They both took a break from talking and finished drinking the rest of their coffee. Jongdae finished his choux cream latte first, surreptitiously away any creamy remnants off of his lips.

Yunseo laughed when she caught him as she dabbed her own mouth with a napkin and he blushed as he turned away, letting out an awkward cough. She didn’t say anything to avoid embarrassing him any further, but a cheeky smile adorned her face as she continued drinking the rest of her lavender espresso.

Once she set down her empty mug a few moments later, Jongdae decided to revive the conversation again. “So…how’s everything been at work lately?” he tentatively asked. Although work had become a sensitive topic between them, particularly near the end of their relationship, Jongdae wasn’t going to allow this divide to exist between them any longer. If he wanted to make any progress today, he couldn’t continue letting fear rule his actions and feelings.

“Busy, but things are going well,” his ex-girlfriend cheerfully answered. “Our clientele has tripled in size this year, so we’re working on a bunch of projects simultaneously. But they’re all really interesting to design for and I’ve been able to unleash my creativity a lot more than I usually do. I also might be in the running for a promotion next year, which is really exciting.”

“Wow, that’s great to hear,” he said, smiling widely.

“Oh, I almost forgot to mention this, but I’ve been invited to share some of my work at an upcoming exhibition about women in architecture. It’s next month…if you’re interested in going,” Yunseo revealed with a small smile. She rummaged through her purse to take out a pale yellow envelope that was bordered with silver curlicues and then placed it on the table in front of him.

Jongdae’s hand hovered over the envelope. He knew how much this exhibition meant to her; Yunseo was finally getting the recognition she deserved for all of her hard work and talent. All of the hours she had slaved away in the studio hadn’t gone to waste. All of the sleepless nights she had spent painstakingly perfecting her designs hadn’t been for naught.

She had always supported him whenever he had achieved significant milestones in his career. Even if she’d had to reschedule important meetings with clients or move back project deadlines, Yunseo had been there for all of Jongdae’s shining moments. It only made sense that he should do the same for her, regardless of their non-existent relationship.

“Why are you inviting me though?” he couldn’t help but ask. “Won’t it be weird if I go? Since, you know…” Since we’re no longer together, yet I still have feelings for you?

“To be honest, I debated with myself for a long time over whether or not I should tell you about it,” Yunseo explained with a rueful smile. “Everyone told me it was a stupid idea to even consider since you’re my ex-boyfriend and that our break-up should have been our last goodbye.” There was a slight pause. “Chanyeol will be furious if he finds out I met up with you today.” She laughed nervously at the thought.

Jongdae only grimaced.

“And honestly, you all are right that it’ll be weird if I see you there. But I still want to share my success with you, Jongdae,” the architect said. “I wouldn’t have gotten this far in my career without you pushing me to be more confident in my work and myself. I’m trying not to be afraid of putting myself out there and failing.”

“You would’ve gotten this opportunity, regardless,” Jongdae murmured.

“What good is an idea if it’s hidden in my room where no one can see it?” She looked at him pointedly. “Remember when you told me that?”

He did.

“Yunseo, sweetheart, what is this?” Jongdae held out a crumpled application form for an upcoming architectural design competition. It was completely filled out with Yunseo’s personal information.

She immediately blanched upon seeing the wrinkled page. “Where—where did you get that?”

“I checked the recycling bin to see if there were any important documents that needed to be shredded and I found this,” he waved the form, “at the bottom.” Jongdae stared at her as he deliberately repeated, “What is this?”

“It’s—it’s nothing.” Yunseo briskly stood up and made her way to Jongdae, snatching the form out of his hand and hiding it behind her, even though it was pointless. He had already seen it and read all of it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have come to confront his girlfriend about the application form sitting in the recycling bin.

Jongdae crossed his arms and pressed his lips together in a thin line. “Why aren’t you entering the competition? It seems like a really great opportunity. The prizes for winning are fantastic.”

“That doesn’t mean I should enter,” Yunseo responded in a clipped tone as she turned around and marched to her desk. She then haphazardly folded the form into thirds before dropping it behind her open laptop.

“But why wouldn’t you?” Jongdae pressed, following his girlfriend until he was standing right behind her. “This could open so many doors for you. Think of all the free publicity you’ll get. Your work will get so much exposure in one go.”

“My work isn’t good enough to be scrutinized at this level and I’d rather not put myself out there when I’m not ready,” she adamantly said, refusing to turn around and look at him.

“Yunseo, you’re overthinking this.”

“No, I’m not.”

A low growl rumbled in Jongdae’s throat. “Seriously, Yunseo, how do you know you’re not ready when you haven’t even tried?”

“I have tried, okay? But things aren’t working out for me right now and I don’t see the point in wasting my time on another failure.” Her voice cracked slightly at the end.

“But I’m saying that it’s not a waste of time. You can’t just write it off as a failure already when you haven’t even given yourself a chance,” Jongdae insisted. “So what, you’ve come across a few roadblocks? You’ll eventually move past them like everyone else does.”

“I know,” Yunseo curtly responded. “So I won’t bother wasting any energy on a fruitless venture right now and I’ll wait until I’m actually ready.”

Jongdae let out a mirthless laugh. “Now you’re just making up excuses and running away. Yunseo, this isn’t how you’re going to get better. Seriously, if you just tried a little more—”

“Please shut up, Jongdae!” she screeched as she finally spun around to face him. “It’s not like you’d ever understand how I feel! You’ve never failed, not once, in your entire life!” Yunseo continued lashing out, her knuckles turning white from how tightly her fists were curled. Her body was tense and sparks flew through the air.

But these weren’t the usual sparks that Jongdae liked when they were together. These weren’t the sparks of love that usually crackled around them.

“Yunseo, what are you even talking about? You know that I’ve failed plenty of times!” he shot back, his eyebrows furrowed with hurt and frustration.

“Not when it counts! You already have so many credits when most people our age in the film industry are fighting for any leftover scraps they can get their hands on! You’re always getting invited to red carpet events and fancy parties with hotshot celebrities, and getting paid to travel around the world for work. You’re basically living the perfect life right now.”

“Stop trying to change the subject, Yunseo. This has nothing to do with me,” Jongdae argued. “This is about you!”

“Well, I’ve already made up my mind about not entering, so stop trying to pressure me into doing something I don’t want to! You don’t see me constantly harping on you when it comes to your work,” Yunseo snapped.

