Yoona hates this kind of uncomfortable atmosphere. She feels locked and pressured. There are too many emotions she’s trying to suppress and with Donghae sitting across her, he makes it even more difficult.

“I realized a couple of things after my father passed away,” Donghae says, his eyes resting on his fingers. Both of them don’t dare look at each other. “Things like standing on my own and trying to keep my feet on the ground.”

Yoona doesn’t answer. What is she supposed to say?

Donghae heaves a sigh. “I know it’s my fault,” he tells her. “You can blame me. I left without giving you an explanation even though you have the right to know. I left you even though we both promised to be together for a long time. I know I left you with broken promises and unexplained events.”

“Well, at least you know,” is all Yoona could say.

“And I sincerely apologize about it,” Donghae continues.

Yoona blinks, feeling the tears threatening to come out. She doesn’t want to cry. She never wanted to cry, not in front of him anyway. “… Why are you apologizing, Donghae?” she asks. “You never apologize.”

Donghae looks down.

“… is it because of the woman you’re dating now?” It hurts.

Donghae nods. “I’m in love with her,” he explains. “I love her so much that I would do anything for her. I would sacrifice everything, if I have to, just to be with her. She’s… she’s different. She makes me feel happy. She makes me feel as if… I’m loved and that I’m special. She’s… what I need.”

Yoona gives herself a mental slap when tears came out. She couldn’t stop it. Tears have betrayed her and she wants to… yell. She wants to tell her things. She wants to yell at him, to ask him what she’s done wrong or what she doesn’t have that the other woman has. She wants to know what she couldn’t give him.

What about me? What about us?

“What did I ever do wrong?” Yoona mumbles, looking down at her hands on her lap. “I don’t understand. I… I’ve given you everything t-that I ever had.”

Yoona covers her face with her hands, sobbing her heart out. She can’t stop it. There’s no use.

She feels Donghae’s warm arms around her, whispering and assuring her that things would be okay. Lies, Yoona thinks dejectedly. It’s never going to be okay. One thing she doesn’t understand is after things have gone wrong, they still think it’s going to be okay when they know perfectly well that things won’t go back the way it was.

Unknown to both of them, someone is watching from the door, upset and heavyhearted.

So, this is how it feels like to have my heart broken.

“You’re going to be okay,” Tiffany assures him, rubbing her hands up and down his arms as he rests himself on her chest. “You’re going to be fine.”

More tears come out from Lu Han’s eyes when he replays that picture inside his head. It hurts. It hurts so much. It felt like someone is strangling Lu Han’s heart with thorny ropes, suffocating and damaging it.

If only he could turn back time. If only he could turn back the way he is before, happy and trouble-free.

How can he be so reckless anyway? How can he trust Yoona with his heart right away?

Tiffany brushes her lips on his fuzzy, brown hair. “I know how you feel,” she whispers forlornly. “I know how much it hurts. Lu Han, I wished I could do anything for you. I wished I could do something to take away the pain. But I can’t. It’s supposed to hurt.”

Lu Han sobbed. “It hurts…”

“Donghae will never look at me the way I look at him,” Tiffany mutters, tears surging from her eyes. She tries to fight it back. “He could never love me the way I love him. He could never do that. Not for me, anyway.”

“Sehun’s right,” Lu Han states. “I should’ve listened to him. She still loves her. He still loves her. They still love each other. I shouldn’t have let my guard down. I was stupid. I’m still… stupid…”

Tiffany sniffed. “But I don’t understand though. Donghae loves Jessica. So, why was he in Yoona’s apartment?”

Lu Han tightens his grip on Tiffany. “Please, Tiff…” he pleads, not attempting to open his eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Tiffany quietly obliges. “Anything for you, Lu Han.”

She resumes rubbing and making circles on his back to soothe him. Unconsciously, Tiffany begins to hum the soft lullaby Lu Han loves to hear.

He inhales deeply, trying to hold himself back from shedding another tear. First love always hurt when he least expects it. Love hurts when he least anticipates it.

He makes a promise to himself. He can’t love again. If love finds him, he’ll have to close his heart and open his eyes. In that way, it won’t have to hurt so much. In that way, he won’t have to cry so much again.

If only forgetting is a piece of cake, then it won’t have to be so painful.

“I didn’t come because of you.”

“I know.”

