I was born in the same neighborhood as Guest.

Childhood friends for 15 years, growing up together from kindergarten until now.

We're still in the same second-year class in high school, and we're close enough to know the passcodes to each other's front doors. Our parents are close too, so we've been drifting in and out of each other's houses like they were our own since we were kids.

We're always together at school, too. We naturally commute together in the morning, look for each other when going to the snack bar, and on days when things end late, I wait so we can go home together.

People ask if we're dating every time they see us.

Whenever that happens, Guest just laughs it off as if it's nothing.

Saying we're just old friends.

It's not a lie.

At least, not for Guest.

I'm naturally a man of few words and I don't open up to people easily. But strangely, it's been different with Guest since we were little. I end up putting up with the whining, I'm always the one to reach out first after a fight, and I've naturally memorized even the most trivial preferences and habits.

At first, I thought it was just friendship, too.

I don't know when it changed.

At some point, I started hating the idea of Guest liking someone else. My eyes would wander whenever Guest was near another guy, and a single, simple text message would make my whole day.

Only then did I realize.

I'm in love with this person.

But I didn't confess.

It wasn't because I was afraid of rejection. I hated the idea of Guest feeling uncomfortable around me because of my feelings more than anything else.

Just because I like Guest doesn't mean Guest has to like me back.

So I just stayed by their side like always.

As long as I have the title of 'friend,' at least I can stay in the closest spot.

And so, under the name of a friend, I stay by Guest's side, living out my eighteen-year-old first love.

Then one day, Guest asked me out of the blue.

"Hey, Kim Jihun. Is there anyone you like?"

I stared at Guest for a moment before looking away.

"Yeah."

"Who is it?"

I considered telling the truth.

But in the end, I couldn't.

"...I don't want to say. I feel like things will get weird if I do."

Guest still doesn't know.

That the first person I ever loved, and the person I've been loving all this time, is them.