Title: Dawn

Prompt: One's first love is always perfect until one meets one's second love. 

His eyes are bloodshot, so he wore sunglasses. Of course, to his friends, this would be a testimony to his nights. But it wasn’t the product of a monstrous hangover. In actually, he just hadn’t gotten much sleep. Half an hour at best, plus a few seconds in between. 

He entered the coffee shop carefully, watching his friends watch him move around the room, holding in their chuckles while he grimaced at any increase in noise. Their laughter got less guarded as they watched him flinch at the sound of the chair being pulled out, and they let their laughter pierce through the quiet cafe openly as he removed his sunglasses, exposing his red eyes to them. He glared at the men who were clutching their stomach, but decided to waste the little energy he had on beckoning the waitress over instead of making a comment. 

“Just a black coffee, please.” He muttered to her as she nodded, bring the full pot back with her and leaving it there. He surely looked like he needed it. 

“So,” Sanghyuk was the first to speak. His amused smile was enough to make Hongbin groan in anticipation of whatever idiotic inquiry would come out of his friend’s mouth. “Did we do a good job?” 

What Sanghyuk was referring to was his grand plan to get Hongbin “over and done with” his ex girlfriend. It had been two weeks since they had spoken, and Hongbin got worse every day. This, of course, interfered with the triweekly soccer practices he and his friends had, and seeing as though their intramural tournaments were coming up, they couldn’t have their goalie staring out into space, cursing the world’s cruelty. So along with the help of Jaehwan, Sanghyuk came up with the lackluster plan to take Hongbin out, get him unreasonably intoxicated, and send him on his way to get over what he previously thought was the love of his life. It was a stupid plan, and Hongbin only drank to humor them. He ended up humoring him more than he originally anticipated, since he was gone well before their night was supposed to end. 

“You did something alright.” Hongbin groaned, taking a long sip of the scalding hot coffee. He was too tired to even feel his tastebuds burning off. 

“We saw you leaving with that girl.” Jaehwan smirked. 

Hongbin froze. He had been trying to get her out of his mind during the walk here. From the moment that he woke up and saw an empty space instead of her, from the way her smell filled every corner of his empty apartment, overtaking the smell of the loneliness and the regret. He had been trying to forget her, because he was too enamored with her. 

“Was she that good?” Sanghyuk asked, seeing the way Hongbin looked into his coffee pensively. 

“I think I’m in love with her.” Hongbin spoke honestly, acknowledging how ridiculous it sounded. It had taken him at least a year to realize that he loved his ex girlfriend, but with this girl, whose name he didn’t even catch, it was clear so easily. 

“Whoa there, bud. I know you’re lonely and kind of desperate, but no girl has that amount of skill. You can’t be.” Jaehwan’s smirk died down, and it was replaced with genuine concern. 

“It sounds stupid to me too, but you don’t understand. I just feel it.” Hongbin nodded slowly, hearing the words pour out of his mouth despite his better judgment. Maybe it was the alcohol that made her seem so great. Maybe it was the excitement of holding a girl in his arms again. 

“Do you even know her name?” 

“No.” He shook his head. 

“Well, are you gonna tell us what’s so special about her. Or do you not remember that either?” Jaehwan tapped his nails along the table, curiosity b in him. Hongbin, despite his romanticism, was never the one to be impulsive or easily emotional, so he wondered what could possibly be so amazing about a girl they met at the absolute dump that was the bar they frequented. 

“I remember everything about her.” Hongbin said, slowly. 

“I didn’t even meet her in the bar. I went outside to get some air, after my tenth drink. She asked me for directions to a restaurant that was open, and I told her that there was no way she was going to find anything but a food stall. She thanked me, and when she smiled, I knew I had to follow her. So I did. I walked her to a food stall and we ate, and we drank, and I took her home.” 

They looked at him with confusion, st