“Good morning, beautiful,” Tracy heard above her head. She smelled coffee nearby and smiled contentedly. Blindly, she sat up and reached put her hands out, ready to accept the mug. It was warm in her hands and it made her smile again. With a sip, she was content to her very bones. She opened her eyes to see Himchan sipping his customary Iced Americano while smiling at her. She looked around the darkened apartment and felt immediately suspicious. Setting the mug down, she jumped up and threw the blinds back. The sun blinded her.

    “What time is it? Where's my phone? How could I sleep so late?” Tracy asked in quick succession. She spotted her phone on the table and lunged for it. She tried to turn the screen on and cursed when it remained black.

    “I turned it off so that you could sleep,” Himchan explained calmly. Too calmly.

    “Why would you do that?!” Tracy asked in pure exasperation. She held the button down and paced while waiting for the phone to turn fully on.

    “What's the big deal? You used to sleep here all the time.”

    “You know what the big deal is, Himchan. Don't play stupid,” she bit out. The phone in her hand started buzzing crazily. Notifications of missed calls and unanswered text messages flashed across the screen in rapid succession. Tracy sank to the floor and rubbed her hands tiredly over her face while she waited for the phone to calm down. When it finally did, she looked up at Himchan with an irate expression.

    “Trac—”

    “Don't. Speak,” she warned. She ree of the many missed calls and waited for it to connect. The timer started going, but there was no sound. “Baby?”

    “Where. Are. You,” Yongguk's deep voice came through the line, each word it's own anger filled sentence.

    “I—”

    “I've been calling you since I got off work. I come home, you aren't here and the door is unlocked! Do you have any idea how worried I've been?!”

    “I wasn't planning on being gone long,” she explained lamely. It sounded stupid to her own ears.

    “Where are you?” Yongguk asked again. Tracy didn't respond. She didn't have to because he knew. This wasn't the first time. “Put it on speakerphone.”

    “Gukkie—”

    “Do it!” he barked. Tracy complied and let the phone rest on the coffee table. “Himchan.” Not a question, a statement of fact.

    Himchan set his drink down, sat back and crossed his legs. “Yongguk.”

    “Why is my girlfriend at your house?”

    “I was out drinking and asked her to pick me up. She's a good friend, so she came.”

    “Why didn't you take the subway or a cab?”

    “There aren't any stop near here. And you didn't mind, did you Tracy-baby?” Himchan was purposely taunting him.

    “Don't call her that,” Yongguk warned him. Tracy looked up and saw Himchan smirk. She shot him a dirty look.

    “Look, baby, nothing happened. I slept on the couch,” she rushed to assure him.

    “Do you really think that makes this any better?” Yongguk responded.

    “He was too drunk to drive,” she added, just as lamely as everything else she said.

    “Then he should have drank closer to home! Or not gotten so drunk at all! This isn't the first time. Do you really not see that he's manipulating you?”

    “Don't yell at her,” Himchan cut in, sitting forward in his seat.

    “Shut up, Himchan!” Tracy immediately told him. She turned her attention back to the man on the phone. “Baby, I—”

    “Here's my issue,” Yongguk interrupted. “I can't tell which one of you is having the harder time remembering that you broke up. Him, because you're who he calls when he gets drunk. Or you, who goes running every time he calls.”

    “Gukkie, please! It's not like that—”

    “No, this is bull! I'm your boyfriend, not him! Why am I the one having to call and find out where you are? You should be here, not there!”

    “I know, baby. Please, just listen to me,” she begged, tearing up as she said it.

    Himchan grabbed the phone from the table. “Nice going, . You made her cry.”

    “Himchan, give me the phone!” Tracy pleaded. She jumped up, trying to retrieve it. Himchan held his arm out so that she couldn't get close enough to take it.

    “Listen, don't call her and yell like this. She didn't do anything wrong,” Himchan defended.

    “No, you listen, ! Stop calling my girlfriend! She's not yours anymore!”

    “And yet, she's here with me,” Himchan retorted smugly. Tracy looked stricken.

    “Himchan, give me the phone!” Tracy yelled again, this time more insistently.

    “Put her back on the phone,” Yongguk said in a dark, quiet tone. Himchan looked at her closely and handed over the device.

    “Baby?”

    He was quiet for so long that she was afraid he had hung up. Then she heard his breath stutter when he exhaled. “When you leave there today, I want you to be clear on who you're with.”

    “I'm clear! I'm crystal clear! I'm with you, Yongguk. I lov—”

    “Trace . . . I couldn't take it if I fall any more in love with you and you change your mind.”

    “Yongguk!” she screamed, but he was gone. Tracy stared at the blank screen and felt the torrent of tears streaking down her face. She sat on the couch, drew her knees up and cried.

    Himchan sat beside her and rubbed her back in a comforting manner. “He shouldn't speak to you that way.”

    Tracy raised her head slowly and pinned with a death glare. “This is all your fault.”

    “My fault?!”

    “Why do you keep doing this? Why do you keep calling me?!”

    “For the same reason that you always answer,” he said softly. Tracy gasped and stood to leave. Himchan grabbed her from behind and held her arms tight to her side. She fought against him, but he wouldn't let go. “Please, honey.”

    “Honey? You call me honey, now?!” Tracy stomped on his foot and moved quickly out of his grasp. She picked her phone up and jammed it into her pocket. “I waited for you for years, Himchan. I made myself so available that it was embarrassing. I just shy of stalked you! We dated, you broke up with me. We dated again, you broke up with me again. Over and over! 'I love you, but I can't be who you need right now'. I accepted that! I tried to just be your friend, even though you knew how I felt. I tried everything, just to get you to notice me.”

    “I noticed you,” he answered quietly.

    “Then why didn't you say something?! Why didn't you do anything?!”

    “I wasn't ready, honey,” he said with a hint of whine in his voice. He approached her and gripped her cheeks so that she would look at him. “You're a 'forever' kind of girl, and I wasn't ready for that.”

    “You strung me along.”

    “No, I kept you close because I knew our time would come,” he corrected adamantly. “Now is the time, Tracy-baby. I'm ready.”

    “I got tired of waiting,” she told him with a shrug.

    “Don't say that, honey.”

    “I'm not your 'honey'!” she cried passionately. “I wanted to be, I tried to be, and you kept ting on that. Bringing other girls when we were supposed to spend time together? Introducing me as 'just your roommate'? Having with them when I could hear from the other room!? How much of that was I really supposed to take?”

    “They didn't mean anything,” Himchan said, trying to convey all of his emotions. With his hand on her shoulders, he drew her in to hug her. “I love you. I've only ever loved you. I was just scared.”

    Tracy stiffened and pushed against his chest. “You love me?”

    “Yes, I love you, baby,” he told her with his charming smile. “And you love me.”

    “Maybe I do,” she admitted, “but you should have loved me when it mattered.”

    “Baby,” Himchan said softly. “You don't mean that.”

    Tracy smiled at him sadly. She raised up on her toes and kissed his cheek, letting it linger before pulling away. She grabbed her shoes and opened the door. “Don't call me again.”

    “Tracy—”

    “And stop drinking so much.” She closed the door behind her, making sure it was really shut.

*/*/*