“That’s because I’m not throwing away any grand opportunities that present themselves to me on a silver platter! I’m being proactive and that’s probably why I’ve managed to get as far as I have in my career, as you so kindly pointed out earlier.” Even though he knew he should rein in the aggression, Jongdae was too prideful to back down when it came to his career. For Yunseo to trivialize everything he had endured throughout the years was frankly quite insulting.

“Great, I’m so glad I finally know that you actually think I’m lazy and that’s why I’m not as successful as you are.” She rolled her eyes, which aggravated Jongdae even further.

“I never said that, Yunseo. Stop putting words into my mouth.”

“Then you should stop trying to make decisions concerning my life for me!”

“Why can’t you see that I’m only saying this because I care about you and want the best for you?!” he shouted, the veins in his neck becoming more visible as a result of his vexation.

There was a long stretch of silence, save for their heavy breathing caused by raising their voices at each other, as they locked gazes. A shiver ran down Jongdae’s spine from the sheer intensity of his girlfriend’s hardened stare. It was like he didn’t even know her.

They stood there like that, essentially frozen in place, for what felt like an eternity before, finally, Yunseo slid to the floor, all of the fight leaving her body. Her arms hung limply at her side and her long hair messily covered her face like a veil. “I’m sorry,” she muttered a few seconds later.

Jongdae cautiously knelt down next to her, not wanting to accidentally provoke another outburst when she was so sensitive. The last thing he wanted was for them to fight all night long.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” Yunseo listlessly added. “It’s not your fault I’m so insecure about,” she heaved a deep sigh, “everything, really.”

“Yunseo…” He leaned forward to embrace her, gently wrapping his arms around her small frame and pressing her against his chest. She grabbed fistfuls of his shirt, but still kept her head down. “I’m sorry as well, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to corner you like that, especially when you’re so stressed out. I wasn’t being helpful at all. But I just genuinely want to know why you’re so against submitting some of your designs to the competition. Like I said earlier, it’s a great opportunity.”

“I don’t want to enter it though,” she said in a flat tone.

Jongdae made sure to keep his voice low and calm as he asked, “Why not?”

“I’m... I’m scared…”

“What are you scared of?” he quietly asked.

“I… I don’t know. Of—of everything,” she answered hoarsely. “What if I lose? What if I’m just a failure in this field?” Yunseo fretted as tears began rolling down her face. “The judges will take one look at my work and they’ll probably all agree that I’m horrible at designing.”

“No, no, sweetheart, no.” Jongdae hugged his girlfriend even tighter and let her cry into his shoulder as he slowly rocked her in his arms. “You have nothing to fear. They aren't going to criticize you like that. You’re an amazing architect and this competition will show everyone just how creative you are.”

She pulled away from his shoulder, hiccupping slightly, before weakly saying, “You don’t know that.”

“I’m serious, Yunseo. You have so many great ideas. I’ve seen your work. You’re brilliant.” He smiled at her while carefully brushing away her remaining tears with his thumb. “But what’s the point of coming up with all of these incredible designs if they just stay hidden in here,” he gestured around her office, “and no one else sees them?”

“You’re just praising my designs because you’re my boyfriend,” Yunseo pointed out. “You have to like my work. Or at least pretend that you like my work.”

Jongdae raised an eyebrow as he said, “You aren’t giving me enough credit as an artist. While, yes, I am biased towards your work because I love you and I think the world of you, I also wouldn’t give you so many compliments if I didn’t think you truly deserved them.”

Even now, that was all true.

“I just want you to live your best life and the rest of the world should see how amazing you are. I was lucky enough to be with the most talented, caring, beautiful woman that exists on this planet for four years and—”

“Jongdae, please don’t,” she cut in. A blanket of awkwardness surrounded the two; there was no avoiding the subject now.

They sat in silence for several moments, allowing the din of the coffee shop to wash over them and ease their emotions, before Jongdae finally asked in a soft voice, “What went wrong? How did things end up the way they did?”

Yunseo stared down at her half-empty mug while her fingers rhythmically tapped the glass. “I… I’m not sure… I don’t think we can isolate a single event that led up to our break-up. Things just…stopped working… One by one…”

As much as Jongdae wanted to counter her words, he knew it was true.

It was the little things at first.

After they had moved in together two years into their relationship, they were always around each other. And it was great. Instead of always having to coordinate their busy schedules, Jongdae and Yunseo were able to see each other every single day, morning and night. They would eat breakfast together, wish each other good luck at work with a kiss before parting for the day, eat dinner together, recount any interesting stories about their day, and play video games or watch movies together until they fell asleep.

Life was comfortable.

But as the months passed, things became too comfortable. After being together for several years, there wasn’t the inherent need to try as hard to keep their relationship functioning like a well-oiled machine, especially when work started becoming more of a priority for both of them.

Jongdae was reviewing the script of his current project and penciling in notes in the margins as he envisioned how the scenes would play in his head. This was his favorite part of being a cinematographer: he could map out dozens of mini films in his mind, and freely play around with positioning and lighting without having to bother with physical equipment. It was like he was a kid playing in a sandbox; right now, there was no pressure to be perfect as he let his imagination run wild.

“Dae?” a voice called before a loud knock sounded on the door of his home office, pulling him out of his reverie.

He turned and looked at his girlfriend questioningly.

“Did you go to the department store and buy the herb planter set that we’re bringing to Minseok’s housewarming party this weekend?” Yunseo used her thumb to point behind her, towards the living room. “I don’t see it anywhere.” She was referring to the gift they had decided to get for their close friend, Kim Minseok, who had recently moved into a new apartment.

There was a sharp intake of breath from Jongdae that didn’t go undetected by Yunseo and she narrowed her eyes, already guessing what he would say.

“I…forgot.”

“You forgot?” she repeated with a frown.

Jongdae nodded while lowering his gaze.

“Are you serious? Even after I wrote down a reminder for you and sent you another one through text this morning?”

“I’m sorry. It completely slipped my mind once I got to work. We got confirmation earlier that all of our locations have been approved, so I’ve been busy preparing for our first day of shooting next week.”

Yunseo sighed loudly. “I get it, Dae. But the whole reason I asked you to buy Minseok’s gift for me was because I’ve been really busy at work too. Otherwise, I would’ve gone myself. Our current client—god, he’s so annoying—pushed up our deadline by two weeks, so I literally have no free time until we finish his blueprints.”

