She’s behind me as her arms were locked on my waist. My heart was beating faster as I smiled involuntarily. She loves me. Is this some kind of a dream? If it is, then I wish to not wake up anymore.

I removed her arms from my waist, faced her and embraced her tightly. “I love you, too, Sulli. I always do,” I whispered to her. It felt like I never want to release her from my arms ever again. “Everything’s going to be alright, I promise you.”

Two days after

The continuous ringing of the doorbell woke me up from my deep sleep. My tired eyes started to open and saw the sunlight that’s passing from the window. My blurred vision can’t distinguish any of the things around me as I removed my blanket. I grasped on my glasses right away and wore them.

“Who is it?” I yelled as I neared the door. I opened it and saw Krystal holding a brown paper bag while her pink bag was on her shoulder.

She smiled at me and said, “Surprised?” She laughed and entered my unit immediately. “I brought some cereals and a bottle of milk for you. Let’s eat breakfast together.”

She went towards the living area and placed her bag on the table. I sat at the sofa as she went quickly to the kitchen to prepare the breakfast.

Our relationship was not the same as it was before. After our last conversation in high school, we met again after I graduated college. She was just starting to build her bakery and café, while I was still looking for a job in Seoul. She recommended me to her friend’s father who was a songwriter in one of the minor entertainment corporations in Korea, while I helped her choose a good location for her business. We helped each other in making our dreams into reality. Because of that, our relationship became stronger and it reached to the point where we decided to be in this relationship.

I honestly enjoyed being with her in the past. I remember those weekends where I hang out at her bakery and we’ll just talk randomly the whole day. But, those times flied and our relationship started to tarnish.

Our fights became more frequent. We had fights even on the small understandings we had. She always questions me if she saw me talking to a girl. She always insists that I was cheating on her, but I really am not. Because of that, she once became an alcoholic and partied almost every night at a bar, but eventually, I stopped her from doing so. We always tried to save our relationship but no matter how many times we save it, the scars that were formed can’t be healed anymore.

I looked up the ceiling and I let out a sigh. I glanced at the coffee table and saw Krystal’s bag open with some of the things scattered on the table. She must’ve hurried on buying the cereals, I thought. It got me thinking for a second when I saw something familiar in her bag. It was the cellphone that I lost a few weeks ago.

I got a hold of it to check if it really was mine. I unlocked it and checked the contacts. It really was mine. I checked the messages after and saw that the topmost thread was Sulli. I opened it and saw a message that was sent by me, but I don’t remember sending it. Then, it all made sense to me one by one.

Krystal arrived with a bowl of cereals on each of her hands. Her eyes widened and she stepped back as she saw Minho looking at her while showing his phone. She accidentally released the bowls, making the bowl crash into pieces on the floor with the cereals scattered and the milk spilled. “Oppa…”

“Why do you have this in your bag?”

She looked down and knelt. She grabbed the broken bowl and said, “Mianhae, oppa. I accidentally slipped the—”

“Why do you have this oin your bag?” Minho roared. It brought chills on Krystal as she slowly stood up and slowly walked towards Minho. She was afraid—afraid that she might lose him.

“I just wanted to make our relationship stronger,” she said as her shaking hands tried to hold Minho’s hands.

“To make our relationship stronger, you met with Sulli? What did you say to her?”

“I wanted her t-t-to stay away from you,” she said with a trembling voice.

Minho couldn’t believe what she just said. “Why did you do that?” he roared once more.

“Because I was jealous!” Krystal shouted. “When I saw you with her in Running Man, I thought you were cheating on me. And I was proved right when I saw your inbox. Y-Y-You went to Busan with her! That’s why you lied to me that day!”

“I didn’t cheat on you!” Minho shouted. He was furious and wanted to punch the wall. His blood’s boiling in anger, but he tried controlling it. He let out a heavy sigh and said, “That’s it. This is the last straw. Krystal… I think… we should end this.”

“Oppa…” Krystal said as tears started falling from her eyes. “Oppa, please don’t do this to me.”

Minho didn’t want this also to happen, but he thought that it has gotten out of hand. He doesn’t feel the same way as what he felt towars her three years ago. “Sorry… Krystal…”

“Oppa!” she wailed as she held Minho’s hands tightly with her shaking hands. “W-W-We can fix this just like before, right?” she said as she touched Minho’s right cheek. Minho felt sorry for Krystal and himself. He removed Krystal’s hand off her cheek slowly.

“I’m sorry, Krystal. It’s… not… working anymore. I… love Sulli,” Minho said truthfully. He know that it hurts to say the truth, but he had to.

“Oppa! Oppa! Don’t leave me please!” she pleaded as she slowly knelt in front of Minho. She continued weeping. Minho doesn’t have the courage to look at her directly because he knows that it will hurt his heart more.

“Sorry, Krystal…” he said as he tried to lift Krystal up. Krystal cooperated as she stood with the help of Minho. While slowly walking towards the door, Krystal forcefully removed Minho’s hand off her shoulder. She faced him and snatched her bag from Minho.

With dried tears from her face, she glared at Minho and said, “You’ll regret this… I’ll make sure you will not end up with Sulli.” Those words made a mark on Minho’s mind. After saying those words, Krystal opened the door and slammed it when she left.

Three days after

“So why did you call me?”

“I know you like Sulli.”

“Huh?”

“When I visited the building, I saw how you looked at her. There’s a spark in your eyes.”

He cleared his throat and said, “So…?”

“I want to make a proposition.”

“And what is that?”

Krystal sipped her coffee. Her eyes were still puffy and it was concealed with her big sunglass. “You know I love Minho.”

He gulped and had a guess on where this conversation is heading to.

“Recently, Minho broke up with me for Sulli, and I would never accept that. If Minho won’t be mine, then I wouldn’t let him be with anyone else. I want you to help me.”

“Help you with?”

“Breaking them two up, Lee Taemin.” Krystal offered her right hand to him. “Deal?”

He thought of it for a while. Krystal waited for his response with a smile.

“Deal.”