Hello, Party People! I hope you're all having a quiet and restful Sunday :~) I couldn't bring myself to be super productive today, so I decided to update this story. I know the pace of the action has been moving a little slowly of late. But after this, things should begin to get...spicy ;~) Enjoy!

After that meeting at Da Vinci’s, mine and Irene’s friendship continued just like before, as if there had been no gaps of absence between us. For the most part, I was able to ignore the nagging voice in my head that told me repeatedly how much of a mistake I was making by being her friend. I’d made up my mind; my friendship with Irene was far too important to me to ruin over some feelings that might very well disappear at any given moment. She needed me, and that was that, no questions asked. But I didn’t know just how true that statement would become in wake of a certain incident which occurred several weeks later.

It was a typical Tuesday morning and I was sitting quietly in my cubicle at work, proof-reading an online article on my computer. The endless correction of grammar, spelling and typos was making me a little crazy at this point, since I had very little coffee in my bloodstream. So I opened up a new window and decided to check Facebook for a few minutes.

I hadn’t been on my profile for close to a week, and it seemed that I had missed out on a lot. I had numerous updates and notifications from friends and family back in Seoul, asking how I was doing. I responded to a few wall-posts with some carefully chosen words and then began checking some of my friend’s walls. Almost instinctively, I began typing in Irene’s name and scanning her profile.

I never told anyone this before, but I had become a kind of an online stalker where Irene was concerned. I wasn’t sending her anonymous messages, nothing like that. But when I logged onto Skype, I often ‘appeared offline’ so that I could check first if Irene was online. Most times, I wouldn’t even appear online to chat to Irene, even if she was online. But it did have some soothing effect knowing she was there at times, like it was an indication that all was well with the world in some bizarre way. And in the same way, I would constantly check her Facebook and her new tweets on Twitter, desperate to know what new thing she had said or done recently.

Based on her profile, it seemed that Irene had been on Facebook even less than I had lately. Come to think of it, I realised I hadn’t seen much of her online for a few days now. Usually, I didn’t think anything of it because of Irene’s busy schedule, giving her very little time to surf the web in her spare time. Lots of her friends had posted messages on her wall, asking if she was ok, which I thought was a little strange.

In spite of my better judgement, I ended up scanning Suho’s Facebook profile too.

Nothing new there as far as I could tell, except that his responses to a few of his guy friends seemed really clipped and abrupt. I just reasoned it as him being completely devoid of any class or manners before clicking on Xiumin’s profile to see what he had written.

Being a naturally easy-going guy, I was surprised by some of Xiumin’s status quotes on his Facebook profile. He seemed to be berating another friend of his named Kris, for posting certain pictures up on Facebook. My curiosity piqued, I scanned Xiumin’s list of friends and found his friend Kris, clicking on his Facebook profile. When his profile picture uploaded, I finally recognised his face, remembering him as one of Suho’s heckler friends I’d met briefly the night of Irene’s birthday party. I hadn’t talked to him much during the night, but the little I remembered of him, especially his hyena laugh, made me less inclined to want to get to know him better.  

Something in one of Kris’s posts about ‘a slamming party he and the boys had just been to’ caught my attention. The date of the post was from this previous weekend and Kris just happened to have posted a new album called ‘Party Pics’. And that’s when I saw some images that made my blood boil.

There were numerous pics of Kris and ‘the boys’ posing together, red-eyed and red-faced with drinks in their heads, smiling widely and pulling funny faces. But then they were some of Suho without the boys; this time with an unknown woman in the pictures. And she was all over Suho, who didn’t seem to mind in the least. He was beaming widely while this unknown bimbo was practically straddling him. What the hell was this? And more importantly, why did that idiot Kris post the pics online? It seemed like the modern age was comprised of a world population that had an inappropriate zeal for exhibitionism.

I got a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach while I stared hard at the pictures. What the hell was going on? Then a startling thought occurred to me while I sat seething at my desk: had Irene seen these pictures?

