Change is never entirely good but the thing with us humans is, we always learn to adapt whether we want to or not.

He had his eyes roaming around the room as if it was a lot more interesting than the conversation that was unfolding in front of him. He had been biting the inside of his cheeks again, pursing his lips. He only ever did that when he couldn’t be bothered with the situation before him. In other words, he was getting bored. Of course, the people on the other line wouldn’t know that. They were way too focused on raising their voices at him to even care. It was hard to believe that they were actually talking to their own son over a video call. To any other passerby, it was more like they were yelling at an employee for slacking off. Especially since he chose to keep quiet the entire time, not even bothering to respond to his parents. Like his attention was better off spent someplace else And right now, it was anywhere except them.

“Are we making ourselves clear, Aron? We will not have our only son goofing around any longer. It’s time you grow up and learn to be an adult. We expect you back home first thing next Sunday. Get your affairs in order” he watched as they hung up on the video call, not even bothering to wait to hear what he has to say in response. They didn’t care. It wasn’t up for negotiation. It was an order. One he had to follow. He had no choice. As much as he’d like to stay, he knew that his parents would do everything in their power to make sure everything goes their way and with the amount of money his parents had, that’s a whole lot of power just waiting to be abused. And without his parents’ money and financial support, he would have no choice but to go back home anyway.

“Well, guess I’m going back to LA”

November 22nd, 2020. “Are you listening to me? Hello? Aron. Aron” he snapped out of his thoughts, his attention back to the girl in front of him. Her eyes were filled with worry. She knew him well enough to know that he barely zones out when around her. Especially on a date. Especially during their anniversary. Which only really meant one thing. Something was bothering him. There was something on his mind and she needs to know what it was. He was never really the kind to hide things from her which meant this was something really big. And serious.

“What?”

“What’s up with you lately? You’ve been zoning out a whole lot today”

“It’s nothing”

“Don’t lie to me. Tell me” There was something about him and fiddling with anything within his reach that didn’t exactly make a good combination. And she knew that. After two years of dating, she practically knew all about him and his habits. More than his parents ever will at this point. But he was never really close with his parents. Especially since he spent most of his childhood with his nannies and house workers. His parents were always too busy to even give him the time of day. Even until now.

He heaved a sigh, wondering if he should just tell her. But then, at this point, he knew he had to. He only had less than two weeks left until he had to leave and spending that time lying to her or keeping it from her didn’t seem like a smart decision. But he didn’t know how to bring it up. Let alone tell her. He didn’t know where this major change would take their relationship to. Or if there would still be any left when he does tell her. He didn’t like that thought. He wasn’t ready to lose her and right now, whichever decision he chose to make would lead to that end. And he didn’t like that. She was waiting for him to speak up, to tell her what exactly was having him worried this whole time but he wasn’t talking.

She watched as his lips pursed and his eyebrows furrowed, contemplating on how he was going to tell her the big news so she grabbed his hand, holding it with hers as if to tell him that he could tell her anything and that it would be alright. She was always there for him despite how busy she was at most times. Of course, this only made it harder for Aron to tell her, realizing he really couldn’t afford to lose her. Of course, there was the idea of asking her to go live with him in LA but he couldn’t ask her to leave her job here. He knew how much she loved her job. That wasn’t something he wanted to take away from her.

“Aron”

“My parents called”

“That’s good. Didn’t you say they haven’t called you since—”

“I’m moving back to LA”

“What?” She was quiet for a long time and he didn’t know what to make of it. He didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. And he hated not knowing what to expect. He was used to knowing what went next. And right now, he wasn’t sure what was going to happen, whether it was good or bad.

“Shouldn’t you have talked to me before making that decision”

“Eunji, the decision was made for me. I had no say in it”

“What? You mean—”

“Yes. They say it’s time I go back. They bought me a ticket and expect me back next Sunday” It would be a lie to say that she wasn’t confused as to what was going on. This was way too much information for her process right now and quite frankly, she doesn’t know if she wanted to. She could see how much it was eating him alive, her silence but she didn’t know what else to say. What was she supposed to say? Was she supposed to break up? She didn’t want that. Was she supposed to say she would go with him? She didn’t know if she wanted that either. Now she understood why he was having such a hard time bringing it up with her.

