A/N: I tried writing a prologue but I just couldn't finish it somehow, I just wasn't in the mood. I'll include it as a bonus chapter when I'm in the mood to finally write it. Haha!

This chapter has no mature content in it.

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"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

"God, Linda! What's wrong?" Kristin sat up from the bed wondering what kind of ruckus Linda was making from her computer.

"I-I can't make it to his birthday... I won't be able to go to Korea. I've used up all of my vacation time and I don't have the money for it either, it'll be IMPOSSIBLE for me to visit him! I guess it'll just be another skype date... and I was looking forward to his birthday too. Oh well..."

"Is there no way for you to go to Korea?"

"Yup."

"Wait, there is?"

"No, I'm agreeing with the content of the question, there's no way for me to go." Linda sets down her computer before crawling to her bed and snuggling with her stuffed penguins. "It's fine, don't worry about it."

Linda closes her eyes for a bit to process the information while Kristin and Alex share a look with each other, knowing exactly what they have to do next.

-----

The next morning Jongdae and Linda have their daily skype date, usually occurring after his last schedule and before she goes to work. Linda still didn't know how to tell Jongdae that she couldn't keep her promise of seeing him on his birthday. She wanted to desperately to just drop everything and somehow run back into his arms never having to leave them ever again, but knew she couldn't do that. She couldn't bring herself to do it, she couldn't leave behind her friends and family that she loved dearly. The familiar skype call pop-up appeared and she immediately answered it while smacking herself in her head for seeming a little too desperate to see his face.

"You missed me that badly, huh?"

"W-what?!"

"You picked up immediately this time, usually you let it ring a little before clicking the button."

"I-I do?"

"Are you okay?"

"Of course! I just... miss... you... dang it!"

"Hah! Got you."

Linda groaned and dropped her head to the desk from embarrassment, though usually she was the more romantic and lovey dovey person in relationships in the past, something about Jongdae made her want to deny everything about him on the outside...

... but inside she felt the complete opposite. And he knew.

"How was your day? Did you do something fun with the other members?"

"We filmed Running Man today."

"Really? That's awesome! I can't wait to watch it. Was Lay excited to be on the show again?" Linda laughed a little, the way Lay loved Running Man was always so endearing.

"Yup, and..."

The conversation continued on for a while and as it came to a close Linda was worried Jongdae was going to ask about being able to go to Korea because they had just talked about it yesterday. She tried leading the conversation away from the subject, talking about anything that wasn't related to traveling long distances. However, that proved to be a failure as Jongdae suddenly brought up the subject.

"Oh! So are you able to come for my birthday?"

"U-umm, I'm working on it."

"I can't wait to see you."

"Hey, I gotta go. It's time for me to go to work."

"Oh. Okay..."

A pause occurred between them as they noticed the awkward parting between them. Linda looked away and clutched at her pendant tightly, a habit of hers that she does when she's nervous or trying to process something. Linda looked back at the camera almost in tears, frustrated at how she couldn't just straight out tell him that she couldn't go, but it was hurting her for some odd reason.

"You know I love you, right?" Linda spoke softly, wondering if Jongdae actually heard it.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'll miss you!"

"I miss you, too."

They exchange their partings and Linda heads to work, wondering how she was going to tell him she couldn't make it for his birthday.

-----

Days pass by and Linda continued avoiding the subject, which worried Jongdae but he didn't think much about it. He trusted that somehow Linda will figure out a way to get here; however, the opposite was happening. Linda became a mess even though she didn't show it to others, but at the end of the day she would lie on her bed staring at the ceiling not knowing what to do. She felt guilty for not telling him, and when she wanted to something inside her stopped her from saying it. Her mind was eating at her and she lost motivation to do anything except for the basic daily requirements.

