“Call me when you arrive, love you”, “I will, you. Love you too” - words that tend to recur every single time they have to say goodbye. No matter how many times they have to go through this, the words never get old. No matter how many times they have to say goodbye, it never gets easy. Especially now.

It’s more than 10 hours since he left and it’s more than 10 hours since his last update. It’s funny, she was never really the type of person who gets this… attached. Worried, yes but never like this. Checking her phone becomes an addiction. Counting down the time becomes an addiction. She wishes she wouldn’t be this pathetic over some guy but she just couldn’t stop. He plays too big of a role in her life right now for her to just stop.

Seattle. That’s where he’s heading. There’s something about that word that seems meaningful to her. It’s not that she has some prominent memories in that place. No. It’s the word. Or rather, it’s the song.

Seattle. The first time she heard that song, it played such emotions inside of her. Her wounds from her breakup were still fresh, the cuts from her breakup were still visible in her eyes and in her heart. The song might not be a breakup song but the feelings in that song are just so raw - it made her want to work with the person behind the song to create her side of the story. About her breakup with her ex. About how that love truly had ended. About how they both cut the strings that have entangled them together for four years. And that’s how Ending Scene was born.

“I could barely look at him straight in the eye right after he said it,” she once opened up to him. It was way before him and her were even a thing - when their ‘friendship’ had just bloomed. “I mean, one moment he was ‘the one’ but the next, it just ended. Full stop.” She stared back at him, wondering if she regretted telling all of this to him. It scared her to no end how easy it was for her to just tell him everything. What others took for months or years, he managed to do it all within hours or days.

His eyes dulled to the ground as he let the words washed over him like the oceanic wave. His quiet demeanor felt loud to her.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly, breaking the silence between them.

“You guys were at least civil to each other, right?” not answering her question, still deep in his thought. “Even after you guys broke up, you guys still at least remain friendly with each other, right?” His voice sounding raw at that moment. He stared back at her, his emotions transparent in his eyes.

Words were not exchanged between themselves during those long seconds. Many memories were played in their minds as if they happened just yesterday. The memories played might not be similar but they evoked the same emotions. Regret. Hurt. Sorrow.

“ Me and her…” He finally said to her. “After we broke up, I couldn’t even look at her without her giving me the cold. As if I meant nothing to her. As if all the memories we shared just… disappear. It’s my fault really. For not treating her right when we’re together, for not realising how much she means to me until she’s gone.” He pauses for a while, trying to keep his emotions in check. “The worst part about it is the last time we broke up was not the first time it happened. It’s like I couldn’t stop ing things up with her. It took a while for me to realise how bad we were together. I mean yes, I loved her… we loved each other but we just couldn’t function well together. I don’t think our relationship was even healthy on the first place.” He tried to let out a laugh to shrug the cold epiphany away, to beat the persistent desire of just letting those tears fall. “When things are good between us, we are like fireworks but like fireworks…”

“They end so soon,” she completed the sentence in exactly the same way as how he would phrased it.

“Yea…” He could feel her soft hand slowly creeping on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. Trying to comfort herself. He looked back at it, suddenly having the urge to hold it back but… “Thank you for listening, Jieun ah. I’ve never really done ‘this’ before,” he genuinely said. He was so used to just keeping his inner personal feelings as vague as possible - to suddenly let it erupt to someone else, especially to a new friend… it’s not something that is common for him. “Thank you too for trusting me enough to tell me ‘that’. I feel honored,” a genuine smile emerged out of those dark clouds.

“It’s okay, oppa. For some reason, I just can’t help but trust you,” she confessed, no filters detected.

“For some reason, I can’t help but trust you too Jieun ah.”

*

From one city to another city. From one night to another night. He finds it hard to sleep. It’s just hard to sleep right now when the room he stays in is not his place, when the bed he sleeps in is not his bed. It doesn’t feel like his. It doesn’t feel like home.

He tries to close his eyes and just sleep but he couldn’t. He tries to bore himself to sleep by counting sheep but he couldn’t. It just makes him more alert.

What time is it in Seoul? He checks his phone and tries to do the math. He wonders if he should call Jieun now. He was about to just press the call button when he realises that she had just told him a few hours ago that she would be working on her upcoming album the whole day. So he decides against it. Gosh. That girl is seriously something. How she manages to have the energy to start working on her new album just after her previous album promotions ended, he doesn’t know.

‘You know what? Let’s just watch a movie,’ he thought to himself. He grabs his phone that he had just abandoned a few moments ago and immediately knows what to watch. ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, that’s what he is going to watch because he can resonate with that title alone. Yea, it’s a chick flick but he just feels like watching it. Besides, he is missing his girlfriend now so why not pay homage to her by watching one of the movies they have watched recently.

Just as Annie was about to go to the Empire State Building after ending her engagement to the wrong guy, he could feel his phone vibrating, alerting new messages. He pauses the movie and checks to see them. They are from the girl who is all the way in Seoul. He immediately opens them the second he sees them: “Oppa, are you sleeping well? I’m sorry I couldn’t call you just now. You could say that I was on a roll in recording one song which is why I’m texting you now. I finished recording one song, oppa! It’s still the guide version but I hope you like it. Sleep well and miss you. I love you.”

‘I love you too,’ he thought almost immediately before he presses play on the audio file she has just sent. Upon hearing the first second of the song, he could already hear that sweet voice he has been missing. Jieun’s voice. It feels like home as she does her take on that famous Kim Gun Mo song, ‘Sleepless Rainy Night’.

‘On a night where it rains like this, My tired longing goes to you, After the rain stops, I will go looking for you’ - words he last heard before he falls fast asleep, the movie he was supposed to finish watching remains on pause.

*

“Oppa, do you have plans in the next few days?” she asks him over the phone that one day. Weeks have went by since he has departed from Seattle - his current location as of now is Miami.

“Well, other than hanging out with this guy on his boat and the concert, I don’t… why?” Is there something she isn’t telling him?

“Good, cause I’m now about to get on a plane to Miami and I’ll be there tomorrow. See you there, oppa. Bye, I love you!” Before he could even answer, she has already ended the call.

Did she just say that she is about to get on a plane to Miami? It takes him a while to process what has just been said. So she really is going to Miami huh? He couldn’t help but smile as wide as an ocean. She too feels excited to be reunited with him once again after weeks of not seeing him physically.

Both of them couldn’t help but look forward to the day that is tomorrow. What they both don’t know is tomorrow will bring in some consequences that they both are not ready to face… even though they wouldn’t realise it tomorrow.