“It feels just like it was yesterday we were in love. Why's it falling apart? I've never been one to walk away, but I've had enough and it's breaking my heart.”

 - Bad, The Cab

           Minsoo slung a hand towel over his muscular shoulder as he bobbed down the hallway. After returning home from an intense workout session to keep his bulging muscles in top shape, sweat was breaking from nearly every pore in his body. He wiped clean his forehead and the back of his tattooed neck with a deep exhale. After rounds of weight lifting, he started pulling on protective knit beanies and masks to discreetly jog back to the apartment, just to get a little extra cardio. Teen Top’s eldest member had ditched his hat and mask in his messy room before casually shuffling to the backroom, his head still bobbing with the beat of the hip-hop he ran along to. He was absentmindedly humming to himself when he stopped in front of the mirror just to glance at his appearance. He was about to pull out the hair tie that kept his long, black hair tied at the top of his head when he took a closer look into the mirror. His careful, narrow eyes spotted slightly rough patches of hair growing along his jaw. Shrugging to himself, he stretched out a muscular arm and gripped the mirrored cabinet door to pull out a razor and some shaving cream. With the other hand, he tossed aside the hand towel on his shoulder.

           Normally, he wouldn’t have looked back at the towel until he was ready to dry off his freshly shaven face, but he noticed a peculiar mound in the shape of a rectangle beneath it. Puzzled, he pinched the towel between his fingers and pulled it away. Curiously enough, a black iPhone wrapped in a purple case with a scratched screen was perched carelessly on the side of the sink. The phone looked foreign to him, so he carefully picked it up as if it was a fragile specimen. When he pressed the Home button and light up the screen, a self-taken shot of Teen Top’s youngest member smiling angelically into the camera while Min Neul sweetly kissed his cheek. Min Neul must have left her phone here after she left, Minsoo assumed. With a chuckle and a slight eye roll, Minsoo kept the iPhone in the palm of his hand as he slipped across the hall and walked into Jonghyun and Changhyun’s room.

           “Yah, Jonghyun,” Minsoo announced, pushing open the half-closed door. “This your girlfriend’s phone?”

           Jonghyun’s head perked up at the sound of the older boy’s voice, and so did Changhyun’s. Changhyun sat at his desk, finishing up some schoolwork. He watched as Jonghyun pulled his an earbud out of his ear, dropped the comic book he was reading, and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Let me see,” he said, reaching out his hand.

            The moment the purple-cased phone slid into Jonghyun’s ring-adorned fingers, he straightway knew it belonged to Min Neul. He pressed a button and lit up the screen to find the very same picture that was on his phone staring up at him. He chuckled to himself. “Yeah, it’s hers. I guess she left it here by accident.”

            “I’m sure you’ll see her soon so you can give it back,” Minsoo responded with a shrug.

            Jonghyun nodded. “I might go see her tonight at her house. Her parents are going out for a while.”

            Minsoo gave an eye roll. “I swear, you two can’t be apart for even an hour.”

            Jonghyun smiled shyly. “It has been an hour, actually,” he informed matter-of-factly, gently caressing her phone in his careful hands. It was like holding a piece of Min Neul with keep him content when they had to be apart. He suddenly began to realize why she always wanted to steal his clothes and wore them around at home; it was about staying together even when they were apart.

            “Where did she have to go, anyway?” Changhyun spoke up inquisitively.

            Sullenly, Jonghyun shrugged. “I don’t know. She just said she had to do.”

            “Suspicious,” Minsoo chuckled, teasingly waving his hands.

            Despite his teasing, Jonghyun perked up sensitively. “Do you really think so?”

            “No,” Minsoo snorted. “You don’t have to know what she’s doing every single second. I don’t know what Hyerin’s doing right now and I’m fine. See? Completely fine.” He stuffed his hands in the pocket of his zipper hoodie and gave a completely bitter, unconvincing smile.

            Jonghyun let out a sheepish chuckle. He knew he was in no position to complain about his relationship, for it could be strained like Minsoo's was. But Min Neul had been acting different lately, always cutting short the time they spent together and ambiguously leaving all of a sudden. Not to mention the phone call to some other boy that has left a sinking feeling in Jonghyun's stomach. That sinking feeling was back, and it brought down with it Jonghyun's trust. He couldn't help his wandering eyes from landing on Min Neul's phone. Surely, the answers he was looking for could be found with a few taps of her phone, but was Jonghyun really about to resort to snooping around on his girlfriend's phone?

            “Anyway, just wanted to let you know I found that in the bathroom.” Minsoo pulled his hands out of his hoodie pocket and rubbed his fingers along his jaw, conscious of his growing stubble. “Now, no one bother me. I'm going to shave and shower. And none of you better ing dump cold water on me when I shower. Got it?”

