The room was still. The only sound came from the moving hands of the alarm clock on the night stand. Not even his breaths could be heard. He lied on the frigid wooden floor. His ear was pressed against the ground, trying to listen for her dainty footsteps. He stared at the door that was agape, hoping she would walk into their bedroom.

Mino closed his eyes and a lonely tear rolled down the bridge of his nose and under his other eye before it plopped onto the floor, creating a miniscule puddle. Another drop fused with the little puddle, making it a little bigger. And then another and another. Soon, he was holding back his sobs.

He turned over onto his back. He clutched his shirt and pounded on his chest with his tight fist. He beat on his aching heart over and over again.

Song Mino was suffering from Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, better known as broken-heart syndrome, an onset of congestive heart failure that mimics a myocardial infarction. Simply put, Song Mino’s heart wasn’t working properly. His heart was broken.

His friends and family told him that it would get better, that they had all experienced heart break. But they were wrong. So many people who say that their heart had been broken were lying. Most people never felt the physical pain that breaks a heart. They have just felt sad or upset, they didn’t have a heart that hurt as it beat in their rib cage and between their lungs. They didn’t have to suffer physically like he did, they only suffered mentally or emotionally.

And he was hurting because of her. He was lying on the ground, waiting and suffering, hoping that she would come back, holding his little boy in her arms.

He had broken-heart syndrome because of own little family.

He was aching because of Woo Jiae and Song Wonho.

It was all just a big mistake. Everything could have been prevented if he had just taken her with him. She could have held onto his arm tightly as they walked to her pizza shop. She could have thanked him sweetly and adorably as he happily bought her her favorite pizza. They could have gone back home together to enjoy their midnight snack. But why didn’t he take her with him? Why did he make the mistake of leaving his growing family behind?

She stayed home and waited for Mino to come back. She waited so quietly and patiently. She mistook the intruder that opened the door as her husband. She wasn’t fast enough. She was strong enough. And she ended up lying breathless on the ground, alone.

He would never forget what he saw. He would never be able to erase how he found her lying on the ground, her eyes closed and her chest still. How still she was even as he tried to revive her. How she didn’t move and inch as the paramedics took her away. How pale she looked on the metal table, a large white cloth covering the rest of her body.

He could never forget how her brothers and their friends tried to comfort him. How they didn’t blame him. How his parents and sister cried with him. How he blamed himself second after second. How his heart literally constricted with pain. How he woke up the next day with her wedding ring on his pinky, right next his own wedding band that seemed so cold on his ring finger.

Mino woke up on what used to be their bedroom floor. He stared at the high ceiling for a few seconds before a deep voice interrupted his thoughts.

“You have to stop doing this to yourself. She wouldn’t want to see you this way.” Mino sat up and turned his head towards the doorway. He found his youngest brother-in-law standing in the middle of the doorway, a bag of, what Mino assumed to be, breakfast.

Wordlessly, Mino stood up and sat down on the big bed that he could no longer lay on. His head hung low as Jiho approached him.

“Mino, you’re my brother. I can’t let you live like this. It’s not your fault. No one could have known that a burglar would target your home. Jiae would be so upset if she knew that you were beating yourself up like this.” Jiho’s eyes grew a little wet just thinking about his little sister.

“Get up and go wash up. The guys are all waiting for you in the living room.” Jiho pulled Mino up and gently guided him to the restroom to freshen up.

Mino stared at his reflection. He turned his head a bit and cracked a small smile as he pictured Jiae sitting on the counter, brushing her teeth as she hummed her favorite song. He could still picture her smiling at him through the foam that covered her pretty pink lips.

And then, she disappeared. She was no longer sitting on the counter, brushing her teeth and smiling at him. He could no longer hear her humming the rap song that he had composed.

The only people in the bathroom were him and his sad little reflection.

Mino took his time washing up and reminiscing. He spent minutes just smiling and then just growing depressed repeatedly.

When he was done, he stood in front of the counter and saw her once more. She was sitting there in an oversized maroon t-shirt with her hair tied up in a messy bun. He was standing between her legs, his hands on either side of her, his fingers drumming on the grey marble counter.

She was smiling at him. He saw her eyes smile, too. He saw the little wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Her cute nose scrunched and un-scrunched, a little habit of hers whenever she smiled. He saw her lips spread wide and her teeth sparkling. He blinked and she was gone.

His friends were gathered around in the living room, they were conversing as if there was nothing wrong. When they noticed that Mino had joined them, they stopped talking. Uneasily, they glanced at one another. Jiho was the first to speak up, “We brought your favorite green tea waffles with extra whipped cream and chocolate drizzle.”

Mino just stared at the waffle that Jiho placed in front of him. He could feel his heart struggling to beat normally as memories of Jiae flashed through his mind. Green tea waffles with whipped cream and a chocolate drizzle were their favorite breakfast to share. He came to like them after Jiae introduced them to him on their first date.

“Come on, Mino. You have to eat something.” His friend Seungyoon sighed audibly. Jiho placed a fork in Mino’s hand and guided it to the waffle. However, Mino’s hand went limp and flopped onto the ground when Jiho let go.

Everyone stared at him intently as he just stared at the waffle.

“Jiae would have loved to eat this. It’s her favorite.” Jiho and Jiseok looked down at the floor as their own precious memories of their little sister ran through their heads.

Mino lifted his fork up and cut into, the now cold, waffle. He carefully placed a small piece of it into his mouth and slowly chewed on it. He took his time swallowing it as he imagined Jiae enjoying it like she used to often.

He closed his eyes as he ate the rest of waffle, piece by piece.

His friends, one-by-one, also began to finish their breakfast. They chatted amongst themselves every once in a while but the morning was quiet as they all thought about the little sister and nephew they had lost five months ago.

As they solemnly ingested their breakfast with a small appetite, they reminisced about the fun times, the exciting events, and the sorrow they felt throughout all of those years they had all become friends and practically one big family.