“Babe—”

“Three days”

“What?”

“Give me three days”

“Three days? For what?”

“To decide if I want to go with you”

November 29th, 2020. “So, what are you going to do?” She sighed, fingers playing with the rim of her glass, shrugging in response to her friend’s question before bringing the glass up to her lips, taking a huge sip of the alcohol she had just ordered. Despite being in a club, it wasn’t that loud. But maybe because they were inside a room rather than being out in the dance floor. But the dance floor. Oh that was hella loud but it wasn’t as loud as the normal clubs though. Those were a mess. Thankfully, the club they were in weren’t like all others. Sure, it was crowded but they weren’t entirely strangers. Perhaps it was because the club was exclusive for the higher class, people with a social statuses, rich families and tycoons, and celebrities. Those were the only kind of people who could get in. Thankfully, she was both.

“This is where we met you know. Me and Aron. He was on the dance floor and I was here drinking after a long day” It wasn’t that easy to forget about that day. A lot of guys tried to get their way with her but only Aron really went through. There was something different with him when she met him that day. She could tell. His actions flowed naturally. It was hard to think that he was actually trying hard to get her attention. They clicked almost instantly, vibing off each other after learning that they were somewhat the same, both running away from their families and their plans for them. Of course, her family had learned to let her go but his? Not so much.

“Eunji. You’re not answering me. What are you going to do? Are you going with him? Are you sure? There won’t be anything for you in LA, you know that” She sighed. They were right. There wouldn’t be anything for her there. It would be hard to find a job and start all over there. She had spent years cultivating her reputation here only to throw it all away because her boyfriend is leaving. Would it be worth it though? She had to start all over.

“She’s right, Eunji. Finding an Agent would be just the base of it. Who would be brave enough to hire a Korean actress to star in a Hollywood film? I mean think about it. Rain Sunbaenim, Lee Byunghun Sunbaenim, Lee Joongi Sunbaenim, Jeon Jihyun Sunbaenim. None of us are on par with them yet. It’s going to be very hard” They weren’t helping. They were making the decision much harder at this point. She didn’t know what to do. What was the smart choice to make? To go or to stay? As if on cue, images started popping into her head, picturing what life would be like with her boyfriend on the other side of the world. How hard it would be to keep in contact. She wouldn’t be able to take not seeing him every other day.

“Eunji”

“I hear you. I know. But…I can’t lose him”

December 20th, 2020. It’s been a couple of weeks since Aron arrived in LA with his girlfriend, introducing her to his friends and family and she was starting to regret her decision a little bit. As much as she didn’t like staying away from her boyfriend, acting was really ever her only passion and she had just chosen to abandon it to move to another country with her boyfriend. Of course, it wasn’t an impulse decision. She decided that she didn’t like the idea of being too far away from him. Nor did she like the idea of breaking up so here she was. But she was starting to second guess her own decision. Despite being an A-list actress back in Korea and being a well-known actress globally, she was having a hard time looking for a new agent and adjusting to the new environment. Sure, she was a well-known actress but there was a difference between being famous for being in Korean films and being in Hollywood films. It being a huge difference, of course. No one was willing to take that kind of risk. It was devastating her. Plus, she had a feeling that his parents only liked her for her family background. You could say that his parents weren’t too happy to hear that Aron’s girlfriend was from the entertainment industry. And they weren’t too sure if pulling her away from her line of job was fair to her.

Much like Aron, she was born into a wealthy family. But she didn’t really like the idea of having nothing to do, spending all her time sitting still at home her whole life, not having to work or do anything. She hated staying still at home which is why she had decided to take up acting and it worked for her. She loved it and she was very good at it. So, the idea of having to stay inside their shared apartment ever since they arrived didn’t exactly sit too well with her. She was itching to go back to the scene but she didn’t exactly know how to do just that.