I had my answer when I went back to Irene’s profile and re-read some of her friend’s wall posts. Only one of them specifically mentioned Suho and Kris’s pictures in the same message along with a question mark. I instinctively logged onto Twitter and looked through Irene’s most recent tweets. It seemed that she had only tweeted sporadically in the past 24 hours. But I got a nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right, based on the negative undercurrent that I detected in her recent tweets, especially since she was quoting a lot of Taylor Swift songs that had to do with heartbreak.

I called Irene’s home number after that, hoping she wasn’t at class today. But all I got was the dull incessant sounds of a phone not being answered. I found this very strange, since there was always someone at Irene’s house during the day, whether it was her mother on her days off from work, her mother’s boyfriend, Irene’s grandmother or even Irene herself. I tried Irene’s cellphone next and found that it had been turned off. Irene was always very conscious about charging her cellphone battery regularly; so if her phone was off, it was because she had turned it off herself. Now I was beginning to get worried.

While I tried to distract myself for a few minutes with proofreading the same paragraph a good 5 times, I remembered that Wendy worked near my office. Maybe she would know what was going on with Irene. I struggled through the rest of my proof-reading until about lunch time, when I finally made an excuse to leave the building.

Sehun saw me get up and immediately tossed a screwed up piece of paper at my back. “Yo, where are you heading to now? I thought we could grab lunch together at that bulgogi restaurant three blocks down.”

“Sorry, I can’t today, I have to go see someone real quick,” I told my colleague and semi-friend in a flash, putting my coat on and grabbing my purse.

He looked a little crestfallen and I felt kinda bad about that. But I have to make sure that Irene’s ok and if Wendy can help me find out what’s going on, then it’ll be considered a victory.

“Cool, no problem. Want me to bring you back some of that mandu soup you like so much?” Sehun asked with unexpected generosity.

I stopped fussing with my purse and glanced at him momentarily. When I first started working there, I thought Sehun was kinda annoying and obnoxious. But looking him over now, it made me realise that he’s actually a pretty decent guy.

I threw him a wry smile. “Yeah, sure. Thanks, Sehun.” And then I finally turned around and headed out the main exit of our building.

I hailed a cab outside my building and took it a few blocks down to the law firm where Wendy worked. After enquiring at the front desk, I finally located Wendy’s desk outside her boss’ office on the third floor. Needless to say, she was surprised to see me.

“Seulgi! What are you doing here?” she asked in awe, getting up from her desk to stand in front of me.

“Hey, Wendy. I’m sorry to drop by unexpectedly like this. I kinda have something to ask you,” I began awkwardly, struck anew by just how attractive Wendy was in a pants suit and her hair tied into a bun.

I haven’t seen her since the night we hooked up months ago, so her good looks kinda sprung up on me all over again.

“Um, ok. Go ahead.” Wendy implored, gesturing to a seat in front of her desk. “What’s on your mind?” she asked curiously after attending to a call that came through to her phone momentarily.

“It’s about Irene. I haven’t heard from her in a few days, and I’m kinda worried about her. Is everything ok with her?” I asked anxiously.

“What have you heard?” Wendy questioned rapidly, throwing me off for a moment.

From the little I knew about her, Wendy seemed pretty laid-back. But here she was, staring at me like a deer caught in headlights. What was going on?

“Nothing, that’s why I came here. She’s not answering her home phone or her cellphone, she’s posting really morbid tweets on Twitter and I saw some interesting pictures of Suho up on Facebook with some hooker-type chick. What’s going on, Wendy?” I demanded impatiently.

There it was again, that seeming reluctance in her every feature that refused to level with me.

“I’m not sure that Irene would want her business to be broadcasted all over town,” she answered in a small voice.

“Wendy, I’m not gonna broadcast Irene’s business all over town. I’m her friend and I care about her. What happened?” I prodded more vehemently.

“Irene and Suho broke up.” Wendy finally answered in a resigned manner after a few seconds.

I sat back in the chair I occupied, my whole body going slack from inherent shock.

Now that was news to me.

After hoping (and practically praying) that Suho and Irene would break up after their last massive fight, nothing had come of it and I thought I’d be stuck with their nauseating behaviour for a good long while. So when the truth was upon me in this abrupt manner, it caught me completely off guard.

