I took off my own work apparel and quickly ran after Jimin. I spotted him walking down the tree-lined path towards his parents’ house.

“Where are you going?” I shouted at his retreating back. “We’re in the middle of work!”

Jimin spun around and answered me while walking backwards. “I’m not even getting paid! Have fun on your date!”

I cursed under my breath and ran after him. “Jimin, stop! Just hold on and talk to me.” I finally caught up to him and tried to grab his hoodie, but he threw me off.

“I have nothing to say to you that hasn’t already been said. You don’t want to ing listen and I’m tired of acting like a fool for you.”

“So what?” I demanded, grabbing his arm and yanking him back, hard. Jimin stumbled and glared at me. “Are we breaking up? Are you gonna ing leave me again?”

“You tell me!” He spat, straightening up. “I’m not about to hang around and be two-timed.”

“I’m not cheating on you!” I insisted. “I don’t have any feelings for Young Jae!”

“Bull!” Jimin yelled. “You’ve obviously got some lingering attachment if you still want to hang out with him this badly.”

“Jimin, I love you. Only you!” I tried to hold his hand, but he snatched it away from me.

“I don’t believe you.” He told me. “I don’t believe you at all.”

My eyes filled with tears. Jimin rolled his eyes.

“I didn’t know you could even be like this.” I glared at him reproachfully.

“You’d be even worse if I ever tried to pull this with you. You would break up with me in an instant without even giving me a chance to explain.” Jimin said crossly. “Don’t try and act so blameless. You can be just as ruthless.”

“I thought you just didn’t trust Young Jae!” I told him. “I thought you trusted me! And trusted that I love you, Jimin. But now you’re telling me that you think I like Young Jae? How am I supposed to react to that? You’re accusing me of cheating on you when I haven’t even done anything! I don’t even want to do anything!”

“You can’t even explain your relationship with Young Jae!” Jimin accused me. “I can, but you can’t seem to accept that it’s true. I’m really sick of your guilt complex. You have so much trouble saying no to everyone except me. It’s always been that way! You’re always so sure that I won’t get mad at you, but you’re so afraid of making other people mad at you. Well, I’m ing mad now, baby. I’m your boyfriend. Does that mean nothing to you? Make me a priority, for once in your life!”

“You are!” I insisted wretchedly. “You ! You’re my number one priority!”

“You don’t act like it!” Jimin pointed out snidely. “I have feelings too! I can get hurt and angry too! I’ve been begging you all morning not to go out with Young Jae and you’ve just been dismissing me so rudely. Treating me like I’m a jealous little kid or something. I hate it! How many times do I have to make myself vulnerable? You think I like telling you that Young Jae makes me feel insecure? And it doesn’t even matter if I tell you! You’re still insisting on going out with him anyway like my concerns are nothing to you! You’ve been stomping all over my heart this morning and I can’t do it anymore.”

“I’m sorry!” I told him sincerely. Fat tears rolled down my cheeks. “I’m really sorry, okay, Jimin? I don’t know what more you want from me!”

“I’m tired of hearing your apologies.” He snapped. “I don’t want you to do things that you have to feel sorry for.”

“I honestly thought that Young Jae and I could be just friends. I promise, Jimin.” I pleaded with him.

“How could you think that?” Jimin demanded spitefully. “How could you possibly think that? I don’t buy that for a second. Stop trying to fool me, baby. Nobody’s that naïve.”

“So what, you really think I have ulterior motives to hang out with Young Jae? Huh?” I stepped closer to him and narrowed my eyes, suddenly furious. “Are you really accusing me of trying to cheat on you, Jimin?”

“I don’t know.” Jimin said. “It looks pretty damn suspicious to me.”

“Jimin, what the hell? Do you even know me at all?”

“That’s the thing, baby, I don’t know!” He cried. “There’s a three month gap between us that you spent with this guy. And even though I’m your boyfriend, you’re still trying to hold onto him. He’s not your friend! Baby, he’s not your friend. So what the hell are you trying to pull?”

“I wasn’t with Young Jae that whole time, . I’ve only been in Busan for a month! The rest of the time I spent going bankrupt trying to afford rent because my roommate suddenly ing moved out!”

I’m not even sure Jimin heard the rest of my rant after the words “for a month” left my mouth. “Are you ing kidding me?” He shouted. “You’re seriously risking our relationship for a guy that you’ve only known a month? What the hell is wrong with you? I’ve been your boyfriend for so long, but you’re treating it like his feelings are more important than mine!”

“I honestly thought that you could handle it, Jimin! I thought you trusted me! Even if you consider Young Jae to be my ex, I thought you could handle us having at least a casual relationship. I’m not comfortable with just cutting people out of my life like that!”

“And I’m not comfortable with you being friends with your ex! Exes can’t be friends!” Jimin cried.

“I should have known you would say something like that.” I hissed, pointing accusingly at him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jimin spat.

“You’re acting all high and mighty saying ‘I’ve been your boyfriend for a long time,’ but the whole reason you’re feeling so insecure is because you ing left me for three months and never even contacted me once and you’re mad I started hanging out with someone else! You cut me off, just like that! Do you know how it felt to be ignored like that after all the time we were together? Like I was a dirty piece of trash you’d finally gotten around to throwing out. Like I had meant nothing to you! Do you know how I often I checked my phone for even just a text message from you? Even something cold like, ‘Hey, it’s been a while. Hope you’re doing fine’ would have been better than the complete silence from you.” I told him, sobbing angry tears. I hated that I cried when I was mad. It made me feel so weak.

Jimin just watched me, apparently at a loss for words.

