“What do you mean?” Seungcheol asked Jihoon. “You don’t love me anymore? Are you saying that our four years meant nothing to you?”

Jihoon blankly stared at Seungcheol in the eye and said, “Yeah, these four years have been a pain. I’m tired of being this way, and most importantly I’m tired of you.”

Seungcheol walked right in front of Jihoon and pressed himself against him, “How dare you. After all that we’ve been through, you’re just going to walk away?”

“Yes, it’s simple really,” Jihoon said with a grin, pushing Seungcheol away from him with each word. “I. Don’t. Love. You. Simple as that.”

Seungcheol had been stumbling backwards, heart breaking with each word. As angry as he was, he was more confused. Tears found way to his eyes, threatening to fall. “Why? Jihoon, why would you do that after telling me that you wanted a future with me? We-we were supposed to marry each other on the beaches of Busan, honeymoon on Jeju Island, live in Seoul till we were old, and retire in Daegu. I thought you loved me more than the stars, and I know how much you love the stars.”

Jihoon scoffed at Seungcheol’s words, “What a stupid fairytale. It’s funny how you thought that would be a good life. I’m glad that we’re ending this now, rather than later. I wouldn’t want to be tied down with you.”

A resounding slap was heard throughout Seungcheol’s little studio apartment. Jihoon’s face was tilted to the side, as his cheek started to turn an angry red. Seungcheol stared at his hand with disbelief of what he had done. He never wanted to harm Jihoon.

“Jihoon-ah,” Seungcheol sobbed out as he slumped to the ground, “Jihoon-ah, I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to. It-it just happened.”

“Too bad,” Jihoon said with a stoic face, “It happened, and I think this is a perfect time to say our good bye’s.”

Without looking back, Jihoon let himself out of the place. Seungcheol didn’t have the heart to follow. He didn’t deserve to, after what he had done.

How many days had it been? Seungcheol didn’t know anymore. He didn’t even know what the day of the week it was. He didn’t want to know. None of that was important anymore. He had lost his reason to live.

He didn’t care if he didn’t go into work. He knew Seungkwan would take care of their company. All the deadlines from the writers would be dealt with by Jun. Seungcheol didn’t want to have to face people and all their pitiful looks. The love of his life had left him.

Seungcheol was rudely awoken by a pounding on his door. His phone had long died from not being charged. He didn’t mind though, less human contact was what he wanted. Seungcheol closed his eyes, and hoped whoever it was would just leave when no one answered.

“Hey, you dumb idiot, open up this door before I have Mingyu kick it down.”

Seungcheol cringed at the voice. Jeonghan, his best friend, was yelling at him. Nothing could be worse.

“Seungcheol, it’s me, Joshua. Please open up. You haven’t been to work and we’re all worried.”

A tear made it’s way out of Seungcheol’s eyes. He couldn’t believe that Joshua had been dragged all the way to his place as well. Who else did they round up to come get him out of bed?

“Uh, hyung, it’s me, Wonwoo. I talked to your landlady and she gave me a key to your place. She said she didn’t want a dead body on her hands. So if you’re undressed, please put some pants on. We’re coming in.”

Seungcheol sighed and turned to face the wall of his bedroom. He didn’t want to see his friends reaction when they saw him. Why did they have to be so persistent? Why couldn’t they forget about him, like Jihoon forgot him.

He grabbed his face and tried to wipe away all the tear stains.

“Hyung,” Mingyu said at the archway to his bedroom, “You look like .”

“This place looks like ,” Jeonghan said, joining Mingyu.

“Seungkwan made us come check on his business partner, just so we could clean his place up,” Wonwoo said under his breath.

“He asked us because we are his friends,” Joshua said as he threw random things into an already stinky trash can. “And we love our friends.”

“Whatever you say, hyung.”

Seungcheol didn’t care what they were doing. He knew they were going to talk to him, but let them try.

“Hyung, what happened between you and and Jihoon-hyung?” the forever curious Mingyu asked.

Jeonghan had a light smile on, “I told you didn’t I? I knew he was trouble from the start. You’re my friend, so I respected your choice, but he was wrong for you.”

An audible sigh from the living area could be heard, “Jeonghan, we talked about this. Jihoon was never the bad guy. His parents are the one who didn’t want their relationship to happen.”