After looking back up at his girlfriend and seeing how dark the circles were under her eyes, Jongdae refrained from stating how hectic his own schedule was. As much as it annoyed him to leave things unspoken, he didn’t think a forgotten housewarming gift was worth fighting over. All he said was, “Okay, I’ll buy it tomorrow after lunch.”

She sent him a tired smile. “Thank you, Jongdae.”

While not every argument ended as peacefully, most of these spats were insignificant enough to be forgotten by the next day. And although Jongdae and Yunseo hadn’t been able to completely avoid any mistakes and misunderstandings, the small dips that had appeared throughout the course of their relationship were normal. No couple would ever solely experience smooth sailing. Obstacles were bound to appear every so often and Jongdae had known that it was pointless to set astronomical expectations that neither of them would be able to reach.

Nevertheless, in doing so, the relationship eventually plateaued before it could properly reach its peak. And Jongdae was ashamed to admit it, but his negligence and selfishness had played a huge part in their relationship’s deterioration.

“Dae, guess what?” Yunseo launched herself onto her boyfriend as soon as he stepped into the apartment, her body vibrating with excitement. “Sehun and Joohyun are engaged now!”

“Really?” he hummed.

“Yeah, he proposed to her this morning!” Yunseo said gleefully. Oh Sehun and Bae Joohyun were two of her friends from university, and Jongdae had gotten quite close to Sehun after both couples had gone on several double dates together over the years.

However, after hearing the news, Jongdae only nodded, clearly distracted by his phone. He was currently shooting a film adaptation of a popular young adult fantasy novel that had been published five years prior and the director—Jo In Sung, another legend in the film industry who Jongdae was working with for the first time—had given the cinematographer several pages of notes on how he wanted certain scenes to be portrayed. This was also Jongdae’s first time working on a live-action animated film and he wanted to make sure every single frame turned out flawless.

Yunseo somewhat wilted at her boyfriend’s noticeable lack of enthusiasm, but she quickly shook it off and pressed on. “Isn’t this exciting? They’ve been dating since college, so it’s been around six years now, I think? Anyway, since today is also Joohyun’s birthday, we had lunch together with the other girls to celebrate and she told us all about how Sehun proposed to her this morning.” Yunseo sighed happily as she recalled how her friend had glowed earlier. “Isn’t that so romantic? Getting a birthday proposal?”

“Yes, yes, very romantic,” Jongdae automatically replied as he walked over to the couch in their living room, his eyes still glued to his phone screen.

She followed Jongdae to the couch and sat down next to him, still trying to engage her distracted boyfriend in conversation. “Joohyun asked me, Seulgi, Yerim, Bomi, and Hyerim to be her bridesmaids and her cousin, Suji, will be her maid of honor. And Joohyun also mentioned wanting to ask if you’d be able to shoot the wedding video for them or at least direct it. I know you’re busy, but since she and Sehun are planning to get married next summer, you don’t have anything scheduled that far in advance, right?”

“Sehun already asked me to do it and I said I would,” Jongdae answered offhandedly.

“Oh…” Yunseo then knit her eyebrows in confusion as she asked, “Wait, you already knew they were engaged?”

“No, I just knew that he was planning to propose. I didn’t know he would do it today,” the cinematographer clarified while shrugging nonchalantly.

Yunseo frowned. “How long have you known about this?”

“Dunno. Maybe a few months now, I think? Sehun’s been planning this for awhile, but I don’t remember exactly when he asked me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Jongdae shrugged again. “It wasn’t relevant to us, so I didn’t think to.”

“But we tell each other everything,” Yunseo said, hurt written all over her face. “I wouldn’t have told Joohyun, if that’s what you were worried about.”

He hummed again, gradually tuning out his girlfriend’s voice.

Her frown deepened and she moved closer to the occupied male. “Jongdae, can you please look at me? I’m talking to you, but you’ve been staring at your phone the entire time. I want to have a proper conversation with you.”

“I’m busy with work right now. Can’t it wait?” His lips were starting to twist into a scowl as he let out a frustrated huff due to his train of thought being constantly interrupted by meaningless drivel. These notes weren’t going to read themselves, and he had an early morning meeting with the director and the storyboard artist the next day.

“I guess so…”

With that, the conversation ended and Yunseo silently watched as Jongdae continued scrolling through his phone and typing short comments that he would later expand on during his meeting. She hugged her knees to her chest and her large eyes blinked owlishly. There was an unfathomable expression on her face that Jongdae completely missed, since he was so fixated on the director’s notes.

It wasn’t until half an hour later that the cinematographer finally set down his phone and threw back his head with his eyes closed. He tried to blank out his mind, needing a brief respite from calculating lighting angles and setting details.

“Jongdae, when are we getting married?” his girlfriend quietly asked, breaking the silence.

He slowly opened his eyes, wincing a bit when his gaze landed directly on the bright ceiling light, before turning to face Yunseo. She was looking at him expectantly, but there was also a hint of uncertainty in her expression.

“I have no idea. I haven’t thought about it,” he answered truthfully.

Yunseo’s expression fell. “You... You haven’t?”

“No. Was I supposed to?”

“Well, we’ve been in a committed relationship with each other for almost four years now,” she said quietly while looking down at the floor. “The endgame for us is marriage…right?”

“I mean, I guess.”

Yunseo bit her lip, trying to silently will away the tears that were beginning to gather at the corners of her eyes. “Why do you make it sound like it’s something you don’t want? Do you not want to marry me? Is it that you don’t…love me?” she choked out, her voice noticeably wobbling.

“No, that’s not it,” Jongdae answered, sighing loudly in frustration. God, he really didn’t want to talk about this right now. “I love you very much, Yunseo. You know I do.”

“Then why do you seem so unwilling to get married?”

He leaned back into the couch as he replied, “I just don’t see the need to rush into marriage. It’s a big change.”

“But we’ve been together for four years now and living together for two of those years. I don’t think we’d be rushing at all…”

“Well, it took six years for Sehun to propose to Joohyun.”

“That’s because they got together when they were still university students,” Yunseo pointed out. “There’s no way Joohyun’s parents would’ve allowed her to get married before she earned her degree and they didn’t have much money either until after graduation.” She then motioned around their apartment. “As for us, we’re both full-time employees with decent incomes and we’ve managed to build a life together in a home that we share. Our situation is different from Sehun and Joohyun’s.”

“Exactly,” Jongdae answered monotonously. “Sehun and Joohyun both came to the decision that they wanted to get married now, whereas we haven’t.”

