'Cheria! I'll be heading out to get more tapes and cardboard boxes! I'll be back in an hour's time!' 

'Alright mum! Be safe!' 

Cheria will be moving out during the weekends as she will be heading back to Canada, where her stepfather's company resides in. She bid her mum with a goodbye kiss before heading back to the room to resume her packing.

'So.... where do I start from....' She sighed and closed her eyes. She spinned a few rounds slowly, pointing to somewhere and opened her eyes.

'Thank God, the table first.' She smiled and headed to her table, as it has the least things. She packed all the books and stationary neatly in just ten mintues before putting them in a cardboard box. 

'Easy peasy! Which next?' She closed her eyes and repeated the spinning. 

'Gosh, my side drawer?! Urgh.' She dragged her feet as she knew that her side drawer was the messiest.

She opened the drawer with a dreading look and her face expression immediately changed.

 

A photoframe.

 

A photoframe of Mark and herself.

 

She bent down and sat on her bed slowly, holding onto the photoframe tightly. She touched the edges, her face, and his.

 

'It's been long, Mark.'

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*2 months ago*

 

Mark fiddled with his fingers and Cheria looked out to the sea with her eyes closed.

'What are you thinking Cheria?' 

She didn't answer him. Instead, she held out her hands and grabbed Mark's before walking down the pavement.

'Isn't this place pretty?' 

'Yeah, it was also the place where we met.' Mark smiled and looked out to the sea, feeling the breeze.

'Do you remember how we met?' She turned over and faced him..

'Give me a minute to think.' He thought hard, but he couldn't say anything.

'I was taking pictures of the beautiful scenery, I dropped my phone and I couldn't find it. I called for help and...'

'I appeared. Did you found your phone back then...? I... can't remember....'

Cheria smiled and let go of his hands before facing the sea. 

'How did we became friends then?'

'Hmm.... that's a tricky one. We...... found out we went to the same school? Or wait, was it you ended up being my neighbour or something?' Mark muttered to himself.

'No. And no. I decided to treat you a meal since you found my phone. We kind of exchanged numbers then.'

'Oh..... yeah..... My memory is failing me.' Mark said embarrassingly. 

'Mark....' 

'Yeah?' 

'I have something to tell you.' 

'You are always telling me things silly.' He chuckled and ruffled her hair.

'But this is probably the last time I'll ever tell you something, sweetheart.' She faced him, held his hand that was on her hair and put it down.

'Su....re. Shoot it.' Mark stuttered before looking back to the sea.

 

'Let's break up.'

 

'I'm sorry?' 

 

'Mark, let's break up.' 

 

Mark didn't say anything. He continued to face the sea, trying his best to hold back his expressions.

 

'You do know this was coming, right?' 

 

There was a moment of silence. Cheria turned back to the sea and closed her eyes. She tried her best to hold back her expressions as well, but as all the memories of them flood her mind....

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Mark was a quiet person himself. He was never good with words and it was hard for him to socialize with people. It was the reason why he didn't like to hang out with people and he felt that it was hard to step out of his comfort zone. It was also the reason why he always liked doing things on his own. When he was riding his bike and saw a girl crying for help because she lost her phone, he wanted to turn a blind eye to it but he thought that it would be rude since he was the only one there at that time. He walked over slowly and offered to help Cheria with finding her phone. Little did he knew that Cheria was someone opposite of his personality. She was so thankful that she asked Mark to exchange numbers. On the spot. 

'I.....'

'I really have to treat you a meal. Please, do me a favour and key in your number.'

'O...kay.' Mark said shyly and pressed his number.

They met up in a cafe a few days later and Mark, who thought that things would be awkward, didn't expect that Cheria would initiate conversations and the 'lunch date' turned out better than expected. Mark was a year older than Cheria and it was his last year in college, whereas for Cheria, she was struggling with her studies and she often head out to the beach to take a breather. Mark, who often ride his bike along the beach, often found Cheria walking along the pavement with her heads down. 

He knew.

He knew that she was upset but was always hiding it inside. Whenever Cheria sees Mark, she never fails to lift back her smile, call out and wave to him. He knew that it wouldn't be nice to ignore her, so he often just waved back and give a shy smile.