January 2nd, 2021. Another couple of weeks passed and Aron was getting more and more busy with his training. He barely had time to spend with her and that included New Years and Christmas. He was the only heir to their family business so his parents were very strict with his training, wanting to get everything right down to the dot, often spending so much time in the office until late at night. The earliest he went home was 9pm and it was rare. Except on Sundays. Sundays, he was free. It was the only day he could rest. He barely had time for anything else and that included giving his girlfriend any attention. You’d think he’d pay more attention to her after she left everything behind to be with him but not really. But at this point, as sad as it sounds, she was used to it but that didn’t mean she was fine with it. She knew how stressed out Aron already was. She didn’t think it was right of her to dumb her concerns unto him and add to his problems.

“What’s wrong?” He had noticed how distant she was being lately. At first, he thought she was simply giving him space because of how stressed and tired he was but that wasn’t the case apparently. They barely talked anymore. She stopped asking him about his day or if his training went alright. Instead, she had spent most of her time either inside the bedroom, on the bed sleeping or on the couch, watching Korean films on Netflix. You’d think that was enough for Aron to understand what was going on but no. She started avoiding any kind of interaction and if they ever had any, she would often shoot him down casually. There was something wrong but she wasn’t telling him what it was.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” He wasn’t expecting her to respond but a small part of him had wished she did so when she continued ignoring him and refusing to talk to him. He couldn’t see her face but he knew she was awake. The question was why would she go out of her way to pretend she was asleep to avoid talking to him? What did he do wrong for her to act like this? Is it because I have been too busy? Or is it because I don’t try to make time to even talk to her when I’m free? He thought to himself. Perhaps it was wrong of me to let her come with me to LA? She clearly isn’t having fun.

She knew it was childish of her to be doing this but if she hadn’t started ignoring him, the chances of Aron noticing that something was wrong was close to zero. He was a great boyfriend at certain times but he was never good at the overly emotional parts or the little things that went a long way. She would usually initiate those and he would just simply go along and it wasn’t because he was inexperienced because he’s dated a lot of girls before but never this long. And now she thought about it, this must be why.

She knew it was her decision to follow him and he didn’t force her but was it so wrong of her to think that he could at least help her out or check up on her or take her out during his free days? It’s been nearly two months since they moved to LA and they haven’t gone out to look around even once. Sure, she could do it alone but he had always mentioned that it was best that they went out together. Maybe, I’m being too hard on him, she thought. But just as she decided to talk to him, his phone rang.

“Come on. It’s Sunday. Hello? Yes, I am. What? But it’s Sunda—Okay, understood. But—Alright” There was something about Aron’s tone that she couldn’t quite decipher. She heaved a sigh. She knew what the phone call meant. It was Sunday. It was supposed to be his day off. He shouldn’t have to run off to work or anything work-related. This was crazy. But she couldn’t complain. As much as she loved him, he never had the guts to go against his parents and he certainly wasn’t going to start now.

Being raised in a business-minded family had its downside. One of it being his skill set usually revolved around anything that his parents considered to be relevant. It was very limited and supervised. He had been told what to do and like at a very young age, blocked off from any sort of so-called “distraction” so he never really got to find anything he would consider himself to be good at or excel in. Which made it much harder to go against his parents. It would have been easier if he had found himself a job but he didn’t.

