ᴘʀᴏᴍɪsᴇ - ᴛxᴛ 6ᴛʜ ᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 76: ᴄᴏɴғᴇssɪᴏɴ

(sorry for the long wait, i'm just not in a good state of mind rn, but i tried to update. thank u for 26k reads !! love y'all)

"I...what did you just say?"

The girl blinked slowly as she tried to replay his words again in her head.

I like you.

I like you.

I. Like. You.

Her teary eyes had stopped moving before she finally looked at him in the eyes, her body running cold.

"What did you just say Beomgyu?"

"I like you Jori, and not as a friend, but way more that that," his finger caressed her tear stained cheek. "I've had a crush on you for months now and it's been so hard to hold back. I first realized the day you tried...to make an attempt. When I saw you there as your life slipped away, I realized that I couldn't let you leave like that because my heart wanted to be with you."

The girl still didn't speak a word.

Her body remained still.

She couldn't move.

But he continued.

"I want to be with you. I want to call you my girlfriend and be so damn proud of it," his breathing picked up slightly, "I want to hold you when you let me, I want to kiss you when you let me, I want to be the one to pick you back up from the people that bring you down." More tears streamed down his face the more he stumbled out words. Anything to show how serious he was in that moment. "I want us to be happy...for once. Did you hear that? I said us. I want us both to be happy.

"Happy...doesn't that sound amazing? After everything we've been through, wouldn't that be nice?"

The desperation in his voice was evident the more he spoke.

In all honesty, he was tired.

Tired of everything, and especially of holding everything back on the inside. There was countless times he wanted to tell the girl, but her answer was always one that held him back. He was scared. Scared of being let down, scared of making the wrong decision, scared of being rejected.

Scared of being left alone.

But when he saw her with that boy, everything stopped.

And his mind told him he had to tell her how he felt now, or sooner or later the chance was going to be gone, and there would be nothing he could do anymore.

Jori would be gone too.

The girl held no emotion as her eyes stared everywhere but him.

She's only ever received one proper confession before, and that was with Jae, so she didn't know exactly how to feel. Everything suddenly went numb and she felt like she had forgotten how to function the moment he spoke. Her body froze even more when he let go of her face and instead grabbed her hands softly, trying to get her to say something. To say anything.

"Do you...feel the same?"

"I..."

She took a deep breath trying to calm her nerves. Her  heart rate pounding against her ears and consuming her thoughts in every way. She felt couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. There was something inside of her telling her not to speak, to not break his heart.

"I..."

No matter how much she tried, no words would formulate. Everything had gone blank in her mind. All there was the sound of her heart pounding in her ears, the silence making it even more unbearable. It was like a clock ticking back and forth in silence—the more you heard it, the more anxious it made you feel.