Uki’s POV~

I woke up the next morning feeling especially grumpy. You wanna know why? Because it finally hit me this morning that practically half of my boys would be leaving me today for Taiwan, leaving me alone for the next two months. I felt like a panicking mother, going around double checking that no one forgot anything while they were packing, making sure that every single one of them—even the stubborn fish—ate something for breakfast, and confirming with everyone that I better get a damn phone call the moment they touch Taiwan soil. Donghae still refused to look me in the eye, let alone speak to me, and whenever he was forced to answer me, he’d answer in a gruff “Mmm” or “Uh-uh”. Quite honestly, though, I didn’t have time to deal with his childish antics. I had seven other boys plus a very confused girl to worry about.

“Lee Hyukjae! I thought you told me you packed your toothbrush already!” I yelled after discovering Eunhyuk’s toothbrush sitting on the bathroom sink.

“I did!” Eunhyuk responded, his voice resonating from somewhere in the dorm.

“Oh yeah? Then what’s this?” I walked out of the bathroom and made my way to the kitchen, the end of his toothbrush dangling between my thumb and forefinger while my other hand was on my hip.

He looked up at me, his mouth open to respond, before his eyes landed on the toothbrush and a look of recognition dawned on his face. He flashed me a gummy grin and said, “Oh hey, that is my toothbrush.”

“Mhm, I thought so,” I responded, tossing the toothbrush in his direction.

He caught it easily and muttered, “I wonder whose toothbrush I used this morning then…”

My face twisted into disgust for a moment before I realized that I really did not wanna know whose toothbrush he had used this morning. Instead, I went around and double checked that every single one of the boys leaving today had eaten at least something. “Siwon, Ryeowook, Kyuhyun, Eunhyuk, Sungmin, Henry, Zhou Mi, D-Donghae, you’ve all eaten something, right?”

A quiet chorus of yes was my response, and I had my mouth open to say something else when a loud voice boomed behind me, making me jump in surprise.

“GOOD MORNING, EVERYBODY!”

I turned around and narrowed my eyes immediately. “VOID!”

“Gooooood morning, roomie,” he said, grinning at me and kissing me on the cheek in greeting.

My automatic response? Hitting him right in the gut.

“Oof! Uki! That hurt!” he whined, pouting at me.

“Void, please, it is too early in the morning to be pissing Uki off,” Leeteuk said, stirring his cup of coffee with a tired look etched into his features.

“She started it,” Void muttered under his breath, heading off to take his seat at the table.

“Uki, are you sure you’re not gonna come with us? It’s not too late to get you a ticket,” Siwon said, giving me a pleading look.

I immediately took note of Donghae’s grip tensing slightly on his fork while his jaw immediately clenched as he chewed his food. I sighed and shook my head. “You’ve already managed to convince Alex to go out there with you. You don’t need me there.”

Siwon sighed as well before nodding and standing up in order to give me a hug and a kiss on the top of my head. “Well in that case, have a safe trip back to England. I hate that I won’t be able to see you by the time I come back.”

“Wait a minute. You’re leaving before we get back?” Donghae suddenly asked, looking up at me with a slightly wide-eyed look.

I blinked for a moment. First time all morning he’s said more than two words to me, and I already get the feeling that this has the potential to end up badly. “I am. I’ve gotta head back to college sooner or later, right?”

“So… You’re just gonna leave?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t see a point in me staying here any longer,” I responded reasonably.

“You could stay here to keep me company,” Void interjected, winking at me and sending me his one-of-a-kind smirks.

My face immediately fell before I smacked him upside the head and said, “Hurry up and finish eating. I’ve decided that you’re gonna go out and help me run errands today.”

“Again?! I haven’t even been back for one day, and you’re already tryna treat me like a slave?! Uki!”

“Treat you like a slave?! We’re running errands to go buy groceries for you to eat, you freeloader!”

Void pouted at me before huffing under his breath and returning to his task of eating.

“Okay, ignore the child,” Siwon said, turning to look at me once more. “Promise me that when you leave, you give me a call before you board the plane and after you get off the plane, ara?”

“You act as though I’m leaving tonight or something. I’ll stick around for a bit, but I wanna get outta here as soon as possible,” I replied.