One day, he saw her walking along the pavement and this time, she was crying. He hesitated to walk up to her, but she thought of how she was always the one initiating things between them and decided that this time, he should be the one doing it.

'I failed my exams.... again..... I don't even know what went on in my mind when I was doing the paper but I screwed big time, Mark.' She sobbed loudly and cried on his shoulder. He was shocked as he had never once comforted someone, worse still, a girl crying on his shoulder. He hesitated again, before putting his arms around her, calming her down.

'If you don't mind..... I can give you tuition.' Mark hesitated on saying it, but decided to anyway.

'Really?' She looked up with wet yet puppy eyes.

 

And he did. Mark was a year older and had graduated whereas for Cherin, she was in her last year and of course, it meant that her papers this time round will determine on whether she will be graduating or not. He gave her tuition as and whenever she needed it by going over to her house during her semester breaks. Initially, it was just a short few hours of teaching Cheria and giving her tips. Cheria however, always offered Mark to stay for dinners as she will whip up her favourite dishes for Mark to try. 

And Mark, started to open up. Thanks to Cheria, he talked a lot more and often joked around with her because they were comfortable with each other.

They got so comfortable to the point that Mark, other than giving her tuition, ended up with movies in the late nights or just having small talks in her room, and Mark often had sleepovers over at her house.

 

'Are you both dating?'

'Mum what are you saying!' 

'Look seriously, this pretty boy had been coming over too much that I thought he was going to be my son-in-law.'

'So you want me to chase him off? We are just friends!' 

'No my dear, start to see things in a different light. This boy, doesn't just treat you as a friend.'

 

It's true. As Mark spent more time with Cheria, he started to develop feelings for her and little did we know, the girl liked him too. But they never tell each other as they knew that having each other's presence was more than enough. Mark often drive Cheria to her favourite cafes, Cheria often buy Mark his favourite video games, they often go on road trips as it was something they both really liked, they took loads of photos together and one day.

'Mark let's take one more photo with the trees! I wanna print this out later.'

'Anything for you sweetheart. Remember to print it for me too!'

'1.......2........'

'3!'

Mark kissed Cheria's cheeks as she counted to 3 and smiled widely.

'Mark.....' Cheria's cheeks flushed into a new shade of red as she looked at the photo on her phone.

'Cheria, look at me.' He held on her shoulders tightly.

 

'I think it's time but Cheria, we both know our feelings for each other and you know I really like you. So, will you be my girlfriend?'

 

And finally they got together. But nothing really changed. They were still as comfortable with each other, they treated each others like best friends, nothing has changed. Except for the status there that they were finally together. 

 

Time flew and it was a great 4 years together. Yes, they spent 4 years of their lives together and everyone around them thought they would be the sweetest and happiest couple ever together. Cherin thought she was the luckiest girl in the world, Mark thought she was the luckiest guy in the world. 

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'I'm........... sorry Cheria.' Mark broke the awkward silence and looked away.

'Look at me. I'm sure you have a lot of things to tell me. You don't apologise for no particular reason.' 

Mark looked up. Cheria wasn't crying. She wasn't tearing either. She was not angry. She was looking at him with a soft expression as she await for his answer.

'I.... don't know what happened. It just.... happened like that. Cheria.... I know I'm the only one who felt that way. And please, don't apologise.' He tried to hold her hands but she took a step back.

'I'm sorry. I have to....' Cherin looked onto the ground, holding back her tears.

 

'You know Mark, you were the best thing that has ever happened to me? Ever since the day we started to talk to each other, you start to open up to me, I told myself that this friend is definitely worth to keep because it's never easy to change someone. I wouldn't say I change you, but you changed me. I was struggling hard with my studies and really, each time I came to the beach, it was never to take a breather. I wanted to kill myself. Let me tell you the truth, I was intending to send a message to my mum telling her it's time to say goodbye, but I ended up crying for help because an idiot like me dropped her phone. You were there and you helped me. Everytime I see you riding on the bike I thought of how nice it would be to enjoy life, I saw you and I thought that it would be nice to be living like a person like you. That's why everytime I saw you I was really happy. You kind of made me better without even doing anything.'