            “Yes hyung,” Changhyun chuckled, recalling with a mischievous smile how he and Daniel had been the last to ambush Minsoo with icy water during his shower.

            “Okay,” Jonghyun answered, hardly paying attention. He hadn’t even caught Minsoo head out of the bedroom or Changhyun turn around to face him.

            “What are you thinking about?” Changhyun asked curiously, noticing how quiet and detached his friend had grown.

            “Me? Nothing,” Jonghyun assured, flipping Min Neul's phone over and over in his hand without taking his eyes off it.

            “Okay,” Changhyun responded in a higher tone than usual, indicating his skepticism as he suddenly stood up. “Just don't get ahead of yourself, alright? Trust me. Everything is fine.”

            Jonghyun bit his lip am stated down at the phone. Never had he lost faith in Min Neul before, for she was virtually the perfect girlfriend. Beautiful, charming, playful, undeniably y, and always trustworthy. One of the most redeeming qualities about her was how loyal she was to Jonghyun despite the obvious

differences in the way they lived their lives. He would be foolish to think all of that was in vain just because he suddenly felt a pang of insecurity.

            But if she really was as perfect of a girlfriend as she had always been, then there would be no harm in simply glancing over some of her messages and phone calls, just to prove that she wasn't hiding anything from him. Right? He wasn't exactly accusing her of anything, but rather having such amazingly strong faith in her that he was willing to seek evidence to support her cause, right?

            Jonghyun held his breath as be lifted Min Neul's phone before his eyes. He pressed the Home button and swiped the gray button, only to dejectedly find that he needed her four-digit passcode to be granted access to whatever potential secrets her phone held. Jonghyun stuck his tongue in his cheek as he thought about what Min Neul would set as her passcode. He tried the four digits of her birthday, which wasn't the answer.  Next he tried the four digits of their anniversary, which slightly upset him to find they weren't the answer either. Sighing, he punched in the simple digits of his own birthday in a last attempt to hopefully break down the walls of insecurity he built up. His eyes popped open wide when the phone clicked and all of Min Neul's apps neatly flooded the screen, scattering in even rows over an action shot of him on stage. He smiled to himself when he saw himself as her background once more, and that his birthday was actually the password to her phone. However, his smile faltered into a frown when he saw so many unanswered text messages and missed calls, none of which he knew were from him. He bit his lip as his finger hovered over the message app, until he squeezed his eyes shut and tapped on it, hoping for the best but fearing for the worst.

            When Jonghyun's eyelids broke apart, so did his heart. Min Neul had dozens of text messages from someone named Kwon Hyowon, who he was positive was the mysterious caller yesterday. Jonghyun could feel each message break away a piece of his heart, for this Hyowon guy was desperate to see Min Neul. His breath caught in his throat when he saw how Min Neul agreed to meet with him every time, and they always planned to meet at Hyowon's house. Jonghyun's land flew to his mouth when he saw how much they conversed, and how every single time Min Neul had to abruptly leave was after being messaged by Hyowon. Undoubtedly, every time Min Neul left she went to go see him. And according to the conversations they shared, they both had a lot of fun and couldn't wait to get together again.

            It sickened Jonghyun to see Hyowon deliberately attempting to flirt with Min Neul without a single mention from her that another guy happily owned her heart. But as Jonghyun's testy eyes stared at the proof before him, he wasn't so sure if he owned all of Min Neul's heart after all.

            Jonghyun's eyes sting from the pain of seeing Min Neul flirt and meet up with this Hyowon guy, and he bit back a wince when he discovered her last ten outgoing and incoming calls were all from Hyowon. He saw that they had conversations lasting half an hour late at night, every time Min Neul cancelled dance practice. He knew where she had been. With Hyowon. Probably cuddled up next to him, letting him run his hands all over her as she told him how much she loved him, and how he was the only one in her life. Jonghyun felt sick. His throat had locked up and his stomach had dropped as his mind filled with heartbreaking visions of another guy's arms wrapped around Min Neul's perfect body, which Jonghyun had always thought was his and only his to touch and caress and love. Every message and every call had deepened the fissures in Jonghyun's heart, ultimately shattering it to unusable pieces. He decided right then and there that he had seen enough, and all his questions had been answered just as a tear slid down his cheek.

            “She's...she's...”

            At that moment, Jonghyun heard fair but frantic knocking on the door. Changhyun turned around to shoot him a worried glance. “I think she's here,” Changhyun practically whispered.

