Kang Daesung doesn't know how many minutes have already passed as he stared at the girl in front of him, yet he didn't feel like it was enough to appreciate her beauty. He watched as Woori took out some of her chips and held it in front of his face, while smiling.

A smile that he never seem to escape from, even in his dreams.

“Hello, earth to Kang Daesung!!” He woke up from his trance when the girl in front of him said while laughing before continuing, “Yo, where have you been? You have been staring at the air for like 5 minutes!” to which he only ignores and just decided to take the chips from her hand.

That was, when Woori retracted her hand that is holding the chip before he could take it. “What the heck?” he retorted. “Who says I want to give this to you?” She asked jokingly before Daesung could even say anything more, making him widened his eyes and then laughed because of how childish she acts.

That was one of the many traits that became the reason why he fell for her.

That night, they went to the cinema because she had been wanting to watch Poltergeist since three weeks ago. She is a big fan of horror movies, unlike him who much prefer children fairytales over horror since he was scared of ghosts. If he could be with her, he would always be willing to watch horror, even if it means he would be peeing his pants out of scariness.

He munched the popcorn one after another, when he felt someone slapped his arm. “Stop eating! It will be finished before the movie even started, sheesh.” She nagged while pouting, he found that to be extremely adorable that made him do things that she hates just so he could see that expression.

Halfway through the movie, he could not be sure if he could be there any longer. He felt nauseous, his heart was throbbing like it would fall from his chest as he watched the clown appeared on the huge screen before he screamed, joining in the sounds of screams from other people in the room.

He could hear the sound of laughter coming from Woori who is seated beside him,then he felt an arm enveloping him in a small hug while a hand rubbed his back in a consoling manner. “Why do you always agree to watch this kind of movies when you know you will be having nightmares after?” She whispered and sighed.

Because I want to be with you, idiot.

Those words only managed to echo in his mind as he smiled into the hug. He would never find any courage to utter those words out loud, because he knew exactly what she would reply to him after.

The first time he talked about relationship was six years ago, when they were both 15 years old.

    Both of them were hanging out at the playground, with Woori sitting on one of the swings and Daesung pushing her, making her swing back and forth cheerfully. “Don’t you think you should find a boyfriend by now? I mean, you can’t keep asking me to go everywhere with you forever.” Daesung began to ask, interrupting the comfortable silence between them. It not like I’m complaining either, his mind spoke out. He could see how Woori’s smile automatically turned into a frown, as her feet stopped the swing from moving before looking up to look at him. “You do know I don’t do romance. Romance and Park Woori is not meant to be in one sentence.” She replied with a sigh. “I know, but not all men are like your dad and brother. There are a lot of good guys out there, you know.” Like me, Daesung continued in his mind. She only replied back to the statement while shaking her head and ended the conversation with an “I don’t want to think about it. It frightens me.”

The second time was when they were 21, but the answer was still the same. Even after all these years, her point of view in love, relationship and romance have never changed even once.

He knew exactly why she thinks romance is something so frightening; she was too afraid of letting someone other than her knowing everything about her inside out as she thought that someone will use her weakness against her. In short, she does not trust people as much as she trust herself, even when they were together she never told him any secrets or even what she was feeling at certain moment.

But Daesung saw right through her and knew about her weakness and insecurities.

He snapped out of his thought when Woori held an ice cream cone in front of his face while saying, “Take it. You want this flavor right?” to which he only smiled as a reply before taking it from her hands.

“Dae, what are you thinking about these days? You seemed so… off.” Woori asked while walking with him side by side, her expression was filled with worry as she looked at him. “I’m just thinking about something.” He answered shortly, not wanting to disclose any of his thoughts to the subject just beside him.

He was in love with Woori for as long as he could remember, but knowing Woori and her fear to romance made him sure that she would reject him as soon as he confess about his feelings to her.

He was not willing to sacrifice his friendship with Woori but he was not sure if he could keep his feelings to himself any longer.

It has been way too long, and he needed to let it out.

“About what? Care to tell me the details?” His train of thoughts was once again interrupted by Woori’s question. He only stared at the girl’s face, he was unable to answer that even if he wanted to.

Even before he could plan out what was he going to say, his mouth betrayed him.

“About you.” 

Both Woori and Daesung were shocked by what came out from Daesung’s mouth. Woori looked down to her feet and deeply sighed, when she felt tiny drops of water falling on her head. Wait, is it raining? Her mind questioned.

Her question was answered when the rain suddenly poured down heavily, making her hugged Daesung’s arm by instinct and held her other hand before her head at a futile attempt to shield herself from the heavy rain.

To her surprise, Daesung let go of her hand that was hugging his arm and intertwined their hands, before entangling their fingers together. She could feel her breath stopped at the romantic gesture before shaking off the feeling from her head.

But she cannot shook off the feeling.

It was weird, because she was really sure that she already shooked off any romantic feelings towards Daesung three years ago; even when she felt butterflies in her stomach whenever Daesung smiled at her, or even when she felt light-headed when they hugged each other.

“Don’t you remember how we used to run outside of the house when it’s raining?” The man in front of her said, while looking at her with a smile. “Let’s do it again today.” He finally said with a tinge of excitement in his voice.

As if on cue, they began to run to nowhere under the pouring rain, smiling widely at each other while remembering the times they had done the same thing while they were still kids.

Suddenly, Daesung hugged her and held her high before spinning her around since she was way shorter than he was. The sound of their laugh filled the air as the smell of asphalt invaded their nose.

Daesung brought his face close to Woori’s neck before whispering, “I love you.”

As much as he wished she would not hear it, he knew she heard it despite the sound of the pouring rain. He could feel her body tensed the moment he said those words.

Woori pulled out of his embrace and smiling at him before she said something that made him widened his eyes out of shock.

He could not believe his ears.

“I love you too.”

He swore he was at a loss of words when Woori continued, “But I need time. You do understand, right?” with a stare that mirrored the anxiety she was feeling when she thought about relationship.

He understood, he knew her more than she knew herself. Both of them knew everything about each other inside out, but the feelings they had for each other was something both of them never expected.

“Of course I will wait. I will help you overcome that fear, step by step. Are you with me?” He promised, while holding up his right hand with a wide smile that expressed how he actually felt in his heart.

“Yes, I’m with you.”