“And I’m asking why you’re so against the idea of marrying me,” she reiterated, discomfort painting her features.

“Our relationship is fine as it is right now,” he said, also gesturing around their home with a sweep of his arm. “It’s like we’re basically married, right?”

Her lips pressed together in a straight line. “You’re not answering the question.”

Jongdae was becoming more irritated by the second. “I already told you, but you keep refusing to listen. Like I said earlier, I just don’t think it’s necessary to rush into such a big life change anytime soon. We’re comfortable as we are right now and we don’t need some fancy ceremony to prove that we love each other. And once we do get married, we’ll probably have kids…” He shuddered at the thought.

“What’s wrong with having kids?” Yunseo asked defensively.

“It’s not that I don’t want any,” he quickly backtracked, knowing that his girlfriend’s dream was to raise a big family in the future. “But I’m definitely not ready to be a father right now. Ever since Seungwan gave birth, Kyungsoo has been a walking zombie.”

A-list actor Do Kyungsoo, one of Jongdae’s close friends in the film industry, had been cast as the male lead in the martial arts action film that the cinematographer had worked on before starting his current project with Director Jo In Sung. The two friends had seen each other on set almost every day for about four months while working on the action film, so Jongdae had witnessed firsthand how becoming a father had changed the actor after his wife recently gave birth to identical twin boys. Although Kyungsoo constantly expressed delight over the new additions to his family, it was also extremely difficult trying to care for his two baby boys while working full-time.

“Every day, he chugged packs of energy drinks to get through filming and I felt so exhausted just looking at him,” Jongdae recounted, wincing as images of a half-asleep Kyungsoo stumbling through his scenes flashed through the cinematographer’s head.

“But Seungwan and Kyungsoo love taking care of their kids. Even though it’s hard, they think all of the sleepless nights are worth it.”

“Yeah, I know. But with my schedule as busy as it is, I can’t afford to spend so many sleepless nights taking care of a baby. And it’s not just the first year or so of the baby’s life. Having a baby means being responsible for another human being for at least eighteen years and probably beyond that. I can’t deal with that kind of stress and responsibility right now,” Jongdae said while shaking his head.

“But you wouldn’t be doing it alone,” Yunseo quietly replied as her hands fidgeted in her lap. She also blinked quickly, trying not to let any tears fall, but a few stray ones began streaking down her pale cheeks.

“That still doesn’t refute the fact that marriage and kids will completely change everything, and I’m not ready for that yet. I’ve got things I want to do and places I want to see before I get tied down for the rest of my life.”

“So that’s how you view our relationship,” she said flatly, letting her tears fall freely now. “You feel trapped.”

“No, Yunseo, you’re completely misunderstanding my point. I just don’t think it’s necessary to think about marriage right now when what we already have is working for us. That’s it.” And with that, Jongdae stood up from the couch and made his way to the kitchen to start cooking dinner. It was difficult to think properly on an empty stomach, much less argue about life-changing decisions.

Yunseo stood still for several seconds, unable to fully process her boyfriend’s stance on their future together, before hastily retreating to the bedroom and shutting the door to muffle the sounds of her crying.

“For the record, I did want to marry you,” Jongdae quietly said. “I was just scared. It was such a huge commitment and I was terrified something would happen to us that would lead to divorce. But I guess my fear drove us apart before we could even try and I’m sorry that I ever made you doubt how much I love you.”

She smiled at him and gently answered, “Thank you for being honest. I should apologize as well though. I put so much pressure on you for something that I selfishly wanted by myself, even though marriage should be a bond that’s mutually agreed upon by both people. If I had just been a little more patient and backed off the first time, maybe we wouldn’t have ended up fighting so much after that.”

His heart twisted with guilt after hearing at her admission. This quarrel could have been easily avoided if they—mostly Jongdae, though, since he knew that he was to blame for this—had just been upfront about their desires and fears. Instead, a giant fissure had cracked open between them and it had only made their communication worse.

Much worse.

Fights became more frequent, to the point where the couple would argue with each other about something every single day without failure. More often than not, Yunseo would cry herself to sleep while Jongdae stayed up late almost every night and worked obsessively in order to distract himself from the fact that his relationship was beginning to crumble around him.

Whenever he was out of the apartment, it was easy to forget that anything was wrong in the first place. All he had to do was focus on work, which was easy for Jongdae to do since he loved the energy that surrounded him when he was on set. Even though filming was stressful and challenging, it had been a welcome escape from the troubles that brewed at home.

And as someone who enjoyed social drinking, Jongdae never passed up any offers from friends and coworkers to go out and down some alcohol after a long day of working. Being able to relax, crack dumb jokes, and regale his friends with outlandish tales while slightly buzzed always left the cinematographer feeling lighter. Not to mention, these small drinking parties also kept him out and away from home.

But Yunseo had never been fond of his drinking habits and this had become an even bigger point of contention amongst everything else they would fight about. It had been a constant downwards spiral, the divide between the couple growing wider and wider with each passing day.

Both of their expressions were melancholic as Yunseo and Jongdae recalled the final days of their relationship. They had been rocky, filled with tension, but generally amicable as the two of them had tried to continue going through the motions of being a loving couple.

But it was too little, too late.

On the eve of the break-up, Jongdae had come home drunk and unaware of the time, and promptly fell asleep on the couch since he had been too exhausted and disoriented to stumble into the bedroom. And due to his drunken state, he hadn’t heard a door closing shut or realized that the lights in the apartment all turned off once he settled onto the couch.

As such, he had been unable to prepare for the thunderous storm that raged the next day and changed the entire trajectory of his life.

“Where were you last night and what were you doing?” Yunseo stared down at him with cold eyes as Jongdae groaned loudly, feeling the full effects of his hangover.

All he wanted was to go back to sleep until his throbbing headache disappeared.

“Why did you come home so late last night, Jongdae? What happened?” she reiterated.

“Can we talk about this later?” he mumbled as he massaged his temples. “I’m not feeling so great right now.”

“Well, maybe you should have thought about that before you drank as much as you did,” Yunseo retorted. “And before you ask me how I know you were drinking last night, you reek of alcohol,” she added with a disgusted sniff.

“Alright, fine, I was with some coworkers and we decided to drink as a celebration for finishing the first phase of filming for our current project. We had to finish everything this week, since the studio set strict deadlines, and we needed to unwind after being stressed out for such a long time.” He huffed loudly. “There, are you happy now?”

