“I hate you. I hate you so much.” You said, glaring. But as you continued to stare, your eyes softened and raised your hand. You pulled your hand back, cursing yourself for your weak will.

“No. Never. From now on I don’t want you in my life.”

“You will no longer be a part of my life. You need to go.” You said regretfully.

It was time to let go. Time for a change. It was time for a better you, a life you wanted and you could only achieve that life once you can let go.

You had to stop yourself from tearing up as you watched it go.

Your last bag of potato chips.

Down the garbage it went, along with all of the rest of the junk food in your house. You forced yourself to turn away from the sad sight. When the garbage bag was almost out of site, you couldn’t stop yourself from turning back and giving it a last stare.

The bag of chips were calling to you, peeking out from the rest, begging you to come back and eat it.

“No!”

You forced yourself to run up the stairs and into your room. This was so hard for you to do. Those food was your source of comfort, the thing that gave you happiness before. Having to get rid of them was quite hard.

“It’s necessary. I need to get in shape so that I can do my best in volleyball. Then maybe I can even make it into a team in college.” You said to yourself in determination.

During the past week you have been training to the best of your abilities. You jogged in the morning and did some muscle training so that you could better withstand playing for a long time. During the night, you did some simple sit ups and pushups to help along with as well. And the days that Wooyoung required you to come and practice with them, you had come as well, fully prepared. He noticed you were able to play longer and could even hit the ball harder. The things you were during to improve your health were paying off and you couldn’t help but feel extremely ecstatic.

Taking a deep breath, you headed to your bed and sank down. It was silent for a moment as you looked around your room, trying to think of something to do. When after ten minutes you couldn’t come up with anything, you felt, almost lost.

Your whole life was surrounded on food. If you weren’t eating it, you were making it and if you weren’t making it, you were watching shows about it. Trying to cut yourself off from that was really difficult.

You were about to give into your desire and make some cookies when you felt your phone ringing. Looking curiously at it, you saw that Jonghyun was calling you. You were confused on why he was calling you. If he needed to tell you something he usually just texted it to you and never really called you.

Watching it ring for a moment, you shrugged your shoulders and decided to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Unnie?” Was what you heard after a few seconds of silence. You could tell she was crying. Every few seconds or so you heard sniffling and sobs coming from the other end. Immediately worried, you sat up from your bed and answered her.

“Eun Mi. What’s wrong?” And with that, the waterworks came. She was full blown crying now. Your eyes widened in worry and you were out the room, ready to head to wherever she was.

“Eun Mi. Please tell your unnie what’s wrong. Where are you? Are any of your oppas there?” You were trying to balance on one foot as you slipped your shoes on the other. Quickly putting the other one on and grabbing your keys, you were out of the house before Eun Mi could even utter where she was.

“I’m at home unnie. I’m scared. So scared. Oppa- he… Oppa is scaring me unnie. The other oppas aren’t answering me! Please come help him!”

Without a second thought, you started to run to the bus stop heading towards Jonghyun’s house.

When you got there, Eun Mi immediately opened the door and pulled you in. With tears in her eyes, she pulled you through the house and into the backyard. What you saw there scared even you.

Jonghyun was tossing boxes and boxes of things into the fire. He picked up a fluffy white blob and tossed it in there was well. That white blob appeared to be a bear holding a rose in its hands. Looking at Jonghyun, you couldn’t help but take in his disheveled appearance. His usually nice hair was in disarray, sticking up in all sorts of places. The clothes he was wearing was full of soot and was caked on with dirt and mud. But what got you really worried were the tears slowly falling down his face. You haven’t known him for a long time, but to you, he didn’t seem like someone who would cry like that. He seemed so strong and had an air around him that showed he could take care of everything.

You looked down at Eun Mi who was still holding tightly onto your hands. She had tears flowing freely down her face as she looked at her brother. Giving her hand a squeeze in comfort, she looked up at you. Bending down to her level, you plastered on a gentle smile on your face.

“Where are you parents?”

“There at wo-work.” She sobbed out. Nodding your head in understanding, you took one last look at Jonghyun before pulling Eun Mi into the house.

Looking around the house, you spotted the television and pulled her there. Seating her on the couch, you searched for the remote. Quickly finding it next to the TV, you turned it on and searched for a child’s program channel. After a few flipped through the channels, you found one playing a cartoon show you used to watch when you were a little kid. Placing the remote back down, you kneeled down to Eun Mi and wiped away her tears.

“Hush now Eun Mi. Look at unnie.” You said gently. When she finally looked at you, you smiled gently at her.

“Smile for me.” After a few seconds, she forced a smile on her face. Smiling genuinely at her you patted her head.

“You’re such a brave girl! Now promise me that you’ll stop crying alright? Unnie here will try to help out your oppa. Watch the show and leave it to unnie!” After wiping the last tear drop away, you gave her one last smile as you stood up and headed to the backyard.

You took a huge breath as you opened the back door and stepped out. Breathing a small sigh of relief, you were glad to see that Jonghyun was no longer tossing things in the fire. He was sitting on the ground, looking unseeingly into the blazing fire. The tears finally dried up on his face and were replaced with an almost expressionless look.

Walking slowly towards him, you made as little noise as possible. When you reached him, you sat down close to where he was and just stayed silent. You didn’t want to say something that could cause him to lash out. You wanted to wait for him to say something instead of trying to get him to telling you what was wrong.

And that was the position you two were in for the next twenty minutes. Neither of you decided to break the silence and just continued to look at the slowly dying fire. You were content to stay like that, just offering Jonghyun a companion, a presence to show that there was someone there if he needed to talk about it.

“She left me.” Was the almost unnoticeable whisper that came from him. You didn’t say anything else and waited for him to continue.

“After two years of being together, she leaves me.” You heard his voice breaking and you heard him take a deep breath, trying to stop himself from crying again.

“She said I didn’t love her enough, didn’t care about her enough. So she found someone who did.” A humorless laugh spilled from his mouth.

“Love her enough? I didn’t?” Another bitter chuckle left his mouth as he shook his head in disbelief.

You turned to look at him and you felt your heart aching at the sight he presented. He looked like a thoroughly broken hearted man.

“I loved her so much. I didn’t know it would hurt this much.” And his tight control on his tears slipped as the memories of him and his girlfriend started to flood his mind. Biting your lip, you pulled up whatever courage you had in you and scooted closer to him. Without another thought in your head, you put your arms around him and pulled him into your arms. You stayed silent as he let out his hurt, frustration, and betrayal through his tears. 

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Aw... poor Jonghyun... Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please comment and tell me what you thought! I love reading your comments! And thanks for commenting by the way to the people who commented on my last chapter! You guys are the best! :D