Normalcy .24.

Suga stirred awake. His eyes fluttered open briefly before he pinched them between his thumb and forefinger, rising from the bed. He slipped out slowly into the surrounding darkness of the room and reached the bedroom door; his hand sliding up his shirt with morning ritualism as he stifled a yawn.

‘Hey, you awake…?’ he mumbled, blinking a few times quickly to adjust to the brightness of the living room.

‘Momo…?’ he asked when there was still no response as he made his way into the kitchen, but the moment he turned around, nothing but silence greeted him.

He scanned the room in panic. She was usually always on the couch lazing like a pig or on her phone watching episodes of that awful show she enjoyed, but the fact that she wasn’t there at all filled him with dismay. He quickly pulled out his phone and – ignoring the influx of texts from the group chat – scrolled through his call log, cursing the girl under his breath. That pabo, he frowned, finding her number shortly on screen. She better not have been kidnapped or some…

Suga froze in place. How he could have forgotten the events of yesterday were beyond him, but he was certain sleep managed to push the troubling thing to the back of his mind. But she left… and it was the reality. He was so used to waking up to her just being there; being around, smiling, listening, looking at him, but the fact that her absence was real cut his heart like cold steel.

He put his phone on the counter slowly and returned to making the morning coffee; a frown settling on his face. He didn’t think her absence would trouble him as much as it did, but he was a fool to think otherwise… and even more of a fool to have blurted out the stupid things he did yesterday.

‘Dammit, Yoongi…’ he cursed himself, thinking back to the awful things he uttered that he genuinely didn’t mean.

Much like her, he had a lot of things to say. But the moment she mentioned moving out sooner than he imagined, Suga felt nothing but a fierce irritation at the prospect. He didn’t think he’d be as riled up as he was, but the truth was he didn’t want her to go at all. Then why didn’t I just say so? Because it was selfish of him to expect her to stay… but was letting her go the right decision?

From the awful feeling he felt then, he didn’t think so.

Suga sighed deeply; a hand scratching his hair with exasperation. He recalled her every word, every expression, every bat of her eyelashes with so much clarity it was painful. But what sent the biggest blow to the gut was how determined she looked to remain as serious as she did, but he knew well she was on the verge of breaking out in tears. The undeniable upturning of her eyebrows, the biting of her lip, the squinting of her eyes, the trembling of her hands…

‘I like you,’ the words played in his head over and over again with vivid accuracy; the huskiness of her voice as she spoke above the lump in , but still refused to cry.

‘I like you a lot but…’

Suga hadn’t realized it but he’d completely zoned out as the scene played out in his mind with grueling clarity. He looked up on finding the jar filled with coffee already and reached for it. He poured some in his mug and stared into the jar at the extra that remained behind; a full extra cup he mindlessly made, and the magnitude of her absence suddenly hit him like a tidal wave.

He looked up from his mug and into the lounge; at the few articles of clothing he bought her during their time in each other’s bodies that remained behind, the empty box of instant noodles she ate on occasion, the empty couch; the emptiness; and he bit his lip.

He was too proud to admit it, but she meant more to him than he would have liked. Pabo… he stared into his coffee bitterly; his heart squeezing in his chest. You were anything but a burden.

Perhaps his mind and his heart really did work on their own accord. And realizing the solitude he felt then, he reached for his notepad and began an entirely new poem he never quite planned at all.

I got home from work with a large bag of extra dim sum that was churned out by the chef today and a cup of bubble tea; the brown package sliding to the table smoothly as I flipped on the light switch to the tiny factory kitchen, still holding onto the latter.

I shrugged off my coat and sighed deeply at the exhaustion that settled in comfortably. Man, being a waitress was tough. Being back in my body actually made me wonder whether I was over 40 with the crazy amount creaks and muscle pain I felt. It was hard to imagine how that lazy Suga actually managed to survive being one for the time he did, and I rubbed my lower back like a granny, leaning over the countertop on one elbow.

Talking about Suga though, he was a topic that I was hung up on for days after I left his apartment. I felt bad enough that Sehun had offered me his roommate’s living space while the chap was supposedly on vacation in China and had to put up with my awful bouts of weeping every time I so as remembered what happened with Suga, but I was incredibly glad I had him there to comfort me. I expected him to boot me out like a badly-behaved cat but he was so understanding that I most likely cried even harder at the pats and tissues he offered me.

However the pain – much like all the other times – gradually eased with time. It had been a week since the incident and living with Sehun, and I felt a little accomplished now that I was finally getting my life back in order. The two of us had successfully resigned as janitors from the theatre, and things were seemingly working out gradually. Work was going steady, I had a place to temporarily crash at, I didn’t have to worry about lying my way through the days—hell—I even went as far as telling my parents over the phone a few nights ago that my precious imaginary boyfriend and I broke up. They were awfully disappointed and offered me comforting words, which; to my complete surprise; I broke down again because of.  

My parents probably imagined it was because I was still in the tender stages of recovering from the supposed ‘break up’, but it was a lot more than that. I soaked up their concern and comfort like a sponge because it reminded me of nothing but Suga.

Oh, damn him! I remember cursing the chap while sobbing my eyes out through the receiver, dabbing at my cheeks with a tissue dramatically. And damn me for falling in love with the fool!

‘I got it!’ Sehun cried as I took a seat at the counter after making a short trip to the fridge, pulling out a few peaches from the top shelf. ‘I am a GENIUS!’

I looked at him curiously as he emerged from the confines of his bedroom; a notepad over his head triumphan