“Joshua, I was just saying, all the pain they put themselves through wasn’t worth it.”

Seungcheol wanted to tune out their voices. He wanted nothing more than to float away from all this mess. He was tired of hearing about Jihoon. If it was so easy for his ex to walk away from their relationship, Seungcheol wanted the same. He wanted to forget.

But it wasn’t easy. Every hour of the day had Seungcheol thinking of Jihoon. His Jihoon who had woken him up with tickles and kisses. His Jihoon who had lulled him to sleep with cuddles and fingers through his hair. Jihoon was his everything. He didn’t know how to live without Jihoon, because he wasn’t truly living until he met Jihoon.

Joshua stopped cleaning and went to sit by Seungcheol. He didn’t go too close to the heartbroken boy though. Joshua was unsure of how sensitive his friend was. “Seungcheol. Did he tell you why at least? Everyone is confused. All of a sudden he resigned, and the last thing Hansol told us was that he left with Soonyoung, to travel the world.”

This was something new. Jihoon didn’t mention Soonyoung to him. Seungcheol rolled over with curiosity.

“Hi hyung,” Wonwoo said, waving at him with a small smile.

Four of his friends looked at him, waiting for him to say something.

“He left with Soonyoung?”

“You didn’t know?” Jeonghan said, rolling his eyes, “The nerve of the boy. He left you for his best friend.”

Seungcheol’s chest tightened. Could that be true? Did Jihoon leave him to be in love with Soonyoung? He knew they were close friends, but he trusted Jihoon to be faithful to him. But maybe he wasn’t enough and Jihoon did love Soonyoung. Maybe Seungcheol was in the way of the two best friends being in love. Jihoon did say that he was tired of him.

“Seungcheol, you’ve been alone in this place too long,” Joshua calmly said to him, “Take a shower and we’ll take you out to eat.”

Seungcheol rolled back to his previous state, and mumbled out, “M’m not hungry.”

“Hyuunngg,” Mingyu said, dragging out the word, “You have to eat. You look like a zombie.”

Jeonghan sighed, “Come on, Seungcheol. I know you’re stubborn, but you wouldn’t let Mingyu and Wonwoo starve. We’re not leaving unless you come with us.”

To prove Jeonghan’s point, Mingyu’s stomach let out a grumble.

“Ahh,” Mingyu groaned, “Darn stomach, it’s always hungry after being upset.”

Seungcheol closed his eyes and cursed everyone in the world. Especially Jihoon, the damned devil in disguise.

Sitting up, Seungcheol scooted off his bed and walked towards his closet for fresh clothes.

Everyday, for the next three months, Seungcheol was visited by one of his friends. Whoever showed up at his door always had the duty to drag him out for food or to bring him food. Seungkwan had to call him every morning to remind him to come in for work. He couldn’t stay away from work for that long. There was too much for Seungkwan to do alone. Plus, Jun had very different tactics for getting their writers to make deadline.

It had been two weeks before Seungcheol decided to recharge his phone and turn it back on. He was lying to himself if he wasn’t hoping for something from Jihoon. Just a word, a miss call, something to tell him that he still had a chance.

Once his phone had booted up, he looked through all the missed calls and texts. There was nothing but worried friends and co-workers who were wondering where he was. Nothing from Jihoon or the best friend he ran away with.

Seungcheol sighed, throwing his phone away from him. It was true then. Jihoon had let him go for Soonyoung.

One Year Later:

Seungcheol was in the little cafe on the first floor of his building. After a late morning, he needed the caffeine to get through the rest of the day.

While he waited for his coffee to be made, he turned around to glimpse at the crowd. He knew half of them were the writers he took care of, but a lot of them were just customers. A smile was on his lips when he saw an overworked Dino, trying to type a mile a minute. He let his gaze pass the boy and went to the far corner of the busy place.

Just when he was about to turn back to see if his coffee was done, Seungcheol had to do a retake. Sitting in the corner was someone he knew too well. He couldn’t help but continue to stare and wonder if it was too good to be true. The person was crouched over a tablet, drawing. And as if the man could feel eyes on him, the man sitting in the corner lifted his face up and looked right back at him.