“When?” I asked quietly.

“A few days ago.”

“A few days ago? Then how come this is the first time I’m hearing about it? Who broke up with whom?”

“Suho dumped Irene.”

I couldn’t believe it. The rat bastard had finally done it. But why now? What had happened to change his previous stance on keeping the relationship afloat?

“But I don’t get it, what happened? Why did he break up with her?” I questioned wonderingly.

There was no mistaking it: Wendy definitely looked uncomfortable by my questions.

“Wendy, what’s going on? What are you not telling me?”

“He cheated on her, Seulgi. That’s why Irene’s not answering her phone; she’s too ashamed and broken-hearted to speak to anyone right now.”

“That prick,” I hissed, my face feeling extremely hot. “Who did he cheat on Irene with?”

“From what Irene told me, he hooked up with a few of them at different times when he went out partying with his friends. And then there was a trip to Seattle that he took with his friends where he slept with a stripper that he met at some night club they went to.” Wendy explained morosely.

I remembered that trip.

It had been a few months ago, when Irene had first told me that she and Suho were having problems. Irene had been upset about him leaving, but felt like she needed to give him space. She had felt guilty about being selfish for wanting him to stay. And as it turned out, he was the one being selfish all along.

“That bastard,” I quipped furiously.

“Yeah, tell me about it. This is why I gave up on men a long time ago. Irene’s devastated of course, she really loves him. I’m sorry, Seulgi. I wasn’t sure if Irene would’ve wanted you to know.” Wendy apologised meekly.

“It’s ok, Wendy, I understand. You’re just looking out for her; she needs that right now.” I got to my feet, wishing I could run without stopping. “I should probably go, thanks for telling me what happened.”

And after I said an awkward goodbye to a girl I once kissed, I made a hasty departure out of the building, my head in a daze. My head was practically reeling from what Wendy had told me, I could barely walk straight. I retrieved my cellphone from my pocket and tried calling Irene again, but to no avail. I was having trouble with the idea that the one person that Irene loved with all her heart could betray her, not only once, not even twice, but time and time again when she was prepared to look the other way with his bad behaviour. I needed to talk to someone desperately, so I called Joy at the bar while I tried to hail a cab.  

“Hey, Seulgi! What’s going on?” Joy asked brightly.

“He cheated on her, Joy.” I murmured helplessly, feeling a stinging sensation forming in my eyes at the words.

“Who cheated on her? What are you talking about?” Joy asked in confusion.

“Suho cheated on Irene. He broke up with her a few days ago.” I explained soberly.

“Oh my God, that’s awful. Is she ok?” Joy asked worriedly.

“I don’t know. I’ve tried calling her, but she won’t pick up her phone. How would you feel if the man you loved did that to you? She’s probably devastated.” I responded morosely as a cab finally took notice of me and pulled up next to the curb.

“How did you find out?” Joy asked me quietly just as I got into the cab and gave the driver instructions to take me back to my workplace.

“Wendy told me; I went to her office.” I offered as I rested my head against the head-rest on the back-seat and closed my eyes.

“Where are you now?”

“Heading back to the office. I’ve gotta try and get some work done, but all I can do is think about Irene right now.”

“I know, hun. Try to keep it together in the meantime, you’ll talk to her soon. Just don’t do anything drastic in the meantime,” Joy advised in a sensible tone.

“Like what?” I asked in a different tone as the cab pulled up outside my workplace 10 minutes later. I quickly paid the cab driver and stepped out onto the curb, the sounds of downtown rush hour filling my ears.

“Just…anything.” Joy offered lamely, which suddenly made the cogs in my brain start whirring.

“Like what? Going to confront Suho?” I asked in a dangerous tone as I entered the building.

“Exactly. This is between him and Irene, Seulgi. You can’t get in the middle of it.”

“It’s a little late for that, Joy. I’m already in the middle of this. I have been since the day I met Irene and my feelings for her started growing. He can’t do this to her and get away with it.”

