You rest your chin against your hand as you heave a sigh. You keep tapping your phone screen to check if there are any new messages. You've been studying at the library for over 40 minutes while waiting for your boyfriend to get out of class. Chani was supposed to meet you here for lunch by now since his class ended a while ago, but boy's nowhere to be found, and you haven't received any messages from him.

"Whatever." You quickly gather your books and stand up. He's probably too busy and completely forgot to let you know. At this point, you're not even surprised anymore. You've got a calculus test to do after lunch, and you choose to focus on that instead. 

Hugging the books tightly to your chest, you walk down the hallway and make a turn towards the cafeteria. You've only got 15 minutes left before your next class so a quick sandwich would do. 

You're making your way to the queue when your eyes suddenly catch a glimpse of a familiar face from afar. Your eyebrows furrowed when you see a group of male and female students casually chattering while enjoying their meal, and in between them just so happen to be Chani. They aren't the usual group that he hangs with. You don't recognize them at all. He's sitting next to a girl, seemingly enjoying his life as you can see him laughing happily. 

You feel your heart sink as a scoff comes out of your lips. You thought Chani was too busy with class or homework to the point that he didn't even bother to text you for not being able to meet you when clearly he's just too busy having fun with his new friends. 

You contemplated for a while before you finally mustered up your courage to walk up to him. You tighten your grip on your books as you in a breathe and make your way towards the table.

"Oppa," 

You're immediately greeted by the confused gaze of the random strangers on the table and Chani's surprised expression. "_____?" he raises his eyebrows. 

There's a few moments of awkward silence before Chani starts to speak again. "Uh, wanna join us?" he stands up as he reaches out his arm.

You can clearly see the flustered expression written all over the boy's face, and it makes things worse for you. He clearly doesn't remember, or he's just not feeling any guilt after skipping your lunch date. You blink a couple of times in disbelief before pulling yourself together. 

"No thanks, I just got my lunch. I gotta go now," you plaster a smile on your face as you start walking away, bowing slightly along the way to the rest of the people at the table. 

"I-I'll see you later," you can hear Chani's voice from behind, but you keep walking. 

You swallow the lump in your throat as you walk out of the hall. You don't even know what or how to feel anymore. It's not the first time that Chani has missed out on your dates, but it's becoming more and more frequent. He just doesn't seem to spend or want to make time for you. He'd give you excuses at first, but now he just straight up doesn't show.  

You'd be lying if you said you didn't feel like your relationship is going downhill. It's been like this for the past couple of months, and it's not doing any better. You still have hope inside your heart and you want to make it work. But you're not so sure about Chani, and that's what killing you inside. You realize that you also have become numb from his hurtful actions, which means that your relationship is just like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

You glance at the time on your phone as a sigh escapes your lips. "6 more minutes." Your pace quicken as you make your way down the hallway towards your math class. Now you've got an empty stomach and an upcoming calculus test. Great. 

You quickly enter the classroom and settle down on your usual spot in the third row from the back. 

...

"Ya! I didn't know you got a girl!" the boy nudges him playfully, earning a small smile from Chani. 

"Yeah," he bites the inside of his cheek as he walks. 

"How long have ya'll been together?" the boy wiggles his eyebrows.

"4 years... almost 5," he answers. 

"Omo! You hear that? He's taken Eunseo-ya,"

"Shut up Kim Sunwoo!" she smacks his shoulder, earning an exaggerated yelp from him. 

Chani forces out a small chuckle as he puts his hands into his jeans' pockets. He feels his heart sink. He clearly forgot that he was supposed to meet you earlier, and the fact that he found you hanging out with your new friends made it even worse. 

You and Chani used to be inseparable during the first semester of College. You two would always have lunch together and make time between classes since you have different majors. He couldn't remember when it all started to be the way it is now, but it's certainly different than what it used to be. Chani would spend more time with his group or go to parties to meet new people on weekends instead of coming over to your dorm. He's pretty sure that he still got feelings for you, but he seems unable to feel the spark anymore.

...

You lay your head on the table and heave a sigh. An hour has passed, and you're finally done with your math test. You're starting to have a throbbing headache right now from having an empty stomach, plus for catching Chani earlier. But to think of it on the bright side, you're actually done for the day. You'd be able to come home, relax, and enjoy the rest of your day.

You slowly close your eyes when all of a sudden, you hear a rumbling sound from your abdomen. 

"," your eyes widen as you instantly straighten up, holding your stomach. 

