You and Heeseung had been best friends since middle school.

Not the casual kind of friends. The attached-at-the-hip, finish-each-other’s-sentences, know-how-you-like-your-ramen kind. You were the first person he called when he passed a test he didn’t study for. He was the one who showed up outside your house with snacks when you had a bad day. He knew your favorite hoodie. You knew his secret Spotify playlists.

But somewhere along the way, something shifted.

Maybe it was the way his smile started making your heart ache. Or the way he looked at someone else with the kind of softness you had quietly saved for him. You didn’t mean to fall. It just happened.

And once it did, it never stopped.

You memorized his voice when he talked about the girl he liked. You nodded, gave advice, teased him like a good best friend would. All while burying every part of yourself that wanted to scream, “It should be me.”