He left the apartment first thing in the morning, heading to Minseok’s, but it turned out that she left first thing in the morning too. She was probably hidden away in the corner of her campus’s library, and if she wanted to avoid him, she would. He thanked Minseok anyway, who grinned with an, “Anything for my future wife.”

That joke was getting old really fast.

He called Kyungsoo, who hadn’t heard anything from the previous night, and Jongin apologized for waking him up. And after he recounted the situation, Kyungsoo told him the obvious.

“You’re an idiot.”

“I know—”

“You know that she’s leaving for South Africa early, right? She moved up the times of her finals.”

“What?” A pang of hurt jolted through him. Without even telling him? Or was that his fault?

“She’s leaving in three days.”

And in those three days, Jongin tried to find her, but she was elusive when she wanted to be. Sometimes she was Kyungsoo’s, sometimes she crashed at Baekhyun’s, and she even stayed a night at Tao’s. He couldn’t catch her when she went to go renew her lease, but she never asked for the key of her apartment back, so he knew that she’d be there for her final year.

On the final night, Jongin called her, and the phone went to voicemail. And he poured everything out.

“Chaeyeon, before you delete this immediately, please listen. I’m sorry. I’m s