7. Love Lasts Ten Months

Pairing: Seulyong [Seulgi and Taeyong]

Concept: Ordinary Life!Au

[1st Part]

"I am breaking up with you," Taeyong said as soon as Seulgi sat down on the chair in front of him.

She was still holding her folded umbrella and catching her breath from running under the rain when Taeyong announced the news of her newly acquired single status. It's not like Seulgi had an attention span deficiency or suffered from a trauma that made her unable to understand his words but it seemed like her brain really didn't process his words until he repeated them slowly (but still as harshly) for her a second time.

It had suddenly started pouring outside when she received a call from him where he asked her to urgently come meet him at the café down the street. He said it was urgent so she left whatever she was doing (mind you, she was at a library looking for a new book to buy for him) and ran to meet him.

Seulgi had entered the café exactly one minute ago, she still had her coat on and was still trying to figure out why did he sound so preoccupied on the phone call earlier. She got her answer sooner than she expected.

Seeing that Seulgi wouldn't talk, Taeyong continued.

"You don't want to ask why?"

Seulgi put down her bag and her umbrella on the floor and dried the tiny drops that fell on her face with a napkin before pursing her lips. So she did hear right.

"Are you writing a new novel?" she said after a long pause.

Taeyong scowled as if she said the most outraging thing.

"What does that have to do with anything?" he asked with a frown. "Whether I am writing something or not, I just said that I am breaking up with you."

Seulgi thought of reminding him that the last bestseller he wrote was about his ex and that this novel was the reason why they even started dating in the first place but she kept her lips tightly shut and scanned the menu nevertheless.

"I think I'll take a white chocolate latté," Seulgi said even if Taeyong never asked and there wasn't any waitress around. "Give me a second, I'm just going to order real quick," she said as she got up.

Their story didn't start romantically at all: Seulgi couldn't understand why in the world would someone write something so despicable and stupid like You Don't Love Me, You Love Yourself so she thought of letting Lee Taeyong, the author know. She also didn't understand why so many people would buy this junk of a book and how it was his third bestseller when a writer like him was supposed to be banned from ever touching a computer or a sheet of paper again. She lashed out on him with every bit of courage she had when she caught him going to his car after the event. Seulgi went all the way to call him women's biggest enemy and threw at him the book he had just signed for her (because as she said "trash belongs in the trash can") and he said he fell in love.

Not so much anymore she figured.

"So, what is this about?" Seulgi said before sitting down again in front of a Taeyong who seemed to have calmed down.

"We're breaking up," Taeyong repeated.

"So I heard."

"Can't you look a bit more surprised?"

"I am! It's just that it totally looks like something you would do," she said as she took a sip of her drink. "And also because I don't understand where all of this is coming from. I don't understand at all."

Of course she didn't understand when she was at his apartment eating some Chinese take out while watching the latest drama's rerun in his arms just yesterday.

"It's normal that you don't understand because you don't make the rules and I don't either. It's complicated but really simple at the same time," Taeyong told her with a sigh. Seulgi somehow felt like she knew where this was going and she didn't exactly like it.

"It's not you it's me?" she tried with a raised eyebrow. Really, if Taeyong broke up with her with something as lame as the most overused breaking up excuse, she would throw her drink at his face. He was a writer, he could do better.

"It's not you and it's not me either," he said apologetically. "It's love."

Seulgi looked at him more deadpanned than she wished she would have but let him continue nonetheless.

"Love is the problem. And our love expired today at noon."

"It did?" Seulgi asked, trying to contain a laugh as Taeyong seriously nodded at her. "You should have let me know so I could get another one."

Writers could be so poetic to not say weird and this whole situation was the perfect example of it. What a strange way to say that he didn't love her anymore. If Taeyong truly did because Seulgi had a hunch that he still liked her. Very much.

"It's not funny Seulgi," Taeyong snapped. "We're talking about serious things here."

"Yes please go ahead, I'm sorry."

"So love is the problem," he started as Seulgi nodded. "But that's because love doesn't exist."

He finally had her. Seulgi's left eyebrow naturally rose up after hearing this nonsense.

"What do you mean love doesn't exist?"

"At least your definition of love doesn't," he calmly explained. "Remember, I'm just rationally thinking and—"

"Yes I know, this is your opinion and we shouldn't fight over opinions because it's meaningless. People don't change their mind until they see they are wrong on their own," Seulgi finished.

They had talked about this so many times before and this is why their fights never lasted: they had to compromise or just give up when they couldn't agree on something.

"Exactly, so let me finish before retaliating."

Seulgi bit the insides of her cheek as this didn't seem really good. She couldn't exactly promise Taeyong she wouldn't interrupt him during his explanation but still told him she would try to keep her comments for herself.

"Tell me what is your definition of love Seulgi," he started.

"Love?" she slightly blushed. This was a bit unexpected and honestly, she knew that she would sound childish or too innocent as he would usually say but whatever, it would come out the way it would. "Love is having someone dear to you that you would do many things for like—"

"Like sacrifices?"

"I suppose," she buffered. "But it's more than that, it's to feel happy sacrificing something to make the other one happy."

"That's a lie. That's a downright lie," Taeyong said as he shook his head. "Sacrificing means losing something dear to you. How can you love it?"

"Losing it for someone even more dear to you," Seulgi retorted.

"So you're giving up on something you like for someone else?" Taeyong asked with a frown. "Isn't that toxic? And what do you do when you have nothing else to sacrifice but your love since that's the only thing you have left after sacrificing things for that person? You're going to throw it away too because you have to sacrifice everything for you loved one isn't it?"

"I didn't say everything," Seulgi blurted. She hated how good Taeyong was at twisting her words.

"But when you have nothing left but your love for that person after many sacrifices, it means that you lost everything, am I right or am I wrong?"

"I also said that you have to take pleasure in sacrificing things for your partner for it to be love," she added.

"Okay let's say humans suddenly started loving losing their things for other humans and forgot their natural selfishness and survival instincts," Taeyong continued. "Where do we stop? What about 'your freedom starts where mine ends'?" Taeyong quoted. "Where is my freedom Seulgi?"

Seulgi's throat became dry and she thought of taking a break to drink from her latté t