“No. You didn’t think to let me know that you’d be out so late?” She pointed at the bedroom and continued in a biting tone, “I stayed up for hours, worried sick because you weren’t responding to my text messages, while I waited for you to come home.”

“I’m sorry,” Jongdae gruffly answered. “But you should’ve just gone to sleep instead of waiting up for me.”

“How could I when I didn’t know where you were or when you’d come home?” Yunseo snapped.

Jongdae had no response to that.

“If we had kids, think of how irresponsible it would be to go drinking and stay out so late, especially on a weekday!”

“But we don’t have kids right now, so your point doesn’t apply here,” he pointed out.

“Yes, you’ve made it very clear that you have no intention of getting married and starting a family,” Yunseo replied icily.

Jongdae rolled his eyes as he shakily stood up, not liking how she was talking down to him. “Are you still angry about that? I already told you that you misunderstood what I said. It’s not that I don’t want to marry you. I just don’t think it’s the right time right now.”

“When will it be the right time then? When we’re on our deathbeds fifty or sixty years from now?” She snorted while crossing her arms over her chest. “It sounds like you don’t even want to be with me.”

“I do want to be with you!” Jongdae replied, his voice sharply escalating. His throbbing headache also drastically increased in intensity. “But it seems like you’d rather not be with me!”

“What are you even talking about?” She looked at him with a mixture of exasperation and confusion.

”You’ve been spending an awful lot of time with Lu Han recently,” Jongdae said, not caring that his tone sounded so accusatory. “What’s the deal with that?”

“Are you seriously dragging my best friend into this?” Yunseo asked incredulously. “Why does it matter that I’ve been hanging out with Lu Han recently?”

“Because it bothers me since I’m your boyfriend, not him.”

Yunseo laughed, but the sound was thin and hollow, completely unlike the bright and merry laughter that he was used to hearing from her. “Oh my god, I can’t believe you’re getting jealous right now,” she said while shaking her head. “I thought you were better than that, Jongdae.”

“Think about it from my perspective! Would you be okay if my best friend was a girl and I constantly hung out with her the way you do with Lu Han?”

“Yes, I would, because I trust you to not cheat on me,” Yunseo firmly answered. “But you clearly don’t think the same way, even though I’ve told you so many times that Lu Han and I have never had feelings for each other like that. Our relationship has always been and always will be purely platonic.”

Jongdae scowled. Even so, the friendship still made him extremely uncomfortable at times and while he did trust Yunseo, that didn’t mean he completely trusted Lu Han to not do anything. “Why are you hanging out with him so much lately anyway? Isn’t he busy working as a government translator?”

“He is. But he still tries to make time for me and pays attention to me, especially when I’m having problems,” she answered pointedly.

“Are you saying I don’t?”

“Yes! That’s the whole reason we’re fighting,” Yunseo snapped. “It’s like we’re roommates who barely talk to each other, much less see each other. Whenever you’re at home, you’re always working and you never want to talk, not even for a few minutes. And whenever you do have free time, you’re getting wasted with friends like you did last night!”

“I already told you that it was to reward ourselves for meeting a huge deadline that we’ve had looming over us for the past couple of weeks!” Jongdae’s ire rose as the seconds ticked by.

“Yet you couldn’t even be bothered to spare a few seconds to send me one short text to let me know where you were and when you’d come home.”

“Why are you always on my case over such stupid, insignificant things?” he exploded, unable to keep his anger at bay. “I already said that I was sorry!”

“Because a relationship involves two people, but ours hasn’t felt like that for ages. I can’t keep pretending that we’re both putting in the same amount of effort when we’re not.” Yunseo’s eyes were welling up with tears as she leveled a fierce stare at Jongdae. “I’m done carrying this relationship by myself.”

There was a noticeable pause as he processed her words. “Are you—are you breaking up with me?” Jongdae stared back at her in disbelief.

“I don’t know! You tell me! Are you going to actually start treating me like your girlfriend instead of casting me aside like I’m nothing?” Even though she tried to hold them back by rapidly blinking, the tears fell anyway and splashed onto Yunseo’s pale cheeks. Several droplets rolled down her chin, dripping onto her shirt and staining the beige fabric. Her arms were no longer crossed and were pressed against her sides instead, fists tightly balled up. Although she was crying, Yunseo maintained direct eye contact with Jongdae, her gaze burning with determination as she waited for a response from the speechless male.

Once he found his voice again, Jongdae hotly replied, “You keep asking me to give you something that I can’t right now! When will you understand that I’m not ready to get married yet?”

“All I want is reassurance that you care about us being together, that you care about me, but you don’t seem to care at all!”

Jongdae took a step closer to her, but Yunseo immediately moved back as she glared at him through her tears. “Look, you’ve shut me out plenty of times as well!” he accused. “You hated it whenever I asked you about work, so I stopped doing that and gave you your space. Why can’t you do the same for me on a topic that I have no desire to discuss?”

“I was just trying to plan our future! Not my future, our future!” she replied angrily.

“But you kept trying to push a future that I don’t want right now! Why can’t you understand that?!”

“If I pushed you, it’s because this was important to me and to our relationship!”

“But that’s all you do! All you ever do is push, push, push and nag, nag, nag,” Jongdae ranted. “I'm sick and tired of it!”

Yunseo paused for several seconds before shaking her head, tears flying from her pale face. “You know what? We’re done. This isn’t going to work anymore.” She headed to their bedroom, going straight for the closet. After slamming the door open, she grabbed an empty suitcase and began carelessly tossing her clothes inside.

He followed her, furiously yelling, “Fine! What do you expect from me? What else do you want me to do as your boyfriend?”

“Nothing!” she shouted back. “I don’t want you to do anything else, because I know you won’t do it anyway!” Once she threw all of her clothes into the suitcase, Yunseo quickly snapped it shut and dragged it out of the closet. She roughly pushed past Jongdae, who was only able to stare at her in shock, on her way out of the bedroom and into her office. Yunseo then briskly walked to her desk and swept all of her half-finished blueprints into an empty bag that she hefted onto her shoulder.

“Yunseo, what are you doing?”

“I’m leaving! And don’t bother asking where I’m going, because it’s none of your business anymore.”

“You’re seriously going to end our relationship like this? Over some stupid argument about marriage?” he exclaimed, getting more heated by the moment, which Jongdae didn’t think was even possible at this point. Every time he thought he had reached his anger threshold, Yunseo did something to further infuriate him.