“So, that was my dad. I have to attend this charity event thing uptown. When I come back, let’s talk about this” And just like that, he washed up, got changed and left without saying another word. Who am I kidding? Staying at home and waiting for him isn’t going to work, she thought. It was starting to get suffocating inside the apartment complex. Plus, she was getting tired of waiting around for him to decide to take her out. Despite bringing it up almost everyday for one month. There was no point in relying on him or waiting for him to help her settle in anymore. She had to do that herself without his help. She was getting tired of expecting him to help her feel better because that certainly wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

She had forgotten when was the last time she had gone outside, eyes scanning her surroundings. This was all very unfamiliar to her. The only upside to all this was that she didn’t have to sneak around or cover her face to get some fresh air. She didn’t have to worry about getting recognized or ambushed by paparazzi which honestly felt very refreshing. Deciding to throw away the thoughts of her very problematic boyfriend out the window, she took one more good look around her.

“What to do first?” Thankfully, she had made herself a short list of things to do to settle in nicely. From buying a phone and buying a new sim card to looking for places to frequent in for her needs like pharmacy, convenience store, coffee shop, mall, supermarket, train station, bus stop, etc. The typical stuff one does to settle in after moving into a new place. After some deep thought, she decided that buying a new phone and sim card should be on the top of her list and so she went, roaming around the streets to look for the nearest electronics store.

“Hello. Good afternoon. I just moved here. I was just wondering if this is where I go to buy a sim card and a phone?”

“Yes, hello. Do you have any preferred carrier?”

“What do you have?”

“Just a moment”

“은지씨? (Eunji-ssi?)” Her ears perked up at the mention of her name but should she turn around? She didn’t exactly know anyone from LA so she doubt it would be anyone she knew personally. But then the way they called her name out sounded so naturally, like a Korean native. Before she could even give it another thought, she felt a hand on her shoulder, giving her no choice but turn around at the sound of her name being called out once more, eyes shining as she laid her eyes on a familiar face.

“Oh! Joongi Sunbae! 안녕하세요. 어떻게 오셨어요? (Hello. What brings you here?)”

“I should ask you the same thing. Seems like the rumors are true. You really did move to LA with your boyfriend”

“Yeah. Some decision that turned out to be”

“Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise?”

“Well—”

“Excuse me, Ma’am. Sorry it took so long. Here are the available carriers we have in the State” He watched her turn around, eyes fixed on the counter. The clerk had laid out four sim cards on the counter from four different companies. This was a very difficult decision for her. She absolutely hated slow signals and connections especially when she is on her phone nearly every hour of every day. Like everyone else, she hated slow connections. Of course, slow connections weren’t exactly a problem when she was in Seoul.

“Which of these are better?”

“Well, Verizon has the fastest connection but AT&T has better and cheaper deals”

“Get Verizon” She turned her head, almost forgetting about his presence. He smiled at her, nodding as if telling her to trust him and his decision so she did. She trusted his judgement, turning back to the clerk, nodding at him as if telling him that that was her decision before walking around the store with the clerk following quickly behind to look for the right phone to use. That was also something she had to choose carefully about. She needed a very good phone to go along with it. Unlike her friends who chose their phones based on the color or overall appearance. She was more careful than that.

“뭐해? (What are you doing?)”

“어? 선배, 어떤 핸드폰 사야할까요(Oh? What phone should I buy?)”

“어? 그건 어때? 그 CF 있었잖아. (Oh? How about that? That CF you did)”

“Oh right! Excuse me. Do you have that?” It felt weird pointing to a cut-out of herself, holding the latest product of LG. She hadn’t even noticed it before Joongi had pointed it out to her. The clerk turned his head to whichever direction she was pointing to. That was when he realized who she was, his eyes widening in shock as he froze for a few seconds before rushing off to look for the phone she wanted, grabbing different colors of the same model. She turned her head back to the cardboard cut-out of herself then to the TV screen that had her LG CF on loop. She was starting to miss it, being in front of the camera and doing her thing.

“By the way, you didn’t tell me you speak English”

“I didn’t? Well yeah I do. My parents thought it’d be nice if I learned how to speak it back when they wanted me to take over the business”

“Anyway, 보고싶지 않아? (don’t you miss it?)”

“보고싶죠. (Of course I miss it)”

“That’s good. Grab coffee with me after this. I think I have something for you”

“Really?”

