“Jay, what the hell! No foods allowed. Can’t you read that, you moron?” Eunae hissed with the softest voice she could ever have.

They were doing a trigonometry assignment in the library when she found out Jay sneaked in some chips in his bag. It was not long enough when he began eating them one by one, while snapping his head left and right, trying not to be caught.

“Oh, come on, there’s no freaking way they would see me.”

“Of course, they won’t see you,” Eunae muttered sarcastically with a smile, rolling her eyes, and clasping her hands together on top of the table. “They would only hear you because you eat like a goddamn pig! At least, close your mouth!”

“Whatever you say, sunshine!” He yelled playfully, quickly earning them a loud sneer of ‘be quiet!’ from the librarian that made them snort.

“Gosh, Jay, what are you even doing,” Eunae slapped his arms lightly, whilst shaking her head.

He could be the most reliable person she could ever think of, but at the same time, he could also take the crown for being the silliest she had ever met.

“Eating,” Jay shrugged before giving her a familiar mischievous look.

“Wha-”

Before Eunae could even finish her sentence, she was immediately cut off when Jay tugged her wrist and slung their bags around his shoulders. She could barely figure out where they were heading with his broad back blocking her view as soon as he brought her out of the library.

“Let’s play some basketball,” was his playful suggestion that quickly had the color drained from her face.

“Oh god no.”

“Oh god yes.”

As if she even had a choice, Eunae eventually found herself inside the school’s gym, picking up the couple of balls Jay was throwing inside the basketball ring. Her frustrated face unchanging as she threw back a ball at him, hitting him in the knee.

“You said, we’re going to play basketball!” Eunae crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. Her eyes rolling at the back of her head before they pierced through his body.

“Aren’t we playing?” Jay laughed, caressing his knee as if it did really hurt before shooting once again.

Eunae huffed, throwing the ball back at him as hard as she could, “You’re playing, I’m not! I’m just here picking these goddamn balls for you!”

“Easy, sunshine,” Jay chuckled, seemingly finding her frustration funny.

She, however, was not having any of it.

“You took away my trigonometry time, had the librarian sneered at us, and now, you’re making me retrieve all those bouncing balls like a ball boy.”

“Hey!” An audible squeal left her lips when a pair of bulky arms wrapped around her waist. A sweaty body, out of nowhere, flushed against hers and catching her off guard.

“Here, let me teach you how to shoot,” was Jay’s proposition that sounded like wedding bells in her ears.

With her ticker beating way too rapidly than how it usually did and how her head turned incredulously hazy, Eunae felt as though she was going to faint.

The familiar way on how his arms securely held her, and how his minty scent wafted her nose made her stop wanting to play basketball and rather stay in his arms for the rest of the day.

Eunae had always felt funny weird whenever she was with Jay.

It was that kind of good weird feeling. The sense of being ultimately happy of just merely seeing him—of just simply being with him and doing nothing, even with the absence of sound and having silence fill the in between. It was that comforting and fortifying.

She knew what it meant, and she knew what it was.

“Hey sunshine, you good?”

Shaking her head internally, Eunae nudged him in the stomach and spun on her heel. It was not even a second in when she threw the ball above his head abruptly.

“Always,” she smirked, watching how it went in the ring smoothly, making his eyes roll. “Shall I help you shoot?”

“Depends.”

“On?”

Jay shrugged, swiftly getting a hand on the free ball before eliminating the distance between them and taking her breath away, like always. “What kind of shooting will you teach me, sunshine?”

“Shut up!” Eunae yelled abashedly, running after him with deep rosy cheeks and a throbbing forehead that previously met his plump soft lips.

The funny weird feeling just kept on blazing and blossoming right within her uncontrollably and it just would not go away.

It just would not.

Or maybe she just could not.

But no matter what it was between the two, there was one thing Eunae was sure of: that there was nothing probably more painful than falling in love with a best friend.

“You good?”

“Yup,” Eunae lied, trying to mask the lonely tone dripping from her voice.

It was her birthday, probably one of the happiest days she had always looked forward to. But with the unprecedented change of how her world had turned upside down, the most awaited day that was usually filled with glitters and rainbows and a hundred more memories of laughter was nothing, but a dull normal day.

It seemed unimportant enough not to be even remembered. Everything was running business as usual just like how the recent years had been. She was at home right after school, while her mother was busy building their company to provide her a better future.

Eunae was more than happy that her mother had already bounced back. It took a series of counselling, years of living apart, and daily yearning to be in Eunha’s arms, but they were all worth it. There was nothing she could ask for to see her mother feel much better—to see her well, alive, and kicking.

But at the same time, there were days when she could not seem to push down the loneliness that would creep into her bones once in a while. Sure, she had Jay and his loving parents to always turn to, to shower her with affection and care, and she was very thankful for that.