Three weeks pass by and Jongdae increasingly grew worried, their daily skype sessions were rare and sporadic because she stopped picking up his calls. Her friends were growing worried as well because she cut off contact with everyone, no longer going on chat conversations or answering texts. Both Alex and Kristin had an idea of why Linda was being this way and decided to contact Jongdae at the same time he reached his conclusion to contact them. Jongdae was surprised when he received a phone call from Alex's account. The three of them discussed the situation and made a plan, wanting to give Linda a nice surprise on Jongdae's birthday...

-----

September came around and Linda still hadn't told Jongdae that she couldn't come, but at the same time Jongdae stopped asking her about it as well. The familiar call came from the computer and she answered it, realizing that they hadn't skyped in quite a while.

"You picked up!!"

"Hi," she gave a small wave and rubbed her eyes. She had the day off and decided to sleep in a little until she woke up to the skype call.

"Did you just wake up?"

"Yeah, I have the day off today."

"I missed you."

"Me too. How have you been?"

"Same old, same old. Oh! I've been taking English and Vietnamese lessons from Alex."

"Really? Why?"

"Just random, I guess. I wanted to learn a bit more. We've also been learning Chinese together so that she can talk to Luhan better and I just want to improve on mine."

"Oh, that's cool," Linda smiled and wondered if something was up, but decided against it.

"Yeah, she's really cute."

"Mmhmm, she is."

Why does she feel breathless all of a sudden?

"How are you?"

"Sleepy... wishing you were here."

"Miss me that much, huh?" Jongdae had to hold back the smile that was threatening to spread across his entire face in case Linda picked up on his secret.

"Ung." Linda nodded and rubbed her eye drowsily, not completely paying attention to what she was saying.

"Don't worry, we'll see each other soon."

"Ung."

"Anything interesting happen at work?"

"We found kittens the other day, Jessica is taking care of them in her apartment. They're really cute! I got to feed one of them and nap with it..." Linda continued to share memories of her week to Jongdae as he listened to her, appreciating that this was the most she had talked in a very long time. He continued to listen to her until he unknowingly fell asleep, and Linda was left watching the boy sleep. She wasn't sure if she should hang up or not, but felt a pang of both sadness and happiness looking at the sleeping figure in front of her. She decided to keep the call runing for a bit, singing a small tune while surfing the internet before ending the call and going back to bed herself.

-----

A few days passed by and Linda grew worried, she hadn't recieved a call from Jongdae since the night he fell asleep while skyping and was wondering how he was doing. She noticed a decline in contact from Alex as well and wondered if it was because they spent a lot of time together teaching languages to each other...

... Until she overheard a phone conversation between them.

"Jongdae oppa! How are you?... Wow, you're so busy!... I'm okay, just working right now... What? You're crazy. You're lucky I took the time to answer your call... Oh, you can't video chat tonight? Okay... I-I'll miss you too! Bye!"

Linda heard a "Wait-" from the other side of the phone conversation and knew that Alex had cut off the conversation early. The elder looked at the younger girl waiting for her to say something, but she only looked away and couldn't make eye contact with her. Linda smiled and brushed it off, heading towards her office to set down her stuff as usual. Alex sat there hitting her head and wondering what she should say to the girl who caught her talking to her boyfriend. She peeked her head into Linda's office and squeaked a greeting, one that Linda didn't hear because it was so quiet. Alex walked up to her and tapped her shoulder, giving her a small wave and repeating her greeting.

"Hey Alex," Linda slightly smiled. "Who was that you were talking to?"

"U-uh, Luhan!"

Lies.

"Oh?? Have y'all progressed to the point where you can say 'I miss you' now?" 

"U-uh huh!"

"Wow~ That's cute! Though I still think one of y'all needs to confess."

"What?!"

"Yeah! If you're saying 'I miss you' then it's definitely gotten to that point already, don't you think?" Linda usually found it fun to tease Alex about her neverending crush on Luhan. Even though they've kissed and done things neither one of them have still found the courage to confess their feelings for each other. However, today just felt a little different, especially since she knew that Alex was lying to her.

Alex began to say something but Linda just waved her off and said she was only joking so that they both could go back to work.

