Word count: 2115 words

The Rift

It was a rainy night in early spring when Sehun called me, interrupting my favorite part of the movie I was watching. Oh yeah, I was annoyed, because Sehun never called me in the middle of the night, at 11PM at that, for something important- aka he was just going to annoy the out of me as per usual. Usually, it was something along the lines of ‘hey I’m hungry, what do you think I should eat?’ As annoyed as I was, I still picked up his call, but I gave him a silent treatment, of course, because like I said, I was pissed.

But to my worry, he was also silent, whereas he was the louder one between us two. “Sehun?” I called his name. He kept his silence, and I would have thought that he was not even on the other line if it was not for the sound of his heavy breathing. “Sehun?” I called out again, the worry is kicking in stronger this time. More time passed in silence, and just when I was about to call his name for the third time, he finally answered me, “I broke up with her.”

I did not exactly remember how our conversation went after that, but the next thing I know, he was sobbing while clinging onto me, on the bed inside my room in my apartment. I tried my best to calm him down, but it was not easy, and so I just let him be while giving comforting pat on the head, until he fell asleep by himself out of exhaustion.

After I made sure that he was sleeping comfortably with the blanket over him, I walked out of my bedroom and decided to sleep on the sofa in the living room. I was not sure at what time I fell asleep, but I do know that it was well early in the morning. I remembered just staring up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what went wrong between Sehun and his now ex-girlfriend, and even had a thought of calling the said ex, Yoo Aeri, who also just happened to be a friend of mine.

I dismissed that thought right away though, because as much as I was close with Aeri, I was closer to Sehun, and all three of us were aware of that. I believe Sehun did not call me right away after they broke up- I mean, he must have at least tried to settle whatever happened down with her first until it did not work anymore, and only then he called me. And between those time, Aeri did not call me at all, so I just knew, that she must have known that Sehun would reach out to me, and she did not want to burden me with her side of the story too. Not that I would mind knowing both sides of the story, but I suppose we all just knew that it would not do any of us good for me to know both sides of the story.

When morning came, I was surprised to find myself waking up on the bed, when I was sure that I had fallen asleep on the sofa. When I tried to sit up, I also realized that Sehun was hugging me in his sleep from behind, with his arms draped tightly around my waist. We were touchy people to begin with, but that was honestly the most skinship we had ever done in our three years and more of friendship.

After successfully pried his hands off me, I washed up a bit and cooked brunch for us. It was already 10AM, I belatedly realize, which also confirmed my suspicion on falling asleep early in the morning. Thankfully it was also a Saturday, so both of us did not have to worry about our internship. I was turning off the stove and flipped the last pancake to the plate when a pair of arms s around my waist and a head pressed down on my shoulder. “I thought you left too,” Sehun murmured as he tightened his hug.

I wanted to give him an earful to not do that again, because what he did startled me to death and I almost smack the frying pan I was holding to his head. But instead, I only heaved a sigh and his head slowly after I put the pan back. “I’m not going anywhere, Sehun,” I turned around in his grip and hugged him properly now, my hand rubbed his back soothingly after I felt the wetness on my shoulder once again.

When I felt that he had stopped crying and calmed down a bit, I pulled him to sit on one of the chairs at the kitchen counter, which also acts as my dining table. He just slumped down on the table, with his head on top of his hands. I used that time to set the table up, with the plate of pancakes, glass of water, and a tub of chocolate ice cream to compliment the pancake.

“Here, eat first,” I nudged him on the shoulder. “You can continue your wallowing after that.” He managed to give me a weak glare at that remark, yet he just kept mum and proceeded to eat his meal. Our