Taking out his phone from the pocket of his jeans, Woohyun registered the number of the girl he just met that morning. The girl—who was currently standing before him—giggled flirtatiously and placed her hand on his arm, giving him a seductive look.

“You should call me tonight. Don’t wanna keep me waiting, right?” she lifted an eyebrow, giving him a gentle squeeze on his arm.

“Sure, who would wanna let a beauty wait all night long?” Woohyun chuckled and waved at her as she walked out of the café.

When she was gone, he grinned to himself, satisfied by what he had achieved. That morning, when he was walking down the street, the girl had accidentally accelerated her car near a puddle, causing Woohyun to get drenched by it. She offered to buy him new clothes but instead of taking the offer, he had asked her to accompany him for a drink at the café. The girl agreed without hesitation and that made him happy. He had always known that his charm would work on any girl.

Proud of himself, he strolled back to his apartment, skipping gleefully at times as he passed by restaurants and shops. The weather had suddenly become brighter to him, the clouds sailing in the sky slowly and the sun glowing cheerfully, as if acknowledging his achievement that day.

Once he’d reached the building of his apartment, he stepped into the elevator and pressed the button with the number 3 on it. It only took 5 seconds for the elevator to reach the third floor. Whistling a happy tune, Woohyun got out of the elevator and turned a corner when he saw a small parcel lying on the cold floor, in front of his apartment’s door. He stopped whistling and bent down to grab the parcel. A loud footstep caused him to flinch but when he swiveled around to look at the person, he flashed a sweet smile when he realized that the person was his neighbor who had just finished taking a walk with her dog.

When his neighbor had entered her apartment, Woohyun stood up and studied the parcel curiously, tilting it from side to side. On the side of the parcel, only his name and address were written on it using black marker. The name of the sender wasn’t there. The fact that the sender was an anonymous sparked more interest to him. Excited, he rammed his apartment key into the lock and entered his apartment. Then he sat down on the couch, ripping the brown paper apart to find out what the content was. He stared at the content for a couple of moments, blinking confusedly before he held it up towards the light to take a better look at it.

It was a video tape.

Woohyun’s name was written on it. Kneeling in front of the TV, he inserted the tape into the video player—luckily he still had it with him although his mother told him to throw it away because she thought he wouldn’t use it anymore—and went to the kitchen to brew himself a cup of coffee. While stirring the coffee, he could hear the video being played; a rustling sound came out of the TV like someone was trying to adjust the camera. He scurried towards the couch and plopped himself on the couch, blowing on his coffee softly before he took a sip of it.

“Annyeong, Woohyun-ah.” A feminine voice said before the owner of the voice walked in front of the camera and waved. “Remember me?”

Woohyun’s lips parted as he came to realize who the person was. It was his ex-girlfriend, Kang Yumi. She looked a bit different from their last meeting a year ago—her hair was now dyed in brown color instead of black and the length of her hair was shorter, barely touching her shoulders. She even looked thinner; her chubby cheeks could no longer be seen. In the video, she flashed a big smile and chuckled shyly before she continued speaking.

“It’s been a long time since we last met. How long has it been? 10 months? No, maybe a year and a half? How are you? Did you find someone new to spend time with?  I wish I could talk to you face to face but I guess I’m just a little too shy to do so.” she cleared and shifted on the couch uncomfortably before she continued, “Well, the reason why I sent you this video is because I miss you, Woohyun-ah. I really, really miss you and I would be lying if I told you that I had gotten over you by now. It’s impossible to forget someone like you that easily. I’m not sure whether you’ll keep watching this video because another reason why I sent you this video is because I wanna talk about our memories.”

Woohyun stared at the TV blankly, his eyes glued to the screen as if he was hypnotized. Dozens of questions came to his head. Why did she decide to send him this video now? Why did she want to talk about their memories all of the sudden? What happened to her after the break up? Did she find someone else? Did she move out of her old apartment?

After reminiscing their memories by showing Woohyun the gifts he had gave her long time ago, Yumi kept the gifts into a large red box and placed it beside her before she stared into the camera and flashed another big, cheerful smile.

“I hope you’ll always remember me, Woohyun-ah.” She took a deep breath and waved lightly. “I love you and just so you know, I’m always there for you.”

The screen went blank then. Woohyun blinked, eyes still trained on the black box in front of him. She had said that she still loved him. But why? He was sure that he had broken her heart when he decided to break up. She got angry when he told her the bad news. He thought she would never contact him again. Why was she doing this? What was the real reason behind the video tape?

Shaking the thoughts away from his head, he decided to end the day so he went into his bedroom and crawled under the duvet, closing his eyes to shut himself from the world, leaving his cup of coffee to cool down in front of the TV with the video tape lying on the cold floor.

A week passed and Woohyun had successfully asked the previous girl whom he exchanged number with to go out with him. Yeonghee—the name of his new girlfriend—was an interesting person. She never failed to amuse him with her capacious knowledge of current trends and she had great sense of humor. She even gave out a cheerful vibe whenever she was around. He was glad that he had met her.