“Seulgi, I understand how you feel, really I do. But what’s done is done already. All you can do now is just be there for Irene as a friend. Promise me you won’t do anything reckless.” Joy implored vehemently.

I was finally back in my own cubicle, staring haplessly at my computer screen. The ringing in my ears had finally subsided, making me calm enough to answer in the affirmative.

“I promise.” I responded sullenly.

“Good. I’m gonna be working late tonight, so I probably won’t see you till after midnight. Talk to you then.” Joy greeted gently.

“Yeah, see ya then.” I greeted quickly before hanging up my cellphone.

Then after contemplating the screensaver on my computer monitor for close to a minute, I gave up and settled down to do some more work.

I finally finished working around 5pm, glad to finally be going home. I had achieved a good deal of work during the day, but my heart just hadn’t been in it. All I could think about was Irene, wondering what she was doing. Everything just felt wrong somehow, like when I first found out that Pluto had lost its planet status.

I said a hasty goodbye to my colleagues, secretly glad to finally not have to pretend to be ok around anyone who didn’t know me well. Then I started taking a slow walk to the subway station. When I swiped my metro card at the turnstile and headed to the platform down below, I hardly noticed the trains whizzing past me, a gust of wind blowing sharply in my face as I thought continuously of Irene. Where was she? Was she alright?

While I waited for my train that would take me back to my neighbourhood, two Asian-looking guys came to stand next to me, talking loudly amongst themselves. I studied one of the pair closely, his face and overall demeanour reminding me all too forcefully of Suho. The way he laughed, his coarse way of speaking, all of it was doing very strange things to my body. I could feel my heart rate throbbing violently in my chest and my eyes were dilating inside of their sockets. I had tried to ignore this feeling all day at work, avoided thinking about Suho and focusing entirely on Irene instead.

But now he was all I could think about. And the more I thought about him, the angrier I became. I know that Joy told me not to get involved, but it was too late to stop walking down the path I had taken. I loved Irene and Suho had hurt her. He’d had the nerve to rub their relationship in everyone’s faces and it had all been a lie.

All of a sudden, I wasn’t thinking about the fact that he was a man and I was a woman or the fact that he was a good three heads taller than me with muscles coming out of his ears. He had broken the heart of the girl I loved and I was gonna make sure he didn’t forget it in a hurry.

I vaguely remembered shoving rudely past the two guys standing in front of me, going in the opposite direction of the train I was supposed to be on. I went up the escalator and then back down again to the platform on the opposite end of the subway station. And then I got onto the train instead, trying to steady myself against a metal rail as much as possible en route to my new destination.

I was going to Suho’s house tonight.

The train ride passed me by in a blur. I was staring outside the window at the night sky the entire time, the city lights staining my retinas with their blinding incredulity as white clouds stained that fathomless indigo hue. The sound of the train’s wheels grating against their metallic tracks were still thrumming in my eardrums as I made my way out of the subway stattion and onto the chilly pavement.

Irene had once told me what neighbourhood Suho lived in, so I knew what area I was heading to. But I still had to stop at a few houses to ask for directions when I remembered the name of the street, but inconveniently forgot the house number. What a ed up moment for my phone’s GPS to stop working!

I stood for a long while outside his house, examining the space on his mailbox where his house number should’ve been, staring at the withered pot plants surrounding his front door with distaste. So not giving a seemed to apply to every aspect of his pathetic life. And now there was an added reason why I hadn’t been able to find his house in the first place. Some idiot must’ve stolen the house number right off of the mailbox. And I thought that kind of antisocial behaviour didn’t happen in this part of NYC. It was middle-class minus the flashy urbane setting of Manhattan with its array of plush trees lining the roads and kids riding their bikes on the sidewalk past me.

It seemed like a nice play to raise a family. That just got me thinking about Irene all over again. If Suho hadn’t turned out to be such a dickwad, they probably would’ve ended up living in a place like this, mapping out the rest of their future together.

Life really is screwed up sometimes.

