“Why didn’t you want to get back together?” you ask, fighting to keep your voice steady.

She fell silent for a moment, gazing around at the academic buildings. You take this time to observe her profile, sharply highlighted by the lonely lamps lining the path. She has a beautiful nose, you decide. But the silence grew heavy.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to ask anything out of line. If you don’t want to answer that’s cool,” you hastily say.

“No, I just didn’t really know how to—it’s a really long story,” she replied slowly.

“I’ve got time.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

Your answer made her smile again, and your heart danced wildly. How could someone change you so completely within a couple of minutes?

“You sureeee?” she teased, poking your cheek with her artistic nose.

“Haha, yes, I’m sure. But you don’t have to tell me,” you reassure her.

“No I want to tell you but I don’t want you to be bored!”

“You haven’t bored me yet so I say that’s not a big risk.”

Krystal turns her head slightly and gazes at you. She seems more awake than before, or just less drunk. You give her a comforting smile. Her lips curve up and she nods, more to herself than anything.

“Basically he and I got together two years ago and it was really good then. He was all cute and nice and I really liked him. But then he would start saying mean things to me and make me feel bad so I wanted to break up with him. Like, he would never hold my hand in public and he’d always blame me for everything and get really mad whenever I made a mistake. Oh and I found out he cheated on me so I tried to ask him about it but he just didn’t want to talk so we broke up.”

You digest what she said, involuntarily pulling her closer to your chest.

“Did he make you cry a lot?”

“All the time. He’d get mad at me and wouldn’t allow me to sleep in the room with him so I’d cry myself to sleep on the floor of his apartment. And he’d yell at me in public and call me stupid and other bad stuff.”

You clench your teeth.

“And then he c