Part 2: Dead Leaves
Word Count: 3,099

"I'm sorry about how things turned out, Y/N. I really am."

It was two o'clock in the morning when Yumi called you on the phone. She wasn't able to call you any earlier, since she had just finished work moments ago. Yumi knew you too well that you'd be awake even at this hour. If there was something that bothered you, nothing could make you sleep until the problem was solved completely.

"It's fine," you said as a response, suddenly feeling compelled to say something in return.

"I know you're definitely not," Yumi sighed, "Did you eat yet? Please tell me you had something to eat."

"Yeah, I did."

"Y/N, tell me. Do you love him?"

You rolled to your side. You heard your friend's question perfectly fine, but it took you longer than you thought to find a genuine answer.

"I don't know."

"Listen, Y/N," she continued, "I know you probably hate him right now and want to get away from him as fast as possible. If that's what will make you happy, then I definitely want you to make that decision. But I don't want you beating around the bush, making rash decisions without thinking straight."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Do you love him, Y/N?" she urged, her voice filled with a stern tone.

"I don't know, Yumi."

"Don't break up with him if you're going to regret it later."

You fell back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling for a while. Did you love him? Or were you right about falling out of love with him? Did you really want to break up with him, or were you only desperate for his attention? You closed your eyes in annoyance, wishing your best friend a good night before hanging up. Yumi was right. It would be stupid to break up with Taehyung if you were only going to regret it later.

You gathered all your thoughts, pushing yourself up from the bed. You looked around the room with dispirited eyes, your eyes landing on everything they possibly could. The mirror. The wardrobe. The bedside table. The strange orange table in the corner. Each and every single object in the room held some beautiful memory attached to it, a strong sense of sentimental value. Afterall, this apartment was both yours and Taehyung's apartment. The apartment you had spent so long looking for, the apartment you had very carefully decorated together.

The entire place was the epitome of your relationship-- once jovial and tidy, now dark and horrendous. But still, it was home. Your home.

"I don't know if this is even love anymore," you muttered to yourself, staring at the photoframe on the bedside table.

Tears were welling in your eyes when you took hold of it, your index finger gliding against the glass frame. The photo was of Taehyung and you photographed from one of your high school friend's weddings last year. The memory felt so far away, it was hard to believe that it actually happened.

The truth was that you wanted to go back into the past. You wanted to go back, and whatever went wrong, you wanted to fix. The kind of love you had with Taehyung before all of this was all you ever wanted. It took you months to realize that there was no going back. This was your life now, and if you couldn't work things out after this argument, that said a lot about what kind of relationship you had. Sure, couples did fight every now and then. but everyone could tell that this was different. You just weren't so sure you loved him the same way anymore.

You rose from the bed, fixing the comforter you messed up from lying around. You pushed open the doors of the wardrobe, almost smiling at the amount of  Taehyung's jumpers just hanging everywhere, left inside-out. You closed the doors, realizing that most of your own clothes had been in the walk-in wardrobe. Although you had been the one mostly wearing those jumpers, you couldn't take them with you. It just wouldn't make any sense if you did.

Before you rummaged through the drawers to collect your most important things, you pulled out the light pink luggage from under the bed. Your mother had gifted you the luggage on your birthday last year, and the only time you had used it since that day was when you went on vacation with Taehyung to Jeju Island. Opening the luggage to make sure it was empty, you was almost startled to see that half the clothes you owned were already inside of the luggage.

You didn't stop yourself from chuckling, shaking your head at your own stupidity. You had spent days complaining about the whereabouts of your clothes, and they suddenly made an appearance after almost an entire year. However, you were still thankful for your clothes' disappearance, since that had given you a reason to wear Taehyung's clothes whenever you wanted. His clothes were just more comfortable and easier to move around in. Besides, he loved it whenever you wore his clothes.

You left the luggage where it was, moving to the bathroom, picking up your toothbrush and shampoo. The shampoo you had bought was actually from Jeju Island, a special shampoo that the locals had made. You had bought one bottle from the shop across the hotel since you forgot to pack some of your own, but there was one person who seemed to love it even more than you ever did.

--

"Come here," he waved his hand, calling you over, "Come here, jagiya."

You raised a brow, laughing softly before setting down your phone and walking into the arms of your lover.

Wrapping his arms around you, he rested his chin on your head.

"Your shampoo. Where did you get it from?"

"Why?" you asked, defensively, wondering if it smelt terrible. You swore you had smelt the samples before buying one. You pulled away from him in discomfort, surprised to meet with his loving gaze.

"I love it," he said, "I think you're going to have to buy a million bottles more of it, jagiya."

