“Aish, why aren’t you picking up?”

Taeng gazes at the screen of his phone as he ends the call for the fifth time. He irritably sighs and leans back against his chair, closing his eyes in the process.

 “Yo. Taeng.”

 He opens one of his eyes and sees Yul staring at him with a goofy grin on his face.

 “Hi.” He replied bluntly, closing his eyes again.

Yul scrunches his face in confusion; he takes a seat across from Taeng and intently stares at him.

“What’s your problem?”

 Taeng opens his eyes and sighs, “Nothing.”

 “Bull.” Yul abruptly said, causing Taeng to look at him, “Tell me.”

 Taeng sighs again, “It’s just Jieun.”

 “What about her?”

He runs a hand through his hair, “Well remember how we were supposed to hang out three days ago?” The latter nods, “She bailed on me.”

 Yul’s eyes widen, “What?!”

 “Yeah. We were supposed to meet at the café but she never showed up. I waited for about an hour.”

 The latter scoffs in disbelief, “What the hell? Did she even call to say why she didn’t show up?”

Taeng shakes his head, “Nope. I called her after I left and it went straight to voicemail. I’ve been nonstop calling her until now and she still hasn’t answered or called me back.”

 “Wait. Don’t you pick her up from classes?”

 “Yeah, I’ve been going to every one of her classes and she’s never there. I haven’t seen her ever since the last time we hung out. Which was a while ago.”

 Yul scrunches his nose, “Well…That’s not good.”

 Taeng scoffs, “You’re telling me. I’m getting worried.”

“Worried? I think ‘worried’ is the wrong word.” Yul retaliated, rolling his eyes.

 “What do you mean?” Taeng asked dumbfounded.

“Shouldn’t you be suspicious?”

Taeng narrows his eyes, “Suspicious? I mean…I don’t see any reason why I should be.”

 Yul’s jaw drops, “Seriously? You can’t be that dense right?”

He shrugs his shoulders, “I trust Jieun… We’ve been together for so long. Maybe an important errand came up.”

Yul sighs, he couldn’t think of many more words to make Taeng come to his common sense. He clicks his tongue and stands up from the chair, seeing that Taeng wasn’t going to believe or consider his words.

 “Well, I have to get to class. Good luck with everything Taeng.”

 Taeng remains silent, his eyes watch as his friend walks away from his sights. He sighs softly, unsure of what to think of at the moment. He didn’t want to take Yul’s words into thought; he knew Jieun wouldn’t dare to cheat on him. He quickly picks up his phone again and redials his girlfriend’s number, again it immediately reaches voicemail. He sighs hearing the same message and hangs up before the robotic voice got a chance to finish.

 “Usually if it goes straight to voicemail… It means their phone is off right?” He pondered to himself, his eyes still on the screen of his phone.

He ruffles his hair in frustration; he decided to give up on spamming Jieun’s phone for today and not worry about her for the rest of the day. He picks up his backpack from the floor and slings it around his shoulder. Taeng throws away his cup and decides to head to class early since he has nothing else to do.

I wonder how Tiffany is doing. He thought to himself as he makes his way through the bustling halls of the campus.

Ever since their last video chat, they have been nonstop texting each other. A smile forms on his face as Taeng’s mind begins to wonder about Tiffany. She was the only reason his day would be good even though he was mad at his girlfriend.

She just knew how to make him smile.

Tiffany was intently taking notes as she uncomfortably sat in her seat for English. The bell finally rings dismissing class; she takes a deep breath and drops her pencil on her desk. She cleans up and stuffs everything into her bag before slinging it on her shoulder and exiting class. Her classes were over for today, so she decides to head home and get started on her homework.

“Tiff.”

She turns around and smiles, “Jay.”

 He slightly jogs over to her and awkwardly waves, “Uhm…Can we talk?”

Tiffany tilts her head, “Of course.”

 Jay looks around the area before taking her wrist and leading her to a more secluded spot. Tiffany confusedly stares at her boyfriend, seeing him fidget and avoid her stares made her curious about his actions.

“Jay, is there something wrong?” Tiffany asked curiously, catching the eyes of the messy-haired latter.

Jay scratches the back of his head, “We need to talk.”

She slowly nods her head, “Okay? About what?”

He sighs and looks into her eyes, clasping his hands on her shoulder. “I think we need to break up.”

 Tiffany remains quiet, slightly opens but no words come out. She was stunned hearing those words.

 “W-what?” She stammered, dumbfounded and lost.

The latter releases his grasps on her shoulders and runs a hand through his hair.

“I’ve been seeing her…” He confessed, looking down to the ground.

 “Her?”