            Jonghyun gripped the phone in his hands, immediately standing up and storming out of the room. His eyes stung and tears continued to pour from his eyes as he trekked to the front door. His hand gripped the doorknob with much unnecessary force and he angrily jerked it open, revealing to him the very girl who had torn his heart right out of his chest.

            Min Neul was about to gush a quick explanation about how she though she forgot her phone at the dorm, but her words were silenced when she saw teary-eyed Jonghyun standing before her with her cell phone gripped tightly, almost menacingly in his hands. “Oppa, what's--”

            “Why?” Jonghyun spat, his voice quivering with anger and dejection. “Why?”

            “Why what? What's going on?” Min Neul questioned frantically. It pained her to see Jonghyun in tears like this. She had never seen him actually cry before, and it nearly broke her heart.

            Jonghyun's bottom lip quivered, and his eyes shined with years as he stared her straight in the eyes. His gaze dropped to her phone, which he slowly unlocked to flash her the screen of hers and Hyowon's messages. “I know everything,” he hissed, sounding utterly shocked and heartbroken.

            Min Neul's eyes widened with terror. “Oh my god, you--”

            Jonghyun pulled the phone away and narrowed his teary eyes. When he spoke, his shaking voice was scarcely a broken whisper. “Are cheating on me.”

            “I am not cheating on you!” Min Neul cried, just as hurt as he was at the thought of him actually believing she would cheat on him. She could hardly believe the accusatory words Jonghyun fired at her were truly coming out of his mouth. “I would never!”

            “Texting another guy all the time? Flirting with him? Going to his house all the time and leaving me so you cold see him?” Jonghyun shook his head as he let out a brief, choking sob. “You're cheating on me, Min Neul.”

            Min Neul shook her head hysterically, as if she could simply wipe away the misunderstanding between them that had Jonghyun resorting to extremes. “Jonghyun, what the hell are you talking about? I don't flirt with Hyowon!”

            “I read every message you sent him!” Jonghyun cried.

            Min Neul’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you snooping through my phone, anyway?” she retaliated, snatching her phone from Jonghyun's grasp. “I thought you trusted me.”

            “Yeah, well I thought you loved me!” Jonghyun spat back, his words heated with fiery rage. “I mean, we spent all last night together making love because you kept telling me you did love me!”

            “And you don't think I was telling the truth?” Min Neul fired back, unafraid to let her voice rise. She and Jonghyun had never gotten in such an argument before. They most they had ever done was quarrel, which almost always ended in Jonghyun kissing her to shut her up before they both melted into apologies in each other’s arms. But this wasn’t just a little quarrel; this was a real argument with deafening screams, accusations, and choking tears.

            “Well, you seem to tell a lot of people things. Like when you told Hyowon you would come see him today. Huh? Is that where you were, Min Neul? Did you go see this ing Hyowon guy?”

            Min Neul squeezed her eyes shut to keep back her tears and stuck her tongue in her cheek. If she told the truth, it would look as if she was confessing to his accusations. But Min Neul couldn’t bear to complicate this any further, and though the truth might hurt Jonghyun it would only sting until she explain herself. “Yes,” she hissed with a shaky whisper. “But it's not like that.”

            “It's exactly like that,” Jonghyun spat, tears rushing from his eyes once more at the sound of her admitting it.

            “It's not, okay?” Min Neul shrieked, near despair. “Goddamn it, Jonghyun, why don't you trust me?”

            Jonghyun shook his head. “I don't trust you, Min Neul. You're a liar and a cheater and I never should have trusted you.”

            “We've been dating for two years! Why would I it up and cheat on you with this annoying from my school I don't even like?” Min Neul spat.

            “Bull!” Jonghyun barked, his eyes narrowing as he sent a burning gaze at her. “Don't tell me you don't like him, okay? I read your messages. I saw how many times you met. I see you changed your clothes, did you him while you were over there?”

            Min Neul felt her jaw drop and her face heat up. “Actually, I changed when I stopped home so I could get a few things, like my textbooks and notes so we could study together. Study. That’s all we do. If you let me explain then you'd realize what a ing irrational idiot you're being right now.”

            Jonghyun shook his head. “I don't want to hear a single thing you say. You're a cheater and a liar, Park Min Neul. A cheater and a liar!”

            “And you, Choi Jonghyun, are an arrogant son of a who won't even listen to a single thing your girlfriend is saying! Get your head out of your and let me explain so you can stop acting so ridiculous!” she exploded, past the point of hoping to reconcile and reason with him. She had the right to be just as angry, for Jonghyun not only violated her privacy, he also never stopped to hear her side of the story, irrationally accused her of sleeping with another boy, and admitted he didn’t trust her. Min Neul’s mind came to the devastating realization that if there was no trust between them, then there was ultimately no relationship. And the thought of losing Jonghyun and everything they had absolutely paralyzed her.