You can see a few heads turning to look in your direction, meaning that they heard you loud and clear since the class was dead silent earlier. You can feel your face becoming hot as you drown in embarrassment. "This is great," you think to yourself.

"Times up, you can submit your tests now." the professor suddenly announces, earning groans from the rest of the students. 

"Perfect timing." You quickly pack your things and stand up to head out. But before you can take another step, you feel a hand on your shoulder. 

"I think you need this," 

You spin around in an instant only to see a tall guy handing you strawberry milk with a smile on his face. 

Your eyebrows lifted slightly, as you blink a couple of times before finally taking the box of milk from his hand. "Ah-" you force out a chuckle as you tuck a strand of hair behind your ear. You're not sure how to feel right now. You're definitely embarrassed but thankful at the same time. "I'm sorry that you had to hear it earlier. I just didn't have time to eat and yeah- I just-" 

You tend to blabber when you're in an awkward situation. Your brain just starts to panic and your mouth just couldn't stop spitting out random words. And this is one of those moments.

"Oh no, no, I'm not trying to make you embarrassed or anything." the boy quickly says. "I just figured you need this more than me at the moment." he grins. 

"Ah," you let out a smile. "Thank you,... uh-" you bite your bottom lip as you try to remember his name. You know his familiar face because he's been sitting across from you for quite a while now, but you don't really talk to your classmates so you absolutely have no clue about his name. 

"Yunho. I'm Jung Yunho," he rubs the back of his neck.

"Ah yes, Yunho-ssi," you grin. "And I'm-"

"_____." Yunho says before you could even blurt it out. 

Your eyes widen slightly in surprise. "Oh, you know my name," 

"Yeah, I sort of remember everyone's names because Professor Park takes attendance every class," 

"Ahh, right," your mouth shapes an "A" as you nod. 

"Not trying to be creepy or anything," Yunho ruffles his hair as he chuckles. 

"Oh, no no, I didn't mean to make it sound that way. I'm the one who just doesn't really pay attention to that," you chuckle in response. 

"C'mon you two, I need your papers," a voice suddenly says across the room, making the both of you turn towards the Professor's direction. 

Without you realizing, the class is pretty much empty and there's only the two of you that's left. 

"Whoops," your eyes widen in panic as you quickly walk, followed by Yunho.

After handing in your tests, the two of you finally exit the class. 

"Well, nice talking to you _____." Yunho starts.

"Mm." you nod with a smile. "Nice talking to you Yunho-ssi," 

"You can drop the formalities," the boy says as he puts his hands inside his pockets.

"Ah, okie," you say. "Well, I'm going this way." you point to your left.

"I'll see you tomorrow then," he nods.

"See you tomorrow, Yunho-ya," you make your way down the hallway. "And thanks again for this," you hold the strawberry milk up in the air, earning a grin from the boy.

"No worries," he waves you goodbye. 

...

Later that evening...

It's 7 pm and you're finally done with homework. You grab your phone and plop yourself down the couch. "What a day," you mutter under your breath.

Thank Goodness you're living in a one-bedroom dorm, meaning that you've got the whole place for yourself. You couldn't imagine having to deal with another person on days like this. On top of that, as a STEM student, you have to have your full focus on your studies so that you're not falling behind. 

Your eyes widen when Chani's name suddenly appears on your phone screen. You in a breath and slide your finger to pick up the call.

"Hey," you say softly.

"Hey, ______." 

There's a short pause before he continues. 

"I'm sorry for earlier." Chani breathes. "I was with my classmates. We're in the same group-"

"It's fine, don't worry about it." you press your lips into a thin line. 

"I was looking for you actually after class. But you left already," he continues.

"Mm," you can slightly hear the background noises from where he was calling from. He sounds like he's with a bunch of people. "Do you think you can stop by?" 

"Not tonight. I'm sorry _____-ah," Chani sighs. 

As expected. 

"No worries," you reply. At this point, you're trying to sound as calm as possible. As much as you're disappointed in him, you don't want him to know that because he won't do anything about it anyway. 

"Listen, I'll make it up to you. I promise," the boy continues. "I just have-"

"A lot of projects and homework, I get it."

"______-"

"Let's talk tomorrow. I'm going to rest now, feeling a bit tired," you say, cutting his sentence off.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow," Chani replies. "Love you,"

You pause for a moment, biting your bottom lip. "I love you too," 

And with that, the call ends with a beep. 

You stare at the empty box of strawberry milk sitting on top of the table and let out a sigh. Now the three words just sound like an empty repetition to you. You're not even sure if Chani is saying it because he actually meant it. 

'

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