Jihye's POV:

My hot breath fogged my glasses up as I pulled my scarf up, covering my nose. I stuffed my right hand in my coat pocket, my left hand gripping Jungkook's snapback tightly. I didn't like wearing gloves. The ones my mom gave me for Christmas yesterday lay somewhere in my room, already forgotten.

I was walking to Jungkook's house. He had called me up a few minutes ago, asking me if I could help him pack since he was leaving tonight. He sounded normal on the phone. I don't think he knew he had forgotten my birthday.

Was it silly of me to march to his house in the middle of a blizzard? A little. But I wasn't going there to help him, or forgive him. I was going there to explain why I would never answer his calls, or his texts. I was going there to tell him that he was on his own.

I was going there to become a stranger.

Jungkook's POV:

I moved around my room, pelting random things into my suitcase. The only thing I had organized so far was the box of sweaters I was going to give Jihye. I took off the lid and double checked the sweaters. I smiled when I pictured her wearing them.

There were two in her favorite colors (Navy-blue and olive-green. She ing loved those colors), three of them were knitted (to ensure maximum warmth) and the rest were the ones she had threatened to steal from me. Which was basically every single sweater I owned. 

I placed the Polaroids that we had taken together on top of the sweaters. I hadn't put them up on my wall because I wanted to surprise her. There was the one from when she had seen my baby pictures, the one from our field trip, and many more from when she was stuffing her face with food or yelling at me. She had no idea I had taken all of those.

"Honey?" My mom's voice called to me from downstairs. "Jihye's coming up to your room!"

"Thanks!" I yelled back, pushing the box under my bed. I was going to give it to her when I left.

The door opened and she walked in. Snowflakes rested on her hair and scarf, some even on her eyelashes. Her hair seemed longer than I remembered, unlike her bangs, which didn't seem quite so overgrown now. Why did she seem so unfamiliar? 

"Jungkook." Her voice sounded cold.

"Hey, Jihye." I smiled awkwardly.

"Your room's a mess." She looked around.

"Yep." I chuckled. "I'm not that good with organizing stuff."

"I can see that." She sat down in front of me.

"Plus this is the first time I've packed for myself, so I don't really know what to do." I smiled sheepishly.

She gave me a half amused smile. "Is that why you called me here?"

"Well, yeah, but that's not all." I ran a hand through my hair. "I just thought it would be nice, if you know- that maybe- it...um..."

"It's ok, I understand what you mean." She laughed. "Let's get started, shall we?"

I nodded as she began gathering the clothes around her, folding them at lightning speed.

We worked in silence for a while. I occasionally looked at her, in hopes of memorizing her face. Whenever she would smile, her eyes would disappear into two crescents, and her cheeks would appear even chubbier than usual. She had this habit of biting her lip while twirling her hair when she focused on something, which was really adorable. She was doing that now. I was going to miss her.

"You don't wear glasses often." I commented, breaking the silence.

"I have contacts." She replied nonchalantly. "Glasses make me look like an insect."

"They look good." I grinned. "Make you look less intimidating."

"I prefer contacts." She placed a pile of clothes into the suitcase. "But I don't really mind these ones. They were a birthday gift."

"I see." I nodded, and went back to arranging my beanies in a plastic bag.

Wait.

Her birthday.

"Your birthday." I whispered. She didn't look at me.

"That was on Friday, wasn't it?"

"Mhmm." She hummed. "Do you want me to put the formal and casual shirts in the same pile?"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." I bowed my head. 

"It's fine." She smiled, avoiding eye contact.

"I had to go to Seoul that day-" I started to explain.

"It's ok, Jungkook." She sighed. "You don't need to explain anything."

"I seriously was going to buy the cake. I even made a card!"

"I'm sure you did." She looked at me. "But I should've known better than to take your word for it, so I guess we're even."

"What is that supposed to mean?" 

"Nothing." She pursed her lips. "Let's get back to work."

"No." I shut the cover of the suitcase. "Tell me."

"Please, Jungkook, not this again." She rubbed her nose bridge wearily. "I'm really tired."

"I'm sorry." I bit my lip. "I'm really sorry for missing your birthday. I'll make it up to you."

She gave me a tired look. "How are you going to make it up to me?"

"I'll buy you lots of cake." I said quietly. "I'll give you my sweaters, too."

"I don't want those things." She sighed. "What I want is for you to stop making promises you can't keep."

"When did I ever do that?" I looked at her, feeling hurt.

"You promised me you would be there for my birthday."

"One time!" I cried. "That's just one time! It wasn't even my fault!

"You live a mile away from me, Jungkook. I see you in school pretty much everyday, hell, we even run into each other on the streets. You have me on speed dial, and you still managed to completely forget!" She gritted her teeth. "What do you think it's going to be like when you move to Seoul?"

"That's different." I argued. 

"How?" She yelled. "How is it going to be any different? You're going to be some 200 miles away from here! You think that's better?"

"That's what a phone is for!" I groaned. "I told you, I'm going to call you every-"

"Oh my god, shut up." She growled. "Cut the bull, Jungkook. Grow up."

"Fine, so we won't be talking to each other everyday, but-"

"But nothing." She interrupted me. "We're going to gradually stop talking to each other completely, and that's all that's going to happen."

"Why the are you assuming things?" I cried. "You don't know that!"

"Yes I do!" She glowered. "It's happened before, and it's going to happen again! I'm done with getting my hopes up."

"Why does everything have to be so dramatic with you?" I groaned, running a hand through my hair. "You're blowing things out of proportion!"

"I'm making a valid point." She said angrily. 

"And what exactly is that?"

"Stop promising me things that you're not going to fulfill, that's all." She sighed.

"Fine." I scoffed. "But have you ever thought of why I say such things? Haven't you ever considered that I'm making a huge change in my life, and just believing that I'll have one ing friend left back home is my only comfort? That saying that I'll keep in touch with you relieves me, because I know someone will answer me at 3 a.m. in the morning?"

She grew silent. I kept talking.

"You know what your real problem is, Jihye? You make all these stupid assumptions about things, without bothering to wait to see if they're true. And then you get mad because of it, and you blame others for something that isn't even their fault."

I wanted to stop myself from saying anything more, but I couldn't.

"And it's because of this attitude that I'm going to be doing something I love, something I believe in, while you're stuck in a profession you hate because you assumed that anything else would be too risky, and you couldn't do anything better with your life. And you know what? It's probably true. If you continue to go down this road, you're going to end up hating yourself and your life, Jihye. You'll be a failure."

My eyes widened when I realized what I had said. The look on her face wrenched my heart. No no, I hadn't meant to say that. 

She got up and dusted her clothes. I noticed that she hadn't taken off her coat the entire time.

", Jihye, I didn't mean that." I said, getting up as well. I stepped closer to her, but she took a step back. I began to talk again, but she interrupted me.

"Shhhh." She looked at her feet. "Don't say anything."

I started to argue, but she came closer to me and put her arms around my neck. Then, she stood up on her tip-toes and gave me a kiss on my cheek.

"Bye, Jungkookie." She whispered into my neck. I felt tears wet my shirt. I tried to hug her back, to keep her from leaving, but she let go of me before I could do anything else.

She looked at me. Her eyes seemed tired and sad. I felt my heart stop as she bit her lip. They were bleeding. I wanted to stop her. Maybe if I kis-

"Don't try to look for me."

And she left.

The black snapback that I had given her long ago now lay on top of my suitcase.