“And tomorrow may have the relief we’ve been waiting for, folks! Instead of downpour, the weather calls for cloudy skies and a bit of drizzle. Now back to you!”

     “Thank you! I’d suggest keeping an umbrella with you anyway, but that’s just my opinion! [Laughs] And now for a sports update—”

     You sipped on your bowl of soup and stared at the window. Artificial light from the street below your apartment shone against the glass, illuminating the tiny drops of water that slid down it. It had been raining all week, and it didn’t look like it would let up any time soon no matter what the weather report predicted. No sunshine and bright cheerful mornings for you. That was just as well; You weren’t having a lovely week to begin with.

     Bzzt. Bzzt.

     Your phone lay on the coffee table, alerting you about an incoming text. Setting down your soup bowl, you picked up the phone and stared at it blankly. It was coming from Woohyun. You squeezed it, hesitating to read the message. You swallowed hard, but instead of curing your suddenly dry and scratchy throat, a wave of anxiety flooded over you.
     Why was he contacting you? You wanted nothing to do with him. And as far as you knew, he wanted nothing to do with you either. That had been made quite clear during the last time he’d spoken to you.

     You held your breath and opened the text, dreading what was to come.

     “It was a mistake.”

     “…’Mistake’?” you scoffed.

     Chaos began swirling amongst your heart. Your chest was pounding, and you could feel nothing but immense fury. All Woohyun had done last month was toss your feelings around and twist your stomach into knots. This… Whatever this was, it was not okay.
     What was a mistake? Your relationship? Did these past years together, these memories and moments shared, mean nothing to him? Were they really a regret?
     It was heartbreaking enough discovering his true feelings about you a few weeks ago. Each word he spoke pierced your soul. He knew you had listened to everything that came out of his mouth that day, it was obvious by your pained expression, so why did he feel the need to remind you once more? How could he be so cruel-hearted?

     You closed your eyes in an attempt to calm your nerves, and the vision of chucking your phone across the room soothed you, but only for a moment. The fantasy ended once you opened your eyes. Your phone was not lying across the room. It was still in your hands, ready for your response.
     Words raced through your mind faster than you could catch them. There were so many things you wanted to voice in return, but none of them expressed how terrible you felt — how terrible he made you feel.
     You suddenly lost control of your emotions and dropped the phone into your lap. You grabbed at the roots of your hair and let out a frustrated cry, slouching onto the table before you. The giant pitted feeling at the bottom of your heart wouldn’t allow you to think or respond. All you could do was sit there in tears, reminded of the month’s earlier events leading to his breakup.

     Bzzt. Bzzt.

     You froze on the spot. This time, without the need to torture yourself, you opened the message without hesitation. Whatever he had to say now couldn’t possibly hurt you any more.

     "I shouldn’t have let go of you."

You gaped at the message with your mouth open. Woohyun’s message tore at you in a way you weren’t ready for. Was he being serious? This push and pull thing you were going through made you nauseous. Now your heart hurt for different reasons than before, and you weren’t even sure how to react. After all he’d said to you, a message like this could only leave you in shock.

     Suddenly, your phone began ringing, and your anxiety level shot up once you saw it was him calling. You knew you had no choice but to answer it, but you dreaded it all the same. Slowly, shakily, you pressed the answer button and raised the phone up to your ear.

     “_____? Are you there?” you heard his voice ask. The faint sound of rain could be heard in the distance.

     He waited for an answer, but you couldn’t remember how to speak.

     “I can hear your television in the background, so I assume you’re there,” he laughed.

     He laughed. How the hell could he laugh in a situation like this? His familiar chuckle infuriated you, and you had half a mind to hang up right then, but the sound of his voice stopped you.

     “Look,” he began. The laughter from seconds before may not have even been real, as he now sounded like he was close to tears. “I know I’ve been… Awful. But I… I need to talk to you. I… I need to see you.”

     He was cut off by the sound of his phone shuffling. You weren’t sure if he was just messing with you and trying to hold back another laugh, or if he was just about to sneeze, but surprise caught up to you. He was actually crying. You’d never seen or heard Woohyun cry before, so the sudden realization terrified you.

     “W-Woohyun?” you called to him. “Where are you? Woohyun?”

    The phone shuffled again, and he answered in a shaky voice, “I’m in the lobby.”