The audacity to just assume that I am in love with him still. 

Unbelievable. 

I scoff softly to myself. Does this make sense? Why must I be the one that fix this? He was the one that broke up with me in the first place, was he not? And, I was there. He definitely did. 

“Do you still love him?”

Turning around and away from my computer screen, I find Sanghee by my bedroom’s doorway. “What?”

“Do you still love him?”

I wished she didn’t ask that but then I remember- I don’t actually have to answer her question. “I don’t want to answer that,” I respond honestly. 

“Then, I guess this chapter in your life has closed,” Sanghee shrugs. Quite a nonchalant response from her.

I didn’t expect it and she must have saw the look of confusion on my face because she takes a breath, preparing to give me a lesson. A lesson that I did not want. And, she knew that. 

“This chapter with Hanbin, your history with him- you want to move on now?”

She pauses, giving me some time to respond. 

But, we’re not here to make people happy, are we? No. So, I didn’t satisfy her with an answer. 

“Is that right?” she urges when she only receives silence. 

Again, I couldn’t give her an answer and I couldn’t help but feel relieved when Suah pokes her head in. Maybe I was secretly hoping that she would somehow save me from this conversation. 

“Well, you can decide by tonight,” Suah suddenly says and while shattering my hope. 

“What’s tonight?” 

“Oh, thank God. I thought you had forgotten how to speak,” my best friend remarks. 

“Just get dressed by 8 PM,” Suah answers. 

The room goes quiet and I could see both Sanghee and Suah waiting for me to say something. So, I do. It’s just not what they want to hear. 

“Don’t wait up.” I stand up and grab the jacket and backpack off the back of my desk chair and head towards them and bulldoze right through. Peace was just beyond the front door. 

“Jiwoo!” 

The front door slams behind me. 

***

“Someone stand watch for me,” I say as I make way quickly into the office. “I need to know when I should start running for my life again.”

Surprised by my appearance, some students peered up from their work to demonstrate their curiosity. The club’s president soon joins in. 

“Jiwoo? I thought you weren’t coming in,” he voices what everyone else in the room is thinking. 

I send him a look. “Is that what you were hoping for after texting me nonstop this morning?” 

It appears I have hit the nail on its head because he sends me a sly smile and I go back to my initial task- which is to hurry and grab all of the letters before I unwittingly come across Skull Pounder. As I am sliding all of the newly sent letters into my open backpack, one name upon an envelope stops me in my tracks. 

Oh, hell no. 

Instinctively, I smack it right off the surface of the table while hoping that if I don’t see it, it doesn’t actually exist. My president watches me, trying to figure out what caused such a reaction. “Bug?”

“No, just doom.”

He cautiously picks the letter up from the floor and reads the name aloud, “Tired from Crying?” 

A shiver travels down my spine. That name- that person has brought nothing but trouble. 

“So, I’m guessing you don’t want this?”

“Well, aren’t you so quick to catch on.”

He walks over and silently slips it into my backpack anyway and my arm drops in exasperation. He obviously knows how I’m going to feel about that but it’s like he doesn’t even care. 

“It’s anonymous,” he reasons. “So, why-,” 

“That person has flipped my dream of finishing college quietly into a complete nightmare,” I respond bluntly. This job was supposed to be easy and most importantly, take care of some of my expenses. “I’m not going to make my situation worse. Whatever that is written in there, I want no part of it.” 

Without a response, he gently takes my backpack from me and zips it up. “You get paid to answer these letters.” He then hands it back with a smile. “Besides, maybe this will be the solution to it all.” 

“You want me to gamble my life for a ‘maybe’?”