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“You gotta talk slower, Chan. I haven’t spoken Korean in years,” you laughed, looking over at your best friend.
“You’ve been off at school and I haven’t been able to tell you about what I’ve done lately and I missed you so much and I-”
“Chan, breathe. I only caught like half of that,” you smiled. You’d only been home a week, but you’d quickly abandoned your old bedroom to visit your closest friend.
Chan had silenced himself, looking at you with wide eyes, waiting on your cue to continue.
“One thing at a time, okay? I want to hear about everything, but I want to make sure I understand.”
Your friend cooperated, at least to the best of his abilities. Sometimes he would speak quickly in excitement, and you’d have to ask him to slow down. To your own surprise, you were catching on faster than you thought you would. Your Korean may be rusty, but it was still active somewhere in your mind.
The two of you swapped stories: your dorm parties; his new friends; your roommates; a song he recorded; the time you got dared to kiss a drunk guy.
“I didn’t do it though. He was intoxicated. Plus, totally not my type.”
Chan laughed. “Yeah. Sehyoon dared me to kiss you tonight. I didn’t think you’d like that very much.”
You paused, swallowing. The ceiling captured your interest as you tried to look anywhere but at him. “Why would he do that?”
“I’ve been talking about you for the past month. I guess I’ve just been really excited for you to come home,” he said, voice softer than it had been all night. He seemed hesitant.
“Did you accept the dare?” you stuttered.
“No,” he paused.
You let your gaze make its way back to him, trying to get some sort of clue as to what he was thinking about.
He smiled awkwardly. “I was too nervous. I’m probably super stupid for even letting this conversation happen. I don’t want to make tonight weird for us, but I guess now that I’ve told you about the dare I may as well tell you that I’ve liked you since grade seven. I was hoping you’d like me back but by the time I’d worked up the confidence to say anything, you were moving away and I guess I thought I lost my chance. But now you’re back, and maybe I shouldn’t be saying anything. Man, you always teased me about being single, and now I guess you know why. I didn’t- ”
“Chan,” you cut him off abruptly, the biggest smile plastered on your face. “I’ve liked you since elementary. Grade four. I thought you had known. I never said anything because of it. You always talked about other girls…” you hesitated, trying to make sure what you said sounded coherent. “You used to tease me about not having my first kiss. I guess you could say that I was waiting for you too,” you confessed. “Why don’t you tell Sehyoon you completed that dare?”