“Uki, please stay until we get back. I wanna get a chance to properly say goodbye to you,” Alex interjected, shooting me an imploring look.

“Tough luck. I’m tired of Seoul. I needa get outta here before I go insane,” I responded. “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to shower and get ready to go shopping. So goodbye, farewell, have a safe trip, and remember to call me the moment you land in Taiwan, otherwise, I’ll fly over there and kill you all for blatantly disobeying me. Toodles!”

I quickly scurried out of there and toward the bathroom, where I shut the door and slid down to the floor. My back was against the smooth wood of the door as my hand clutched at my rapidly beating heart, and I felt as though I were about to go through a panic attack. It just hit me. It literally just ing hit me that Donghae would be leaving me for two months. I know I told myself that I was done with feeling sorry for myself, but I had no idea it would hit me this hard when I finally realized that he’d be leaving and there was seriously no chance of fixing things between us. He and I were done, and with him leaving to Taiwan later today and me leaving to Cambridge later in the month, there seriously were no chances of ever mending things between us. The realization finally sunk in and it ing hurt.

Uhae was over.

It was done.

So much for together forever, eh?

~~~~

About thirty minutes after I had first crawled into the bathroom to hide away, I found myself lying on the floor, back still against the door, and curled up into a tight ball while aimlessly tracing the intricate tile patterns with my finger. You probably guessed that I had ended up crying, right?

WRONG.

I ended up sobbing.

It just didn’t make sense to me how I had literally devoted almost two and a half years of my life to this guy to have things just end between us over a stupid article, with no chances whatsoever of patching things up between us. I hated it. Seriously, Donghae was the first guy my parents ever truly approved of, and he was the first guy that Siwon was ever okay with. Not to mention the fact that he was seriously the most perfect boyfriend anybody could ever ask for. Ugh! Damn it, Uki, why couldn’t you have just fixed things?! Why couldn’t you have just been the bigger person and fixed things?! If you had just compromised, you wouldn’t be left all alone in Seoul with no one to go to for comfort except for that emotionless freak you call your new roommate.

I sighed and wiped away the tears that had fallen down my nose, sniffling quietly at the depressing prospect of having no one to talk to except for Void. I don’t know why, but every time I talk to that child, I always feel the need to punch something, simply because he is that irritating. Ugh. I’ve gone from being absolutely depressed about Donghae leaving to silently hating on Void. Oh yeah, because that’s not a sign of being bipolar at all. That’s totally and completely normal.

I jumped slightly when a sudden pounding resonated throughout the tiny bathroom, accompanied by a gruff, obviously irritated voice shouting, “UKI! GODDAMNIT, HAVE YOU EVEN SHOWERED YET?! IT’S BEEN ING FORTY-FIVE MINUTES AND I HAVEN’T HEARD THE SHOWER GO ON ONCE! I NEED TO ING PEE, AND IF YOU DON’T GET OUT HERE THIS INSTANT, I WILL BLAME MY RUPTURED BLADDER ON YOU!”

“G-get outta here, V-Void,” I stammered quietly in between my tears and sniffles.

“DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?! I. NEED. TO. . ING. PEE. HURRY UP!” Void continued shouting, never once letting up on his incessant pounding on the door.

I swear. To God. That if he doesn’t stop pounding on this door and screaming at me, I will—

“UKI SEOHAE CHOI, GET YOUR OUT HERE NOW!” he yelled, causing me to growl in anger and immediately stand up.

Impatiently wiping away the remnants of my tears, I yanked the door open and immediately thumped him on the forehead the moment his face came into view.

“Ow!” he yelped, one of his hands immediately flying to his forehead and tenderly rubbing the spot where I had thumped him. He pouted at me when he saw that my scowl wasn’t gonna be melting away to show any sympathy whatsoever, but faltered when he noticed something. His eyes widened and he grabbed hold of my shoulders, leaning his face closer to mine and closely examining something that was obviously irking him. I gave him a creeped out look, trying to move away from his grasp, but he simply held on tighter and continued peering into my eyes.

“Void, what the hell are you doing?! You’re creeping me the out!” I yelled, trying to jerk away from him, but he once again held on tightly and peered deeper into my eyes.

Just when I was about to reach up and hit him across the face for being so damn creepy, he quietly asked, “Have you been… crying?”

