Yein took out her phone from her pocket as she felt it vibrating against the skin of her thighs through the fabric of her jeans. A notification from Instagram popped up on her lock screen. She squinted her eyes as the username ‘jk0901’ first caught her attention. It seemed like the owner of the account had liked a photo she had recently uploaded to her social media. For a moment, she felt intrigued to have a visit to his profile.

“He changed his bio,” she murmured. She scrolled through his Instagram photos, which mainly were pictures of scenery and flowers. His aesthetically worthy photos had Yein admiring his account for a split second, and that was until she scrolled back to the top and stopped at a photo of a couple holding a bouquet of Baby’s Breath. It might be the impact of a black-and-white effect used by the poster on the picture, but as if Yein was caught off guard, tears started forming at the bottom of her glistening eyes and later trickled down her cheeks as if she had a thin river formed on her face.

She brought her knees close to her chest and buried her face in between her legs, with her hand still holding on tightly to her phone. Maybe it wasn’t the editing effect after all. Maybe it reminded her of a past she had always wanted to forget completely. Or maybe, just maybe, the poster could be the main reason she’s getting all emotional by staring at a picture.

The picture was simply a shot of a boy and a girl both having their hands holding onto a bouquet of Baby’s Breath, edited with a black-and-white effect; applied to give the photo a reminiscent feel. The couple’s faces weren’t shown, but Yein knew it wasn’t how the original photo was supposed to be; it was cropped. It had “Here’s to our 5^th year, love” as the caption, which shattered Yein’s heart even more.

Raising her head up from her knees, Yein looked out of the windows with her rather swollen eyes. Today’s the day, she thought. Just five years back, on this very day, Jungkook made a confession towards Yein. “Would you be my girlfriend?” he asked as he held out a bouquet of red roses; his right knee on the floor. There was a commotion in the background, an echo of ‘woos’ and a number of gasping sounds filling the atmosphere. The whole basketball and the cheerleading teams both combined were so excited yet nervous watching the scene before their eyes. “Will she accept him?” a blonde-haired guy whispered to his friend, who eventually was putting on a poker face; uninterested with all these sappy dramas.

“Take the flowers, Yein! And give it to me, oh baby, give it to me,” a girl shouted, ending her sentence by singing a line of SISTAR’s ‘Give It to Me’ with a raspy voice. A short girl threw a bottle towards her from behind, signalling her to shut up. “Can you not ruin the mood, Lee Mijoo?” she said as she rolled her eyes to annoyance. Jungkook and Yein chuckled before looking into each other’s eyes again. “So...?” Jungkook questioned, his eyes sparkled in hope she’d say yes. Sheepishly, Yein flashed a bright smile as she nodded and take the bouquet; before actually throwing it ever so slightly towards Mijoo. The girl squealed as she grabbed it from falling to the ground, earning a glare shot by the petite girl from earlier.

Meanwhile, Jungkook had his lips stretched almost to his ears. He was never this happy before, he thought. He had been eyeing on Yein since the first day of high school, but she was always seen next to Chanwoo, a boy Jungkook thought was Yein’s boyfriend. Only a few days back, he found out that Chanwoo is just a close cousin of hers, so he thought of finally confessing to her.

Ever since, Jungkook and Yein had been dating. They were always so sweet to each other, often crowned as a relationship goal among their cliques and envied by many. Honestly nothing could go wrong with their relationship, until Yein’s parents found out about it and asked them to break up. If it wasn’t Jungkook, her parents wouldn’t mind if she dated anybody – but it’s Jungkook, Jeon Jungkook. Although Yein wasn’t sure as to why her parents acted that way, she still obeyed them. Not because she is a very devoted child, but because if she doesn’t do so, they’d attack Jungkook instead.

“I’m sorry,” Yein muttered under her breath, as scenes of her painful past played on her little mind. She could never understand why she had to break it off, until her mother finally spilled it to her earlier that year. “His dad killed your sister,” she explained, causing Yein to widen her eyes as the cup she was holding slipped from her hands. “His dad killed Halla?” she asked to confirm. Her mother nodded in response. She felt her legs growing weak, and then proceeded to break down in her mother’s arms.

It wasn’t a murder, really. It was an accident, a car accident. Halla, Yein’s sister, was driving her car back home from work; and not realising a very fast car coming from an opposing direction, their cars clashed in the middle of the road. Halla couldn’t be saved so she died at the place of accidence, meanwhile the other party, namely Jungkook’s father, only faced severe injury. Ever since, Yein’s parents blamed it fully on him. They had lost their eldest daughter, and now their youngest, and one and only daughter alive, is dating the son of her sister’s killer. They simply couldn’t let that happen.

Yein had been shutting off the world since then. Jungkook, on the other hand, was still devastated and depressed. He couldn’t accept the fact that they’ve separated ways. “I’m dating another guy,” Yein said coldly, that being the last sentence she ever said to Jungkook before leaving. The throbbing image of her kept reminiscing in his mind, every day and night. At that rate, he could’ve been titled as crazy.

Of course that wasn’t the reason, he thought. He knew Yein was never that type of girl. “I must’ve done something she didn’t like,” he mumbled under his breath. The act of blaming himself continued on for almost a year since they broke up, and eventually worsens soon after. He started being highly delusional, thinking he’s still dating her and what not. He’d go on dates and pretend he was holding Yein’s hand, though in reality she was never there, and he was holding the hand of nobody.

Today was the day, their 5^th anniversary. Jungkook had it marked on his calendar, so he scrolled through the old photos of him with Yein; photos he thought he took just a few days ago. He picked his all-time favourite, which was the picture of the both of them holding a bouquet of gypsophila. “Put on some effect; crop our face, and WALLA! Post~” he cheered, his hands motioned in a magic-summoning manner.

“Oh! Yein posted a new photo,” Jungkook claimed, his eyes shining in delight. He tapped the photo twice and watched as a red heart sign appeared on Yein’s photo. “Yeah, that’s my heart for you, love,” he hummed. Proceeding, he tapped the record button at the bottom of his account. Pulling Yein’s hand closer to him so that it’d be seen on the screen, he caressed it gently as he leaned in to kiss her hand. “Happy anniversary!” he said, taking out a box of Yein’s favourite chocolate onto the table, and later tapped the ‘stop’ button on the screen of his phone. Putting a love symbol as his caption, he posted it on his Instagram.

Yein reloaded her Instagram to see some new posts after calming herself from all the sudden throwbacks. ‘jk0901’ had once again posted a new media, this time a video. She waited for the short video to load, only to find tears, yet again, trickling down her cheeks. She watched Jungkook pulling a mannequin’s hand closer to him and kissing it; shattering her heart into pieces, deep inside. Yein broke down even more as she heard his voice wishing a happy anniversary. It was the voice she missed the most after shutting down the world around her, and it’d been a while since she last heard it. Seeing her favourite chocolate placed onto the table in front of Jungkook, she softly the screen of her phone. Lowering her head, Yein brought the phone closer to her chest.

“I’m sorry, Jungkook.
I’m sorry.”

SPECIAL APPEARANCES:

• Lee Suji (The Ark Halla) as Yein’s sister, Jung Halla
• Jung Chanwoo (iKON) as Yein’s close cousin
• Kim Namjoon (BTS Rap Monster) as the blonde guy
• Min Yoongi (BTS Suga) as the poker-faced guy
• Lee Mijoo (Lovelyz) as the raspy-voiced girl
• Lee Soojung (Lovelyz Baby Soul) as the short girl
• LOVELYZ as the cheerleading team
• BTS as the basketball team