After practice, I went out with Sehun for a drink and midnight snack, as we decided to visit our usual café. However, as we approached the counter, we were halted instead by a pair of young adults.

“Jen! Sehun!” a feminine voice called out to us.

I turned towards the direction of the booths and saw two of my friends form high school, Mila and Kris, who happened to become a couple, motioning for us to join them. “Hey, Mi. Hey Kris,” I greeted as Sehun and I took the seat across from them after Kris joined Mila on her side. Sehun knew them through me, and we all occasionally hung out with them after I introduced the pair to Luhan, Sehun, and Kana at my party a few years back.

“What’s up, you love birds?” I teased, earning an awkward chuckle form Kris and a playful glare from his girlfriend.

“At least we admit our love for each other, unlike you two,” Mila argued and stuck her tongue out at me.

I stared at her blankly, thoroughly unimpressed with her joke and warning her to not push it any further. Turning my head towards Sehun, I let out an exasperated sigh and an exaggerated roll of my eyes, but he seemed to be concentrating on empty space with his bottom lip between his teeth.

Wondering what he was contemplating intensely about, I tilted my head and furrowed my brows in concern. “Sehun? Are you okay?”

Immediately, he snapped his attention back to us. “Uh-yeah, you were saying?”

“Nothing,” I shook my head and flashed him a concerned smile.

After ordering our share of coffee and pastries, Sehun and I engaged in diverse conversations with the couple. After not seeing them for months, I finally caught up with Mila and Kris. We mostly drabbled on the subject of the planning of their wedding, which was scheduled to be in two months. They’ve been engaged for over a year, but now the two actually were able take a full two weeks off from their respective jobs to hold the wedding and go on their honeymoon.

“I’m so happy for you guys!” I almost squealed out of happiness for the couple. “Do you need help with anything?”

“Actually,” Mila began. “You should help us finalize the guest list and seating arrangements!” Since the three of us went to high school and college together, that was a logical suggestion. “And we can always use some extra hands with our goodie bags, right babe?” Mila said and looked up at Kris with a mesmerized expression during the last part. I faked a gag, but I couldn’t deny the fact that I was genuinely happy for the two.

Before I was even able to ask about the number of guests they were planning to invite, Mila informed me of a fact that I was ambivalent to know.

If she told me this five years ago, I would probably have been jumping in joy this moment. But seven years passed, and I no longer knew if this was the ending I wanted at the end of my novel. It was no longer a happy ending – that was a fact I knew very well. In fact, it was a fact that he told me, through his absence.

Now, I was finally slowly crawling my way out the black hole of our memories, but Mila’s one statement me right back in.

“I invited Jongin. His flight is next week.”