Linda hated being everywhere now. It seems like Jongdae's presence was everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time. No texts, no internet contact, no secret signals, nothing to indicate that she was on his mind. She picks up her phone and texts him knowing that she won't get a response as she looks at the unread Kakao Talk messages from the past couple of days. Each message had a "1" next to them and she couldn't help but wonder if he's purposefully ignoring and avoiding her because he was still talking to Alex. Wasn't she the one he was dating?

After working for a few hours the familiar "Katalk" notification noise came from her phone and Linda was confused at what she saw, was Jongdae really being serious right now?

"What do you mean what do I think of that? Of course I don't like it...! ;~; Yah, Kim Jongdae are you seeing other girls while I'm not there?!" Linda sent the message while shaking her head wondering why this was the first message that she got from him in such a long time.

"Don't worry, I'm not seeing other girls."

"You better not, otherwise I'll start seeing others too!! :P"

"What?!"

"I'm just kidding~ I'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay."

"Kekeke who knows maybe I'll be going on a hot date tonight since you just got asked out by a girl too~ <3"

A response didn't come after that and Linda set her phone down on the desk going back to work, but her mind was 7,000 miles away wondering what her boyfriend was doing right now...

-----

"You can do this Jongdae, have some self-control. Gah, I want to text her so badly..." Jongdae muttered to himself as he began texting a reply to her. 

"Chen, you're needed on set!"

"Ah, yes!" Chen sighed and put the phone back in his pocket as he went to meet up the members for his schedule.

-----

The day passed by busily with various small tasks and meetings, enough for Linda to fall onto her bed as soon as she got home. In the back of her head she could remember that she had something to do that night, but a wave of drowsiness washed over her and drifted her off into a deep sleep. Nothing was set so that Jongdae could reach her, the computer was off, her phone was on vibrate, even her tablet was in another chair out of her reach. The rest of the night passed on silently as Jongdae wondered where in the world Linda was and what she was doing. The time difference was starting to frustrate him and began to worry if their relationship was slowly starting to fall apart.

"Just a few more days... I'll call her when it's morning for her." Jongdae sighed and placed his cell phone down, getting ready for the schedule he had that day.

-----

Linda woke up in a fright, remembering what she forgot to do before she fell asleep last night. The dream she had didn't sit well with her, she dreamt that Jongdae broke up with her and it scared her. The last time she dreamt of her boyfriend breaking up with her he actually dumped her after school later that day. Looking at the time she panicked again, her alarms weren't set for the right time and she ended up having only enough time to get dressed and make some toast for herself (A/N: Yes, I've done the anime/manga toast thing >_>;; It's a common occurance actually... OTL). She didn't notice the 5 missed calls and multiple text, skype, and kakaotalk messages from Jongdae.

As soon as she got to work she had multiple projects to work on and forgot about contacting Jongdae again, but while she was in the middle of talking with a student her phone rang. The familiar ringtone of Jongdae's voice filled the room as dread washed over her. Linda had missed so many opportunities to talk to him that she excused herself and picked up the phone, anxious about talking to Jongdae.

"You didn't call me last night! What happened?" Jongdae has just finished his schedule and did not hesitate to call her right afterwards.

"I'm sorry! I fell asleep right when I got home and when I woke up this morning I barely had time to get ready and make it to work on time. Once I got to work I got swamped with projects as well. Today's classroom was so hectic, I got TOO much from them and didn't know how to handle it, but I was able to get through the discusssion somehow. I'm so glad it's over for today."

"So you weren't doing anything else? You only fell asleep?"

"Of course, why would I lie about sleep?"

"Hey Linda, I found a great place that we could learn dancing at." A male's voice could be heard through the phone and Jongdae became painfully aware that there could be another man in Linda's life.

"Who's that?"

"Huh? Oh, a student that goes to Southwestern."

"Why did he say 'we could learn dancing at'?" There was a slight snap in Jongdae's voice that Linda had never heard before. Part of her was afraid of what her dream predicted, but also another part of her was too tired to handle this situation right now.

