“Jiho.” Your hand had trembled as you turned off the TV and you remained on the carpeted floor, facing away from him.

“Jiho,” you repeated. You winced as you noticed your voice was coming out small even though you had every intention of screaming; of standing up, stalking over to Jiho and rattling him into answering you; of grabbing his shirt collar and demanding that he tell you everything those women had said was wrong; that he didn’t even know any Japanese models let alone a beautiful and friendly one named Yagi Arisa. You wanted nothing more than to hear him call you gullible for believing such obvious lies and just the thought of ever cheating on you made him sick. You needed to hear him because right now the silence was killing you.

“Jiho,” you mumbled, wrapping your hands together to try to get them to stop shaking, “please, Jiho, say something!”

Your sudden yell seemed to bring back Jiho from his trance. It felt like you were submerged underwater as you willed yourself to turn around and endured an eternity of Jiho looking at you with an intensity you had never seen before. It appeared as if he wanted to memorize everything about you. When he finally got to your face and your eyes met, his eyes that had become teary suddenly hardened.

“Hey.” The word was simple and his tone was even and calm, but you flinched anyway.

“I’m sorry.” It was like the air was snatched straight from your lungs and your mind immediately went into overdrive. You suddenly wanted him to shut up. To stop talking because you knew what was coming and you preferred the silence from before. Stop, stop, stop.

“You weren’t supposed to find out this way.”

And that’s how the ground was ripped from beneath you.

***

You woke up to a pounding headache and an overwhelming urge to throw up from a rocking motion. After blinking away the sleep and dried tears from your eyes, you looked up to be met with the kind eyes of your best friend. And the dam opened again.

“He, he left, my heart, hurts-“ you  sputtered, unable to form a proper sentence through the lump in your throat.

Yongguk repositioned you on his lap and smoothed out your hair. “I know baby girl, I know.”

Hearing the nickname that Jiho disliked so much caused a flood of memories to come rushing back in and you continued crying into Yongguk’s shoulder, listening to the rumble of his deep voice trying to sooth your pain. “Yongguk,” you hiccupped, “I think, throw up.” He caught what you were trying to say and stopped rocking you. He helped you stand on your feet and the bowling balls in your head started crashing into each other. You snapped your eyes shut in a futile attempt at easing the pain, but that just caused you to become dizzy. Before you knew it, Yongguk was carrying you to the bathroom bridal style. You barely had enough time to lift the toilet bowl seat before you were throwing up last night’s dinner. You hadn’t noticed Yongguk had left until he came back with a glass of water and gently rubbed your back. You didn’t know what you would do without him.

“Thank you.” Your voice came out raspy and the small two words caused your throat to sting.

“What are friends for, baby girl?” He smiled at you, showing you his gums and you couldn’t help to crack a small grin back. He had always had that effect on you.

***

After having brushed your teeth and changed into some comfy clothes, you sat snuggled on the couch, cocooned in your favorite blanket. You balanced the glass of water on your knees that were drawn up to your chest as you watched Yongguk walk into the living room.

“At least eat a banana. Please. Painkillers and an empty stomach do not mix well.”

Rolling your eyes (which was a bad idea ‘cause the throbbing in your head only increased), you grabbed the fruit he was dangling in your face and halfheartedly began peeling it. That’s when it hit.

“Wait, how did you know?” You asked him, making him look up from his phone. His eyebrows furrowed before he realized what you were referring to.

He sighed heavily before answering you. “Ji-“

“Do not say his name,” you interrupted him, a little too loudly. His eyes widened a bit, but he nodded in understanding.

“He who shall not be named,” he smirked, “called me a little while ago; told me to come check up on you,” his voice slowly started trailing off. “He told me where the spare key was too, just in case. Glad he did too, because I tried knocking and when I got no answer I was ready to brake the door down. And then I finally get in to see you curled up on the floor, looking so small and with tears running down your cheeks even though you were sleeping, you gave me a scare. Again.”

You looked down in guilt. You had given him and –him- quite a few scares in the past few days.

“He said,” you breathed in deeply before releasing it, “that one of the guys would come pick up his things soon.” Your eyes were quickly beginning to tear up again, and this time no amount of blinking would get rid of them. “He stood right there,” you pointed to the entrance of the living room that connected it to the kitchen, “and told me, with a straight face, that he was sorry I had to find out this way, but that I was stifling him. That he needed to breathe and that-” you completely broke down at this point, but you struggled through the knot in your throat; desperate, for some reason, to let Yongguk know how Jiho had taken less than five minutes to end a relationship of over two years. “And that it was going to happen sooner or later.” You rested the glass of water on the coffee table and covered your face with both hands as you cried. “How could he, how could he do that to me? How could he do that to me?” You kept repeating that question to yourself as Yongguk sat next to you and brought you closer to him. He didn’t say anything, only hugged you tight and kissed the top of your head. He didn’t know either.

***

“Yongguk called. Said you weren’t answering his calls or texts so he didn’t know if you had broken your phone, again, but that he’s been checking up on her. She’s fine, or functioning at least-” Kyung ducked as a pillow was hurled his way.

“I know. I’ve been getting his texts, so stop talking about her. Just stop. Just stop, please.”

Kyung sighed at the lump of blankets on the bed that his best friend was currently buried under.

“Jiho-“

“Just shut up and leave me alone!”

Knowing he was going to get nowhere, Kyung only shook his head and closed the door to the dark room. He would try again later.

Sorry this is so short. I just needed a small filler chapter to get to the next few chapters that, if everything goes well, should be longer. As always, please feel free to point out any mistakes, or just tell me how you feel about it!!