“It could kickstart your career here if it goes well” She couldn’t help but embrace him in a hug. He just saved her life once more. She knew that it wasn’t final and nothing was for sure yet but to know that someone like him was helping her out made her feel at ease. To say she was thankful was an understatement because if this goes well, she would owe him a whole lot.  Never thought there’d be someone to save the day, she thought. She was very grateful to him. She already owed him a whole lot. Joongi had always helped in every way he could since the very beginning. She already owed him a lot and if she didn’t desperately need his help to get a kickstart, she wouldn’t have accepted it but she needed this.

“H-Here you go. We have four available colors. Do you need to hear the specs?”

“No need. I still have it memorized. Do you have this in Rose Gold? I remember holding the Rose Gold one during filming and it was absolutely beautiful”

“Yes, we do. Here you go”

“Great! Where do I pay?”

“Right this way” They followed the clerk to the cashier, taking her card out when it was her turn. Thankfully, only the employees recognized her so the transaction went smoothly. Taking the paper bag handed to her, they made their way out the store as she followed him to coffee shop a few blocks down the street. It was a very welcoming place, aesthetic to the eyes as well. It had a very simple rustic and chic theme, the dark brown walls, black furniture, white accents. It was very simple but aesthetic. They made their way to the corner of the café after taking their orders, spending the whole time talking about the job offer he had previously mentioned.

“They’re looking for a few people that would have good chemistry with me as a friend or a cousin or a sister. I don’t know. So maybe you could try it out. I could talk to the director to give you a chance to audition for the part. I’ll be there of course. What do you say?”

“That would be great! Thank you” She didn’t even have to think twice about the offer. How could she? Six weeks in LA and something good finally came her way. She wasn’t going to shut it down. Besides, she’s acted with him a few times before and they were always praised for having good chemistry on set.

“Great. You’ll do great. Trust me. I’ll send you the details after I talk to the director” And with that, they spent a couple more minutes inside the coffee shop before he decided to give her a tour around the neighborhood, showing her the local places like the mall, pharmacy, convenience store, supermarket, fast food joints, fancy restaurants. Thankfully she had a good sense of direction and a very good memory because he moved a bit fast along the streets, only slowing down when it was getting dark out, deciding to take a break on a nearby bench.

“So, spill. What’s the trouble in paradise?”

January 2nd, 2020. 19: 54. Considering how early the charity event had started, he had gotten home a few minutes before 8pm. That was when he noticed that the lights inside the apartment complex were all out. Maybe it was because he had gotten so used to the fact that she stayed, he figured she was in the bedroom upstairs sleeping. Besides, there was no way she would be out. He had told her to wait for him before heading out and walking around for the first time.

He had spent the entire morning and half of the afternoon sleeping so he wasn’t that tired despite spending the last couple of hours socializing and establishing connections. Realizing that he only had a few hours left of his free day, he decided to spend it playing games on his Switch for a few hours. He figured that she was probably feeling too down to want to talk to her so he didn’t bother heading upstairs to check up on her. By the time it was nearly 9pm, he heard he front door open which was odd. Other than himself, only his girlfriend knew the passcode and she was upstairs asleep. Or so he thought.

She didn’t expect him to be home so early. After dinner with Joongi, she made her way back home. That was when she noticed that the lights were on. Had I forgotten to turn the lights off? She thought as she made her way inside. She came home in a fairly good mood, not expecting to have it ruined so quickly but just as she entered the living room, she was greeted by her boyfriend standing in front of their TV Screen, playing games on his Switch. And seeing as how shocked he was to see her come through the front door, he probably hadn’t noticed that she wasn’t in the apartment when he got back and just proceeded to play his games.

“Eunji—”

“So let me get this straight. You come home to an empty apartment with no lights on, the first thing you do is play Switch”

“Baby, I thought you were upstairs sleeping and just turned the lights off”

“Since when have I ever turned the lights off when you weren’t home? You didn’t even bother to check?”

