AM 01:27.

This wasn’t the first night.

It wasn't the second either.

Taeil was so used to seeing his phone ring around this time, and it was always her. It wasn’t as if the two were together anymore, why did he keep picking up her calls?

Maybe it was out of habit.

Or maybe he just couldn’t help it.

He shifted in his bed. For once, his phone was on silent as not to wake up his friends at this odd hour in the middle of the night. The buzzing kept the slumber away, and his eyes seemed to just constantly wonder if tonight’s conversation would be any different than the one the night before, or the night before that, the one before that, or the one even before that.

What would happen if he heard her voice again?

She cried last time.

And that was more than enough for him to apologize. But what was there to apologize for? She ended it, so he left just as she wanted.

It was always the same. Tears, apologies, then the sudden realization that they shouldn’t be together. She put him on a hamster wheel, back into that flow of emotions - that routine of loving her unconditionally without seeing the flaws - only for her to snap the wheel and leave him alone once more.

His phone finally stopped ringing.

But only for a moment.

The brightness of his screen lit up his ceiling again. Taeil stared as the blue glow left the pale plaster a calm shade like the tone of dusk.

It’s done; it