"We're just going to go out and have a little fun, you know I've been wanting to learn how to partner dance for a long time now."

"Sounds like you're doing a good job of dating while I'm not there."

"Wha- That is uncalled for! You don't see me saying anything about how much time you've been spending with Alex lately."

"That was all for you! You were the one who wanted me to get to know your friends more anyways."

"Oh, so flirting with Alex was all for me?"

"What are you talking about?" At this point Jongdae was genuinely hurt and confused, and Linda was the same.

"I overheard your conversation with her yesterday."

"O-oh... I mean, I-"

"I know, I know. I've heard it before, you find her cute. It's hard not to flirt with someone cute, and Alex has been receiving a lot of male prospects lately."

In the background Jongdae could hear a faint, "You've been receiving male propects too, you know, Linda. I mean, I can understand, you're one beautiful woman." coming from the guy that was with Linda. The situation was becoming more frustrating and he didn't know how to resolve it, he was only reacting at this point.

"Are you sure you're not dating or flirting with anyone else? You sound awfully friendly with that guy."

A pause occurred from Linda's end, tears welled up in her eyes and the feeling of betrayal kept stabbing at her gut. "Jongdae, you jerk. You of all people should know how I feel about you," Linda whispered. Sure, she's teased Jongdae about other good looking people, but never thought of leaving him for another person. Even when he pouted she made sure that he felt loved though she felt awkward showing someone her vulnerable side. Deep down she knew he understood that she loved him, but she was always worried that he never felt the same. He of all people should know that her entirety was his, and if her tumblr didn't remind him of that she didn't know what did because it's all full of him.

"Yeah, because every guy wants to hear their girlfriend say 'I hate you' and call them 'stupid' every few seconds or on social media."

Another long pause occurred from Linda and she was done. She couldn't handle the conversation anymore and didn't want to cry on the phone at work. A firm, "I'm done with this conversation." came from Linda and she was stone cold, unwilling to talk.

"What?"

"I'm done. Goodbye, Kim Jongdae." Linda hung up the phone and tears ran down her face. Even though she didn't want to cry at work the tears had a mind of their own. Her fear of another dream coming true made her panic, but in her current state she wasn't able to talk much less make a coherent sound.

Jongdae only stared at the phone, shocked that Linda hung up so sharply. Her last words rang through his ears as he began to process the conversation. The world started to look like it was falling apart, and he couldn't do anything about it.

At the same time their thoughts coincided, wondering if the conversation they just had was the end of their relationship.

"Was I too harsh? Oh god, what if they don't love me anymore? Should I call them back? What if they're still mad at me? I should call them back."

They both call each other hoping to undo the mistakes they just made, only to be met with a busy signal from the other person.

"Oh..."

Jongdae falls against the wall listening to the "The number you have dialed is currently..." message wondering if she turned off her phone. "Is she rejecting my calls?" He runs a hand through his hair and drops the phone to his side, giving up on contacting her again.

Linda hears the message and bitterly wonders if he was talking to someone else. A sudden thought popped into her head and laughs, "Must be talking to Alex, then since they're so buddy buddy now." Linda sets down her phone on the table with the screen facing down and goes back to talking to her new male friend, making plans to go dancing later that week.

And the couple stops talking.

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A/N: Ooh... so what do y'all think? AM I GOING TO SINK THIS SHIP FOR GOOD?? (YAAAAASSSS *gets whacked* *coughcoughcough* I mean, what?) I wonder what's gonna happen in the next chapter... which might or might not come out aroud Jongdae's birthday. We'll see, I have another fic I was planning on releasing the 20th and 21st (since the 20th here will be the 21st there and the 21st here is well... the 21st! haha!) so I'll probably be focusing on that one for a while even though I already have part of chapter 2 written out on paper. :P

Also, random tidbit: That ringtone is my actual ringtone, so yes I have a Jongdae pestering me about not picking up the phone. OTL Stupid.