The Man Who Could Not Stop Time (Monsta X Fanfiction)

Chapter Eight: Don't Be Cliche

Three Months Later

I stepped out of my class, exhausted, having thrown myself into my studies. I was well on my way to being at the top of my class and was happy to finally get a break.

"Areum-ah!"

I turned around to see Hyungwon running after me.

I smiled at him, reaching out my hand to hold his.

"How was class?" He asked, slinging an arm around my shoulder.

"Great." I smiled. "What about you?"

"Great." He replied, "I'm glad to finally get back into things, you know?"

I nodded.

We walked along the campus to our usual spot where we enjoyed our breaks. It was a bench under a big tree. I sat down first, Hyungwon sitting down next to me.

"Have you heard about the new group, BTS?" I heard a group of girls ask each other as they passed by us. They were talking loudly, clearly very excited about their conversation.

"They're so handsome!" Another agreed. "Especially Jimin!"

I smiled to myself as I heard that he was doing well. They were becoming popular already and it made me proud.

After the showdown between the Real and Fake Hyungwon, I finally realized that I should spend my life with someone that I wouldn't want to lose. I realized that I loved Jimin, but I loved him as friend and a brother.

And I loved Hyungwon in a much different way, I couldn't seem to live without him.

So one day I asked to meet with Jimin and suggested we break up. We had too many difference, but I valued him too much and was afraid we wouldn't be able to be friends anymore. Often times relationships ruined friendships, and I was scared that would be us.

To my surprise, Jimin agreed. He had mistook his friendship with me as love and wanted to remain friends too. But he just couldn't find the words or courage to say it.

So we broke up amicably and still stay in touch when we can.

"So he's doing well?" Hyungwon laughed, noticing the girls talking about Jimin. "Good, hopefully he gets a girlfriend soon."

I laughed, Hyungwon glancing over at me.

"What?" He asked.

"I just didn't think that you'd want him to be happy." I replied. He still had a bit of an averse reaction to Jimin whenever I mentioned meeting up with him as friends.

Hyungwon smiled when I laughed before going back to his usual stoic expression, "I don't want him to be happy per se, I just want him to have a girlfriend so he will stop bothering mine."

I laughed, holding onto his hand.

"You don't have to worry about that."

Hyungwon stared at me, murmuring, "What makes you say that?"

"Because." I muttered, blushing. "I think you might be the person I want to be with for the rest of my life..."

I stared blankly at my hands, feeling my face turn redder and redder. This confession of love was a pretty big deal, right? I was pretty much saying I loved him and no one else.

I waited for his reaction with baited breath.

But he didn't say anything for a while so I slowly looked up at Hyungwon, worried I had scared him away. I had heard that telling your boyfriend you loved him too soon could make him break up with you. Was this the wrong thing to say?

I expected to see his usual blank expression, but he was smiling brightly at me instead.

His smile was disarming, and I noticed that he, too, was blushing.

"You're so cliche." He laughed, reaching out and tousling my hair.

"Hey." I laughed, smacking his hand away. I didn't want my hair to be messed up, I spent a lot of time on it.

"Me too." Hyungwon said quickly, pulling away his hand.

I stared at him, confused, "What do you mean?" I asked.

Hyungwon blushed even more, staring down at his black shoes before speaking up. "I mean that I feel the same way. I think I want to spend the rest of my life with you... too..."

At that moment I felt a new kind of happiness blossoming in my chest. I had been waiting and waiting for this exact moment in my life where I could feel my life balancing itself out.

And this seemed to be it, it seemed to be happening.

I was finding happiness.

I smiled at Hyungwon, admiring his face. He had gone back to his straight-faced expression, avoiding eye contact. He looked up at me eventually, noticing I was staring him down, asking, "What?!"

I chuckled, grabbing onto his hand to lead him away. "Nothing, let's go get coffee."

As we walked away together, hand in hand, I could imagine our whole life playing out. Hyungwon and I would start our own independent practices, him working as a pediatrician while I worked as a therapist. We would wait to get married, because we both knew we were committed to each other. I could imagine us getting married once we were established in our careers, his family sitting on one side of the isle while mine sat on the other. It was like a dream, a marriage in a rose garden covered in snow. He'd be wearing the perfect black suit and I had on my dream white gown. After a while, I could imagine us having a baby girl, Hyungwon would probably treat her like his little princess. And we'd live happily ever after.

Walking with him, even though we were just kids now with no idea of the future, I could already imagine us being happy together until the end.

But for now, we were just walking together.

And I would take our life step by step.