The anger was rising up in my belly like bleach, reverberating through my trembling fists as I began pounding violently on the front door of Suho’s house. This set off a few dogs in the vicinity as they began barking loudly to counter the noise, but I didn’t care in the least. I heard someone cursing from inside the house, awkward footsteps shuffling forward, getting closer and closer to me.

And then I finally encountered his tall figure, filling up the entire frame of his doorway like some exaggerated giant. That’s basically how he looked as well: bleary-eyed and unkempt, like he hadn’t shaved in days. Suho’s overall demeanour looked nothing short of pathetic, like someone who’d just gotten -slapped by a pimp in front of his mother.

“Seulgi?” Suho asked in a puzzled manner, scratching his bearded chin in confusion.

That’s what did me in. Seeing him look so miserable and the pitiable register of his remorseful voice only reinforced what he’d done to Irene even more. And then I snapped completely, punching him in the face with my balled-up fist. He staggered backwards and fell onto his back on the carpeted floor, clutching his nose painstakingly, a stream of profanities escaping his mouth. That’s when the fire suddenly erupted through my fingertips and I cried out in anguish.

“Ow! !” I yelled out in agony, clutching my throbbing hand in the other.

“You hit me! What the is wrong with you?!” Suho shrieked indignantly.

He was back on his feet again, trying to staunch a heavy flow of blood which was currently streaming from his nose. The sight almost made me hurl right then and there. This is exactly why I would have never made a good doctor; I probably would’ve fainted every time I saw the tiniest speck of blood. Not a real confidence booster for someone about to slice you open with a scalpel.

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with your frickin’ face? I feel like I just hit a ing brick wall!” I shot back furiously, hopping on the spot to assuage the pain in my fist.

“Maybe you should learn how to punch right. You use your knuckles to punch, not your fingers.” Suho quipped.  

“ you. You think I need a lecture in boxing right now? I wouldn’t have had to hit you in the first place if you weren’t such an .” I countered, my head spinning from the agony shooting through my nerve-endings.

“Why am I an ?” Suho asked quizzically, having dragged himself to a sofa in the living room.

“Because you cheated on Irene and broke her heart, you selfish prick.” I spat venomously.

And at that particular moment, I felt a curious divergence in my righteous anger, which began slowly morphing into pity and guilt for what I’d just done. Joy was right, I shouldn’t have come. While Suho threw his head back and continued in agony, I began stumbling through his house, in search of the kitchen. I moved sluggishly towards the freezer and retrieved an ice-tray. Then after grabbing a couple of dish cloths hanging on a dish rack next to the sink, I made my way back into the living room where Suho sat.

“Don’t hold your head back, the blood’s just gonna drip down your throat.” I advised.

“Great. Now everything Ma always told me just went up in smoke.” Suho retorted sarcastically.

But he did what I said anyway and moved his head forward, pinching his nose with his fingers.

“Here,” I said, handing him a clean dish cloth to mop up the blood.

When cleaning off the blood which had spattered all over his face proved a Herculean task for him, I impatiently grabbed the cloth from his hand and began dabbing at his face. Then I placed a series of ice cubes wrapped in another dishcloth on his nose, which was swelling rapidly. Suho groaned in obvious relief at this.

“Is it broken?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, even my grandmother can throw a better punch than you. It’s probably sprained at best.” Suho clicked his tongue derisively afterwards and fixed me with an ugly glare. “Why are you still here mopping up my face? It’s kind of ironic, since you’re the one who punched me in the first place.”

“Because even though I hate your guts right now, it was still wrong of me to hit you. I’m sorry.” I replied earnestly.

Suho shrugged in response, leaving an awkward silence between us for several seconds. “Why did you come here?” he finally asked.

“You know why. Why did you have to go and break Irene’s heart the way you did?” I demanded heatedly. Suho gave me no response, which only fuelled my anger even more. “Was cheating on her once not enough of a challenge for you? You just had to put your limp into anything with a in the Tri-State area?”

“You don’t know anything about it. I love Irene.”

“ you. You wouldn’t know the meaning of love if, ignoring the pun, if it hit you in the face. You’re an arrogant and selfish bastard.” I noted coldly.