            “Save your breath,” Jonghyun spat. “I should have suspected you'd cheat on me sooner or later. After all you're so goddamn all the time, you probably needed someone to whenever I wasn't there.”

            Min Neul's eyes narrowed ferociously. “I'm not some kind of , Jonghyun, I’m in love with you! And I would never cheat on you!”

“Shut up,” Jonghyun screamed. "Shut the up, I don't believe you!”

            Every hurl of his violent screams was an attempt to break Min Neul down further, but as they crashed into her, Min Neul actually stiffened up. She felt a horrendously sharp pain rip through her veins. She squeezed her fist in a dangerously tight ball, tearing the tense muscles that were previously paralyzed. Her heart had been on standstill and her breath had ceased, so why must she be tortured with the tension throughout her entire body? The moment she let her body relax, her mind gained strength. Enough strength to push her heart out of the way. Enough strength to lift her hand to the level of Jonghyun’s cheek. And just when her body had gone limp, she somehow found enough strength to serve right back to Jonghyun all the pain her heart was feeling.

            Jonghyun’s hand flew to his face, which stung something fierce. His entire body began to tremble slowly at the realization of what Min Neul had just done to him. Beneath his fingertips he could feel his skin heat up from the rage of Min Neul’s blow. Min Neul was blind to his reaction; her anger was clouding her vision.

            Jonghyun’s lip quivered as he slowly turned his head to face her. His eyes began to sting almost as much as his tender cheek did. Swallowing hard, he tried to find his words. “You…you...”

            Min Neul’s black eyes narrowed, pushing tears down her face. “Deserved it,” she whispered. She hadn’t planned on hitting him, and never thought she would ever have to. Regret almost flooded her veins, threatening to soften her to a crying heap on the ground at Jonghyun’s feet. But as hard as it was, she firmly stood her ground. She just had to make him stop. She had to make everything stop.

            Jonghyun had no intention of hitting her back; he could never. She could slap him dozens of times, punch him square in the jaw or shove him down an endless flight of stairs and he still couldn’t lift a finger against her. He wasn’t sure which hurt worse; his searing cheek, or the comprehension of what their perfectly relationship had degenerated into. It had been staggering for a while, pushed closer and closer to the edge with every accusatory word they spat at each other. Suddenly, Jonghyun could feel them not just teetering on the edge, but falling faster and faster, fated to crash down far below into a disastrous heap. He hadn’t wanted to see them falter in such helpless deterioration, but their tempers had undoubtedly gotten the best of them. His cheek may have been searing, but the pain was incomparable to what his heart felt as he looked Min Neul in the eyes through his tears. “Get out of here,” he growled in a low, commanding voice.

            His words hit Min Neul harder than she had hit him. Her chest caved in as she struggled to breath. “Jonghyun…”

            “Get out!” Jonghyun shouted mercilessly, one hand holding his face the way he would never let Min Neul hold it ever again. His other hand was pointing down the hallway, banishing Min Neul out of his sight for what he hoped in that very moment would be the rest of his life. “I never want to see you again!”

            Tears were pouring from Min Neul’s eyes, which were had been pleading staring at Jonghyun, silently begging for him to take back his words and collect her in his arms again like they always did after a little fight. But when she saw his strong expression wasn’t about to falter, she realized this wasn’t like any other fight they had gotten into. There was no turning back, and no hope of saving what they had killed with their words. “This can’t be happening…”

            “Get the out of here,” Jonghyun cussed, his voice much lower and completely under his control. He swallowed hard, inhaling a deep breath before uttering out the words he never thought he’d break to the girl he had loved with all his heart, which was now shattered beyond repair. “We’re done.”

            She slowly shook her head at him, disappointed and heartbroken that he wasn’t willing to revive the best thing in both of their lives. “I hate you, Jonghyun,” she whispered, before taking one slow step back. “I hate you so much.”

            As Jonghyun watched her finally back away, he shook his head. No words passed his quivering lips, because he realized there were no words he could possible day. If he did so much as open his mouth, he would only let out a heart retching sob at the pain on face and in his chest. Tears continued to fall from his narrow eyes as he took a step back into the apartment. He fumbled as he reached for the doorknob, but Min Neul never caught him retreat back into the dorm. She had forced herself to turn away from Jonghyun, the absolutely love of her life who had turned into nothing but a criminal unafraid to kill her with his accusatory words. As she stumbled blindly through the hallway of the apartment complex, the world around her was blurry. Not just because copious tears were gushing down her raw face from her eyes, but also because she felt helpless and alone the world now that she had lost her Choi Jonghyun.