He came back after a while, bringing with himself all sorts of smells and foods. He came into my room and stretched his arm for me to hold his hand while he was still there with a bright smile. ‘I brought all I could find from the store next door’, he said while signaling me to sit down while he placed the food on the counters. ‘Did you go into my room?’, he asked curiously. I shook my head and he giggled. ‘Good, because you need to see this. Hold on’. He ran again to his room, and brought a box.

- Can you guess what’s inside? It smells like you – He said, wiggling his eyebrows

- A ferret? – I adventured to say. But he growled and took the animal out of the box

- How did you guess? Do I smell like it too?

- You said it smelled like me, and you always say I smell like ferrets. It just made sense – I said honestly. – What’s its name?

Chanyeol cleared his throat and put the ferret on my lap. ‘Byul’, he said. I looked at him, and he laughed, with one eye partially closed. ‘I named it after you’.

- Why would you name a ferret after me?

- Because I’ve always liked your name – Said he – And if I said Byul just because, Hana would have thought I wasn’t over you so I would be pretty much screwed.

Here we go with Hana again. Play it cool, Byul, real cool.

- Why is she so jealous of me? – I asked casually while checking on the kimbap he had brought

- Who? – He asked while slapping my hand for him to put in on a plate

- Hana. She didn’t want to see my slippers, she doesn’t want to hear my name…

- Ah –Said Chanyeol carelessly –She thinks I’m still in love with you.

She thinks he still loves me. But apparently he does not.

I basically spent six months in love and planning a life with a guy who made his life again with my friend. Way to go, I should write a book about this.

- Oh – Honestly, what else did you expect me to say?

- Yes… - He said, somehow realizing that he shouldn’t have said that, or at least he shouldn’t have put it that way – Let’s eat, shall we? You need to tell me what you did in China

- I’m not hungry now, Chanyeol. I think I will go to bed and sleep. I can’t live here anymore, so tomorrow I will go out to find a new apartment or something

Chanyeol changed his expression to a serious one. ‘Why do you say that? This is your home’, he said

- This is your home. Not mine. And apparently, Hana’s home. I don’t want to arrive one day and see her all pissed off because I’m here. I promised her that I would help, and staying here makes no good.

I stood up and bowed slightly, and made my way back to my room, where I unpacked my pajamas and put them on. A few minutes later, Chanyeol knocked on my door.

- Can I come in? – He asked shyly. I nodded, and he sat down in my bed – Why were you crying a while back?

- I already told you.

- Byul, please. Don’t do this to me. What happened?

-Nothing, Chanyeol.

He wiggled me a couple of times, and then sat right next to me and hugged me, putting his head on my shoulders.

- Why did you ask me to stop calling you? – He asked me

-  It wasn’t good for us. I don’t want to talk about it.

-  I do.

- I don’t, Chanyeol,  please.

Chanyeol lifted his head to look at me, but his face was too close to mine. A distance that, if the weekend we spent together would be still going on, it would have been replaced with a kiss. But this was another time. A worse one. ‘I don’t want to see you sad, Byul. I don’t’, he said, and he pressed his forehead against mine. A bunch of memories came into my head.

- And I don’t want to see that your relationship fails because of us getting close. So can you please get out of my bedroom and go do something else? –I asked him

- You must be tired – He said, flashing a tiny smile – I’ll let you sleep. See you tomorrow, Byul.

- Goodnight, Chanyeol.

Next morning I woke up to the smell of pie and coffee. Something in my head kept telling me to stay there, but I just went outside to see what was for breakfast. It was Hana. Alone.

- Hi – I said softly. She turned smiling but then her smile changed to a disgusted expression

- What are you doing here? – She asked

- I live here, Hana. I thought you knew – I told her while picking up an apple from the fruit basket. There was no way in the world that I was going to have the chance to have the breakfast she was so diligently preparing

- You lived here. Now it’s Chanyeol’s place. Why are you here? – She asked, lowering her voice

- I got bored in China so I wanted to come back. – I lied again

- Will you stay here for a long time? – She inquired

- I don’t know. I don’t think so.

- Good. Because I don’t want you near him.

- What’s your problem, Hana? Did I tell him not to be with you, did I do anything to you? We were friends, the least thing I would expect is a how are you – I told her. She was being too rude, even if I could see why she was doing it.

- Do you have any idea of how hard it was for me to make him say yes to go out with me? He kept calling your name, he kept talking about you… I hate you, Byul.

- Who hates who? – Asked Chanyeol, coming out of his room and stretching. Hana gave me a nasty look and ran to hug him and kiss him good morning.

- Nobody hates anybody,  baby – She told him – I was just telling Byul that I would hate it to see her go again. Right, Byul?

I nodded and excused myself, and went back to my room to change my clothes. I could hear the baffled sounds of them arguing over why didn’t Chanyeol tell her that I was here. It had been another mistake to come here, but then I didn’t blame myself that much. How was I supposed to know?

Anyway I finished dressing and went out. I sneaked out of my own house to go find another place to stay. Luckily enough, I found a youth hostel to spend a couple of nights until I could make up my mind on where I should stay for good, and how will I take my stuff out of the house.

The next day, I went back to my apartment, and began putting my stuff in boxes I had bought the day before. ‘This won’t be easy, but if you love him then you can let him go. His happiness will make you happy’, I managed to tell myself. When I got in, Chanyeol was playing his guitar, just like the day that all of this began. As soon as he saw me, he went back to his room to grab my slippers and put them on the floor again. But this time, none of us smiled.

- You’ll go again, right? – he asked

- Yes. – I said emotionlessly.

Chanyeol stood up in front of me, and grabbed my wrists

- Why are you escaping now? I did what you asked me to do. Did I do wrong?

- No. You did very good – I told him, faking a smile – That’s why I need to go. Nobody likes to have a boyfriend who lives with a girl.

- But all I did was to keep you near me. This is what you wanted, right?

- Yes. You are in love with her. This is what I wanted.

- Will we ever talk about this again?

- I don’t think so. Can you let go off my wrists? I need them to pack my stuff.

He let go off my wrists and helped me packing. From time to time we would talk about some things, we would remember our life as friends, until we ended up sitting in the couch, like the old times.

- I missed this – He admitted – Hana is all girly and stuff, which is good, but she can’t watch what I like.

- I missed this too, but I’d appreciate if you didn’t talk about her all the time. I know you love her, but come on, I want to watch stuff without thinking about my number one hater.

I stood up from the couch, and went to the door.

- Thank you for your help. I’ll be coming next week to pick up my stuff, I still haven’t found the right place to stay but I promise I’ll do it soon. Goodbye, Chanyeol.

Chanyeol tried to hurry and go to the door, but I had already closed it and ran to the elevator. I’m starting to think that I need to cut out on seeing him for a long time, so these few hours were just fine.

Hang on in there, Byul, you will succeed on this. He’s hers and there’s nothing you can do. Just move on. I know you can, Byul.