Life is weird. One day, you’ll just wake up and realize that you have to try not to stand out too much so that you can avoid trouble. At a young age, I learned how to be extra careful around others and be overly considerate. Even if I know the water is poisoned and someone still asks me to prove it, I’ll drink it.  I’m foolishly considerate.

I don’t know how things started. I just saw the world as something dark. In order to protect yourself, you have to act like a fool.

So, why is it that I still end up getting hurt? Why is it that I still end up being alone?

“Let’s break up,” he spoke in a cold voice so Dabin was scared. He had no facial expression, as if he were prepared for this ending from the beginning. He was so different from his usual warm self. He was just so cold that Dabin wanted to ask why he was looking at her like that—like a cold stranger.

No, we can’t. This is not it, we can’t be like this now. Dabin wanted to open but no words came out. She waited for him to speak, standing in front of him, face-to-face. She could not say anything else.

“At least say something,” he told her, looking at her dead in the eye. “We’re over.” He sounded like he was pleading but maybe it was just Dabin’s imagination. Maybe she wished he was pleading for her to hold on. Maybe she wished that the break up was not true. Maybe she wished it was not the end.

“Is it what you want?” Dabin asked, voice was soft and calm like usual. There was no sadness evident in her voice. It was as if she had long accepted it. She smiled, her tiny yet sincere smile. “All right, I understand. I hope you become happy.”

Because he might be happier without her, because he might not like her anymore, because she might have been lacking, she was willing to let him go.