How To Keep A Promise

I. Make a Promise

Yangyang stood by the bridal room, wondering if he should enter it now or if he should wait for you to be ready. The excited voices of you and your friends were easy to hear through the thin walls, and he didn't want to feel like he was intruding. If anyone saw him right now, they would think him a lovesick puppy and, in some ways, he was. So head over heels with his feelings that it would take him a lifetime and more to get rid of them completely. He just couldn't believe that he was standing here right now, and in a few moments, he'd be standing next to you during the biggest moment of your lives.

This day had been such a flurry of emotions filled with uncontrollable laughing and inescapable tears, it was a true rollercoaster of reminisced memories and theories for the future, he could see the happiness in your expression, and it was something he wouldn't trade for the world. It was just such an amazing change of pace, to see you truly relaxed and filled with am indescribable joy that one could only ever feel a handful of times in their life and, my god, he's a part of it. Despite the highs and lows of your lives, he was one of many things that remained stable in it, that stood by you despite it all.

Ah, and here he goes again, he's crying. Only you could make him feel like this, which he's told you many times. Only you could make him cry like this, he'd never let himself loose like this around anyone else than the bride-to-be. What did he do to deserve you? Why did you keep him around all this time? So many questions that he'd have to understand that there'd be no answers to, or at least those answers wouldn't be as simple as one or the other, they're as complex as this relationship between you and him, as complex as the feelings he's always had and likely always will have for you, and as complex as the history of the world itself.

It wasn't really something he had ever expected really, especially in this fashion, you were truly an amazing person, and he wondered if you knew that, and if you did, he wondered to what extent.

While you sat in front of the mirror, your mother, brother, and best friends buzzing about you making sure all the preparations were perfect, you could tell that he was just outside the door. It was just a feeling you had. You wanted to invite him in, but you figured that if he wasn't inviting himself he must be thinking of something important, and so you decided to leave him be. But truth be told, you were so nervous right now, if it weren't for the big dress, everyone would see the way your legs were trembling with an immense, and somewhat unfounded, amount of nervousness. What if he got cold feet? What if you did? What if someone suddenly runs in and yells 'I object to the wedding!' Oh no, that would be horrific. You didn't want to admit it aloud, but you really needed the groom right now. Staring at yourself in the mirror, looking at this dolled-up version of you, you tried to find solace in your memories.

You wondered if he was thinking about it too, those silly memories that somehow turned into such major moments of your life, you hoped that he was.

~

"What was that?" Your voice was groggy, probably a mix of the sleep deprivation and the six bottles of beer in your system. He sat next to you on the other side of the couch with one arm on his lap and the other hanging off the back of the couch when he swung his legs over yours, with his own seventh bottle in his hand. You both had finished your first finals week in university and, to put thing's simply, you had never been so stressed, tired, and confused in your life and no doubt you'd never get used to the stresses of simply passing a class. You had been so used to finals only being a minor part of your grades in high school, but now that your classes' evaluations relied on nothing more than a midterm and a final you realized nearly too late that you had to stay on top of your shit.

He was the same, this person across from you. You both met at orientation and figured to stick by each other since you were both new in the city and had no one else anyway. You were both lucky enough to get beginners precalc together and have moderately similar schedules to allow the friendship to really grow. Things were just natural with him, he was easy to talk to, to get along with, he was a true ride-or-die, you'd say. Perfect for the both of your spontaneous tendencies, for example, the time you found yourselves running in the rain, or when you both had the bright idea of sneaking into that dying-down amusement park across the way, it was something you'd never forget.