'Cheria.... please....' Mark was on the verge of crying.

'You played such a huge role in changing the way I think about life. When you offered your shoulder that particular day and decided to give me tuition, I saw your sincerity and I was really grateful. I can never thank you enough because for the past few years I have always been thanking you. I have been thanking you on how much you mean to me. And I'm apologising not because I want to break up with you. I'm apologising because these few years you have always been giving in to me, and despite how much of a ty person I am, you have always been there for me. I-'

'Cheria you are never ty. Please don't say that of yourself.'

'I am so tired of myself, but I am even more tired of leading you even deeper into my life. When you found out that I have depression a year ago, I saw your pained expression. And Mark, that sight was never a sight I want to see. I never want to be a burden to you but I ended up letting you carrying a larger burden of mine. I feel so bad because I thought with you by my side, things will be okay. But things got worst when my parents divorced and despite you being there for me.... It's enough Mark, it was really hard on you right?'

'Cheria..... you were never a burden in my life. That pained expression wasn't because of you being a burden to me, it was because I didn't want you to go through even ter things and I don't ever want you to lose your happiness. I don't ever want you to feel sad about the things around you because there are many more things out there that can make you happy. You know. You obviously know how much you changed my life from the time we met till the time we got together.... and till now. Cheria please....' Mark walked up to her and embraced her into a hug.

Cheria told herself she couldn't cry. She told herself she was stronger than this. She let go of his hug and smiled.

'But unfortunately things changed too. Things just don't end up the way we want it to. I could see it. I could see how tiring it became after my depression incident. Mark, I wouldn't say that you don't love me as much as I do but when I asked you just now how we met and how we became friends, you couldn't answer. Of course, I shouldn't use that as a definite answer that you don't pay much attention. But for the past few months, we had been talking lesser and lesser despite being in the same neighbourhood. We hardly hang out because most of the time we were busy and we didn't have time for each other. You are currently a manager of a huge company and I know it's not easy. And I know that with my presence, it's not going to be less harder.'

Mark gulped and looked away.

'And the reason why I wanted to break up isn't because of that. It's because we need to give each other a break. We need to take a break from all these feelings because you know, holding onto them won't do us good. And sometimes, love is about letting each other go.'

'Cheria.... I'm so sorry. I could have been a better boyfriend. I could have been someone who is there to take care of you whenever you need help. I could do so much more things if I knew. And I was an idiot for that.... I'm sorry.' 

'Mark, you have done more than enough. Thank you.' Cheria held his hands and squeezed it tightly before giving him a hug.

'You are the best thing that happned to me and I hope you know that. I'll always be here if you need someone, I promise.' 

'Please.... always be happy. Cheria.' Mark stuttered so hard and hugged her back tightly while he closed his eyes. 

That hug lasted for a moment, for like the world had stopped for them. Cheria let go of the hug and smiled.

 

'Goodbye, Mark.' She continue to smile and gave him one last kiss before she walked away.

 

The distance between Cheria and Mark got larger and larger. Mark couldn't move. His feet were rooted to the ground as he looked down and wiped the tears that was starting to flow down his cheeks. He finally turned around and looked at Cherin. 

 

She was never turning back.

 

'Cheria!' 

 

She still didn't look back.

 

'You know I still love you, right?' Mark shouted as he choked on his tears.

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Cherin smiled as she wiped the photoframe with a clean cloth before opening a new cardboard box. 

 

'I still love you too, silly.'

 

We know it’ll be hard
Suddenly, it feels so scary
So as we say our last goodbyes
Let’s close our eyes and smile
Heartbreak has come to me
This is it for us
I just stood there for a moment
Because it seemed like you’d come back
Now I know love
Now I learned heartbreak
Love you Love you

 

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That's the end!!! So I kind of got my inspiration from the song and it has been my favourite song for the past few weeks! I do hope the story was.... okay because I just wanted it to be a one-shot thing but it ended up being too long but oh well!!!!!! Do give me some comments about my story, good or bad please just leave down so I can know what to improve on for my next one-shot!! Which might not be up anytime soon, just some time if I have inspiration! Thank you! :-) <3