I really like you
Jangmi walked to the classroom with Sunoo by her side, clinging onto his arm unconsciously. She wrote the letter last night, folded it neatly, and slid it into an empty folder so that it wouldn't end up crumpling in her bag. While her best friend was rambling about his random musings that day, she found herself getting lost in thought as she tried to determine the right time to drop it in Sunghoonʼs locker—and it didn't go unnoticed by him. He didn't mind that she wasn't paying much attention; in fact, he enjoyed seeing her far-off look of wonderment, a complete contrast to how she was usually the one paying full attention.
"Thinking about Sunghoon hyung?" Sunoo nudged her teasingly, earning a playful hit to his shoulder. "From this moment on, your life will change!" he added excitedly, not caring if she would find him and his words a bit annoying.
Even if she looked slightly annoyed, she couldn't help but be confused. Why was he so excited? And how big of a change was he even talking about?
"He doesn't like me like that, okay? I just need to confess to him through this letter and save myself from getting my heart broken," she told Sunoo with a sigh. To be honest, she found the whole situation unsettling. Imagining a rejection already hurt, but having to imagine being rejected by Sunghoon felt way worse. He was already such a big part in her life now, and she didn't want to lose him. If he didn't like her that way, she would force herself to live with the pain and awkwardness for the rest of her life if it meant having him stay in her life.
Sunoo pulled Jangmi closer to him to grab her attention. "When are you even planning to give the letter? We just passed his locker," he pointed to the familiar spot. She instantly shook her head. "Maybe lunch time?"
"Why? The anticipation will kill you—and I know it."
"Imagine how awkward lunch would be if I planned to drop the letter now," she explained in a panicked manner, making Sunoo laugh. He turned to her with a reassuring smile. "You really need to relax."
She didn't even understand why she was overthinking so much. Of course, there was a chance that he liked her back, but it was only slim. As much as she wanted to just follow his advice, she couldn't get herself to do so. Her mind was too preoccupied with imagined words of rejection coming from his lips.
"By the way, how did you explain my message to your brother?" He asked randomly, turning his head back to her sharply with an uneasy smile. Jangmi chuckled lightly, giving Sunoo a little reassurance. "I just told him the whole thing and explained. He said he wasn't mad that I liked Sunghoon oppa, he was just annoyed that I hid it from him."
Sunoo nodded and sighed in relief. He really didn't mean to send the message to Jay, but his fingers unconsciously pressed the last person he messaged—which was usually Jangmi. Apparently, the last person he messaged was her older brother, replying to a message that asked if he wanted konjac jelly from home. ("By the way, here's the jelly my brother promised you," she said as she fished out the mango-flavored packet from her pocket and handed it to him.)
"Are you mad at me?"
"Not going to lie, I was annoyed a little bit," she said nonchalantly. "But to be honest, I think I should be thanking you instead."
Sunoo could not believe his ears. If he were Jangmi, he would be ignoring himself the whole day. He would definitely not be thanking himself. In fact, he felt guilty for having to indirectly force his best friend to come clean to her older brother.
As if she read his mind, Jangmi laughed. "Just think of it as one less thing to worry about. So, thank you," she smiled at him, sending him a small wave of relief once more. The guilt wasn't completely gone, but it had become more bearable now.
"What if I buy you the strawberry almonds from the convenience store later? My treat!"
"You're already forgiven, Sunoo! No need to buy me food."
Sure, the wrong message was one of the reasons why he offered to buy one of her favorite snacks, but that wasn't completely the case. He also offered it as a way to ease his best friend's nervousness due to the letter. "I will still buy it for you anyways. You need all the help you can get to help you calm down today," he smiled reassuringly.
Jangmi was instantly brought back to the main event of that day: the letter. She whined as the thought of Sunghoon reading her letter now made her heart pound against her ribcage. As they finally entered the classroom, she gulped forcibly. Sunoo sat in Beomgyuʼs place in the meantime since he was still nowhere to be seen.
She called for her best friend's attention making him turn to her; ripping his gaze away from the students who were huddled by the blackboard. "Yes?" He asked her, quickly taking notice of the worry in her features.
"I totally forgot that him and I walk to training together," she exasperated, running her hand through her hair. The tension would be too awkward for the both of them; and she was too scared to see his reaction. How would she face him after him reading the letter? She even thought about the possibility of postponing it and slipping it in after class so that he could see it the next day, but the cycle would just repeat itself. Better to get it done now, or nothing will happen.
Sunoo was about to speak when he heard Jangmiʼs cellphone vibrate in her pocket once. He pointed at her pocket and watched her take out the device to read the message from whoever texted her. She looked at her best friend with wide eyes before reading it out loud. "Jangmi, I won't be able to walk with you to training later. I'm so sorry. I promise to buy you strawberry milk," the girl read Sunghoon's message monotonously before sighing in relief.