“No, I’m not ending it because of that,” she hissed as she stormed out of the office with her suitcase rattling behind her.

“Then why are you doing this?!” Jongdae reached over and grabbed her left wrist, effectively stopping her in her tracks.

“Let go of me!” Yunseo screeched as she tried to pull herself out of his strong grasp. “Stop acting like you care when you really don’t!”

“Then you need to stop acting like a child and running away! We need to talk about this like adults!”

She whirled around, glaring daggers at him, as she gritted out, “I’ve tried talking to you like an adult more times than I can count, Jongdae. Don’t try to pin this on me when you’re the one who’s refused to talk to me every—single—time. And if this is any indication of what being married to you is like, then I’m actually glad you never proposed to me. I am sick and tired of trying to make this work when you clearly don’t want to.”

“I never said that!”

“But your actions show that you don’t!” She took a deep breath and when she spoke next, her voice was controlled and even, which scared Jongdae even more than when she had been yelling at him earlier.

Now, he didn’t know what to expect.

Yunseo stared directly at him. It felt like she was staring through him with her piercing gaze, tears still falling like raindrops. “I am breaking up with you, Jongdae. I have tried to communicate with you and make this work on multiple occasions. But it is now quite obvious to me that you will not listen, no matter how many times I try. We clearly prioritize different aspects of our lives and we have vastly different plans for our future. For our sake and our sanity, to prevent us from spiraling downwards even more than we already have, we are no longer in a relationship as of today. Being with you—” She shuddered slightly as she took a deep breath. “—no longer brings me happiness.”

He couldn’t believe that this was happening. He couldn’t believe that Yunseo was actually breaking up with him. She wouldn’t. She wouldn’t end things like this. She loved him. She wouldn’t do that to someone she loved.

This was absolutely ludicrous.

No, this was just a joke. This was just some sick joke that she was playing. This was her silly, immature way of getting back at him for drinking too much last night. She wasn’t serious. She wouldn’t actually walk out of their apartment. She wouldn’t actually walk out of his life.

Not like this.

And against his better judgment, Jongdae thoughtlessly taunted, “Go ahead! Leave if you’re so unhappy. I won’t stop you.” He let out a short mirthless laugh. “See, I’m letting you do what you want.”

She wouldn’t actually do it. It was so obvious that he was being sarcastic. It was so obvious that he didn’t mean what he was saying. He was just playing along.

“I will be taking my leave then. We are done.”

It took a moment for her words to fully sink in. It was the way in which she said them. She was no longer shouting at him with a voice filled with raging fire. No, this time, her tone was frightfully chilling. As if she had no emotion left in her body that she could project anymore. Because being here, being in this relationship, being with him had drained her of everything that she had.

And that was when Jongdae felt his heart crack in two, straight down the middle. His face paled and his limbs went completely limp. What had he done?

Since his grip on her wrist had slackened, she was able to wrench free and she hastily made her way to the door of the apartment. Yunseo then looked back at him once more, her eyes cold and dark. “Goodbye, Jongdae.”

The days after the break-up had been the absolute worst, although Jongdae didn’t think he should have expected otherwise. The only people who were happy after break-ups were the ones that wanted to end their relationships in the first place. And Kim Jongdae was definitely not one of those people.

Crying became a familiar sensation to him and Jongdae had lost count of how many boxes of tissue he had gone through, having to constantly wipe away his tears and blow his runny nose. Dozens of text messages and phone calls went unanswered, since he had no energy to pick up his phone and pretend that his world hadn’t just fallen apart. If it weren’t for his busy filming schedule, Jongdae wouldn’t have gone outside at all; he would have continued wallowing in his misery instead.

On set, he would constantly make amateur mistakes and get yelled at by the director while the talent would openly display their disdain at having to spend extra time re-filming their scenes. He would be distracted by even the slightest reminder of his ex-girlfriend, whether it was the scent of lavender that she always wore or the taste of strawberries that she loved to snack on or the sound of wooden blocks that she usually tinkered with when assembling new building models.

Jongdae had taken to eating out with friends or coworkers almost every evening, if he could find someone available and willing to share a meal with him, in order to avoid eating alone at home. Most of the reminders were there, since they had lived together for two years, and he was unable to handle the sensory overload while his emotions were so heightened. More often than not, the cinematographer would return home relatively inebriated and sprawl himself on the couch since it was less painful than sleeping on the bed by himself. Especially since his memories with her would come rushing back to haunt him whenever he blankly stared up at the ceiling, surrounded by darkness.

He felt bad for dragging others to his moping sessions. Especially since Jongdae knew that all he did was reiterate his mistakes countless times to whoever happened to be accompanying the distressed man that night. His friends and close coworkers had patience made of steel, and there were many times when the cinematographer honestly wondered why they continued indulging him and his pity parties. If he were one of them, Jongdae would have given up on himself after the third or fourth time.

Instead, they provided comfort and reassurance that things would get better. Life would move on. He would eventually meet and fall in love with someone who matched him more than Park Yunseo did. Not to mention, being single again was a gift, not a penalty.

“Think about it. Now you’re not tied down anymore and you can start living life for yourself again without having to worry about someone else,” one of his best friends, Byun Baekhyun, said while Jongdae wore a vacant expression as he gazed at the half-empty soju bottle in front of him. “You’ll save a bunch of money that you can spend on traveling or a new car or whatever you want, honestly. The possibilities are endless!”

“But what’s the point if I’m by myself?” Jongdae listlessly replied. “All of that is useless if I don’t have anyone to share it with.”

“You have us,” his other best friend, Zhang Yixing, pointed out with an encouraging smile. “Sure, it’s not the same as having a girlfriend, but now we can kick it like we used to when we were younger. When was the last time we went on a boys’ trip?”

“Dunno.”

“Exactly,” Yixing said as he draped his arm over Jongdae’s shoulder. “We can plan something this month. Go on an adventure and be crazy, y’know? We could even do it this weekend, if you’re free.”

“I’m down!” Baekhyun piped up. “I need a break from coding. My eyes feel like they’re going to fall out of my head if I stare at a computer screen any longer.” He dramatically let his upper body flop onto the table, garnering a laugh from Yixing—but nothing from Jongdae.

All he did was grab the soju bottle and pour half of the remaining liquid straight down his throat, focusing on the intense burn that temporarily masked the sting of the broken shards of his heart poking through his chest.