After sending his girlfriend home, Woohyun went back to his apartment to find another small parcel lying on the floor, at the front door. He took it and stepped inside the apartment, heading towards the TV. He had received yet another video tape. Without stalling, he played the tape and watched it. Yumi greeted him with her usual smile and started talking about their memories again. When the video neared its ending, Yumi held up a cake towards the camera and sang a birthday song.

“It’s my birthday today, do you remember? I wish you were here with me but I guess you’re too busy with your life. I love you Woohyun-ah and I’ll always be there for you.”

Turning off the TV, Woohyun let out a short sigh and stared up at the ceiling, slumping further down the couch. What did she want from him? Why did she still love him after all he did to her? Scratching his head in frustration, he gulped down his tea and went straight to bed. The moment his head touched the pillow, he drifted into a deep sleep, leaving behind the curiosity that had been building up in him since last week.

The next week, he received another video tape. Once again, Yumi talked about their memories and told him how much she missed and loved him. He was starting to feel annoyed by the videos she had sent him. He wanted to tell her so bad that he had moved on but he couldn’t find a way to contact her. He had asked the postman who delivered the video tape about her but the postman only gave him a fruitless answer. Knowing that she didn’t do any harm to him, he decided to ignore her completely. All he had to do when he received another video tape was to throw it into the dustbin—simple as that. He felt good doing that. He could finally breathe easily now that his mind wasn’t preoccupied by those silly things. She had nothing to do with him anymore.

But he was wrong.

She kept sending him video tapes every week. He tried telling the postman to throw it away but the video tapes always found their way to his front door. It was as if they had legs to walk there, waiting to get collected by him.

7 weeks had passed since he’d received the first tape and now the seventh tape was lying on the floor at his front door. Cursing under his breath, Woohyun bent down to grab it when he noticed something different written on the parcel. He turned the parcel around to enable himself to read it. What was written on the parcel was:

“Please watch the video.”

Woohyun heaved a sigh and unlocked the front door. Then he threw the parcel on the coffee table that was located in front of the TV. He took out his phone to check whether Yeonghee had texted or called him. He shook his head in frustration when he saw the empty screen of his phone. Yesterday, they had a huge fight. Yeonghee told him she wanted to break up because she knew he wasn’t serious about her and was cheating on her. Confused, he tried asking her who had told her those stupid lies but she stormed out of the café, leaving him clueless until he went back to his apartment and found the video tape.

“It must be her.” he gritted his teeth—assuming that she was the cause of his fight with Yeonghee— as he sat down on the couch with a cup of coffee in his hand. He played the video and watched it silently. It was another stupid video of Yumi trying to make him recall their special memories. “She’s out of her mind. Is she trying to make me call the police?”

He was about to turn off the video when Yumi spoke up once again.

“Woohyun-ah, are you angry at me? Did I do something wrong to upset you? I’m sorry; I just wanted to talk to you because I’m lonely. I love you and I will always be there for you, trust me.”

He paused the video and stared at the screen for a long time. She was completely mad. Why would she love someone who didn’t love her back? A one sided love was never the best way to enjoy life. It was a complete waste to do that. He appreciated her for still loving him but wasn’t it time to move on and find someone new? Was it that hard to do so?

Woohyun ran his fingers through his black hair and shut his eyes. He was starting to have a headache, his forehead beating like drums. He drank his coffee halfway but decided to throw it away in the sink afterwards. Then he walked into his room and laid himself on the bed, lying on his side to face the window. He felt tired and all he wanted to do at that time was to sleep off everything that had been bothering his mind.

Something pressed up behind him.

He opened his eyes instantly and felt a pair of slender arms wrapping themselves around his shoulders. He tried moving his body to turn around but the arms held him in that position firmly. He couldn’t move. He started trembling in fear as the owner of the arms spoke up.

“I’ve been waiting for you for such a long time, Woohyun-ah. I can’t believe you dated that , she wasn’t even pretty compared to me.”

With a yelp, Woohyun used his whole strength to push the person away and stumbled out of his room. He was about to start running when his legs suddenly gave away. He fell to the floor in front of the TV and moaned in pain when his forehead came in contact with the books that were scattered around the floor. A pair of pale legs came into view when he opened his eyes. Then the person squatted in front of him, revealing her face. It was none other than Yumi. She flashed him a big grin and his damp hair. He was sweating cold sweat. He couldn’t even move a finger, he was paralyzed. She had put something in his coffee. He knew it.

“Why can’t you love me anymore, Woohyun-ah? I’m always with you and I will always love you. I’ve never looked anywhere else except at you. Am I not sincere enough to love you?”

Woohyun could only moan in reply. He had lost his voice and his vision was starting to fail him. He stared at the screen of the TV and realized something that he should have known whenever he watched the video. The background of the video was his living room. The video was recorded in his apartment.

She had been entering his apartment as she pleased this whole time.

Wheezing, Woohyun held out his hand in attempt to grab his phone that was lying on the floor not too far from him but to no avail. He couldn’t see nor hear anything anymore; his mind began shutting down. Everything turned black then.

 He had plunged into utter darkness.