"I won't get to see him until tomorrow! This is a good sign!"
"Why is it a good sign again?"
She stood up from her chair to pet Sunooʼs head as she cracked a small smile. "It gives me time to prepare myself before I see him and brace for the rejection."
He wanted to laugh at how dense his best friend was and spill everything right at that moment: Sunghoon likes her, and he was planning to confess as well. But he let Jangmi be. He'd rather she found out for herself than hear it from him or somebody else—so that she would believe it and not dismiss the idea that her crush actually did like her back.
The teacher arrived after their short conversation ("You have to relax," Sunoo told her before setting his eyes on Beomgyu entering the classroom. "No promises," she replied in a fit of panic) and started the class. She waved at her seatmate before settling back down in her chair and taking the notebooks out of her bag all in an attempt to push Sunghoon out of her mind for the time being—and the plan failed. Laying out her notebooks did not do its job as she could still not focus on in class. Sure, she was listening and taking down notes from the teachers, but her mind was going to other places: the letter, the older boy's possible reaction, and herself. She was able to control the thoughts a little bit; but the closer lunch came, the faster her heart started to beat again.
During lunch time, Jangmi snuck out of the cafeteria and rushed to the older boy's locker without her best friend. She didn't want to attract attention and do it while everyone was in the hallway, so she resulted to excusing herself to the library—saying that she just needed to borrow a book for a class and that she was going to come back quickly.
She reached his locker and caught her breath, unsure if her heart was racing from the running, nervousness, or both. The only thing she was sure of was that her hands were shaking even when she just finished her meal 15 minutes ago. Taking the letter out of her inside jacket pocket, Jangmi sighed anxiously. She stared at the letter, and even contemplated on not giving it at all before she positioned the folded paper into the bottom slit of the locker. "Here it goes," she whispered to herself before pushing it in.
"It's done," she mumbled repeatedly, with a voice of dread, before scanning the hallway to make sure that no one was around her, listening or trying to understand what she was trying to do. When she didn't see a single student, she ran back to the cafeteria in a cold sweat. Jangmi knew that the hard part was over and all she had to do now was wait.
But, waiting for his response was even harder.
---
Sunghoon had a group project to do at dismissal time. His groupmates had scheduled a meeting so suddenly that he had to skip training; and that automatically meant that he could not walk with Jangmi to training—which made him upset. He was always looking forward to seeing her after class as it felt like the calm before the storm.
For some reason, the meeting took longer than expected. As they were delegating tasks and thinking of what topic they could do for their group paper in Korean literature class, he even almost fell asleep. Being anywhere was better than sitting in a circle with a bunch of people he wasn't even close to. He just wanted to be with Jangmi and talk to her.
Maybe he was even planning to confess to her on that day—but his plans were evidently ruined.
"Sunghoon, you'll be in charge of the interpretations, okay?" His groupmate called out to him, abruptly stopping his train of thought. "Since you're busy with ice-skating, we considered giving you the easiest part since we already have some stuff from class," the same boy added. All Sunghoon did was nod quietly at him. He already told his coaches that he wouldn't be in training, so he would just need to stop by his locker to get his textbook for the class before heading home.
Once the group's de-facto leader finished giving out all the instructions and tasks, Sunghoon stood up quickly, promised that he would do his task well, and left their classroom. At that point, he just wanted to go home and maybe message Jangmi to meet up somewhere so that he could confess to her already.
The boy rushed to his locker and hurriedly put in the code to unlock it. When he swung the locker door open, the first thing he noticed was a folded piece of paper resting right in front of his neatly arranged books. He was sure that it wasn't there earlier that morning, when he last opened his locker, so was very confused. Picking it up and opening, he instantly recognized Jangmi's handwriting.
His heart started to race. Had something bad happened to her? To their friendship? Why was she suddenly writing a letter to him?
Sunghoon started to read the letter slowly, absorbing everything in the first paragraph. It was only when he got to the second paragraph, the neatly underlined statement, when his heart started pounding in his chest. He felt like he was on high on happiness as he continued to read the letter and ran a hand through his hair, slightly tugging on it to make that the entire moment was not a dream. "What I want to tell you is that I really like you," he mumbled the words he was reading again and again, letting the truth fall from his lips repeatedly just so that he could believe what he was saying.
The girl he liked, Park Jangmi, actually liked him back—and it was the best feeling in the world.
He read the letter a few more times, just to make sure he wasn't imagining any of the words he had just read, before slipping it into his pocket. Grabbing his Korean literature book, he shoved it into his backpack before locking his locker. Sunghoon rushed out of the school grounds; but for some reason, he didn't go straight home. His feet brought him to his best friend's house to tell him the news first, brisk walking to the place in around 10-15 minutes.
