Once the dismissal bell rang, everybody watched Soohyun gather her things and strut out the door.

She realized that they still shared the same house, and that this was her final opportunity to apologize. Soohyun fumbled with her keys and inserted it into the lock, throwing herself through the doorway.

"Jinhwan?"

Soohyun jogged throughout the apartment, and finally thought to knock on his door. "Jinhwan." she called, tapping on the wall and shaking the doorknob. It was unlocked, so she entered. A gasp escaped her lips.

Everything was gone; clothes, pillows, blankets. Everything.

He really disappeared.

By the time she whipped out her phone to dial his number, she could feel water building up around the rim of her eyes. Her fingers were shaking wildly, and she missed the button 4 times. It finally worked and she forced it against her ear while biting her thumb in nervousness.

"Hello, you have reached..."

She threw her phone in frustration, and it shattered into pieces along the wooden floor. She never thought that it would hurt this much to lose him. Now that it actually happened, her world came crashing down around her. She grabbed the edge of the table and flipped it, screaming and crying to vent her anger at herself. Soohyun pushed the closet, and Jinhwan's old room looked as if a tornado had passed right through it.

Slowly calming down, she slid her back down the wall in the corner and put her face in her hands, silently crying her sorrows away. Her brain was fried, her heart had exploded, and her body was shaking uncontrollably. This hadn't been an ordinary love bug, she fell too hard, and she knew it from the beginning. But the way he treated her forced her to ignore the doubt in the back of her mind, saying "Maybe he will leave one day. He'll forget me, and I'll be alone."

"Soohyun?"

She didn't move at the sound of her name because she was almost definitely sure that it was Jinhwan's voice. Soohyun peeked through her fingers and spotted the gray Vans she bought him for Christmas. "What are you doing?" he asked, dropping his bag and staring at his room in awe. She admired his face, surprised at the fact that he hadn't left yet. It all seemed so surreal. The anger from his face had faded away, and he looked serene as he stared at Soohyun at her worst.

"What are you doing? You're just going to leave without a word? I'm redecorating your room, as you can see, because I can't stand walking by and being constantly reminded of your presence."

"Come here." he whispered, reaching his hand towards her. Maybe everything was going to be alright in the end, after all. She hesitantly extended her finger towards his, but he vanished in a blink of an eye. It was like a puff of smoke that crawled out of Jinhwan's mouth whenever a cigarette rested on his bottom lip; there one second, and then gone the next. Soohyun had imagined the Jinhwan she wanted, and she should've known that something like this didn't happen in real life.

She pushed him past his breaking point, and now, he was truly gone.

And thus, she was even more livid with herself than ever before.

But she didn't even know that a real, living Jinhwan had been standing right outside the door to listen to her. He had been there from the beginning; the pushing, shouting, and most importantly, the one-sided talking. She was going crazy, and Jinhwan wanted tto engulf her into his arms, whispering the reassuring words that she desperately needed right now. But he couldn't; it was against the imaginary rules that were created the moment they broke their gaze.

No touching, hugging, and most of all, it was mandatory to be cutting off all ties to diminish the pain.

He grabbed his luggage and silently left the apartment, the remorse chasing after him every step. It nipped at his hands and shook his shoulders. It entered his bloodstream and ate him out from the inside. The guilt was fatal.

Jinhwan dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out his plane ticket, his stare locked onto his future destination. With only a bag full of clothes, all of the money from his bank account, and that very plane ticket that enclosed his future squeezed between his fingertips, he was back to square one.

Only this time, he had a memory to hold onto.

Soohyun stood up and dried her eyes with the collar of her shirt. Taking one last look around the room, she sighed and stepped out. Only a slip of white paper protruding from the bed caught her attention, and she backed up, careful not to step onto the remains of her precious phone.

She stared at it, her mind not able to comprehend the words typed across. Maybe he had left it. Maybe this was his escape plan, but a fatal flaw led to Soohyun discovering his future.

Or maybe, this was just what he wanted.

Soohyun smiled at the plane ticket, imagining Jinhwan whisper in her ear that they were going on a vacation.

Jinhwan wanted her to follow him, and she couldn't help but take the bait.