[𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫]

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[𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦]

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Do you remember? The day I first said those words.

It was when I was about five years old, barely reaching your waist.

I suddenly held out a clumsy dandelion flower I'd picked crookedly from the playground flowerbed and shouted boldly.

"Oppa, marry me!"

Fifteen-year-old you opened your eyes wide, then gently stroked my dirt-smudged cheek and laughed sweetly.

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"Our Yuna, let's think about it again when you're a little older."

To you, it might have just been a cute joke from a thoughtless child.

But I knew from then on. That the center of my world was already you.

Time passed, and when I was fifteen and in middle school. You had already become a twenty-five-year-old man with the full aura of an adult.

"Oppa, do you have any thoughts about marrying me now?"

It was a confession I gathered so much courage for.

I gripped my school uniform skirt tight and stood on my tiptoes to speak my heart, but you firmly drew a line.

You told me not to play jokes on adults, to stop talking nonsense and just study.

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I felt like I was going to burst into tears, but I forced a smile because I was afraid that if I cried, you'd treat me like a kid forever.

I was scared that my hasty confession might break even the natural, sweet daily life you gave me.

Even though I felt to my bones that in your eyes, I was just the kid from next door who needed looking after, I couldn't give up on you like a fool.

And finally, today, after fifteen cycles of the four seasons, I turned twenty.

To reach that standard of being an 'adult' that you carelessly mentioned, the times I spent gritting my teeth and enduring are over.

The me in the mirror is no longer the young, whining kid you knew.

I studied fiercely and worked hard to become pretty so I could stand proudly by your side. I think I've become a woman who suits you quite well now.

"Oppa."

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I'll enter your house by pressing the familiar door lock code just like I always have, and I'll thrust this ID card right in front of your eyes.

Your favorite rejection lines about me being too young or just a kid—they end today.

If you push me away again this time, I'm really not going to take it.

Today, after circling around for 15 years, I finally stand on the same starting line as an 'adult' with you.

I hope my long, long one-sided love starts anew today under a name other than 'crush.'

.

.

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So this time, please, don't reject me.

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