When he got there, he rang the doorbell immediately and stepped back a bit. He didn't expect Jay to open the door so quickly since it usually took him around five minutes; but in a moment of feeling too jittery, Sunghoon didn't bother to comment on it. His best friend smiled at him and at his unplanned visit. Jay was just always happy in the presence of his friends. "What brings you here?"
He gulped forcibly, and Jangmiʼs older brother was quick to notice it. His smiled fell into a frown as he looked at his best friend concernedly. "Why? What's wrong?" Sunghoon took the letter out of his inside jacket pocket and showed it to him. "Do you know about this?"
"What's that?"
"Jangmiʼs letter?"
He saw the way Jay sighed as his eyes landed on the paper—almost as if he had no choice but to accept the fact that his younger sister really did confess to his best friend. "Yeah, I do know about that," he said as he nodded. Before they could talk about anything else, he opened the door wider as an invitation for the boy to enter the house. Sunghoon did what he usually did when he got inside: remove his shoes and sanitize his hands with alcohol. His eyes followed the other boy, sitting on the sofa waiting for him.
"Jangmi actually told me last night that she was planning to confess to you through a letter," he told Sunghoon, who just pocketed the letter and sat down beside him. "She didn't tell me right away though. Sunoo actually sent me the wrong message about the whole thing, so she had no other choice but to tell me," he added, chuckling bitterly at the entire situation.
He knew, since last night, that the both of them already liked each other—and he had no jurisdiction over it whatsoever. He wasn't going to stop his little sister from liking who she liked, and he wasn't going to force him to stop liking her either. He looked at his best friend and smiled sadly.
"Although I know your answer to this already, I just need to hear it from you," he stopped to suck in a breath. "You won't hurt her, right?"
"Of course. I would never hurt her."
He could see Sunghoon's sincerity by the look in his eyes and noticed that it was the kind of look he held when talking to his little sister, talking about her, or even just looking at her. He knew his best friend well, and he knew that he could trust his little sister with him. "I am giving you my permission," he told him with a nod.
Sunghoonʼs eyes widened at what he heard. He looked at Jay with a smile as he started to feel more surreal. He was so happy that it all felt like a dream to him—a dream he didn't want to wake up from.
"I think you should walk her home after training. Talk to her about the entire situation," Jangmi's older brother suggested while giving him a questioning look. He wasn't sure how his little sister would take the news, but he thought that there was no better time than now.
"Are you sure?" Sunghoon asked quietly, while eyeing his best friend's reaction. Jay laughed at him and raised an eyebrow jokingly. "Do you want me to say no?" He laughed more as he saw Sunghoon panic slightly. "I'll just walk her home later," he replied, chuckling awkwardly.
---
"MY BABY IS GROWING UP!" Aera shouted, her voice echoing against the bathroom tiles, as she pulled Jangmi into a hug a little too roughly. Their training ended 10 minutes ago, so they were already freshening up by washing their faces and changing their shirts. They were both fixing their hair when Jangmi decided to break the news about the confession letter to her close friend.
Aera let go of the girl and smiled so widely. "So, what was his reaction?" She squealed before re-tying her hair into a neat high ponytail. Jangmi could only lick her lips as the same images from this morning popped up in her head once again. "I haven't seen him since I dropped the letter in his locker, so I don't know yet."
The other girl raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Knowing you, I honestly think you're avoiding him," Aera told her nonchalantly, looking at her friend through the mirror. Jangmi just shook her head in an attempt to mask her thoughts—but she knew that her friend was right. "Okay, maybe I am. But, honestly speaking, I really have not seen him since lunch time. He didn't even walk with me to training today."
A playful smile made its way to Aeraʼs lips as she picked up her duffel bag. Jangmi also picked up her bag after stuffing her hairbrush into it. "But you have to admit, you were pretty sad about his not bringing you to training. Right?" She nudged her lightly as they both walked out of the restroom.
"Nope. I was relieved, to say the least," Jangmi replied. The smile left her friend's lips as her face contorted in confusion. "C'mon, Jangmi! Isn't there a part of you that wants to know how he feels already?"
"He'll just frown and reject it."
"And if he doesn't?"
Jangmi felt her heart drop at what she heard. Of course a part of wants to think that Sunghoon liked her back; but again, it felt too slim of a chance. She felt that it was better if she already expected the worse before she even saw him again. Aera eyed her friend concernedly before placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You completely missed the entire 'hope for the best' part," she told her with a genuine look in her eyes.
"You'll be fine, okay? Whatever happens, I just hope you'll be happy."
Both girls made their way outside of their cheerleading gym, to the short concrete steps, when Jangmi spotted a familiar figure leaning on the nearest lamppost. "And don't forget to update me!" Aera smirked at her as she nudged her excitedly before running to the parking lot.
