Woobin sighed and stared at the once smooth, white ceiling that was now concealed in darkness. 

He put his hands behind his head and rested his head on them. Inhaling deeply, he turned his head to look at the right side of the room, as staring at the ceiling started to give him a headache. 

Closing his eyes, he tried to get some rest, but deeming that it was too hot in the room to use a blanket, much less wear his clothes, he opened his eyes and kicked it off the bed. 

Just when he was about to turn away and try to fall asleep again, something caught his eye. 

It glimmered and shone through the dark room, the moon illuminating its presence. He grabbed his head with his hands and brought his knees to his chest as he tried to repress the memories that was starting to surface. 

Wishing that the pain in his head would fade away as quickly as it had appeared, Woobin laid on his bed that had seemed to grow bigger within the last few minutes. He felt small, drowning in the bedsheets, trying to ignore the painful memories that were beginning to get even harder and harder to suppress. 

He could feel himself slowly drowning in past memories.

He could remember the clarity of her voice and the way her laughter used to ring in his ears. He could remember when they first met and how she cheerfully greeted him with, "Hi! I'm Im Yoona! It's nice meeting you! You must be Kim Woobin!" He could also remember how awkward it had been for the both of them when they first settled down and how they wouldn't really talk much. He could remember how they finally clicked and realized that maybe having each other's company wasn't so bad at all. He could remember having late-night talks with her that would sometimes last until three in the morning. He could remember having random celebrations and making useless promises that usually could never be kept. He could remember wanting to live like that forever. He could remember how disappointed her face was when he told her that he was moving to go to a university out-of-state. But most of all, he could remember her last words that would forever be embedded in his memory two nights before he was supposed to leave for college. 

He wanted it to stop; those painful memories that he wanted to be long forgotten.

It was useless.

It was hopeless.

He slowly felt himself slipping away...

...fading away.

 

It was a Friday night, the night of his birthday. He was packing the last of the boxes in their small apartment. Although his friends had invited him to join them in a celebration for his birthday, he had politely declined as he had boxes to pack. He had to leave the following Monday, and wasted no time in purchasing many cardboard boxes to carry all of his belongings. As his friends were very unsatisfied with the idea that they should celebrate his birthday without him actually being there in person, Yoona had decided to hold the party in their living room instead. That way, Woobin could pack and come out occasionally to chill out. This idea seemed to please both sides and it was settled. 

The party had started at seven, and it was as now currently ten o'clock at night and it seemed as if the party wasn't going to be ending anytime soon

Woobin placed the last of his belongings in the last box available and reached to the left to grab the duct tape to seal the box. Just as he had made contact with it, he heard a knock at his bedroom door. 

"Come in," he called out, while beginning to tape up the closed flaps of the box. 

The door opened, and he saw Yoona's face pop in out of the doorway. She stepped gingerly inside the room and closed the door behind her. She walked over to him, her arms hiding something behind her back.

"Oh, hey," he said, looking up at her. 

She grinned at him and sat down on the floor next to him. 

"Wow. You're so old," she said, teasing him. "Old enough to be a grandpa already!" 

She paused to let out a small giggle. Woobin put down the tape. 

Yoona stopped laughing and her face became some-what serious. 

"Listen. I know you're moving and packing everything to go to university and all. But I just wanted to you to know that you will be missed a lot."

He nodded, speechless and thinking of how he will miss all of his friends.

"I'll miss you a lot. And I just wanted you to know that the times I spent with you are the ones that I will treasure the most."

"You're saying all of this like you're dying," Woobin said, interrupting her and chuckling. 

Yoona smiled sadly at him, and continued.

"And after all this time, I've come to realize something important."

She leaned in, closing up the little space in between them. Woobin raised an eyebrow, now curious about what she had to say. 

"I love you."

Woobin stared at her, his face going through several different emotions at the same time. 

"I love you. I've always had," she said, sitting back and smiling sadly. "And I'll miss you so much when you're gone. I'll miss all of our weird conversations at one in the morning and how in a few days I'll end up missing the warmth of the human sleeping next to me on my bed because he was too tired to drag himself over to his room to sleep on his bed. I'll miss all of our random hugs and presents. And I'll also miss-"

"-I-I love you too."

Yoona stared agape at Woobin for a few moments, trying to process what he had just said, before coming to a conclusion that broke her heart. 

"I'll miss you a lot too," Woobin said, shakily. "I'll also miss how we used to share food with each other, well it was more of stealing if you ask me. I'll also miss how much fun we had hanging out together and-"

"-Your 'I-love-you' is different from mine, isn't it?" Yoona whispered softly, interrupting him, knowing that what came next would surely destroy her.  But she had waited so long for this moment, and she just had to know. Surely he could at least understand the real true meaning behind those three letter words?

Woobin, still in shock from both her question and his response and just basically the entire situation in general, slowly nodded yes without thinking.

"I should've known," she whispered. 

He didn't understand. She loved him. More than a friend. She knew that he was not the type of person to pick up on that sort of thing, but in that moment, she thought, "Just maybe..."

Yoona yanked out the object from behind her. She shoved a nicely packaged box-shaped thing at his chest. He reached up in surprise and grabbed a hold of the present.

She gave him a stare that explained all of her current emotions: desperate, anger, "why-don't-you-get-it-can-one-person-even-be-that-dense." But most of it was just disappointment and sadness. 

He stared at her, confused.

"I should have known," she said, laughing, but there were tears in her eyes. 

"Happy birthday, Woobin. May this day be one of the happiest days of your life."

She got up and stalked over to the door and opened it. She paused and tuned around to look at his face, before walking out and slamming it behind her. 

That was the last time he ever saw her.

 

Laying in the darkness, covered in sweat and tangled up in the sheets, he shut his eyes tight and wished the empty feeling would disappear.

He knew it was too late.

He knew he wouldn't see her again. 

He knew she wouldn't come back.

But he said it anyway.

He said it to the darkness in his room.

He said it to the cardboard boxes stacked around his room, all packaged up and ready to go.

He said it to the emptiness on the bed next to his.

 

"Come back to me, please."