When I woke up this morning, from one of the best sleeps of my life considering that I had spent the early morning pacing and fidgeting worriedly for Wendy to come home, I never knew things would go downhill so fast. Rather than get answers, all I got were more questions at the sudden tsunami of hidden feelings that my best friend has kept from me all these years...

“Look, I didn’t know...I’m sorry for being a ty friend - ”

“No, don’t. Don’t apologise. You haven’t been a ty friend and I won’t allow you to call yourself that...It’s not your fault that I’m an awkward wallflower with the social skills of a baked bean and you’re an this carefree, outgoing social butterfly. I just wanted a night where people knew me as Wendy…”

“Rather than as ‘Chanyeol’s bestfriend’, right? I can read between the lines, Wen…”

“No, Chan that’s not what I meant-”

Blinded by the fear of losing the only person that has always been here for me, I shake of her hands that reach out to grasp mine across the counter that separated us. Ordinarily, seeing the conflict and hurt in her eyes would make me drop everything to rush to her side but it was either now or never for us to finally talk about the growing chasm between us.

“Are you sure? Because all this talk of ‘Seulgi and I’ and wanting things for ‘yourself’ is kinda giving me this feeling that I’m being replaced by my best friend. You promised that you will always be by my side but why can I feel you distancing yourself, Wen? Because frankly, it that suddenly I’m not part of your life anymore.”

“Have you ever thought that maybe I’m not the one who’s distancing myself? That maybe I’m the one who’s being slowly shut out of my best friend’s life...Open your eyes, Chan. Things have changed now...it’s been changing since you met Joohyun.”

“What does this have to do with Joohyun?”

“She’s your number one priority now and that’s totally normal. It’s inevitable that eventually we won’t be each other’s number one person and that’s ok. I’ve accepted that, have you?”

“So that’s it. We won’t be in each other’s lives anymore. We’ve been best friends for 20 years and this is how it ends…”

“Chan, we’ll always be best friends. Nothing will ever change that. It’s just time to move on to a new chapter of our lives. You’re getting married and it’s time for me to figure out what I really want in life outside of all of this. There’s pretty much been only two chapters in my life…‘Before Chanyeol’ and ‘After Chanyeol’. I think it time for me to start a new chapter too...a chapter without Chanyeol.”

“Oh, come on Wan. Now, you're being harsh...”

Exasperated at the direction the conversation was going, I move around the kitchen island to face her and hopefully try to salvage the friendship that was crumbling right before my very eyes.

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