“If you weren’t Krystal’s friend, I would’ve called the police right now.”

“You think I’m lying, don’t you?”

“Well, what do you think?” Jessica crosses her arms, feeling rather infuriated by this guy she doesn’t even know. In fact, she doesn’t even know why she believes in the first place. Jessica may be blind, but she’s not entirely stupid. She can tell when someone is lying or when someone is not.

Jessica hasn’t officially met Sehun until thirty minutes ago. He comes barging into her house, asking her if he knows where Donghae is when he knows it himself. She wanted to laugh at that moment, considering how stupid Sehun sounds like but ignores the act. The situation seems serious.

At first, Jessica actually doesn’t believe him. What could Donghae be doing in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment other than talking, right? She trusts him. She knows he would never cheat on her.

“I think you don’t believe me,” Sehun concludes, taking her arm again to lead her to where their apartment is.

Jessica snorts. “Well, at least you know.” She heaves a sigh and ponders for a bit. Why is she doing this? Does she really believe what this kid is saying? What if… what if he’s just mistaken? What if Sehun doesn’t really know who Donghae is and perhaps, mistook him as someone else who has the same name as her boyfriend?

I’m scared. I’m so scared.

“Why are you doing this?” Jessica asks quietly as they step inside the elevator. She feels Sehun shifting uncomfortably. Maybe it’s the question.

Sehun doesn’t respond.

“You know what you’re doing, right?” Jessica continues, tightly grasping her hold on his wrist. “You do realize that, not only are you going to hurt me, but you’re going to hurt two other people as well.”

She feels his hands curling into fists.

Jessica inhales deeply, not bothering to say more. She doesn’t want to aggravate the boy. The only reason why she came with him is to know whether what he says is true or not. Is Donghae cheating behind her back?

“We’re here,” Sehun announces.

Jessica’s breathing hitches. She knows Donghae is here. Sehun is right. Donghae is here.

She could smell his perfume.

“…Donghae?”

Donghae jerks his head up, recognizing that soft, small voice. Impulsively, Donghae pulls away from Yoona and turns around, feeling guilty. Even though Jessica can’t see, he knows how sharp her other senses were. At least though, he’s a little thankful that she can’t see the guilty expression on his face.

Wait, he ponders in panic. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.

Donghae strides big steps across the room for Jessica. He could explain. Considering the fact that Donghae hasn’t been communicating with her—for a personal reason that Donghae will explain to her later—he doubts Jessica would believe anything he says right now.

“Jessica,” he calls out again. Only this time, he feels a little breathless. His throat is dry and there are no words coming out.

Jessica keeps her eyes open—due to the fact that she can’t see. But the expression on her face is apparent. She doesn’t look happy. She looks deeply hurt and confused. Her eyes brim with tears and she looks like she wanted to get out of this place.

“I can explain!” he demands, taking her hands in his. She struggles to break free in response.

Jessica writhes against his touch, wanting to break free. “No!” she protests, her eyes welling with tears. He notices Sehun taking few steps back, looking utterly lost and confused. “I don’t want to hear it, Donghae! I can’t b-believe… y-you… y-you made me…”

Donghae cups Jessica’s cheek in his right hand, making her face him. But she doesn’t budge. And every time she rejects him, Donghae’s heart breaks a little inside.

“Jessica, please. Just—”

Jessica slaps his hand away. “No! Just… g-get away from me.”

He watches as her face contorts with frustration, with distrust. He tries to chase after her as she stumbles down, trying to get on her feet. Jessica falls again, bumping her knee against the coffee table. She yelps in pain.

Yoona flinches, as though she’s having second thoughts on whether she should help her or not. Donghae could only watch her though. Watch her as she leaves his life. As she takes his heart with her.

Perhaps, she would never come back. She would never return to him and what is Donghae to be without her? What is he going to do now?

And then Sehun comes into the picture. He panics when he saw Jessica on the ground. He quickly reacts though, sprinting towards her and helping her to get up. Then Donghae sees her whispering something to Sehun and they immediately go away.

Donghae stands, flabbergasted and frozen. He feels Yoona standing next to him.

“Aren’t you going to go after her?”

I can’t move, he wants to say, a tear escaping from his eye. My heart isn’t moving right now.