“Seriously, Jongdae, you’re only hurting yourself by holding onto the past,” Yixing somberly said as he gently tugged the bottle of alcohol out of his best friend’s loose grasp. “If you don’t let yourself forget about her, you’ll just continue feeling this pain and that’s not healthy for anyone.”

However, that wasn’t what Jongdae wanted. He didn’t want to forget the precious years he had spent with Yunseo. He didn’t want to let go of her, even though she was no longer with him.

He didn’t want to live a life that didn’t include Park Yunseo.

Now, after six months of being emotionally tortured by the absence of the woman he loved, Jongdae was ready to turn it all around. This was his chance to finally right his wrongs and restore balance to his life. Everything would return to normal. Life would be good again.

He just had to make sure that he didn’t royally mess up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

After taking a deep breath, Jongdae said, “Yunseo, the reason I asked you to meet me here is because I have something important to say to you.”

“Okay, I’m listening,” she answered with a nod and a smile.

He took another deep breath, trying to calm his jitters. It was now or never. “I know we said that things between us were over for good when we broke up. Being together was causing us more pain than happiness. Especially near the end, we were just hurting each other for the sake of it. But,” his voice began to crack, “as much as I try to forget you, I can’t. I still love you, Yunseo, and I want us to try again. I’ve learned a lot from my past mistakes and I know we can get it right this time.” He looked at her earnestly, trying to convey the sincerity of his words and feelings through his gaze.

There was a long pause and the air swirled thickly around them, tension building within Jongdae as he waited for Yunseo’s response. When she finally parted her lips to answer, he unconsciously leaned forward in anticipation, his heart beating so frantically that it felt as though the pumping organ was fighting to burst free from his chest.

This was it. This was the moment he and Park Yunseo would start over and—

“I’m sorry, Jongdae, but I don’t think we should get back together,” she firmly said, albeit with an apologetic expression.

He could feel his heart racing again, but with desperation instead of excitement this time. He hadn’t been prepared to hear such an answer at all. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He couldn’t lose this chance. Not yet. Not when he was so close. So, so close. “But, Yunseo—”

“I know this isn’t what you want to hear from me, but it’s for the best.” His ex-girlfriend smiled sympathetically as she looked into Jongdae’s soft brown eyes.

He anxiously searched for any hint of their past love in her gaze, but no matter how hard he looked, there was nothing. There was compassion, there was kindness, and there was light.

But there was no love. Not for Kim Jongdae.

“There was no reason for us to stay together if we weren’t happy and we clearly weren’t.”

“But if we give ourselves a second chance, we can be happy again,” Jongdae replied, desperation spilling into his tone.

She shook her head and then he felt his heart crack even more, which he didn’t think was feasible. After all, it had been shattered so many times before this; there had to be a limit on how much damage his heart could bear before disintegrating into nothingness. “I don’t think a second chance will solve the problems we had, Jongdae,” Yunseo gently replied. “And I can only speak for myself, but I’m… I’m happier now. A lot happier than I was during the last year of our relationship.”

He had no response for that. There was no way he could refute it when the evidence was unmistakably in front of him. Throughout their entire meeting, Yunseo had been radiating joy. Even when they had recounted the uglier aspects of their relationship, her aura hadn’t diminished one bit. Not a flicker, although Jongdae knew that reliving those dark moments hadn’t been easy for her either.

But it was clear that she had completely come to terms with their painful separation within these last six months and while the memories still hurt, that was all they were: memories.

Intangible recollections of the past—of their past— that were no more.

God, it still hurt to think that.

Yunseo looked at him with pure kindness as she said, “I don’t think we should feel like we failed because we broke up. Things don’t always work out the way we expect them to, but that’s okay. Even though we weren’t compatible in the end, we honestly had a pretty good run. I learned a lot during the four years we were together and I am definitely a much better person now because of what we went through as a couple.”

“Yeah, I—I learned a lot too,” Jongdae murmured thickly.

“See?” Her smile grew. “I strongly believe that although we weren’t meant to be, we were meant to happen.” She placed her hands over his, giving them a brief but tight squeeze. “And I think that’s still beautiful. Our relationship wasn’t meaningless.”

She was right. He knew she was right. When it came to these insights into their past relationship, she was always right.

Jongdae wanted to resent her for it, but he also knew that he only had himself to blame. If he hadn’t taken her for granted, if their lives had been on another trajectory, perhaps the outcome would have been different and they wouldn’t have needed to meet up like this so that Jongdae could gain closure.

Yunseo turned over her phone to check the time and Jongdae caught sight of her new lock screen. It was a picture of Yunseo with another man, the two of them smiling for the camera as they wore gimmicky animal face sheet masks. Yunseo was wearing a penguin sheet mask while the man was wearing a polar bear sheet mask. Because of the mask, Jongdae couldn’t see the man’s actual face, but he also didn’t think that he wanted to know what Yunseo’s new…boyfriend looked like. The acknowledgement that she had fully moved on from him would only hammer home the fact that they would never get back together again.

There was a text message notification on the screen that drew Yunseo’s attention and her eyebrows furrowed as she read the beginning snippet of the message. Realizing that it was too significant to ignore right now, Yunseo quickly typed in the four-digit pass code to unlock her phone while profusely apologizing to Jongdae. “I know I always preach that people shouldn’t be on their phones when they’re with others, so this makes me a hypocrite right now, but it’s from someone important.”

Jongdae sat there stiffly, trying to disregard how he had an inkling of who this “important” person was, since the hunch was only heightening his nervous energy.

After she finished reading the full text message, Yunseo looked back up at him and he could already tell she was about to apologize again before she even spoke.

“Is…everything okay?” Jongdae slowly asked as he internally braced himself for the answer.

“I’m so sorry, Jongdae, but I have to leave now,” she softly answered. “I didn’t realize how late it had gotten and I have dinner plans that I can’t miss.”

“Oh.” He hadn’t meant to sound so hollow, but Jongdae also couldn’t deny that a small part of him had hoped that Yunseo would dine with him tonight instead. Not because he wanted to pursue her, but because he was too afraid to let go of this moment. Right now, the door was still open. He could still pretend that he had a second chance with the woman of his dreams.

The moment she walked out of the coffee shop, the door would be locked forever, the key never to be found again.

The story of Kim Jongdae and Park Yunseo would end. Permanently.

