It is two in the morning, but I was on a cab driving to Soojung’s house. In the entire ride, I was listening to her sobs over the phone.

Soojung is one of the strongest people I know. She rarely shed tears, especially not for the men she dated.

Unlike me, there was never an entire year that Soojung was single since our College days. She could make men fall for her in an instant. She knew how to pull their strings well. Dating was like a song that Soojung had mastered.

Some people would raise brows whenever Soojung would introduce a new boy. They would call her names behind her back – any word synonymous to a . Soojung knew this but she did not care anyway.

People think that Soojung was just playing but I knew otherwise. Far from playing with hearts, Soojung was a person who is in a constant search for someone who would love her.

She wanted someone who would make her heart swell with so much happiness; someone who could promise her forever. She found the first one in Minhyuk but not the second, as Soojung had caught him cheating.

“I’m at your door, Soojung,” I told her over the phone, “Please let me in.”

It did not take long before the door opened and revealed Soojung.

She was far from the everyday Soojung she would project to the world. There were no cosmetics on her face, only tear streaks. Her eyes did not have their usual shine, they were swelling from too much crying. Her hair was in a mess.

Soojung looked so devastated.

The phone on her hand was long forgotten as she collapsed into my arms. I hugged her tight in return as she cried over my shoulders.

“I believed him, Suzy,” Soojung sobbed, “I believed him every time he said he loved me.”

I caressed her back and replied, “It’s okay to hurt, Soojung. Just let it all out. I’m here now.”

I then lay with her in her bed. I held her hand as she was curled in a fetal position. She looked so vulnerable.

“I shouldn’t have fallen in love,” Soojung cried, “Now, it hurts so much. It’s not just my heart that feels broken. Every part of me feels the pain.”

“It’ll be gone,” I assured her.

“When?” she asked, “Tomorrow? Next month? Next year?”

“Maybe not so soon,” I tucked the strands of her hair behind her ears, “But in time, the pain will go away.”

She nodded quietly before she asked, “Did the pain go away for you, Suzy?”

I smiled sadly at her before I admitted to her and to myself, “I’m afraid not yet, not completely.”

When Soojung graced her thumb upon my cheek, that was the only time that I realized that I was already crying.

Yet I beamed, genuinely this time, as I promised her, “We will heal.”

The morning after, I woke up before Soojung did. She was obviously too tired from all the tears she had poured out. I roamed around her unit and cleaned – picking up all the traces that Minhyuk had left, everything that would remind Soojung of him.

I could still remember the things that Soojung had done when it was I who came fresh from a breakup with Jongin. My world crumbled then but Soojung would pick up all the pieces and reconstruct me. In the first months of my break up, she would visit me often with a scolding, but now, I know that she was only constantly checking up that I was fine. I smiled as I remembered that she even prepared a list of the most eligible bachelors in the world, just to prove that I had better options.

When Soojung woke up, she was lethargic as I expected.

I forced her to take a bath. I filled the bath tub with all her favorite scents and essential oils. I helped her wash her hair and scrub her back. When she was done, I picked an oversized shirt for her to wear.

Then, I got a marker and wrote, “Love yourself the way you wanted him to do so.”

She beamed at me and said, “Thanks for the reminder.”

“Don’t stop being pretty,” I told her.

“I am never not beautiful,” she rolled her eyes.

I beamed because she already had the energy to retort.

Soojung put her head on my shoulder as she whispered, “Thanks, Suz. I love you.”

I grinned, “I rarely hear those three words from you.”

“Urgh. Those words make me weak,” she grunted a complaint but then, she looked as she added, “But I am certain that I can always be vulnerable around you.”

I smiled again – my friendship with Soojung goes as far as high school. But unlike my other high school friends, Soojung did not become a stranger. Unlike Jongin, she never left my life.

We loved each other in our best and even in our worst.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Soojung ended the trance that I was in.

“What?”

“I feel like you would kiss me anytime now,” she squinted at me, “You want to experiment?”

“Shut up,” I pushed her head away and we both ended up laughing.

“What else do you have for me?” she questioned.

“Face masks. Chocolate ice cream and some Taylor Swift Albums to sing to,” I answered, “Oh. I brought our favorite movies too.”

“Okay. I’d set up the TV. Go get that ice cream,” she said.

I got some mugs, spoons, and not just ice cream but also some chips which I found from her storage.  When I went back to the living room, I spotted Soojung laughing at the label I had put in the box which contained all of Minhyuk’s things I found in her apartment.

“Poison. Don’t touch until brave enough,” Soojung read the label with a big grin, “Witty enough.”

I shrugged before I proceeded to sit on the sofa. I asked her, “Which movie first? Mean Girls or Legally Blonde?”

“Elle Woods forever,” Soojung answered and I beamed before clicking on Legally Blonde.

The opening credits were rolling when Soojung sat beside me and the two sentences she spoke left me distracted for the whole movie.

“That box in your apartment which has Jongin’s things, have you given it back to him?”

I shook my head no.

Soojung sighed and as she held my hand, she said, “We can help each other in healing but in the end, the act of letting go is a choice we have to make on our own.”

“Good morning,” I beamed as I read Sehun’s text message.

After the night that we ‘celebrated our 100 days,’ I had two paths to choose from: 1) level up the closeness between us or 2) ignore the fact that the kiss happened.

I chose the second and tried to act normal for the next two days, but I couldn’t keep the act for long, because Sehun chose the first path and started sending me random messages on the third day. I couldn’t stop myself from replying and since then, we had exchanged conversations via phone either through text messages or through call. He’d go often to my apartment as well, and often, it would be by surprise.

Random visits. Random messages. Random calls.

But it was funny how I waited for ‘random’ to happen. I

I was beginning to expect from him.

I replied a ‘good morning’, as if cuing him that I was already awake. Then, I proceeded to the bathroom, and as I was about to take a shower, I realized that Sehun had begun to leave traces of him in my apartment.

My toothbrush was already accompanied by his own. He had brought his own set of toiletries. There were already two towels hanged in my bathroom. His clothes were even in one of the drawers in the living room.

My trance was halted when I opened the faucet but there was no water coming out. Confused, I went to the kitchen to check the other