I slightly frowned at his question, immediately ducking my head and looking away from his face. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Your eyes don’t get puffy, but the area around your eyes get really, really pale while the tip of your nose gets really, really pink.” He paused for a moment, cocking an eyebrow as he continued to scrutinize my face. “Is that how you cry?”

“You’re crazy,” I muttered, pushing past him and walking briskly down the hallway toward the kitchen. I immediately busied myself with putting the clean dishes from the dish rack by the sink away inside the cupboards as he followed me, giving me a scrutinizing look. I turned to look at him, my innocent look immediately turning into a glare, as I said, “What? Why do you keep staring at me?” Almost as a side thought, I added, “And where is everybody else?” when I realized that it was eerily quiet in the dorms.

“Well, half the idiots that are staying here took the other half of the idiots that are heading out to Taiwan to the airport. But that’s beside the point. Why were you crying? Don’t tell me it’s ‘cause of Sea,” he said, giving me an expectant look.

“It’s East Sea, and no, I was not crying over Donghae,” I responded brusquely, turning my face away from him again.

Void sighed. “It’s no use lying to me. I’m, like, all-knowing.”

I gave him a flat stare before sighing and returning to my task of putting away the dishes. “Void, you’re going crazy. I was not crying over D—D—Dong—” I couldn’t even get the rest of his name out before I dropped the plate I had in my hands, the plate immediately shattering, and sunk to the floor, crying once more. Erg! I hated this! He and I were over, damnit! I needed to learn how to get over him! Why was it so hard to just get over him?!

Void sighed and crouched down in front of me, pulling me by the shoulder until my head was against his chest and his arms were wrapped around me. He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, just let me sit there and cry. I hated this. I didn’t realize I would be crying when he finally left. I didn’t realize that even after I told myself and everybody out there that I was done with feeling sorry for myself, I would still be upset with the way things ended between him and me. I needed to learn how to grow up and let it go. Was I expecting that he and I would stay together forever? Tch. That’s a silly little girl’s dream, thinking that such happy endings exist outside of fairytale storybooks. I should have known better than to hope for something so stupid and unattainable.

“Okay, that’s enough. You don’t needa be wasting your tears over some idiot that broke your heart, do you understand me?” Void asked quietly, pulling away slightly to look at my tear-streaked face. I shook my head, wiping away the tears yet refusing to say anything in response. He sighed again. “Uki, this isn’t like you. In all the time I’ve known you, not once have I seen you cry. And to cry over a stupid jerk like Sea? Not freaking worth it. Do you hear me? NOT. WORTH. IT.”

“Y-you don’t u-unders-stand what i-it’s like, V-Void,” I managed to hiccup between my sniffles, wiping away the fresh onslaught of tears that managed to break through once again.

“Okay, maybe I don’t understand. And seeing you like this just shows me that relationships and love and all that fun jazz is just a waste of time. I know it’s easier said than done, but all you really hafta do is just get over it. I mean, honestly? There are sooo many better guys out there for you, and even if you refuse to believe it, it’s true.”

“N-no one c-can compare with D-Donghae,” I murmured stubbornly.

He sighed again, giving me a stern look. “And this is why it’s so hard for you to get over him. Because you freaking have it fixated in your mind that Donghae’s some perfect god-like creature who no one can ever beat out, when in reality? The definition of perfection is sitting right in front of you.”

I had to laugh at that one, amused by how ridiculous he was. “Y-you’re crazy.”

“So, maybe I am. But think about it. I’m the one sitting here making sure you’re not feeling too depressed. Sea left you for Taiwan. He’s not worth it.”

I sighed, wiping away the stray tears that managed to break through my mental dam, and reverted back to laying my head on his chest. “Am I cr-crazy?”

“You’re not crazy, you’re just in love. Which, in my book, is the same , but still. Just think about it, Uki. You’re freaking single now. There’s nothing holding you back any longer. You can go out to the club, drink all night, grind with as many guys as you want, and still have the knowledge that there’s no boyfriend at home to get pissed off at you about it later. I mean, granted, Siwon might kill you for the whole grinding with as many guys as you want deal, but he’s your older brother, so that’s a different matter.”

“Void, where are you going with this?” I asked.

