It's been silent ever since the engine starts and the music plays. None of them tries to speak up, or even just to comment at the heavy traffic. 

 

The sound of her slurping bubble tea makes her realize, when does it start to get this odd?

 

- 

 

Around two or three months before, they were in a perfectly good term where mocking here and there could bring laughter as much as the smiles on their faces at their every hug.

 

"Take the drink, hm?" She says, plumping her tired body on the couch.

 

He rolls his eyes but nods nonetheless. "Does it look like I can refuse?"

 

She grins, and checks her phone. It's time, she thinks as she silently greets one of her new bestfriend.

 

Really, it was supposed to be a joke.

 

Never once she thought the ignorant Chanyeol to firmly ask 'what? who's that boy talking to you like that?' and 'give me your phone' and eventually forgot to take the drinks for the both of them.

 

For God's sake, it was Jinri who greets the said boy with a 'jongin, ask me whether i have eaten my dinner like i told u on friday' so then a simple yet fatal 'hiiii sull, have u eaten ur dinner?' appeared on her screen, which she mischievously showed him, in order so he would get jealous.

 

And she succeeded.

 

So he stromed out of the cafe, leaving two cups of hot english breakfast tea and a dumbfounded Jinri.

 

Long short story, Jinri managed to say the crucial 'break up' word when Chanyeol still insisted to give the so-called Jongin a hi-five with a chair on the face, after, surprisingly, Jongin yelled back when Chanyeol started the phone call with a ' you'.

 

Once again, it was supposed to be a joke.

 

About a month after that, being in a condition where they have to live in two different places with all new different situations and people, it started to get harder for each other to keep up since the tasks and deadlines were on the way. 

 

So one day, when Jinri was strangely free-of-tasks and got nothing to do, she greeted him and asked for a Skype call. Because she missed him. 

 

And what she got was a rejection, stating that he got to wake up at 4 sharp tomorrow so he could catch the train.

 

She was okay with that, and she could accept it.

 

But it was no longer okay when Chanyeol started to reply her chats with simple and flat responses. Then she stopped initiating the daily chats, thinking he would greet her in return. 

 

But he didn't. Well, he did. But not in the way Jinri wanted him to.

 

Not so long after the mono-dilemma within herself, she became suspicious over his new girl friends over there, whom she had no clue at all. Chanyeol is just that intovert, except you dig him yourself.

 

The time, the distance, the chance — exactly what inhibit her from asking and for him to tell her.

 

So one night when she really had enough of being sleepless with her darker eyebags, she called him with a 'we need to talk' to start up.

 

The phone call was unsurprisingly went awkward. Of course, they rarely had their calls and even chats. Jinri was afraid that if she protests much, she would be so demanding over Chanyeol. But then again, her bestfriend always reminds her that 'a good relationship won't burden you to sleep'. 

 

So she once again, managed to say 'let's just break up' to the other line, saying 'i'm so burdened with me overthinking about you and this girl and that girl and the distance is just not helping, yeol' which being replied with an exasperated 'noooooo, no sull. really she was— nobody! i swear— please just don't. i promise i'll be good i will never ever mention her again on my updates or whatever. hm? ok?' and so on.

 

And Jinri didn't tell him that, actually, what she basically want was him to spare little of his time for her, too. Instead of updating on his social media with David Archuleta's 'do you catch a breath, when i look at you?', then got replied and retweeted by his new friends with 'someone's really falling head over heels~' and 'so sooj*ng it is?' and even 'stupid, it's that senior da*a of course' and what burned her even more was his reply to them: 'shut up, just you all see later who ;)'

 

She just couldn't take the feeling of being clueless, and he, on the other hand, didn't feel that what he had done was disturbing... or torturing for someone. 

 

It was really and supposed to be a joke.

 

Then she thought, even their sense of humor wasn't on the same level anymore.

 

-

 

He sighs as he presses the brake for the nth time because of, what else, the traffic.

 

He lays his head on the backrest, while keep changing the track on the radio.

 

"Finally." He smiles and hums to the song: I Miss You.

 

Really?

 

She stirrs on her seat to get a more comfortable position, looking to the outside. The road is really crowded, indeed a sign of a Saturday night. 

 

Ha, she scoffs mentally, what Saturday night.

 

She tries to sleep because she can't stand the stiffness everytime the song, the only sound besides the aircon, changes to another one, creating a gap of silence in between.

 

But, really? Chanyeol? You won't even look at me once to comment how I gained weight or where these chubby cheeks came from or— fine, just glance at me? Hm?

 

But he doesn't, and still humming to whatever song that comes out next.

 

She sighs inwardly. She really misses him and really wants to hug him because tomorrow she had to leave again and God knows when will they be able to meet again and this is so frustrating why does she have to be the one who make the first move?!

 

She wants to scream right there but Chanyeol would be shocked terribly and they could get killed because he would press the gas and they would hit the Jaguar in front and really, they could get killed because they wouldn't be able to pay the damage.

 

Is it right to feel this way? Will every single (sane) girl feel this way when she got a clueless boyfriend over there who's (strangely) currently humming to Justin Bieber songs.

 

"Oh." He suddenly speaks. "I thought you already drank down your bubble tea back then."

 

She narrows her eyes to catch him staring intently at the street.

 

She snorts. Is he really okay with all this tensed atmosphere and the silence because I thought he's Chanyeol who can't keep his mouth closed?

 

Finally, she lays her head on the window, waiting for a miracle so that she knows what is actually going on with her.

 

Chanyeol has showed that he care, with a sudden explosion at Jongin that he has never showed before.

 

Chanyeol has showed that he loves her, by pleading that he wouldn't do that update thingy about Soojung and Dara.

 

(He told her the names accidently while promising on the phone and she cried even more and he panickedly told her to stop crying while still insisting that he doesn't want a break up)

 

Chanyeol has showed that he thinks nothing's wrong between them, because he doesn't want anything to change. Not distance, not the unfrequent phone calls, not the flat chats, not Jongin, not Soojung or even more Dara could make them changed.

 

Why does she have to doubt him now? 

 

Jinri opens her eyes when he slowly nudges her arm, "Wake up, fattie."

 

She rubs her tired eyes because she wasn't actually sleeping. Tilting her head, she can see him smiling from his seat.

 

"Already got my point?" He asks.

 

She's still dumbfounded when he reaches out her hand to pull her into his arms. "Now, will you please let us start over again?"

 

---

a/n: this was supposed to be an angst hahahah but well