“Kim Jongdae?”

Chen freezes in his tracks, his eyes widening in recognition.

The voice calls out once more, “Is that you, Kim Jongdae?”

The warmth of his body against yours vacates when he lets go of you. He slowly turns around, polished shoes scuffing against weathered concrete, to face a woman.

A woman with a petite figure, short and lacy blue dress tucked under a tight black coat, stands, face wreathed in a beaming smile. Swells of wavy, brown locks cascade over her shoulder, and her eyes are a brilliant brown, standing out against her fair complexion.

“Lee Sua?” Chen asks, voice swathed in disbelief and maybe reminiscence.

“Do you know her?” you ask, hastily. You’re cold, and you want to home.

“_____,” Chen says, his lips nervously, as the girl named Sua approaches the two of you in her three inch heels. “This is Sua, and she was my girlfriend in high school- my first love, actually.”

She flashes you a smile. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Before you can speak, Chen blurts out in excitement, “What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in years.”

“My brother is business partners with the CEO, so the both of us came for the company gathering,” she says. “What a coincidence!”

Your heart sinks.

Within a few minutes, they are already comfortable with each other, despite the fact that they had broken up years ago and that Chen is married to you.

After a few flirtatious statements and shy smiles are exchanged, Chen grabs you by the arm and whispers in your ear, “Can you find a different ride home? It’s been a long time since I’ve met Sua, so I want to buy her a drink.”

You want to protest and tell him that he’s your husband, which means that he has no right to share drinks with any other woman, but you keep your lips pursed. You have no right to feel angry, for Chen was never yours in the first place, and he may never be.

“Fine,” you utter.

Without a final “thank you” or “goodbye”, you watch as he struts happily to his car with Sua, cringing when she casually links her arms with his. Though the cold is stinging your cheeks and the backs of your heels are digging into your skin, nothing is more bitter than the twinge of pain that stirs a certain kind sadness in your heart.

“Do you need a ride?” a familiar, deep voice hollers.

When you look up from the ground, your lips crack into a smile when you recognize the approaching figure as Chanyeol.

“That would be great, actually,” you reply.

“My car’s this way,” he says, gesturing you towards the sleek, black car that rests in the corner of the lot.

As you walk to the car, you watch as he pulls the dark jacket off his body, letting the fabric slide off his shoulders, before wrapping it around your body.

“You must be cold,” he says.

You can only murmur an appreciative “Thank you” as you step into his car.

You pant, sighs heaved and breaths hitched, as you walk up the paved grounds of your driveway and the stairs to your front door. You are exhausted, after spending an entire day furniture shopping with your mother, who complained in a quite platitude manner that the furniture in her bedroom was getting too drab for her own taste. Purse clutched in one hand, you swing open the front door and kick of your shoes before stepping onto the polished wooden floors.

As you haul your aching feet to the kitchen, you halt.

A woman is sitting across the dinner table from Chen.

A familiar one.

“What’s going on?” you announce.

You observe as Chen’s head jerks in your direction, face festooned with surprise. He lumbers from the chair, staggering towards you. You can tell he’s drunk from the wine glasses sitting on the table and how his body lurches.

“What is she doing here?” you ask, pointing a finger at Sua, who sits at the table, twirling her hair.

“I can’t invite an old friend over?” he blabbers, words slurred.

“You can’t invite other women to your house,” you say, cheeks flushed. “We’re married.”

Before you can rant on an angry tired, Chen grabs you by the shoulders and ushers you to the front door.

“It’s only been a week since we met at the party,” he says. “Let us do some catching up.”

You open to your mouth to reprimand Chen, but you’re already out the front door, and he slams it, the click of the lock reverberating too loudly not to be heard. Eyes b with tears, you plop yourself down on the ground.

He truly doesn’t love you.

There’s a languid din in the lobby of Chen’s office in the evening, once works shifts are over. You stand in the lobby, awaiting the familiar figure of Chen, clad in a white dress shirt and black trousers and holding a folder full of papers, to appear. After minutes of looking at your watch and impatiently biting your bottom lip, you spot him. He’s with his fellow coworkers, laughing.

You call for him and wave at him, smiling brightly. His head turns in your direction for a moment, your eager gaze meeting with his chocolate eyes.

But he turns away.

You watch in horror as Chen murmurs something to his coworkers, before the familiar figure of Lee Sua comes through the doors of the building and walks into his outstretched arms, the lobby booming with the sound of his coworkers cheering. Some whistle and shout when he pulls her into his arms and plants a light kiss on his her cheek, before leaving the building and walking into his car.

As you sit, sullen and alone, you notice moments too late that someone has taken the seat across from you.

“Hello,” Chanyeol says.

“Chanyeol,” you smile.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, head cocked. “Are you waiting for Chen? He left a while before-“

“No,” you interrupt. “I was waiting… for you.”

You watch as Chanyeol’s face lights up, the corners of his lips stretching across his face in a smile. “For me?”

You nod.

“I have no plans, so I was wondering if you would have dinner with me?”

He nods. “Sure.”                                    

As you sit across from Chanyeol in a restaurant, a platter of steaming pasta with grilled chicken sitting before you, you hear the ding of your phone, alerting you that you have a message. When you pull your phone out of your pocket and swipe your finger across your screen, you almost gag when you read the lone message on the screen.

Chen: Don’t come home tonight.