“Baby—”

“You know… Now I get the saying: ‘You never really know someone until you move in with them’” She marched her way up the stairs, not even bothering to hear any more of Aron’s explanations. There was nothing left to explain. Time and time again, she felt nothing but disappointment towards Aron since they moved to LA. She came home, prepared to make amends and apologize for her behavior earlier that afternoon but she really couldn’t validate his actions this time. Ever since he had started his training, she would always keep the lights on so that he didn’t have to stumble his way into the apartment in the dark when he got home so she found it very unreasonable for him to think that she was home and turned the lights out.

She was tired. She came home thinking she probably needed more time to adjust, prepared to give all this another shot but coming home to see him playing games when she didn’t even tell him she was going out. I mean, I could have as easily disappeared or something and he probably wouldn’t have noticed. She thought. Was it so wrong to expect him to at least stop by the room and say that he’s home when he thought I was just in the bedroom? Didn’t he say he wanted to talk when he got home?

She couldn’t take this anymore. You’d think six weeks in another country would be too soon to give up but not really. Not to her anyway. If he was already like this during training, how much worse could he possibly get when he actually stars working full-time? She was glad he was working hard but the amount of neglect and lack of attention to detail in their relationship kind of scared her. She didn’t want to be on the receiving end. Especially when she was never like this when she was the busy one back in Korea.

“What are you doing?”

“I can’t do this anymore”

“무슨 말이냐? (What are you talking about?)”

“나 집이 갈거야.  (I’m going home)”

“We can still talk about this” She stopped in her tracks. She had just started packing all the things. It was time for her to head back to Korea. Let’s face it. She doesn’t exactly belong here in LA. Plus, the longer she stayed, the more she was starting to see Aron’s true colors. He couldn’t hide it from her anymore now that they live together. She used to brush off the little things but it was getting worse. She couldn’t take it anymore.

“Talk to me”

“I’m done Aron. You know. While I was out and getting ready to settle into LA, I ran into Joongi Sunbae. He offered me a role in a film. He said he could ask the director to give me an audition that could possibly kickstart my career here so I came home with the intent to apologize for how I was acting, thinking that I was being unreasonable but I came back to see you playing games. You didn’t even notice I was gone. For God sakes Aron. The lights were off. When have I ever turned the lights off while you weren’t home? I left my career for you. That was my decision but would it have killed you to talk to me every now and then to see how I’m adjusting? To see if you could help?”

She was furious, pacing back and forth and flailing her arms in all directions. It felt good to let it all out after hiding it for so long. She tried bringing it up every now and then but he would always shoot down any conversations that would take more than a few minutes to end, deciding that his time was better spent sleeping or playing games. Even during Sundays. Sleep and games were much more important with him than establishing a deeper connection with his girlfriend.

She had always thought the reason why he spent so much time playing games back in Korea was because he didn’t have anything else to do. That he needed something to do to pass the time while waiting for her to respond to the messages or whatever while she was working but apparently, that wasn’t the case.

“Hey hey. Don’t apologize. I understand. It’s okay to act unreasonable sometimes. And that’s great. I’m glad you ran into him”

“Oh my god. Are you kidding me? So you think I was being unreasonable? Aron, I was only like that because of how you were treating me lately! You think I haven’t tried talking to you? You always shot me down!”

“Calm down”

“No! I’m leaving tomorrow”

“No, you’re not” She had her back facing him, pacing around the room while she was talking. She tired to get him to see how stupid he sounded right now so she didn’t expect that the moment she turned around, Aron had pulled out a gun, pointing it right at her. Of course, she thought. It all makes sense. His lack of ability to empathize and to feel, unable to show strong emotions other than anger, lying pathologically, only thinking about himself and what he wanted, all the fights he had gotten himself into, the fact that he wasn’t even remotely worried as to what might have happened to her. He was a psychopath. Why else would he be pointing a gun at her just because she wanted to leave?

“What are you doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m taking back what’s mine”