It was eeriely silent for a moment. It was as if time had stopped and the both of them were rooted to the ground, playing staring game with each other. The words from Chanyeol's mouth were finding their way to absorb into Se Ri's mind only to repel from it as if like she had mastered a repelling spell. Her body doesn't know how to react, it sorts of just...shuts down. Her face went slack, mouth slightly open, body unmoving, and color draining from her face as she stare wide-eyed at the male in front of her. She just froze up to a point where she can hardly feel herself breathing.

But when her shock begins to melt away, everything returns slowly.

"Why?", was all she could say. She wanted to say a lot of things in a full sentence with a proper punctuation mark but "why" was all she could afford.

Chanyeol shifted his eyes everywhere but Se Ri, his dry lips and gripping his hands without knowing. "I got accepted for a scholarship program in LA."

Se Ri felt her body temperature rising and Chanyeol could see this by the coloring in her face. He rocked back and forth from foot to foot, waiting for her reply.

"How long were you planning on not telling me?" her voice tight, obviously biting back her dissappointment, anger and sadness.

Chanyeol went silent. His head dropped and he gazed at the wooden flooring of his home. "I wanted to break it to you for quite sometime - "

"So you knew this for quite sometime?" she cut him off mid-sentence. Chanyeol let out a sudden sigh, open his mouth to speak. He saw anger in her eyes so he thought twice and snap it shut, gulping the lump in his throat. This news just brought her crumbling life to a whole new level. "How could you be so heartless? How could you not tell me? How could you be so selfish?" she accused him.

Chanyeol doesn't know why anger was forming in the pit of his stomach the moment she started accusing him. His normally calm and pleasant demeanor slowly changed and his face contorted in an all - consuming anger; his nostrils flaring, his eyes flashing and closing into slits, his mouth quivering and drooling, slurring words that were unintelligible came spewing into space like a volcano releasing its pent up emotions into the darkness.

"The last time I checked, you were selfishly in your own world with your lover boy. Tell me Lee Se Ri, who's the selfish one right now?" he sarcastically snapped with cold eyes.

"Are you accusing me? I tell you everything, Yeol. From A to Z. Everything. I want to be happy again. And I found Kai. Is that so hard to understand?" she snapped back.

"He's not in love with you. Wake up! He's madly in love with your sister who thinks that you are the exact replica of her. I know you are hurting. I'm trying my best as a best friend to lift you up from being down there. But you seem like you don't want to get up! He's just using you to relive his memories from the past. Can't you see that? I feel so useless when you're so stubborn like this!" he said, hurt.

Her hands closed into fists, daring him to repeat once more the words that had torn her heart into fragments, that had dashed all her expectations of 'happy ever after". "Repeat what you just said. I dare you to."

Chanyeol lost it. "Take a good look at yourself. You're becoming like a zombie. I don't even know you anymore. Do you honestly think that you'll live your life like this forever? Don't you think about your future? What you want to be? Have you thought about applying for university? You don't even have a job even! Look at your life, it's practically revolving around that...that coffee boy of yours - "

"He has a name!" she yelled.

"I don't give a damn about his name! Get a life Lee Se Ri! Saejin noona is gone. No matter how much you wallow in your sadness, she'll never come back! Get a grip and move on with your life. Do you not know that I'm always concern about your well-being? Do you have the slightest idea that I'm feeling down when you are down? I tried so hard to spend my time with you but you seem not to even notice me by your side. Because why?, he scoffed. "You're trapped in your own little bubble with some guy you barely know and guess what you found out? He was your dead sister's ex-boyfriend! Oh wait, he's still her boyfriend, considering the fact that neither of them broke up with each other!"

SLAP!

Chanyeol's head whipped to the side. Se Ri had strode towards him like lightning which he didn't even notice. "Don't. Talk. Like. You. Know. Everything."

His eyes stung and the tears which he rarely shed, trickled down his red cheeks. That was the first time Se Ri had lay a hand on him. His best friend of almost 18 years had slapped him across the cheeks. Then with a little more success, he said something, but it comes out raspy, almost audible.

"I can't believe you....you went MIA on me, you don't know how worried I was at that time. I came all the way to look for you, only to find you like this."

"I didn't tell you to come and look for me. You came willingly." she said in a monotonous voice.

"...what? I cared about you." Chanyeol was dumbstrucked at her choice of words.

Se Ri crossed her hands over her chest with a grim look on her face. "You came on your own will to find me. Did I tell you to? No. As you can see, I'm perfectly fine living like this. I have a boyfriend now. I don't need you. So go on your little stupid trip to wherever you're going and don't come back. Stay that way Park Chanyeol. You're a selfish bastard to me."

With that, she picked up her bag, slung it over her shoulders, walked to the front door and fixed her sneakers on. Without a second glance, she slammed the door to his home shut.

Chanyeol stood still with his head hung low. A slip of a tongue could cause a war and that was what happened. He still felt the aftershock when someone came by and escorted him to a chair. Feeling light-headed and possibly disoriented, while his mind begins buzzing with whatever that had had happened. He look up to see his mother in tears as she embraced him without uttering a word.

"Mom...what did I do?" Chanyeol sobbed on her shoulders.

Mr Park sighed from the kitchen as he slowly wheeled himself back to his room.

---------

Her hands trembled trying to unlock the door of her home. When she did, she swung the door open and slammed it shut. She rested her back on the door and slid down to the ground, bawling. Her heart was constricted with pain, like a thousand arrows piercing through it. Se Ri shook her head in disbelief. She placed her hands over her head and curled up into a ball as tears stream down her cheeks. This was all too much to take in. Only the empty hallway witnessed her miserable sobs. She knew Chanyeol was right. She always hated when he was right. But her egoistic nature wouldn't want to accept the fact.

*Park Chanyeol! I hate you...I hate you....*

Just then, her phone rang, echoing through the hallway. She couldn't be bothered to pick it up. There were only 2 people who would call her. Kai and Chanyeol. She doubt it was the latter. When she calmed down for what seemed like forever, she dragged herself to her room and plunged into bed. Her red swollen eyes were half-lidded, tired from crying. On the other hand, her phone just wouldn't stop ringing. She grazed her purse which was resting by her side and took out her phone. There were 7 missed calls and 4 text messages from Kai. A little part of her was hoping that Chanyeol would text her but there was absolutely zilch.

She read Kai's messages one by one.

**Kim Jongin**
What are you doing now? I'm almost done with work. Wanna meet up?

**Kim Jongin**
Are you asleep? You're not picking up my calls. Call me when you're awake.

**Kim Jongin**
Something wrong? You're usually not like this.

**Kim Jongin**
Lee Se Ri, you're scaring me.

After that last message, Se Ri decided to give him a call. As though he had been standing by his phone, he picked up after the first ring.

"Se Ri! Oh god. Are you alright?" Kai asked in an urgent voice.

Dead silence. Se Ri could her shuffling on the other end of the line and someone telling him "good job today.' Obviously, he was done with work, she guessed.

"Can you hear me?" Kai asked again.
"Y-yeah..." she said in a raspy voice.
"What happened? Your voice....have you been crying?" again, his voice sounded urgent. "Look, if it's about me and -"
"Chanyeol's leaving." she started to cry again.
"Se Ri, wait up for me. I'll be there as soon as I can." Kai assured and hung up.

Se Ri dropped her phone and sobbed into her pillow. Every part of her was broken. She couldn't fix it just yet.