What was the point? Really, what was the purpose of any of it? This surreal wonderland of fame & fortune. This bizarre little universe of superstardom. What was the point of any of it if he couldn’t make her love him?

He shook his head, took another drink, and stubbornly pulled his thoughts away from the edge of that particular precipice. He’d fallen in before and knew there was nothing but hurt and self-loathing at the bottom.

His eyes searched the city skyline below, not knowing exactly what he was looking for. The lights of Seoul twinkled and blinked, dazzling little signs of life, far off in the distance. Sometimes he was struck by how breathtakingly beautiful the view was; some nights it just made him feel like an alien, peering out at human civilization from his lonely little spaceship. Tonight, he felt extraterrestrial.

The only light in his apartment was the soft, sterile glow of his computer screen. On it, her latest Instagram update. Just a simple, silly selfie. Chaerin lounging in her oversized pajamas in the morning sun. Her blond hair perfectly messy, lightly sweeping across the familiar curve of her cheek, her head thrown back, carefree, a goofy grin on her face. A moment of joy, captured, cropped & posted for the public.

Not cropped enough, though.

The edge of the bed that was showing, the carpet of the bedroom she was in – they weren’t hers. And the final straw: on the floor by the bed she was laying on, part of a shoe. He recognized it immediately. Last time they’d gone shopping in Japan together, she had bought those custom-detailed chucks for her "friend” Skrillex. Or as she called him, Sonny.

him. And his shoes. that guy who gets to see Chae anytime he wants to. Who gets to spend lazy mornings with her and make her smile like that. And lounge with her in her pajamas. And out of them… The thought gave him that squeezing-sinking feeling in his chest. “…why him? Why him, and not me, Chae?” he thought. “Jesus, I miss you.”

And almost like she’d heard him, his phone began buzzing; a facetime from Hunchae.