“Oh, right, I was going somewhere with this. Uh… Oh yeah! My point is, Uki dear, you need to learn how to freaking live your life as a single woman. I mean, how many years of your dating life have you been single? What, you started dating Donghae at fourteen, broke up with him after a year, got together with that douchebag Troy, stayed with him for two years, took a few months break, and then started going out with Donghae again? Jesus Christ, woman, you haven’t been single at all, have you?”

After hearing Void relay my entire dating life to me, it suddenly dawned on me that he was right. I’ve pretty much spent my entire life in a relationship, and usually, in a relationship with the wrong freaking guy—even if I’ve only dated, like, a total of two guys in my life—never once experiencing what it’s like totruly be single. I haven’t even turned twenty yet, and here I am sitting on the kitchen floor, worrying about relationship stuff that a normal person wouldn’t be worrying about until they’re in their thirties.

“So, going off that,” Void continued, pulling me away from his chest so I could look him in the face, “you needa go out there and experience what it’s like to be a teenager. A true teenager, who has no worries in life other than how many shots she can take before spending the entire night in the bathroom, puking. Basically, go out there and enjoy being single for awhile. Quit worrying about this marriage stuff, about how things are gonna work out between you and Sea, about the stresses of college. You needa learn how to freaking live your life, and savor these last few months you have before you enter this annoying thing called adulthood.”

I sighed and straightened myself, leaning against the cupboards behind me as Void slid across the floor and mimicked my movements. Staring straight ahead of me, the only thing in my line of vision being the stove, I quietly said, “I don’t know how, Void.”

“Eh?” he asked, and I could tell he had turned his head to look down at me.

“I said I don’t know how,” I repeated, never once taking my eyes off the stove.

“Don’t know how to what?”

“Live as a true teenager. I mean, all my life, I’ve pretty much been forced to grow up thanks to the fact that I was so ‘smart’. My stupid intelligence seriously ruined my life, and there are times where I wish that I had grown up normal, and average, and mediocre. I seriously wonder how different my life would have been like if I hadn’t been smart, or hadn’t been good at everything I do, or hadn’t been accepted to study in the States. Basically, I don’t know how to live like a normal teenager, I don’t know how to enjoy the single life, and I sure as hell don’t know how to get over Donghae.”

I didn’t even need to look up to know that Void was giving me that devious little smirk of his as he simply said, “Well, aren’t you lucky that I’m here? I will show you what it’s like to have a truly good time, with no worries ruining anything. And I guarantee you that by the end of tonight, you will be over Donghae, and if I’m wrong—which I know I won’t be—you have total permission to kick me outta your room and starve me for the rest of my stay. But not really, because I love food way too much to actually starve for the next couple of months.”

I suddenly became suspicious of his words, and more than a little terrified of what he was planning to do. I mean, he is Void after all, and if he was willing to place starving for the rest of his stay in order to help me get over Donghae, I know for a fact that he would freaking make sure that I got over Donghae. I didn’t even get a chance to respond before he pulled me up by the arm and dragged me down the hallway, throwing me into the bathroom once more.

“Now hurry up and shower! We don’t have all day, damnit, and you’re burning daylight hours here!” he shouted after shutting the door on me.

I blinked for a moment and smiled, almost succeeding in locking the door before he suddenly threw the door open and flung me back out into the hallway, slamming the door in my face. I blinked at the door in confusion, about ready to throw a fit, before he said, “I just remembered I needed to pee!”

Kim Heejong.

The idiot who can give kick- advice when he wants to, and also knows how to perfectly ruin a touching moment.

Sooo... Yeah. :3

Lol. I'm pretty sure alotta you heard how I was contemplating on resigning from AFF and quitting my stories. Well, I was legitimately planning to, and I almost did, but then Tim talked me out of it. :3 And now, I'm gonna finish all my stories that I've started before I fully resign, and we'll see what happens in the future. Lol. My life's kinda crazy right now, so we'll see what happens later on. ^-^

OKAY.

I'm sorry if this chapter , BUUUUUUUUT, I was WAYYYYYYYY too distracted by a certain group's comeback. ;D

Oh man.

Mr. Simple<3

Lol. I donneven wanna start freaking out about it 'cause it will be BAD.

SOOOO, I won't(x

Okay. I'm done. Lol. Thanks for sticking by me, guys!~ I love you all soooo much!<3