01 (1/1)

Have you ever felt like you were second best? Like no matter how hard you tried, you knew you would always end up a runner up? A consolation?The same line of thoughts swirled in the vortex of her mind as she inconspicuously glanced at the phone sitting to her right.Without having to nudge her head even slightly towards the direction of the phone, her eyes strained in an attempt to read the preview of the text message that just showed up. The whole action made her dizzy and she felt her eyes slowly lose moisture.Finally reaching the last of her willpower, she shut her eyes forcefully. Her eyelids remained closed for a few seconds until the urge to find out the content of the text chewed on the edge of her thoughts.She twisted her spine left and then right in order to make sure no one was keeping an eye on her. With a yawn, her arms stretched out widely at her sides, her right pointer finger “accidentally” hitting the middle button that turned on the touchscreen.She knew his password all too well but even if she was invading his privacy right now, she still wanted to keep a cap on the size of her guilt.No one said her logic was perfect.Only a brief line of preview text was available to her snooping eyes, but before she could even continue onto the fourth word Dongwoo’s hand snatched the phone away from her. A look of apprehension crossed his face before his rightful smile took over again.“Are you done anytime soon?” The girl asked casually, pretending she hadn’t been doing what she had just been doing.He shook his head, “I’m afraid not. Did you want to just go home first? If I do get out in time for our reservations, I’ll call you. Otherwise, I’ll just bring food home and we’ll just go some other time. Is that okay?”“Why wouldn’t it be okay?” She asked, more to herself than him. But he heard it and soon he had his bare arms wrapped around her waist.“I’m sorry, babe.” He murmured. Dongwoo pulled away, a pout coming into view once she could see his face. “I know this keeps happening lately but Infinite-H’s—”“Going to debut soon.” She finished for him with a small smile on her face.She pulled his arms from her waist and curled their fingers together. “I know, Dongwoo. It’s okay, I promise.”Their choreographer announced that their five-minute break was over. Dongwoo left a kiss on her forehead after nagging her to make sure that her jacket was zipped all the way to the top before exiting the building.—She breathed in the crisp, winter air and set towards the bus stop. After waiting for a couple of minutes, her bus finally came and she was thankful when it did. She didn’t think she would have lasted another second in the cold. At least the forest green scarf that was bundled around her neck kept her warm. Because they were almost always together whenever she wore it, Dongwoo’s scent lingered strongly.He had given it to her simply after returning from Japan one day. He said he immediately thought of her when he saw it on the mannequin in the display window of a boutique. She had asked why he would possibly think of her at such a time when her favourite colour wasn’t even green. To which he responded, by saying he just missed her so much and since green was his favourite colour, he put the two and two together.She accidentally chuckled in the bus at the memory. Upon realizing this, she attempted to cover it up with short bouts of coughs.He was so strange, she thought. The two things still had nothing to do with each other.As she neared the door of the apartment they shared, the thoughts of the text message she had only seen a glimpse of popped into her mind again. The temperature in the corridor seemed just slightly a bit lower than the normal room temperature.Realization that the numbness of her hands was not caused by not wearing gloves in the winter night only dawned on her when the tap water she had absentmindedly turned on burned her. At least her pain receptors were working fine and she jerked her hand from underneath the tap. Yet her stream of thoughts kept flowing out of the dam she had built in the depths of her mind.“My longest relationship? It lasted for four years,” Dongwoo responded to the radio host’s question while almost giggling, “We broke up because we wanted to pursue our dreams.”“Do you still keep in contact with her?”Along with his smiling eyes, Dongwoo’s lips formed a smile, too. “Yes, once in a while we still talk.”She all but dragged herself underneath the blanket, her eyes only opening to check the digital clock on the bedside table. 2:37 A.M. Oh, how she had wished it was P.M. instead.—The girl rolled over in her half-asleep state, expecting to bump into Dongwoo who had probably only climbed into the bed a couple hours earlier when she felt no force stop her from rolling all the way to the other end of the bed.Slowly, she rubbed her right eye then squinted around for the missing boy.“Dongwoo?” She mumbled groggily.Her voice carried out into the apartment a few more times but a reply never came back.A short beep notified her of a text message. She reached out to her purse on the floor with the lower half of her body on the bed supporting her dangling torso.After having difficult propping her whole body back onto the bed, she read the message that came from Dongwoo:Good morning, babe! Judging by the soft snoring I came home to last night, looks like you slept well. Sorry I didn’t even get a chance to eat dinner with you! So instead, I made you breakfast and I left it on the table. Hope it’s still nice and warm by the time you wake up. I’m back in the practice room again, and… I’m not entirely sure how long I’m going to be here for today. I’ll call you during my break!It was littered with various emoticons that ranged from looking sorry to countless smiling ones. Still, she didn’t feel like it was enough to tide over the rush of loneliness she felt waking up to an empty bed.A strong exhale came out of her mouth and with a promise with herself not to mope around all day, she got herself ready for a new day.—A frown formed across her lips when the code for the practice room escaped her. She stood staring at the keypad, as if by looking at the numbers would help her figure it out. But she surrendered the staring contest to dial Dongwoo’s number on her phone.It rang only twice and went directly to voicemail. A second try came up with the same result so she opted for Hoya’s number the third time. Thankfully, he answered.“Hoya!” She hummed, giving away her intention already.She heard him sigh in the other end, “Again?”Her head bounced up and down, momentarily forgetting that he couldn’t see her reply. “I mean yes.”“What?”“Nothing. Just hurry up and tell me.” She rushed, swinging the bag of food in her other hand.“Food?” He asked, as if hearing the swishing of the plastic bag from the other side of the door.“Hoya!”He swung the door open and held out his hand for the plastic bag before letting her in.“Where’s Dongwoo?” She spun around in a circle to take a quick glance at everything.Hoya shrugged. “We’ve been done practice since just after one o’clock. I thought you two were going out for a late lunch.”She felt a lump grow in her throat. Unsure if she even wanted the answer the next question she was about to ask, she lowered her voice down to a whisper, “Oh? Why would you say that?”The main dancer took a huge bite of his sub before replying, “Well, he did say he was going out for a late lunch and he did rush to get ready and pretty much flew out the door after practice.”A high-pitched ringing began to swallow up the rest of Hoya’s words. Her eyes were unblinking, staring at the floor without really seeing anything. The image of Dongwoo’s shy, smiling face on the TV screen she had watched the radio show flashed in her view.“Yes, once in a while we still talk.”“Where are you going?” Hoya asked, but she was already out the door.