Jangmi instantly knew who it was and walked towards the figure slowly. She's seen him many times to even identify the kind of presence he was giving off from a mile away—but tonight was different. Instead of his aura that usually made her calm, it was an aura that made her very nervous. She sucked in a breath before she finally reached him.
"Hi," Sunghoon greeted her almost breathlessly. He thought coming to pick her up from training to confess would be easy since he already had the right words to say, but he found them all stuck in his throat. The only thought that crossed his mind was how beautiful she looked; the glow she usually had was back and brighter than before.
"Hello, oppa," Jangmi replied in the same manner. Her heart was racing to the point that it felt very uncomfortable. She wanted to run away from him, but her feet were planted to the ground. As she looked up at him, she heard a nervous laughter escape his lips.
"Shall we head home?"
Sunghoonʼs words broke her train of thought. The younger girl blinked at him and nodded without another word before they started to walk at a slower pace compared to how quick he usually walked. He sighed before running a hand through his hair, frustrated at how he could not get the right words out of his mouth; scolding himself for letting Jangmi fill in the silence before he could.
"What did you do after class?" Her voice was too quiet, and she was unable to make it louder for him. Luckily, the older boy heard her and cracked an awkward smile while looking at her. "My group for the Korean literature group paper held an emergency meeting to discuss some stuff. It was boring, honestly," he told her, remembering how much he just wanted to be with the person beside him as the meeting went on.
Jangmi nodded at him, not knowing exactly what to say next. She was thinking of every conversation starter to drive the topic away from the letter. As much as she wanted to know how he felt about it, she just felt like it was too soon. But for the boy beside her, it was the right time to talk things through.
"Jangmi," he called her attention as he grabbed her wrist to stop her from walking any further. Sunghoon pulled her back to his spot and looked down at the ground in an attempt to pull himself together and just say what had been on his mind. The feeling of his heart pounding against his ribcage was not helping him either. "I read the letter," he said slowly, as if treading on thin ice.
That was all it took for the younger girl to spiral into fear. She gulped loudly and quickly looked at her shoes, attempting to stop the tears from falling. Sunghoon noticed how her hands started to tremble, so he slipped his hands in hers and held them tightly. His thumb grazed the back of her hands reassuringly as he sucked in a breath. She looked at their hands before looking back up at him.
"I like you too," he said breathlessly once more. "I honestly have no idea when it started, but I really like you."
The girl could not believe what she was hearing. It felt too surreal for her, something she couldn't wrap her head around so easily. She sighed, feeling the tears start to well in her eyes as she looked at Sunghoon—her crush who actually liked her back.
The older boy's eyes widened as he saw Jangmiʼs eyes turn glassy. He took his hands out of hers and wrapped his arms around her waist, almost pulling her into a hug. "Why are you crying?" He asked, his voice soft and gentle to her ears. She tiptoed before wrapped her arms around his neck and closed the gap between them with a hug. "Tears of joy," her voice was muffled against his cardigan. Sunghoon chuckled in relief before placing his head on her shoulder.
He could not even begin to fathom how long he had been wanting to hold Jangmi this close to him. The nervousness he had earlier was replaced with the same high he felt when he first read the letter. Everything was falling into place; he was very well aware of it.
Jangmi couldn't believe how the events seemed to have turned. A while ago, she was too nervous to even face the older boy in fear of rejection. Now, he told her that he returned her feelings. Although she found it a little weird that Sunoo and Jay had been saying weird stuff about them—as if they knew everything—she chose to ignore that part. She let herself fall deeper in the embrace before Sunghoon pulled away first.
"I believe I owe you strawberry milk?" the older boy teased, chuckling as he watched her face light up with a smile instantly. "Yes, you do!" She said excitedly before starting to walk towards the convenience store—only to be stopped by the older boy once more.
The hand that was wrapped around her wrist slid its way down to interlock his fingers with hers. He made eye contact with her as he pulled her closer to him. "Is this alright?" He asked, pertaining to their holding hands. The butterflies in her stomach grew stronger as she stared at their hands longer.
"Yes."
Hello! The twenty-eighth chapter's up!
I may have gone overboard which is why it's longer than the past chapters 😅 BUT HERE IS THE LAST CHAPTER 😭 I will upload the epilogue sometime this week since I still need to edit it—but just so everyone knows, it's around the same length as this because I had so much fun writing it!
Also, did you guys like the surprise hehehehe I actually wrote four extra chapters so think of it as deleted scenes of sorts!!
I will say my final piece (wow so formal!) with the epilogue, but just know that I love you all so much! For now, have a good day / afternoon / night wherever you are! Sending all my good vibes and love your way ❤️🥰💛
Hope you guys like the chapter! Don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoyed it! 💛
See you in the epilogue!
- Lia