You sighed as you looked at the picture of Eunhyuk with his best friend, Donghae. They had taken a selca while travelling. Donghae’s drinking coffee, and Eunhyuk was making a face that looked like a mix of a pouty face and a kissy face. You smiled a bit at the thought of the man you fell in love with coming back to you. Not the one on stage or in the music videos, but the one you met years ago. After “Oppa, Oppa” he definitely changed. He became the jerk he was originally pretending to be. You doubted whether he was acting during the Japanese MV or not. Suddenly, he burst through the door of your shared apartment.

                “Sup, babe? I’m back! Come give oppa a kiss!” He said, as he dropped his bags right by the door and walked towards you (with his swag, as he called it) with his arms wide open ready to give you a hug.

                You dodged him and said, “You know I hate that nickname,” with your back still turned to him.

                “Oooh. Someone’s on their period,” he said, walking to the kitchen.

                You spun around to look at him. “Excuse me?!”

                “Oh yeah. Most definitely the time of the month. No ‘hello,’ hug, kiss, or spread ready for when I get back,” he responded indignantly, looking in the fridge for something to eat.

                “Lee Hyukjae! What the hell is wrong with you?! You got back, like, 10 seconds ago and already you’re insulting me! This must be a new record!”

                “And whose fault is that?” He said as he lifted his head from the inside of the fridge with a slice of ham hanging out his mouth.

                “Yours! It’s entirely your fault!”

                “Whoa! How is it my fault?” He responded, finishing the ham slice, and walking towards you.

                “You’ve changed so much over these past few months. I never see you! And when I do,  you’re calling me ‘babe’ when you know I hate it, and you just want to go out and party, even if it’s without me! The old you would be considerate of my feelings and almost never leave my side when you were in town. Even when you weren’t, we would call each other constantly and chat on our webcams almost every night. Now, I’m lucky to even get a text every couple days from you! I miss the old you better.”

                “Hey! I haven’t changed! And if I have, it’s because you have! When I would get home, you used to have my favorite meal ready for me, and you would just about tackle me as soon as I walked through the door. And we would cuddle on the couch eating junk food and talking about anything that popped into our heads late into the nights. Now, you don’t even say hello to me when I come home! You know how crappy I feel?! I work so ing hard!!”

                With each passing second, he got angrier and angrier. At his last sentence, he turned around and punched the wall. Unfortunately, this caused your favorite picture of you two together hanging on the wall to fall to the ground with a crash, the frame completely shattering. You both stared at it for a couple minutes in complete silence. Your eyes started watering. As soon as the first tear fell from your eye, you walked toward your room. You grabbed an old duffel bag from the closet and started putting clothes in it. Eunhyuk was still frozen, staring at the destruction he created. You walked to the bathroom and also picked up the essentials. You made your way back to the living room, and went to the front door. As you opened it, you looked back at the man you used to love. He hadn’t moved from the spot he had been in before, but when you looked at him, his eyes slowly made their way to meet yours. There was a strange look in his eyes: it was a mix of sadness, confusion, and shock. He almost looked like his old self. You shook your head and walked right out the door.

                You checked into a hotel for the night in order to clear your head. No matter what you did, though, you still couldn’t stop thinking about Eunhyuk: how he’s been over the past months, how he used to be, what just happened, and especially the look on his face when you left. You hugged your pillow and tossed and turned all night, falling into a restless sleep.

                                                            --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                The next day, you woke up with puffy red eyes from crying, a headache, as well as a heartache. A cool compress helped with the eyes, and some meds took care of the headache, but nothing worked in getting rid of the hurt in your chest. You decided to have a day out to try to get your mind off of him: Shopping, a nice lunch, maybe a manicure. You got a decent outfit together from the clothes you randomly threw in your bag last night, and checked out of the hotel. You drove around and shopped for a couple of hours, eating lunch at a cozy place with really good dessert that you found off the main streets. With a couple more hours of treating yourself, you had completely forgotten what had happened the night before. But in the middle of looking at shoes, you got a call. It was from Eunhyuk.

                “_______? Can I please see you? Can you please come back to the apartment? Maybe around 4?” He sounded nervous, but there was a hint of hopefulness in his voice.

                “Umm. Okay. I’ll be there at 4,” you responded a little uneasily, and hung up.

                It was already 2:30, so you just decided to go to the nail salon and spend the rest of the time you had there, getting your hands and feet pampered.

                At 3:57, though, you were standing right outside of your apartment building, debating whether you should go up or not. A minute later, you decided to. You made your way up, and took a deep breath when you made it to the door of your apartment. You knocked gently. Nobody came to the door. You knocked for the second time. Still nothing.

                Great. He asks me here just so he can ignore me and make me feel like more of an idiot?

                Then you remembered you had a key. It was your apartment, too, after all. So you took out your key and opened the door. As soon as you entered the apartment, you were nearly knocked down by someone running up to you and wrapping their arms around you. You pushed them away, and were only a bit surprised to find that Eunhyuk was the one to nearly tackle you. I mean, he was the one that asked you to come at 4, but he hadn’t acted like that in such a long time.

                “Hyukjae, what are you doing?! What’s wrong with you?!” You started shouting at him. He looked a bit nervous, but there was also a hint of happiness to him.

                “I missed you so much! Look! I made your favorite!” He pointed to the kitchen table and, lo and behold, there were your favorite foods all prepared with flowers, candles, the works.

                “Do you really think that this is going bring me back? To make me fall in love with you again?”

                “No. But I’m hoping that me promising to change- to be a better man- would. I’m wishing that me vowing to you that I’ll be home more often. I’ll stop calling you ‘babe.’ I’ll call you every day when I’m away and webcam with you every night. And that I’ll be by your side all the time. I’m praying that that will help you fall in love with me again, because I’ve never stopped loving you.”

                You were taken aback by this. You still weren’t sure whether you could trust him or not, though.

                “Why should I believe this? Why should I believe anything you say?”

                “You just have to trust me. There must’ve been some reason why you’ve stayed with me for so long, even though I haven’t been worthy of you at the time. But now I swear to you that I’ll be the man that I need to be in order to be worthy of you.”

                You couldn’t hold back your tears after he said this. He immediately wrapped his arms around you again, and you rested your forehead on his shoulder as you sniffled and tried to wipe your tears away. He looked down at your face, and you looked up at him. He leaned down, and gave you an ever-so-gentle kiss that reassured you that he was telling you the truth. When the kiss ended and he wiped the tears from your cheeks, you spoke to him.

                “And I promise to always smother you in hugs and kisses as soon as you walk in the door. I promise to have your favorite foods on the table when you return from a trip. I promise to cuddle with you on the couch, eating junk food, and talking all hours of the night about anything and everything. I promise to love you again- even more than you love me.”

                “I’m not sure that’s possible, though.”

                You both chuckled as you remained in his arms. You remained there for a minute before he jumped a bit.

                “Oh! I almost forgot! I have something for you!”

                He disappeared into the other room for a few seconds before he reappeared, holding something behind his back. He held one hand out, holding a small rectangular box. It contained a silver charm bracelet with a few charms on it.

                “Awww. I love it!”

                “I was hoping you would.”

After you got the bracelet on your wrist, Eunhyuk also held out another present, wrapped and everything. He held it out to you. You took it slowly. You unwrapped the paper and instantly jumped and hugged him again. He had made another frame for the picture that fell off the wall the other night. He decorated it with hearts and both of your names side by side with a bunch of other cute drawings.

“I love it! I love you,” you said to him.

“I love you, too. Now, let’s go eat before the food gets cold. I spent all day on it,” he said as he gave you a quick kiss on the forehead.