He knocked again and called out her name but she didn’t answer. Deciding that maybe she wasn’t home he began towards the elevator when the sound of breaking glass caught his attention. “Eve!” he shouted but it had fallen silent on the other side of the door. She wasn’t going to open it. “Eve open the door now!” he shouted as he banged on her door. Once again no answer. He pressed his ear against the door trying to find any sign of her being okay. “I’m coming in!”

He punched in the date of JB’s birthday but it didn’t work. Then he tried her’s but the door didn’t open. He began punching in combinations of important dates like the day JB and Eve first met, their first anniversary, the day they both got Nora their cat, and finally the day of Eve’s parents passing but none worked. He thought he knew every important date to the two lovers, Suddenly realization hit him and he froze, unable to press the buttons. A little-taken aback by his own thought he slowly took a breath and punched in the number:

0308

    The door beeped giving the go to enter but he couldn’t move. He tried to swallow back his saliva but his throat was dry. Taking a shaky breath he turned the doorknob and cracked the door open slightly trying to catch his composure before meeting the girl who he had taken her other half away. She was definitely not taking things well.

    Aware of the bottle flying in his direction, he quickly dodged the glass letting the contents shatter against the wall. Looking towards the direction the bottle came from, he found a drunk and drugged Eve. In one hand she had a glass of wine and in the other a bottle of pills. Although it was hard to see the cover, he knew they were sleeping pills. Spread across her coffee table where tipped over pill bottles with its contents flowing out along with crushed cans of beers and 2 empty bottles of wine. Eve looked terrible.

    “Oh hey!” her words slurred. “Isss that you Jin Young?” she asked as she stood up from her couch and trying to balance herself. She clumsily placed the wine glass on the edge of the table making the glass crashed against the concrete floor spilling the red wine everywhere. “Oops,” she said giggling, “I’m such a clutz,” she laughed. “Come here.” She moved closer to him, stumbling every step she took.

    “Woah, Eve, you need to stop. I think you’ve had enough,” he said as he caught her before she could fall to the ground.

    “What are you talking about? I’m fine see,” Trying to show her guest she was okay, she tried standing up but failed falling back into his arms. Taking a closer look at her, he could see her face stained with tears. Her eyes were puffy and red like if she had been crying for a week which she had. Her hand was filled up with band-aids from all the cuts she received from her glass cups breaking on her. “Where is he?” she suddenly asked, her tears beginning to fall again. “Where is he?!” she shouted. “I want him, I need him, I need JB right now.” She tried standing up but endlessly kept failing and began hitting his chest. “I want my boyfriend, I want my fiancee, give him to me!” she cried out as her body shook from her sobs. She continuously hit his chest as she stood and when her leg finally gave out she fell to the floor, Jin Young following after her.

Her head was spinning making her nauseous. She groaned from the bad hangover and slowly began to sit up in her bed. How had she ended there? The last thing she remembered was drinking her wine and taking some sleeping pills to escape from the world. She was in their living room. She groaned again from a headache and pushed the thought aside. It didn’t matter, the damage was done and she was there, now she just needed to make it to the bathroom before ruining their bedroom with her puke.

“When did you get here?” she asked as she found Jin Young in their living room. It seemed he had cleaned the living room up. All the pills and cans were gone and the glass was cleaned up. She was confused at his sudden appearance. She had heard that he had woken up a week ago but she was too far into her usual ritual that she didn’t make time to go check on him. Well more like she was too drunk to go see him or even comprehend the situation.

“Eve,” he spoke softly and motioned for her to take a seat with him on their couch. “We should talk,” he said and she could feel tightening up as she tried not to cry. “Please.” She took a deep breath and took the seat next to him. She felt like if she started speaking now she wouldn’t be able to control her tears. “I’m sorry,” he started and it took all the strength she had left in her weak body to not cry. She leaned back into their couch and instead of crying just scoffed. Maybe she just didn’t feel like needing his sympathy or empathy or whatever you want to call it. Maybe she was done with crying and just needed to get her anger out. Maybe that was it because before he could say anything else she stood up from the couch and just scoffed at him some more. “Eve?” he asked concerned at her reaction.