--

There were still dozens of bottles left of the shampoo, but you were sure to come back for it another time. For now, your intention was to pack the essentials. Clothes, a toothbrush, one bottle of shampoo, all the papers scattered on your working desk...

You almost forgot that you had to go back to work in less than seven hours. You picked up your pace, gathering all your paperwork for work and shoving it into a blue manila folder. You tucked it under your arm, returning to the pink luggage you had left on the floor in the bedroom. Worried that it would get crumpled in the luggage, you decided you'd just hold onto it on your own. Zipping the luggage shut, it rolled behind you as youmade your way towards the door. You stopped in your tracks at the sound of fumbling keys, the unlocking of a front door.

You took a step back, unsure of what was to come. Rather than the door slamming open like you expected, the door opened gently only enough to provide the figure enough room for entrance. Taehyung looked rather exhausted, his tear-stained face reflecting yours from last night. He looked so fragile, so broken. A sight that looked so familiar to you; perhaps something you had seen in the mirror only yesterday.

"You're home," you pointed out, not intending to mock him in any way.

"Where are you going?"

"To Yumi's for the night. I'll figure out the rest some other time."

"Why?"

You stood still, fidgeting with hem of your shirt. The calmness in his voice was almost disturbing to you. You had hoped he'd yell at you, maybe hurt you once again, to give you a better reason to leave him for good. You walked straight past him, surprised by the fact that he hadn't grabbed onto your wrist roughly as he did the other time.

"You're letting me go?" you asked, your hand shaking atop of the silver doorknob.

"I shouldn't hold you back from being happy," Taehyung finally said, "Even if it means leaving this place, moving onto somebody else."

You bit down on your lip, "Why aren't you yelling? Aren't you angry at me?"

"I'm the one who hurt you," he replied, exhaling through his gritted teeth, "So I don't think it's right for me to be the one feeling that way."

"You could at least try to make it easier for me to leave."

You finally twisted the door knob of your shared apartment, the place the two of you had called home for the past two-and-a-half years. The door behind you shut as Taehyung helplessly broke into tears, looking back at the door you had just walked out of seconds ago.

You pressed the button of the elevator, holding tightly onto the handle of your suitcase. The doors opened in an instant as you stepped inside, pressing the button that was to take you to the ground level.

And this was it; this was the end.

--

10th November 2017, 3.52pm

"Are you really going to be standing there the whole time watching it make one hundred copies?"

You blinked, shifting your eyes from the printer to the man sitting behind the large desk.

"Uh, sir... Is there something else I could do, then?" you questioned, wondering why someone else was bothering you about your own business.

Although this man probably had nothing to do with the marketing team, you had no choice but to listen to what he had to say. He seemed to have been working at this place for much longer than you have, and making good impressions with all your co-workers was your one and only goal for the next month or so.

"Well, you could go and get us some coffee," he suggested, gesturing towards himself and the middle-aged woman across the room, "Your seniors are very hardworking. It's a little disrespectful that you haven't even bought any of us a cup of coffee yet, don't you think?"

You shot a quick glance at the printer. It still had thirty more copies to do. You nodded your head, leaving the room immediately, hoping you'd make it back in time before the team leader went around looking for you once again.

"You're kidding me," you groaned, eyeing the massive line that had started in the Starbucks across the road. Of course, the American coffee shop was always filled with customers, but you were hoping that today would be that one exception. You could already imagine the angry expression on the team leader's face.

All of a sudden, your phone started ringing. Pulling it out of your pocket, you pressed it against your ear, saving yourself the extra time of glancing down to read the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"Hello," the voice greeted on the other side of the line, "You look rather troubled right now, Y/N. Still pretty, but very troubled."

Your eyes widened, your eyes scanning the entire scene in front of you. Were you being followed right now?

"Seokjin? Hey, where are you?"

"At the dorm, playing video games with Hoseok," he replied calmly.

"Then how do you--"

"It's just a hunch," he cut you off, "So what's troubling you?"

You glanced at the large clock that hung over the district. It was probably time you went back to work.

"Jin, can you do me a huge favor? Please?"

You crossed your fingers, hoping Seokjin would be in the mood to help out a friend in need. After a moment of contemplation, Seokjin gave in to your request.

"Fine, but the favor won't come for free. What is it, anyway?" he asked, laziness present in his tone.

"I need two cappuccinos from Starbucks to be delivered to the office. I know it's an odd request, but I'll explain everything later, okay? Just call when you get here."

Hanging up on Seokjin, you rushed back into the office building, dashing up the stairs in your black heels. The elevator was a much safer option, but you were willing to do anything to keep your job. Many of your co-workers had been fired in the past two weeks due to their incompetence to be productive under such pressure. Although the team leader was horrifying enough, the CEO was even worse.

