It’s needless to say that Jinae oversleeps the next day, only waking up to the sound of her ringing cellphone and the feeling of sunlight slithering through her closed blinds. She doesn’t need to check the time to guess that she’s already late to class, and one glance at her device indicates her classmate’s name glowing on the screen, further confirming her deduction about the situation. 

She makes a grab for her phone, swiping the green call button before pressing the device to her ear. 

“Where the heck are you?” a voice explodes at the other end of the line. Chaemi is someone who Jinae had considered her friend until the end of the last semester, when she realized that the said girl had been distributing her notes to her other classmates with the excuse that Jinae’s notes are the best she had seen, and that knowledge should be shared among the people fighting the same battles.

Jinae hadn’t been completely comfortable with the idea, but she’d clamped shut at the retort that clawed away at , instead giving the girl a tight-lipped smile. 

From that day onwards, Jinae had learnt not to trust too easily, not to fall for people’s kindness when it’s readily available.

“I’m sick.” Jinae lies smoothly as she runs a hand through her messed up bed hair, “Won’t be coming today. See you.” 

And before she can hear Chaemi’s response, she cuts off the call and falls back onto the bed.

Memories of last night float up through her mind, which is the reason as to why she has overslept and has practically wrecked her sleeping schedule. It’ll take her approximately two days to get back to routine if she manages to go to bed early tonight, but something tells Jinae that she’ll be calling an all-too familiar number soon. The conversation she’s had with Baekhyun is still fresh, impregnated in her memory like a permanent engravement. While he’s a practical stranger, he has made her feel so much better than her boyfriend ever did during these few weeks. 

Balancing her phone with one hand as she brings it up to her face, she catches sight of a familiar name on the screen. 

Taehyung, she mouths softly as if it’s a prayer that she shouldn’t be saying out loud. She opens the message and the words pop up on the screen. It reads: 

I’m sorry that I forgot to tell you about my medical conference. My phone battery died and we’re practically in the middle of nowhere, but I managed to charge it when we reached the hotel yesterday night. I’m sorry, can I call you later? 

Jinae’s nose wrinkles up in part annoyance and agitation. Is he even for real? She thinks to herself as she locks her screen and tosses her phone aside, a dead weight of frustration building up inside her stomach at the thought of being placed on the back burner all because of his career. It’s always about his career, always about himself and what he wants that are placed first. Jinae fully understands his responsibilities and had been fully supportive of his decisions at first. But she can’t seem to feel as though he’s throwing everything away just for that. And if that’s the type of person that Taehyung is like, then clearly she doesn’t seem to form part of his important circle of priorities anymore. 

The day crawls by at an uneasily slow pace, but it’s mid-afternoon when she receives a message from an unknown number. Momentarily pausing in the middle of folding her clothes, she picks up her device and reads the message with a growing sense of recognition. 

Hey, it’s Baekhyun. Hope you’re feeling better after last night. Just wanted to say that I had a nice talk with you. 

A small smile impulsively curled her lips upwards. That is indeed sweet of the familiar stranger. She can’t seem to put a face to his name, but those words are enough to make her feel warm with slight happiness. At least there’s someone that cares enough. It gives her hope that there’s someone who wants to listen to her problems, even when she barely even knows him. 

She texts back, her fingers flying over the keyboard: 

Hey. Thanks for listening to me yesterday night. Hope I didn’t take up too much of your sleeping time. Thanks again, for being there. Really, it means a lot. 

His answer comes buzzing through a few minutes later, and she doesn’t hesitate to pick up her phone to read: 

It’s no problem. I hope that helped you. Also, I told Taehyung about you. I hope you don’t mind. I think he deserves to know that you’ve been having a rough time. 
 

Jinae already knows this from Taehyung’s earlier message, but the reminder causes another flare of annoyance to ignite within her, causing a rush of adrenaline pumping through her blood as she thinks of all the things he’s been hiding from her. It’s not just the fact that he hadn’t even told her about his impromptu trip, it’s not just about the fact that he hadn’t even bothered telling her about his roommate. No, it has just been an accumulation of things that had built up over time the moment he’d moved to another city. 

A relationship isn’t one-sided. She needs him to understand that the only way for this to work is for both of them to cooperate and communicate with each other. 
And clearly he hasn’t been doing a lot of communicating these past few days.

As he’d stated before, Taehyung calls Jinae while she’s busy stir-frying some vegetables for dinner. Feeling her phone buzz through her jean pocket, she fishes it out and puts it on speakerphone before settling the device on the counter, giving her vegetables another stir through the saucepan. 

Taehyung’s voice floats through the kitchen like an echo, “Hello? Jinae?” 

“Took you long enough.” she says in a cold tone, reaching for the pepper at the other end of the counter. 

There’s an audible sigh at the other end of the line, “You’re mad at me, aren’t you?’

‘Are you serious?’ she shakes her head while sprinkling a shower of pepper over the saucepan, ‘I’m not mad, Taehyung. I’m disappointed in you.’ 

‘I’m sorry,’ his voice sounds genuine enough but that makes her snap, ‘Do you even know why I’m mad? You’ve been MIA for the past few days. How would you feel if our roles were reversed?’ 

‘You’re right. I should’ve told you but I--’ he takes a pause, hesitating slightly before continuing, ‘You have to believe me, I really did forget to tell you.’ 

‘Yeah, because all you care about is your career.’ She shoots back snarkily, ‘look, I don’t ask for much. I don’t need you to call me every day. Heck, we can call once a month if that’s what you want. But for god’s sake Taehyung, help me out here.’ 

She can feel the tears coming, can feel their threatening prick at the back of her eyes as she struggles to keep her breathing stable enough to finish this conversation. 

Taking a deep breath, she tries to find her courage, ‘I gotta go, my dinner’s ready.’ 

‘Wait, Jinae--’ 

‘You want me to wait?’ she hisses, ‘Until when? Next week? Next month this time?’

‘Can you just listen to me--’ 

‘No Taehyung! You listen to me!’ she bellows through the phone while her knuckles turn white from gripping the phone too tightly in her hold, ‘I’ve had enough running after you when the only thing you do is take me for granted. So I’m not going to run after you anymore. If you want this relationship to work then you better prove it.’ 

She doesn’t wait for him to answer before cutting off the call and pressing the phone to her chest. The tears are already sliding down her cheeks at this point, crystal jewels reflecting the kitchen light as she takes staggering breaths. She is gripping her phone so hard that it practically engraves an indent through her skin, turning red from where she has held it so tightly. It takes her a moment to recollect herself, but when she does, it’s only because of the realization that her vegetables are burning. 

Quickly, she reaches over the stovetop to switch it off before scrambling the food over onto her plate to salvage what she can. Thankfully, most of the them seem edible, though a bit on the brown side. Grabbing some rice and plopping it on her plate, she proceeds to her couch before turning on the tv, balancing her plate on her crossed legs.

Stupid Kim Taehyung, she grumbles inwardly while switching from channel to channel, her mood having significantly darkened due to that one phone call. Sometimes, she wishes that she’s single, just to avoid all these conflicts that are unnecessary and emotionally draining. Most of all though, she feels stupid to even feel so affected by such a triviality. She wishes that she doesn’t have to care, for that would make her world so much simpler, less complicated. 

But they always say that the deepest wounds are the hardest to heal. 

Byun Baekhyun is what you would call a social butterfly. 

Except that he’s never given th