“Maybe so, but I do still love her. And I’m sorry that I hurt her.” Suho responded sincerely, his face looking the most pained I’d ever seen before.  

“Yeah, well you can’t take ‘sorry’ to the bank, now can you?” I quipped shortly. “Why did you do it?”

“I dunno, I thought we were happy. Then you came along and ed things up for us.” Suho responded, turning accusing eyes onto me.

“Don’t put this on me, . You won, ok? You ing won! You had everything with her; there’s nothing she wouldn’t have done for you if you asked her to. And you still found a way to screw it up. So I guess congratulations are in order on a job well done.”

“Don’t pretend that you’re not happy that Irene and I aren’t together anymore. You always found a way to show me up in front of her and make me look like an idiot. You got in the way and drove a wedge between us.”

That remark really made me see red. I got to my feet again and pushed his shoulder as hard as I could, so that he’d hurt just a little more than I did in the moment. “Bull. You did that all by yourself man- around behind Irene’s back. If anything, I was ignoring my better judgment by talking you up constantly to Irene. I shouldn’t have wasted my time, then she could’ve dumped your sorry a long time ago and we could’ve avoided all of this.” I retorted malevolently. I shook my head and ran my uninjured hand through my hair. “Do you honestly think I’m happy because of this? You hurt Irene, how on earth does that make me happy? Her heart is breaking and there’s nothing I can do about it, nothing at all that will make this go away. I’m supposed to be her friend and I’m next to useless right now. And it’s killing me, every moment that I’m stuck here with you when I should be by her side. So no, I’m not over the moon that you finally dumped her, far from it.”

“No one’s begging you to stay. You’ve proven your point, now leave.” Suho commanded, brushing me off like I was just an irritating bug on his shoulder.

I nodded my head briskly and turned my back on him. I was halfway to the door when Suho broke the silence once more. “I’ve gotta know,” he began weakly. I turned around to face him again, staring in confusion until he elaborated further. “If I don’t ask you now, I’ll always wonder about it. Are you in love with Irene?”

I was startled to see that they were in tears in his eyes while he spoke. For such a supposedly macho guy, the sudden appearance of vulnerability unnerved me a great deal and shook me down to my core. He had ed up, and badly too. But it reminded me all too well that he was human at the end of the day, and so was I. We were both in love with Irene, both desperately grappling in vain with each other and trying to hold onto her with little to no effect.

But Suho had finally cut Irene loose irrevocably. And I couldn’t forgive him for his mean and base methods, even though it felt akin to hating a part of myself simply by hating him. The only way to set both of us free was to snip him away from me too with callous indifference.

“You don’t deserve to know the truth.” I hissed before walking through the front door and shutting it behind me.

As I stepped back into the cold night air, I knew that I had basically given away my secret by my defiant refusal to answer Suho’s question. But I found that I no longer cared that he might possibly know my true feelings. My hand still hurt and I felt weightier than ever as I trudged slowly back towards the subway.

I got back to my apartment just after 8pm feeling thoroughly worn out, the idea of taking a long bath at the forefront of my mind. I heard movement in the kitchen and I groaned, thoroughly expecting Joy to come out with a lecture rehearsed just for me. But to my complete and utter consternation, it wasn’t my roommate who entered the living room, looking pale and anxious.

“Irene?” I queried in amazement. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you. I got all your messages and your missed calls, and I wanted to apologise for ignoring you. Joy went to the bar earlier, but she said I could wait here for you. When it started getting dark, I got worried about where you’d gone.” Irene noted.

She certainly looked the part of someone worried sick about me. Even her beautifully manicured nails looked a little worse for wear with jagged ends, like she’d been chewing on them for hours.

“I got a little side-tracked.” I answered in a dry tone.

That’s when Irene noticed my hand and moved closer to me, a gasp escaping . “Oh my God, what happened to your hand?” she asked worriedly.

“It collided with your ex-boyfriend’s strawberry-shaped head.”

“You went to see Suho? Why???”