"There you are," Baekhyun clasped his hands together, "I've been looking for you everywhere, Y/N."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Byun," you bowed your head, "There was a problem with the printer and I--"

"I didn't ask for a damn excuse," he interrupted, his fake smile fading, "I want all the papers on my desk now. Unless you want to end up like Jiyoung?"

You shook your head silently, bowing respectfully once more. Jiyoung had worked alongside you during your first few months at this fashion company, so her sudden absence made you even more miserable by the day.

Yumi had tried to persuade you to quit your job at the company, but there was no other job you could take out there. You was lucky enough to earn an interview with your lack of experience, as well as the university you graduated from being in Daegu, a lot of employers would've hired others who graduated in Seoul.

You rushed back to the print room to come face-to-face with the two seniors waiting for their Starbucks.

"So, where's the coffee you promised us?" he scoffed, "Let me guess, you forgot?"

"The coffee is on its way," you managed to reply devoid of anger, "I'll bring it to you when it arrives."

"It better not be some crappy instant coffee mix," the older woman called from behind as you gathered all the freshly printed papers.

Taking the papers to Baekhyun, you slipped a paperclip on the side, placing onto his desk before taking a step back.

"What's this?" he snapped, causing you to look up in shock as he ripped up the papers. You were so sure you followed his instructions perfectly this time. "I asked for the border to be specifically one centimeter, not whatever you decided looked better. Go and print another batch. And make sure it's actually what I asked for, got it?"

"I understand, sir," you bent down to your knees, collecting the mess the team leader had made. You felt the pain on the back of your ankles; these shoes were the least comfortable, but every staff member had to comply with the rules regarding uniform.

As soon as you sent the papers to be re-printed to the correct border, you dashed to the bathroom, afraid someone would see you so upset and defeated over the amount of criticism you had received throughout the entire day. Maybe working in a design team was a terrible idea, but what other job could someone offer you that paid you enough to allow you to get by in the city? Now that you were paying for your stay in an apartment you were renting, the balance in your bank account was disappearing at a faster rate than when you had lived in an apartment with Taehyung.

Interrupting your thoughts, your phone buzzed in your pocket. A text from Seokjin, letting you know that he was in front of the building, waiting for you to pick up the coffee you had specially ordered for the two grumpy co-workers in the printroom.

You left the bathroom, masking any signs of exhaustion or defeat. If anything, you didn't want to give anyone the satisfaction of knowing that they got to you.

Unexpectedly, it was Hoseok leaning back against his car, concealing his identity with designer sunglasses. You forced a smile as you approached his black car, pulling out your purse to pay him what you owed.

"Thank you so much, Hoseok. How much did it cost?"

"Don't worry about it," he replied, looking at you, "Hey... Are you alright?"

"Of course I am."

"You look exhausted, Y/N. Did someone do something to you again?" he pressured you for a response.

The last time you had a hard time with the team leader, you had told Yumi. Eventually, Yumi had told Namjoon who then told everyone else. It was an odd way for him to find out, but you couldn't deny the fact that you were always having it tough with your co-workers.

"Yes, but I'll be fine. I'm off work in a few hours, anyway."

Just as you were about to grab onto the tray of coffees, the older male pulled it away.

"No, you're finishing now. Get in the car, I'll talk to your boss and tell him you aren't feeling well."

"No, Hoseok," you ran your fingers through your hair, "You don't understand... My job is on the line, here."

"You're not feeling well, so there's nothing we can do. Now get in the car while I deliver your coffee."

Hoseok unlocked his car, opening the door before swiftly tossing his car keys towards you. Left without a choice, you caught the keys in your hands, watching as Hoseok coolly entered the office building with a tray of Starbucks coffees in his arms. Although he was stubborn, you liked it in a way. He always had good intentions. You sat down in the passenger seat, undoing your tight ponytail and taking off the heels that gave you intense pain on your feet.

After five or ten minutes, Hoseok returned to greet you with a victorious smile.

"So, how did it go?" you asked, stretching out your arms.

"I think they like me," he shrugged. Everyone liked Hoseok and his charming smile, it was no surprise. "They're letting you off work tonight and tomorrow, so you can thank me later."

"Really?" you were shocked to hear that from your friend. You were barely ever allowed off work. And if you were, it would only be for half a day. It must've been a miracle for Hoseok to suddenly achieve such consideration from the boss. "I'm forever in your debt, Jung Hoseok."

"You can thank me by having dinner with me tonight, Y/N."

You stared back at your grinning friend who shot a wink in your direction.

"After rescuing me from wearing stilhettos, you ask me to wear another pair again?" you joked, rolling your eyes at him.

He started the engine, shaking his head, letting out a chuckle.

"No, silly. We're not eating anywhere near here. We'll go far; away from the city. Away from here."