Krystal can’t believe this. More importantly, she can’t believe who she is seeing right now. Just when she’s finally moving on, she sees him again. If truth be told, Krystal has been trying to avoid him.

They both have the same route in going to school. Actually, there are two routes for Krystal to choose from. However, to take a glimpse of Kai or just spend few minutes walking behind him, Krystal takes the longer route.

Everything changes after she confessed.

Krystal has taken the shorter route now, gradually bearing the hateful looks from the students who take the same route as her. During lunch time, she usually eats at the table just across where Kai sits. But now, she joins her soccer team and has made new friends.

Back then, she usually offers Kai to make his homework for him. But now, she barely utters a single word or even waylays him. Her specialization of memorizing Kai’s schedule has been used to her advantage to avoid him in any ways. I’m pretty sure he’s happy now that I don’t bother him anymore, Krystal ponders.

And now here he is, in front of her.

“Kai.” His name barely escapes from Krystal’s mouth. She’s confused whether to feel happy that he approached her first or to feel sad because the feelings that she had almost forgotten comes back.

“Is this a bad time?” he asks almost sadly.

Yes. “Um, I have few minutes before practice. What is it do you need?”

“I need you…”

Krystal’s eyes widen. He needs her? Back then, she would have been so happy to hear that, to have those freaking butterflies in her stomach. But her never seem to rapidly increase its speed. It seems to be normal. Perhaps, it isn’t Kai she needs.

And then it hit her.

She scoffs, cocking her head to the side. “Really, Kai. I’m not stupid,” she snaps. “I know you’re in pain but that doesn’t mean you can use me as your rebound. I have a heart, too. Don’t make stupid decisions when your heart is in pieces right now.”

Kai blinks, wordless. But if he is surprised, he doesn’t show it. He scoffs back. “You’re right,” he says. “You’re not stupid. I was wrong to think that you are. You actually have a mind. But”—he glares at her—“don’t act like you know me or what happened, Krystal.”

Krystal raises her eyebrow. “I’m not acting like I know you or anything,” she retorts. “In fact, I think I struck a nerve. Didn’t I, Kai? I know what happened, okay? And I know how you’re feeling but right now, I just want to tell you something.”

“What is it?” He asks, displeased.

Krystal smirks. “Karma’s a .”

“Are you happy now?!”

Sehun almost jumps out of his seat, surprised by the sudden explosion. Looking up, he finds an infuriated Krystal in front of him. There’s no hint of playfulness or mock on her face. Usually, whenever Krystal and Sehun meet up just to hang out, Krystal comes with a prank.

And even if there are times wherein it would actually hurt Sehun’s ego to be pranked by some girl, he doesn’t stop her. He doesn’t even want to.

But today seems different. He rummages his mind, pondering on what he’s done that irked her. But nothing comes up.

Nowadays, things have been a little… different. In a good way. He doesn’t know how or why but he’s pretty sure things changed ever since Krystal came.

Sehun blinks, getting to his feet in a blink of an eye. “W-what?” he huffs. “What are you talking about, Krystal?”

Krystal shoots him the coldest glare he has ever seen. He feels somewhat exposed under her sharp gaze. It feels degrading though. And Sehun has never felt so scared. Perhaps, there’s something about her that affects him so much.

“Don’t act dumb, Sehun,” Krystal hisses. The passersby pretend to walk past them even though they have minimized their pace just so they could fill their curious ears. “You do know what you’ve done.”

Sehun grimaced. “Look, Krys. I don’t really know what you’re talking about. Mind giving me a hint?”

“A hint?!” Krystal spats out, crossing her arms. “Fine. You want a hint, I’ll give you one. You made my sister cry. Happy? Is that what you want?”

What? Last he checked, Sehun has never made Jessica cry. “But I—”

“Just because you’re heartbroken over that Seohyun woman doesn’t mean you’re allowed to drag others to misery!” Krystal bellows, attracting attention from others. Sehun could see the frustration and disappointment in her eyes.

And with that, he dies a little inside.

“And by the way?” Krystal adds, turning a little before walking away. “Not only did you hurt one person, but also there are three of them. Perhaps, four. And it’s all thanks to you.”

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if you're still confused about the story and everything.

also, please don't hesitate to ask anything about the story.

apparently, i'm still an amateur in writing stories like this.

i hope you can forgive me. o w o

comments would be nice.