But then, if she had to be truthful, it still felt a way lot different to have her mother by her side—it just felt different.

Heaving a deep sigh, Eunae closed her eyes and plopped on her bed lazily. She was not in the mood to talk to anyone, and all she ever wanted was for slumber to finally take her in—to help her escape from all the melancholy swathing her whole.

“Jung Jay!” A piercing shriek rumbled from her throat as soon as she felt being lifted and found herself on Jay’s shoulder like a sack of rice. “Put me down!”

“I said put me down!”

“No.”

“What are you even up to? Just put me down!”

“No.”

“Hell, yes!”

“No.”

Struggling from his hold, she tried to reach for his shirt from the back, “Jay, I’m not kidding, you better put me dow—ah! What the hell!”

A striking pang of pain suddenly made her backside throb. Her cheeks turning into a deep shade of red at the thought of what he did.

“Shut up,” Jay muttered nonchalantly after lightly spanking her behind. “We’re going to have fun.”

“What do you mean?” Eunae nervously exclaimed, her imaginations going wild.

“We’re going to have fun,” he repeated, cryptically this time around. Her heart hammering against her chest.

“Jay, I’m not in the mood. What are you planning—aw! Hey! Stop that!” She yelled bashfully as his hand met her bottom for the second time.

“Stop asking me questions, then. Trust me, you’ll enjoy this,” Jay chuckled darkly, tapping her bums.

Nibbling her bottom lip, clearly abashed, Eunae slumped on his shoulder and stopped struggling. Her eyes rooted on the dull rough pavements before the lush green grasses filled her view.

Getting a glimpse of what was right in front of her, Eunae could not hide the whirlwind of emotions coming through and sweeping her off her feet.

“Oh god! This is so fun!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, her hands raised in the air, feeling ecstatic as the wind slapped her face.

“Is it?”

“We’re moving higher!” She screeched excitedly, not really minding what he asked.

Holding onto the barrel as their seats went higher, Jay intertwined their hands together before giving her a swift look, “I’m glad you’re having fun.”

“Jay, look! Isn’t that the ice cream parlor we always go to!”

After the whole fiasco from a while ago, she did not expect that they would be at the amusement park, enjoying every ride there was.

Jay was true to his words when he told her they were going to have fun, because she surely did.

It had been long since she stepped in such place.

The glitz and glamor the park used to have had surely faded before her eyes like a fairy that had lost its wings. The moments that were once filled with blossoming flowers had turned into sharp dangerous knives that pierced her body from within.

Through the years, she still didn’t have the courage nor willingness to have a trip down memory lane when all she could see was the face of her father happily strolling with her—a picture she had long gone forsaken out of her mind.

Eunae used to love amusement parks—it was her safe haven.

With daily busy schedules of her parents, the time they allot for visiting amusement parks was the core of their family bonding. It held a myriad of memories from the years she could barely stand to the days she could run around on her own.

It was a subtle symbol of a loving and complete family she used to have and which she had already buried six feet under—something she would not opt to remember if only she had a choice.

“Stop thinking of him,” he demanded, startling her when she felt his thumbs on her cheeks.

“What, again?”

Jay reached for her face and wiped away the unknown streaks of tears that ran down her cheek, “You won’t be balling your eyes out if it weren’t for him.”

With her mouth agape, Eunae nodded her head bashfully and stifled her whimpers. She really could not hide anything from him. Jay could always manage to see through her, and she did not know if it were something, she should be thankful for.

The mere fact that he could easily see through her most likely meant he knew her utmost adoration towards him—something she did not know if she should be happy about or terrified to the bones.

She could not bring herself to ask because she could not afford to risk anything she had. She could not risk losing someone whom she held very dear when she could barely count them with her fingers.

She could not lose anyone. She could not lose her best friend. She could not afford to lose Jay, too.

“You’ll always have me, I’ll never leave you,” he sworn, cupping her cheeks. He looked at her ever so gently before placing a chaste kiss on her forehead. “I’m not like him.”

And as always, Jay was true to his words.

When he said he would never leave her, he never really left.

Through the years, he had never left her side, and now that they were just a month away from celebrating their second wedding anniversary, Eunae could only smile bitterly hearing how the people envy what they have Everyone seemed to love how they radiate like perfect lovers with the most unwavering relationship every couple could only wish for.

It was probably the glitz, the glamor, the grandeur of how their marriage swept the people around them to believe the never-ending façade they had been putting up with. Everyone loved to have the kind of marriage and fairy tale love story they have not really knowing what had been happening behind the curtain.

Because little did Eunae know, that walking down the aisle and meeting him in front of the alter was a door to the beginning of the end.