“What?” she asked. “Are you here to comfort me? Did you come to make me feel better?” She could feel that all her emotions were in turmoil. Her body and her mind had finally given up and her emotions were tearing her up from the inside out. She didn’t know whether to cry or be angry. She didn’t know whether to hold her friend or hit him. She didn’t know if whether still living in their house was good for her or moving would help her forget. She just didn’t know what to do anymore. Her emotions, her body, her mind, they were all in turmoil and she didn’t know which to follow.

“Eve,” he tried again, standing up to make her sit but she just brushed him away.

“I don’t want to hear it, Jin Young, especially not from you. I didn’t want to hear it from anyone else why would you be any different.” He opened his mouth to speak but she jumped in, “Right because you understand what I’m going through right? You’re in the same exact position as me. Yeah like everyone else out there. I know, they all lost someone but,” she paused to take a breath, “I don’t want to talk about it.” Trying her best to keep her stance she began walking in the direction of their room.

“Eve,” he said as he held her back. “I know that you lost someone you loved and yes we may not have the same feelings but I did lose him too, I lost him and the others. I was there and I couldn’t do anything. I was stuck in a coma and I couldn’t do anything. You know I would’ve done anything to bring him back if I could.” He was squeezing her arm tightly as he said those words. He hated himself as much as she hated him. “It was my fault I know it was. I never should’ve convinced you to let him go. I hate myself just as much as you hate me okay?” Silent tears rolled down his face as he tried hard not to just break down, especially not in front of her. He was there to comfort her not to be comforted.

    “Your year froze but mine continued,” she began, her voice cracking. She closed her eyes and didn’t dare to look at him. She didn’t want him to see her being vulnerable, or at least she didn’t want him to see more of her vulnerable side. “You were stuck in a time loop with endless nothing and I continued to live the year feeling like I’m no longer floating, as if I’m drowning forever.” She took a deep breath trying to stay strong. “I’m drowning forever Jin Young. I’m drowning in this river of mixed emotion. I don’t even know how I’m still moving, it’s like I’m just a puppet now and someone is controlling me. I can’t go on anymore.” She was sobbing now but she willed herself to let her words come out first before breaking down. She cleared and chuckled a sad chuckle. “That’s the thing too, I should hate you, I should despise you, loathe you but I don’t.” She paused. “You blame yourself but I don’t blame you, it was me. It was all my fault. I should’ve known. I should’ve known from the beginning. I never should’ve agreed. If I had realized sooner I wouldn’t have lost the both of them,” she cried falling down to her knees. “I lost the both of them. I lost everything because I said okay.”

He looked down at her confusion laced into his tears and on his face. He could feel all the pain she had to endure that whole year. He could feel himself feeling even more guilty about the situation. Then he remembered she had said she lost the both of them. Both? Who was the other person? “Both?” he asked as he knelt down by her side. Her body shook as her sobs grew worse, his question triggering her even more.

“My baby,” she cried, “Our baby!” Jin Young froze. Baby. She was pregnant and then he was gone. The stress must have overwhelmed her and she lost it. He looked down at her afraid to touch her as though she was too fragile. She pulled a ring on a necklace out from under the top of her shirt and showed it to him. “He was going to propose, did you know that?” she said as her crying had slightly subsided. “He was going to ask me to marry him.”

All the information she had given him seemed too much. In that one year in which he had slept, she had gone through everything alone. No parents to confide her and no one to understand her, Eve was alone. “They blame me you know,” she suddenly spoke, her sobbing nearly gone. “His parents blame me for the loss of their son and their grandchild. They blame me I know it,” she said blankly. She looked soulless. She was pretty much dead.

“I’m sure they don’t blame you,” he tried reassuring her and she just chuckled at his stupid attempt. She shook her head and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Come on, let me help you to your room.” She took his hand and they both got up from the floor, her legs giving out the moment she stood up. He held her in his arms helping her every step of the way to her room.

“I never told anyone about this,” she said as he tucked her in. “I never told anyone about the baby, about him making plans to propose to me. I didn’t have anyone,” she added as she began dozing off. All the crying and everything else that week she had done had made her weak. “Thank you,” she said as her voice trailed off. He just sat beside her, watching as she finally had a peaceful sleep, not one from drinking or drowning herself with sleeping pills but a natural sleep. Watching her only made him feel more guilty. He sighed and pressed his face into his fist, bending forward never lifting his elbow from his knees. Things weren't supposed to be like this.