“Because Wendy told me that he cheated on you and dumped you. I know I shouldn’t have done anything, it wasn’t my place.” I responded, exhaustion practically sinking into my bones.

In my befuddled state of mind, I felt Irene pull on my uninjured hand and drag me over to the couch, forcing me to sit down. Then she disappeared into the kitchen, returning a minute later with a dish cloth and an ice-pack which she had obviously retrieved from the freezer. The cold coupled with the weight of the ice-pack caused me to wince at the pain in my hand, but I kept my complaints down to a minimum while Irene tended to my smarting injury.

“What the hell were you thinking, Seulgi? Suho’s at least 6 feet tall with a swimmer’s body. Why would you confront him?” Irene demanded angrily.

“Because I was pissed off and not thinking clearly. I was worried about you, thinking that something was wrong. And when I found out the truth, something just snapped inside of me. All of these months, he made out that you were the one to blame for all of the problems in your relationship, and it was him all along. It just wasn’t right.” I answered solemnly while Irene held the ice-pack on my hand.

“So you hit him?” Irene asked in disbelief.

“Tried to. Apparently I didn’t use the right part of my fist to do a good enough job, so Suho says.”

“, Seulgi.” Irene breathed in horror.

“Is anything broken? A finger or two?” I prodded nervously.

“I don’t think so. But you may have sprained your knuckles. I think we should go to the emergency room.”

“No hospital. The ice seems to be doing its job. If it still hurts like hell tomorrow, then I’ll go. I promise.” Irene nodded and we sat in silence for a few minutes. “How did you get into the city?” I asked curiously.

“I’ve been staying with my cousin who lives near Central Park for the past couple of days. My mom and grandma went out of town and I didn’t wanna be alone in the house. “What did he say to you?” she asked quietly of me, referring to her now ex-boyfriend.

“Besides blaming me for coming between the two of you, he seemed genuinely sorry about hurting you.” I replied with sincerity

“That is just so typical of Suho. He never accepts responsibility when he s up, it’s always somebody else’s fault. God, I hate him.” Irene fumed in an irate tone.

“No you don’t,” I offered quietly.

Irene fixed me with a steady gaze before deflating completely. “No, I don’t. Even though he’s hurt me in the worst way possible, I could never hate Suho. I still love the bastard; I’m so stupid.”

“No, you’re not stupid, Irene. There’s nothing wrong with giving your heart to someone. This isn’t your fault.” I responded firmly, turning to face her.

“Maybe it is. Maybe I pushed him away time and time again. Maybe I just wasn’t enough for him.” Irene answered meekly.

“You are enough. He should have never thrown you away so easily.” I declared with vehemence, feeling hot tears flooding my eyes and threatening to spill down.

Something in the way I looked at her must’ve set Irene off because she started crying suddenly, her tears spilling down her cheeks in a swirl. It seemed that she was trying to stop herself from crying because her shoulders started shaking violently. But the more she tried to stop herself, the more her tears fell. “I’m s-s-sorry,” she choked pathetically, her face creased with the effort of holding in her sadness.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” I mumbled.

Even though this was foreign territory for me in so many ways, I still leant in towards her and pulled her closer to me with my good hand till she was lying in my lap. The action made Irene cry even harder and all I could do was rub her shoulder as soothingly as I could muster, given my degenerately hapless state. When Irene’s tears were finally replaced with dry sobs, she finally uttered more words.  “Thank you for sticking up for me with Suho.” She whispered hoarsely.

“Don’t mention it,” I whispered back while her hair lightly with my fingertips.

And I sincerely meant that as Irene fell asleep in my lap. Even though I had the love of my life in my arms, I never wanted to revisit this night ever again for as long as I lived.

Hee hee, why is it that most of my female protagonists end up beating on guys in my stories? Violence is never the answer, unless you're ranting at video games and SM Entertainment ;~D I hope you all liked the Seulrene fluff, there's plenty more of that coming your way, muahahaha. Time for me to relax a little before hitting the hay, I've got a long week ahead of me. Stay well and safe, my pretties. And don't feed the gremlins after midnight, hardy-har-har :~P Pip pip cheerio!