He nods, “Sarah. The girl you’ve been seeing me with. I’ve been meeting up with her behind your back.”

Tiffany clenches her fists, “For how long?”

Jay shrugs, “Couple weeks now.”

 Tiffany couldn’t believe what she was hearing, out of anger she slaps Jay as hard as she could.

Jay rubs his cheek that was now red, “Okay. I deserved that.”

 Tiffany rolls her eyes and scoffs, “I can’t believe you…You promised me.”

He sighs again, “Look I’m sorry Tiff.”

“Sorry? Sorry that you broke your promise? Sorry that you’re still seeing that girl? I don’t know Jay. That’s a lot of useless things to be sorry for.”

The latter stuffs his hands in his pockets, “I never meant too…”

“That’s what they all say.”

“This is why I’m breaking things off with you. I just don’t…”

“You don’t what?” She said in a cold tone, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“I just don’t have feelings for you anymore.” He said softly.

Tiffany’s eyes widen, it surprised her to hear those words.

 “I see…” She said softly.

 She wasn’t sure how to take a break up; she wasn’t even sure how to respond.

“I know I’ve said this countless times… But I really am sorry Tiff.” Jay softly smiles, “This is better for both of us.”

Tiffany remains quiet, this was her first break up in a while and she wasn’t sure how to handle it. This particular breakup was harsher for her since it was the longest time she has ever been with someone.

After hearing no words from Tiffany, Jay took that as a sign to leave, his smile remains on his face as he kisses her cheek softly before turning around and walking off.

Tiffany felt frozen, her fists were balled uptight and she felt her stomach churn. To her surprise, however, she wasn’t sad or hurt. She was mad. Mad because Jay broke her promise. She didn’t care that he broke up with her. She was quite relieved she didn’t have to deal with him anymore. She felt as if her feelings for him withered up as well. She no longer felt the butterflies whenever they kissed or held hands.

She felt…nothing.

After some time Tiffany heaves a sigh and trudges her way back to the car. She silently drives back home and quietly enters her apartment where she finds a bored Jessica watching television.

“Oh hey, Tiffany.” Jessica smiles but it quickly fades seeing the dull look on her friend’s face. She lowers the volume on the TV and turns her attention to the emotionless girl.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, her tone worried.

Tiffany doesn’t respond, she shrugs her shoulders and walks to her room. She shuts the door softly, leaving a worried dumbfounded Jessica in the living room. Tiffany plops on her bed; she wasn’t feeling in the best mood. She just suffered through a breakup, she was happy that she and Jay were no longer together but the feeling of getting dumped wasn’t pleasant. She sighs and takes out her phone and immediately pulls up a contact. She stares at the name for a couple of seconds before deciding to text this certain individual.

She knew this certain person would make her day. He always does every time they would text or call. Today was especially one of the days where she wanted to smile despite her gloomy feeling.

To: Taeng.

 “Taeng!”

 As soon as her phone goes off, a smile draws on her face.

 From: Taeng.

“Tiffany! Hey! How are you?”

She was right.

He never fails to draw a smile on her face.

The Next Day

“Jieun!”

After who knows how many days, Taeng finally spotted his girlfriend walking to her class. He chased after her and gently grabs her wrist before spinning her around. The latter had a dull look on her face and she released Taeng’s grip on her, dropping her arm to the side lifelessly.

“What?” She asked coldly.

Taeng’s eyes widen, he wasn’t sure why Jieun was acting this way towards him. He thinks back to the time they would hang out but nothing of an argument recalled to him. He's certain he hasn’t done anything wrong now that he thought about it.

 “Are you okay? You never showed up when we were supposed to hang out…And you never texted or called me back.” Taeng answered, his eyes looking straight at his girlfriend’s face.

Jieun heaves a sigh and runs a hand through her hair, her eyes were hollow and she had a tired expression on her face.

 “I’m sorry about that…” She said softly, her eyes gazing down to the floor.

 Taeng rubs the back of his head, “It’s okay. I just got really worried about you. Is everything okay?”

The latter doesn’t reply for quite some time, it was making Taeng worry even more but he wasn’t sure what to say.

Finally, Jieun grabs Taeng’s wrist and drags him to a secluded part of the campus. She leans against the wall, leaving Taeng confused as he stares at his girlfriend with concerned eyes.

“Taeng…There’s something I need to say.” Jieun stated quietly as she bites her bottom lip.

Taeng quickly nods, “Yeah sure. What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?”

Jieun shakes her head, “No! You didn’t do ANYTHING wrong.”

Taeng takes a step closer, “Then what’s wrong?”

She sighs before looking straight into Taeng’s eyes with the same expressionless look.

“I cheated on you.”