For a few quiet seconds, Minhee stood across the street from the café where she was to meet Minho and watched his profile through the window. He was handsome, that was for sure, and Minhee felt her heart rip straight in two as he smiled into the mug of whatever he was drinking. He was so happy, so completely naïve.

              And Minhee was going to break him into a million tiny pieces.

              The crosswalk light changed, and the shrill beep of the signal jerked Minhee out of her thoughts. With dread, she knew that her time was up; squaring her shoulders, Minhee walked across the street and into the café. The pain in her ankles from her ridiculous stiletto heels (why did she always have to wear the most inconvenient footwear at the most crucial times?) was sharp in her ankles, but with each step, Minhee felt as though she was somehow atoning for her sins on the elevator.

              Wait, don’t think about Chanyeol, his lips, or how unbelievably hot the makeout session on the elevator was. Focus. Minho deserves an explanation.

              “Hey,” Minho gave her a big smile as Minhee slid into the chair across from him. “Did you get a drink?”

              Minhee twisted her hands in her lap. “No, I’m not really feeling anything right now, but thanks.”

              He gave her a weird look, but shrugged in a suit-yourself kind of way. “So I actually wanted to tell you something.”

              Minhee’s stomach dropped into her shoes. He knew. He totally knew. “Actually, I do, too.”

              Nodding his head in appreciation, Minho gestured his hand towards her with a warm smile. “Ladies first. What is it?”

              Here goes nothing. Minhee felt go dry and tighten like a drum. She would have given anything at that moment to not have to say the next words that were going to leave her lips. But they did. Sometimes, right before a moment that you know changes everything, there is a brief silence that seems to carry on forever. Everything in the cafe paused, and Minhee hovered on the edge of a cliff that she knew once she fell off of, there was no coming back.

              She jumped.

              “I kissed Chanyeol,” the words left a foul taste in Minhee’s mouth, but once they were out, she felt as though a hundred pounds had just fallen away. “I kissed him, and I don’t think I’m sorry.”

              With an expression similar to having been force fed a whole gallon of salt, Minho seemed at a loss for words. His hands were perfectly still on his mug of coffee that was raised halfway to his lips.

              “I don’t regret what I did,” Minhee continued, and with each additional word that she told the boy who she thought would somehow fix her, she felt for the first time as though she knew exactly what she wanted. It wasn't Minho she wanted. “But I’m sorry I hurt you.”

              “I’m going to China for a year. I got an internship there,” Minho said, his voice more of a question. “I was going to tell you that.”

              “What?” Minhee frowned, irritated that Minho had somehow stolen her melodramatic thunder. “Hold on here. You were going to leave?”

              “I guess the details aren’t important, now,” Minho’s gaze was glued to his coffee, as though somehow the brown liquid held the solution to whatever he was thinking. Taking a deep breath, he gathered himself and met Minhee’s gaze firmly. He was distant, formal. “So I guess this is it for us, then?”

              “Yeah,” was all Minhee could think to respond with. A collective sigh seemed to rise from both. “I guess it is.”

              The two sat quietly for a minute. Both of their arms were rested on the table in front of them, and neither seemed to be able to look up from the grain of the wood. Voices in the café and the faint clink of china filled the space.

              “I was falling in love with you. Truly,” Minhee finally broke the silence. “But Chanyeol-“

              “You’re in love with him,” Minho finished for her. “You could never truly fall for me because in the end, it was him. It always will be. I get that now.”

              “He’s the one,” Minhee felt close to tears, shrugging her shoulders helplessly. “I don’t know why, and I would give just about anything to have it be you.”

              “I’m a real catch,” Minho was still looking down at the table, talking softly, almost like he were having a conversation with himself. “I’m a real catch, you know that? I am smart, I am a decent guy, I come from a great family, I get good grades, I’m not entirely bad on the eyes.”

              Minhee nodded desperately, unable to stop the tears from pouring down her cheeks. For the second time, she cried in public. 

              “I knew, you know,” Minho looked up at her again, hurt and anger coloring his tone. With each word he spoke, it was as though something was forcing out the words in an unstoppable stream. A red rose to his cheeks, and his voice came out strained. “I saw how you felt about that jerk from our first date. I should have known then. And then there was the double date in the gallery, and I told myself that it was okay. You would get over him.”

              “I am so sorry, Minho,” Minhee sobbed.

              “I was so stupid for thinking we could ever be together. I was so stupid for falling in love with you.”

              The way Minho’s voice rang was not a sad plea for her to stay, but a hard dismissal. His face was shuttered to Minhee, and she was never one to overstay her welcome. Nevertheless, a small part of her wanted more than anything to stay seated, to let him comfort her.

              “I am going to go,” Minhee whispered. The chair loudly ground against the floor as Minhee stood up, and she apologetically waved at the few people sitting around the café who looked up at her in disapproval. “I’ll maybe see you around.”

              Smiling tightly, Minho raised his hand in a wave as Minhee walked away. They both knew that there would be no “see you around.”

There was nothing left to say, and just like that, they were over for good.

              It had begun to rain in a very halfhearted manner in the brief time Minhee was in the café with Minho. Raising her hand to shield her eyes against the drizzle, Minhee did nothing to pick up her pace. The crowd around her rushed back and forth between buildings in order to escape to rain, but there was something comforting in the wet that settled into Minhee’s clothes. It felt quite fitting for the situation. In times like this, she firmly believed that it was entirely acceptable to be melodramatic.

              When the sound of Minhee’s phone came from her purse, she knew exactly who it was calling her. Without a second thought, she frantically fished it out, having to literally dig through god knows what to get to the thing. With fingers trembling in a mixture of trepidation and excitement, Minhee pressed the button to answer. The rain fell on the glass screen, and she jogged under an awning for protection.

              “Chanyeol,” she breathed. A smile slowly spread across Minhee’s face as she heard the familiar, deep voice from the other end.

              “Minhee,” he sounded immensely relieved. “You answered your phone.”

              “Hi,” Minhee felt stupid for how hard she was smiling, but she couldn’t help it. Once again, tears leaked from her eyes, but these weren’t sad tears. “I did.”

              “Where are you, right now?”

AUTHOR's NOTE:::

Hey! It's me! Your devoted author who has been very busy this year! I SWEAR I WILL FINISH THIS STORY! I think we are wrapping up here, maybe one or two more chapters to go, and then I promised myself I would set myself to finishing Something Wicked This Way Comes ((If you haven't already read it then check it out))... Sorry for the wait!!

XO Abb XO