He could feel her eyes watching him, sadness swirling in those bright irises that he used to get lost in. She already knew what he wanted her to say, what he wanted her to do. But Jongdae also knew that Yunseo wouldn’t cancel her dinner plans for him. She never flaked on others and Jongdae was no longer important enough in her life for Yunseo to break that self-imposed rule.

Although he knew the information would only hurt him more, Jongdae smiled wryly as he asked, “Who’s the lucky guy?” while pointing at her phone.

Yunseo slightly jumped in her seat, caught off-guard by the sudden question, as her eyes darted to the screen. She then fidgeted for a few seconds, unsure of how to answer, before she finally stuttered out, “He… He’s someone I met a few months ago at an art class I’ve been taking every Saturday. We sit next to each other, so we started talking and then he—he asked me out.”

“Oh.” God, he didn’t know why he insisted on doing this to himself. It was so meaningless. He was just asking for the broken pieces of his heart to be shattered even more.

But that nosy part of his brain refused to relent, especially when it came to Park Yunseo. Especially when it came to Park Yunseo’s love life.

“Uh, what kind of art class is it?”

“It’s an oil painting class. I’ve been so focused on sketching out floor plans and blueprints for work that I haven’t had a chance to ‘smell the roses’,” she used her fingers to make air quotes, “in a while.” A note of regret colored her light voice. “I decided to sign up for the class since I wanted something fun to occupy my weekends and it’s been great.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Jongdae managed to reply in a deceptively bright tone. But he could tell that his ex-girlfriend wasn’t fooled. Although he was smiling, there was no heart behind it. Even a stranger would be able to easily tell that he was, very poorly, putting up a front with such a weak facial expression. There was a prolonged pause before he asked, “How has it been with him?”

“We… We’re happy right now,” Yunseo quietly answered. “I know it hasn’t been that long, but I’m really enjoying what we have at the moment.” As she spoke, her expression took on a dreamy quality that he recognized in a heartbeat.

And that was when he knew that, although she hadn’t left the coffee shop yet, the door was already locked. The door had been locked the entire time they had reminisced about their past relationship. Jongdae didn’t know when she had done it and he didn’t know if she even knew she had done it, but Yunseo had already made the executive decision to toss the key into the ocean, sinking it to unfathomable depths.

She was falling in love with this new man, whether she was aware of it or not. And Jongdae knew that was the case, because Yunseo used to look at him with that same adoring expression when they were in love with each other.

While the childish part of him wanted to be angry that she had moved on so quickly, that she was able to fall in love with someone else a mere six months after ending her four-year relationship with Jongdae, he knew that she had fallen out of love long before they had broken up with each other. Hearing everything from her perspective had made that clear.

“Well, it was nice seeing you again, Jongdae,” Yunseo kindly said as she stood up from the table while shouldering her purse. “I’m glad we did this.”

He nodded and sent his ex-girlfriend a lopsided smile as he also stood up. “Yeah, me too…” As she pushed in her chair, Jongdae quickly picked up the tray of empty glass mugs and walked over to the return counter, setting it down carefully while thanking the employee who was currently stationed behind the register,

Once he returned, Yunseo gestured to the doorway and said, “My car is parked a few buildings away. Did you also drive?”

“Yeah, I parked my car close by too,” Jongdae answered as they walked out of the coffee shop. They were greeted with a canvas of soft pink and purple hues bleeding across the expansive sky as the red-orange sun dipped downwards while the white moon faintly emerged overhead.

They walked in silence, side-by-side, while internally marveling over the scenic horizon. It felt like old times when they used to walk along the beach at sunset or stroll through the park after dinner: calm, peaceful, and picturesque. Jongdae tried to further slow their already leisurely pace, wanting to hold onto the magic before it disappeared again. However, within a few minutes, they arrived at Yunseo’s parked car.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye,” she said once they stopped next to the black vehicle. Yunseo smiled at him again as she held out her right hand. “Good luck with everything, Jongdae! I’m sure you’re doing amazing things at work and I’ll be sure to watch your upcoming films!”

He grasped her hand and firmly shook it. An impersonal gesture, but this was leagues better than their previous farewell. “Thanks, I appreciate the support,” Jongdae answered with a half-smile. “Good luck to you as well.”

She nodded and then waved to him as she walked to the driver’s side of her car before unlocking the door.

“And Yunseo?” he called out before she stepped into the vehicle.

His ex-girlfriend looked at him questioningly, her head slightly tilted.

After taking a deep breath, he said, “I’m glad you’re happy,” while sending her a beaming grin. The ends of his lips were curled up and his eyes were curved into crescent moons. It was the happiest he had looked all day—all year, really.

Genuine happiness had been difficult to come by lately. But despite the rejection he had received earlier, Jongdae cherished the precious hours that he had been able to spend with his ex-girlfriend. He was glad that he could replace his previous last memory of her with this pleasant one instead.

And there it was: Park Yunseo’s dazzling smile that he had fallen in love with all those years ago. “Thank you, Jongdae. I hope you’re happy too. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. For you to be happy and content with life,” she replied.

“I want that for you as well,” he murmured, knowing that his words wouldn’t reach her, as he waved to Yunseo while she stepped into her car.

Once she was buckled in, she rolled down the window of the passenger’s side and then bent forward so that she was more visible within the frame. “Goodbye, Jongdae! Drive home safely!”

“I will,” he answered back. He watched as the car window rolled back up and Yunseo shifted the vehicle into drive. Using her right hand, she waved to him again for several seconds before driving off. Jongdae stared at the car until it completely disappeared into the throes of late afternoon traffic before he exhaled loudly.

That was it.

He and Park Yunseo were truly over now.

But this time, the realization wasn’t as earth-shattering.

The sun dipped even lower behind the trees, casting an amber glow everywhere. The street lamps lit up and a cool spring breeze blew, tickling Jongdae’s thin cheeks. Birds twittered noisily in the background and budding flowers gently swayed in the wind. Dozens of people walked past him, lost in their own worlds as they silently dealt with their own problems.

Life kept chugging along, stopping for no one. It was a continuous cycle of falling down and standing back up, falling down and standing back up. Over and over again, constant like a ticking clock.

Doors closed and stories ended every single day. But new tales also began just as frequently, sprouting dozens of opportunities for growth.

And after a long winter of stagnation, Kim Jongdae was finally ready to stand up and move forward with the rest of the world.

♈♈♈