36 MINUTES TO FALL, jaemin ✓

33 | nobody is a saint

❝ If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven't you told them yet?❞

"I love you," Yumi blurted out. She felt no embarrassment as she said it, for once. She felt nothing of the sort; just relief that she finally, finally got to say it, at last. At last, he knew, and there was nothing to hide.

"What?"

"I mean it, Jaemin," she said. "That's my answer. I'd regret not telling you just that."

"I—what? What?"

"Why're you so surprised? It's obvious, everything I've been saying tonight. You're not the first I've had feelings for, oh no. There've been boys before, boys who never spared me another glance outside of the ordinary friendship we sometimes shared. Sometimes, it wasn't anything more than the glance that just noticed, 'oh, she exists.' But you, Na Jaemin, I've never felt as strongly for anyone as I do for you. I didn't even realize until tonight. This quiz."

Silence. Only the sound of breathing to be heard on their line. And then—

"So, I succeeded in the challenge? Thirty-six minutes?" he asked.

"You succeeded within the first five minutes, if we're going to stretch the truth a bit here. If not, then you succeeded before that. Way before that." A whoop of delight from his end. She smiled fondly. "I've never told you before because my parents, you know that. But also because I never had any confidence that we could keep a relationship a secret. But after tonight...I'm thinking..."

"So it's a, yes? You'll accept me?"

"Hold your horses, the quiz isn't over yet," she ordered. "You gotta tell me your answer, too, you know."

"Oh, alright," he gave an exaggerated sigh. "I'm predictable, so my answer is telling my parents how I feel about this whole...favoritism issue? Is that how one would phrase it?"

"I think so?"

"Well, that's it, I guess. I don't want to die without letting them know how I feel."

"No specific reason?"

"I guess to make them feel guilty, as horrible as that sounds," he admitted. "And if they didn't know...who's to say they wouldn't continue saying those things? I've never said so because I don't want to make them that angry."

"Somehow, I feel like this is connected to your answer to the previous question," Yumi said, turning on her side to look out the window. The starless night sky was streaked all around by rapidly gathering clouds. A sign of a storm, or a rain shower. "Isn't it?"

"I guess so," he said. "Maybe unconsciously, I made the connection there. Either way, there you go. Na Jaemin is no saint, and you're still in love?"

"Who says I'm in love?"

"Hey!"

"Okay, okay," she giggled. "Also, nobody is a saint. If we fell in love with saints, then a lot of people would be single. Pretty much the entire population, actually. Even people who are religious leaders and everything like that—they're not literal saints, either. Because humans will always make mistakes and have bad thoughts."

"What a philosophy."

"It's the truth, isn't it?"

"That, it is."

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WORD COUNT: 530