Hey! None of that in my house!” Jongdae yelled over Shan-Yu digging himself out of the avalanche. Tora and I just laughed at him, Tora gesturing to our bodies.

“We’re still clothed, Jongdae. How many times have you and Joonmyun been on that couch ?” she countered, pointing to the couch that Chanyeol, Tao and Minseok sat on. All three of them immediately stood up and found alternate seating. Jongdae opened his mouth to argue, but instead settled for a ‘well played’ expression and a shrug, returning his attention to Mulan riding into the Forbidden City to warn Shang about the Huns. I felt her settle into my side again and hugged her closer, my hands avoiding her sides so as to avoid another kicking session (though sometimes Jongin did deserve to be kicked).

“You’re amazing.” I murmured into Tora’s hair, kissing the crown of her head. She looked up at me and puckered her lips, me complying with the silent request instantaneously.

“You are too.” she whispered back, a smile on her face.

The smile was still in place when I kissed her again…and again…and again.

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Why don’t you kiss her…

=^w^= =^w^= =^w^= =^w^= =^w^=

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Author's Note: Cue author's rant of "This is not my best work" and the whole "TL;DR" thing. I'm going with the first one only.

-GuardianOfTheDawn :3