Chapter Text
Jihae
I had arrived at the place that Mijoo mentioned before in the text. It was a park with a playground, reminding me of the park in my hometown where Jaewoo and I used to hang out in. Sometimes, Mijoo also joined us and played with us. I then walked slowly toward the park and saw a figure of a man sitting on the swing with his hoodie over his head.
Jeon Jaewoo. How could I be so sure? Well, of course, Jaewoo had always worn hoodies whenever he waited for me to come while sitting on that swing.
"Hey, Jaewoo," I greeted, causing the figure to turn around. As soon as he saw me, he opened his hoodie and put on a wide smile.
"Lee Jihae, long time no see."
I smiled back at him as I walked toward the swing and took a seat on it. There were two swings in the playground, I sat on the right while Jaewoo sat on the left. I chuckled at the thought that this was the same habit we had when we were little.
"How are you?" I asked.
"Good, you?"
"Same."
"You've grown up, Jihae," he said. "You're so beautiful now."
I chuckled. "So, you're saying that I wasn't pretty when I was little?"
He also chuckled. "I didn't mean that," he said. "It's just that the little Jihae and the teenage Jihae have the a bit of a different appearance."
"Yah! What do you mean different?"
"The little Jihae always had messy hair every day. She was very short and quite fat. She always ran around the neighborhood while screaming for God knows why. She had a shrill voice whenever she talked, laughed, screamed, and even sang," he said as he recalled our childhood memories. "Oh God, she was horrible."
"I was not that short, Jaewoo."
"Of course you were. That was the reason why I always called you 'shortie'."
I smacked his arm. "Yah! I wasn't that short," I said, "and I'm definitely not short now."
"Oh, really?" he said while raising an eyebrow. "Let's us both stand up and see our height difference."
I stood up in confidence, as well as Jaewoo. As soon as he saw my height, he burst into laugh. "HAHA, STILL THE SAME SHORT JIHAE!" he exclaimed while laughing so hard.
"Yah! I'm not that short, Jaewoo!" I pouted.
"Aw, is the shortie Jihae mad?" he asked while messing with my hair.
"Ugh, whatever," I said as I rolled my eyes.
He then put his arm over my shoulder. "Well, that means you're still the same old cute Lee Jihae," he said. "Do you want to go somewhere else?"
"Let's go to a cafe. I want to drink some coffee."
He smiled, then both of us walked away from the park. I thanked God because our meeting wasn't as awkward as I had imagined to be. We fell back to our old pattern, which made it easier for us to still goof around like kids. After walking for a while, we arrived at the nearest coffee shop and picked a table that wasn't too close with other people.
"Hey, I heard from Mijoo that you already have a boyfriend?"
I pursed my lips. "Well, you can call it that I guess."
He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"It's.. complicated."
He suddenly reached for my hand and held it. "You can tell me, Jihae," he said, which I wouldn't deny gave me some sort of a warm feeling inside. I didn't have many friends in Seoul and Taehyung was the only person that I could spill out my problems anytime, but we weren't even exactly talking right now.
"Well, basically I'm dating a guy that everyone calls the "king" of the school. He was rude to me at first, as you could expect from the "king", but he became nice to me after a while. He once stayed at my house because I was sick that day. Not long after that he confessed his feelings to me and I would be lying if I said I didn't like him too," I explained, "so yeah, that's basically the beginning of our relationship."
"Go on," he said.
"I don't know what happened, Jaewoo," I said. "He started to change for God knows why. He turned into the rude guy that I met before. He became cold and probably didn't care about me anymore. It's just weird, you know, having someone that has showered you with love and joy only to be thrown away like a trash."
Like you, Jaewoo. You used to be that guy.
"Ugh, jackass," he said. "He has no idea that he's with the most precious person in the world and treats her like that."
I forced a smile on my face. "What should I do though? I can't stand him anymore."
"Have you ever confronted him about this?"
"Um, no," I said while looking down on the ground. "I don't want to hurt him."
"You need to confront him, Jihae," he said. "Tell him that you need an explanation or else you're leaving."
"What? I can't do that to him."
He frowned. "If he treats you the way you told me before, then he isn't worth it, JIhae," he said, "and you don't deserve to be treated like that."
"Do I really have to?"
"It's for your own good."
I pursed my lips as I started to consider what Jaewoo said. I loved Taehyung, I really, really did, but I was completely sick of how he had been treating me. I was once again debating with my inner self and this time was about whether or not I was ready to let him go.
---
I arrived at home past midnight. I had a lot of fun that night with Jaewoo, considering the fact that we were old friends who hadn't seen each other for so long. Whatever I did with him that night made me reminisce our childhood. Seeing him earlier felt like coming home to my comfort zone.
I then opened the main door of my house and turned on the light. I removed my shoes and put it on the shoe rack. I was about to make my way toward the kitchen to have a drink when I saw Taehyung sitting on the sofa while looking at me seriously.
"Where were you?" he asked, causing me to jump in surprise.
"Oh, gosh, Taehyung, you scared me. Why are sitting alone in the dark like that?" I asked, before realizing something. "Wait, why are you in my house at this time?"
"You didn't pick my calls and sent me any messages! I came over to look for you, but you weren't home," he said. "Now I found out that you were out until midnight like this!"
What he said seemed like he was worried about me, like he was actually looking for me. But the way he said it made me feel nothing but annoyed. "Why do you care?"
"Why do I care? It's almost 1 am and you just came home!"
"Why do you even care, Taehyung?!" I asked, raising my voice. "I told you that I was going out and you couldn't even care less!"
"I was busy, okay?!"
"Busy doing what?! You're not doing anything, yet you called yourself a busy person? Tch," I said as I rolled my eyes.
"Okay, fine," he said, "Fine, whatever. Why do I even care, tch."
Taehyung was about to go home when I stopped him. "Why are you like this, Tae?" I asked, which cause him to stop and turn around. "You used to be a very sweet guy, Taehyung. You used to be so kind and gentle. But look at you now, always being grumpy and cold to me as if I'm nothing to you."
"Shut up, you don't know anything."
Tears started to fall from both of my eyes. "Of course I don't know anything, you never tell me anything!" I exclaimed. "What am I to you, Taehyung?"
He rolled his eyes and continued making his way to the front door. That was it. I couldn't take it anymore.
"Kim Taehyung, I'm breaking up with you."