“I don’t want Young Jae to feel like I felt. Okay? I don’t think it’s right to just pretend he doesn’t exist anymore just because we’re not going to work out romantically. It makes me feel like I used him, and I didn’t. I made sure that I didn’t. That’s why I’ve been so ing clear with him about what we are.”

“I didn’t contact you because it hurt too much.” Jimin said quietly. “It wasn’t because I didn’t love you anymore. I didn’t talk to you because I didn’t think you even cared.”

“Yeah, and I see that despite all your pretty promises, you’re still having a hard time believing that I do.” I said spitefully. “The only reason I took back a guy who suddenly left me with hardly any explanation and no desire to work it out is because I love you too damn much. The only reason I’m even having a conversation like this is because I love you! You think I want to stand here and be accused of cheating when I haven’t even done anything? Why are you always so ing blind to my feelings?”

“Because you pull like this! Because you don’t make me a priority. It’s the same damn thing it was before we broke up! You never think of my feelings. You’re so ing selfish.”

“And you’re so ing immature!” I shouted.

“Well, that’s what you get for dating a guy younger than you!” Jimin yelled back. “Stop acting so superior just because you’re a few years older! You can be childish, too. This whole incident is childish! You’re too ing stubborn to admit that I’m right. You can’t stand there and tell me you don’t have feelings for Young Jae if you want to jeopardize our relationship because of him. Even nice people would let this kind of thing slide for their significant others.”

 “You know what, this.” I snapped. I grabbed his face and kissed him hard. He tried to pull away, but I held on tightly. When I pulled back, he was glaring at me. I held his face in my hands and forced him to look at me. “Whenever Young Jae touched me, I wished it was you.” I told him fiercely, blinking away hot tears. “Whenever he told me he liked me, whenever he cuddled with me on the couch, whenever he cooked me food, that one time we went on a date. I wished it was you. , Jimin, I’m so in love with you that I can’t even think of anyone else, even when you’re not around. That’s why I thought I could be just friends with Young Jae. Because even when I was with him, my mind was still filled with you. Even if I wished otherwise. I couldn’t even use him to forget about you. So just ing trust me on this one, okay?” I kissed him once more before letting go. Jimin pushed me away roughly.

“Don’t kiss me! I don’t want to be kissed right now!” Jimin said angrily. “Just ing listen to what I’m saying to you!”

“I’m sorry.” I looked down, tears streaming down my face. “I just hate fighting with you, Jimin. Why don’t you believe me when I’m telling you I love you? You’re the only one I want. I couldn’t forget about you, not even when I was with Young Jae.”

“So if I’m back, why do you need him?” Jimin asked me sharply. “You’re basically admitting that he was a replacement for me! So why do you still want to keep him around? What are you getting from that relationship that I can’t give you?”

“Nothing, Jimin. You know what, it’s over; it’s done. I won’t talk to him ever again.” I told him, suddenly exhausted. “If it bothers you this much, I’ll let it go. It’s not worth all this fighting with you. I feel like we’re breaking up again.”

“No, answer my question.” Jimin spat. “Tell me why you wanted to keep that relationship in the first place. I already know the answer, but I want to hear it from you.”

“Why?” I asked. “So you can just keep on being mad at me?” I wiped my tears away. “Stop acting like this! This isn’t like you! We’re never going to agree on something like this. You’re never going to see my side, so just drop it!”

“Just tell me.” Jimin whispered in a low, dangerous voice. He backed up me up against a tree and trapped me between his arms. “Tell me what was so important to you that you risked our relationship.”

“I’m not trying to risk our relationship!” I glared at him. “You’re the one who’s just too ing jealous right now. I’m not trying to cheat on you, Jimin!”

“Then why do I feel like this?” He asked me miserably, abruptly dropping his angry demeanor. “Why do I feel like you’re going to leave me for him?”

“Because you don’t trust me.” I said, a little surprised by his sudden change in attitude. He didn’t usually like me to see him when he felt this vulnerable. I reached up and his cheek. “Because you don’t believe me when I tell you I love you.”

“I do, baby. I do.” Jimin whispered. “I’m just scared of losing you.”

“I’m not going to leave.” I assured him, brushing a lone tear off his cheek. “Hmm? I love you. I’m not going to leave you.”

“You promise?” Jimin murmured, pulling me into his arms and hugging me tightly. I looped my arms around his neck.

“I promise. I love you, Jimin. Only you. Stop letting your insecurities get in the way of realizing that.” I kissed his neck.

“I’m sorry.” Jimin mumbled, my hair. “I just hate the thought of you spending time with Young Jae. He makes me feel inadequate because he took care of you after I hurt you. He’s a constant reminder of my biggest mistake. A reminder that happens to love you and wants to take you away from me.”

“He doesn’t love me.” I disagreed.

“I’m not arguing with you about this.” Jimin muttered. “He looks at you the way I used to look at you when we first met.”

“How would you even know that?” I demanded, giggling in spite of the serious conversation. “Did you take pictures of yourself when we first dated? Hmm? You know what you looked like when you stared at me?”

“Yeah.” Jimin pulled back and smiled at me. “I’ve got this one picture that someone took of us, way back in the day.” He placed a soft kiss on my forehead.

“Hey.” I said softly. Jimin rested his forehead against mine and stared into my eyes. “He doesn’t look at me like that. Nobody’s ever looked at me like that, before or since. I don’t need to look at a picture to know. Nobody’s ever loved me like you do, Jimin.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean someone won’t one day.” Jimin whispered.

“Jimin, I’m not going to leave you. I want to stay with you. I want you, Jimin.” I insisted quietly. He just looked back at me with melancholy eyes. “Can I kiss you now?” I asked, peeking up at him from underneath my eyelashes.

Jimin didn’t answer, just leaned in and pressed his lips against mine shyly. I kissed him back gently, trying to let him know just how much I loved him.