football imagines [requests open]

kai havertz.

heartbreak girl

tw: mentions of unhealthy relationships

Y/N's relationship with her boyfriend was perfectly fine. From a distance and further, at least. She appeared content on social media, pictures and videos of all kinds displaying pleasure, fulfilment and assurance alongside her partner of many years. Everything they shared was followed and encouraged by distant family and friends. At first glance, there was nothing to question, and neither of them made you question anything about their relationship so they remained in solace with one another.

That source of solace, however, stayed temporary and one-sided.

Beyond social media, beyond the perfection in every picture and video posted, and away from the applause—putting aside this front was a relationship taken over by mistreatment, humiliation, and subtle misery. And though all subtle and away from others, Kai knew of all of it. The distant shouting he heard through the phone, Y/N having to leave an event even when she didn't want to go, the arguments through silent glances. Never had anything gone physical, but the endless tears deemed otherwise.

Kai was aware of everything beyond and within the relationship. But never did he step in to change the circumstances, never could he right the wrongs of anything. Not because he didn't want to. He saw—and witnessed—the wrongs and intricacies of the relationship his friend found herself in. Though it was hard to correct a wrong when Y/N believed it to be a right.

"I think you need to break up with him, Y/N." He looked her way only for Y/N to avoid his gaze, causing Kai to let out a sigh. She would confide in Kai; she would take his hospitality after something went wrong with her boyfriend. All of that yet there was so much hesitancy to take his advice. The evident advice in Kai's eyes. But to Y/N, his suggestion was almost odd, the last resort rather than the first option. She was too stubborn to listen to his word.

She bit down on her thumb as she looked head, face puffy from crying. It was almost like she wanted to say something, but she quickly shook her head and said with a shaky voice, "He was only like that because he was tired from work."

And that was the problem with Y/N. Despite crying of heartbreak, confiding in someone else for comfort, slowly slipping away from her true self—all that because of her boyfriend—she still saw the good in him. The good that came from their relationship, the good that he put into the relationship. She couldn't specify what that exactly was though she acknowledged it, nonetheless. The arguments, the shouting, the restriction he put over her? Well, it was temporary, subsiding sooner or later.

Subsiding three years and counting.

And that was all that came with the relationship. Elation, security, disheartening, heartbreak. Cheerful, at ease, lonely, heartbreak. Thrilled, content, sullen, heartbreak. It was cyclical—how Y/N felt on the regular, how Kai felt about Y/N on the regular—with alike outcomes. Heartbreak remained the end product of their emotional cycles. No matter what Y/N did, she could never learn to see what she did wrong in her relationship. No matter what Kai did, he could never help Y/N move away from a relationship she brought no wrongs to. There were alternatives, and he knew of them, but Y/N stayed secure in a relationship full of insecurities.

He did wish for things to be different. That someone who couldn't reach her ankles through personality, care for others and worth drifted off her tracks. What Y/N was given fell behind what she gave to her boyfriend. Yet she settled for mediocracy—someone who gave the bare minimum in something Y/N maintained because her boyfriend failed to care.

There was this wandering thought Kai always had in mind. Never could he let it go because it clung on to him—it was just there, loud, transparent, and tempting to go after. For Y/N to leave her relationship was one thing, but to leave it for him was another.

"Let me tell you something." So he told her. How he truly felt about her relationship with her ex; how she shouldn't feel; how she should be treated; how he felt about her ex; and how he felt about Y/N. No room was left to duck anything.

There was a lot that he unpacked, a lot that Kai let loose to not only to Y/N but also himself. Having to admit to your friend that you liked them was one thing, but to admit it to yourself first was something else. Having feelings for your friend before, while and after their relationship served to be a difficult task. The hope was for all he felt to go astray while she was with her ex. But those feelings, in fact, only grew firm and defined over time. They never strayed away; he never wanted them to in the first place.

Glancing away from the TV, Y/N looked to Kai with a frown growing across her lips. "Why are you only telling me now?" She never knew of how Kai felt, how he felt for her. Time spent together surpassed the time she spent with her ex; it was a wonder as to how she missed the signs.

He rubbed his eyes, tired from the questions he had acknowledged long before she brought them to discussion. "Would you have left him if I told you before?"

It was only then when everything fell in line for Y/N. How Kai kept how he felt for her out of respect for her relationship. Despite disagreeing with every single part of it, he kept those opinions to himself because it wasn't his business to interrupt. Struggling to maintain a relationship when Kai offered more than she could ask from her ex; missing out on something for nothing. She fell short of the primal elements of a relationship—understanding, trust, love, respect—when she found them in Kai every day, yet never did she embrace him for them.

Realisation was slow to catch up to her, but it still came along. Only down the line did she understand that she made her heartbreak his own.

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Requested by ffionharris21. This is all over the place, excuse me for that :/

Uh, so I was thinking about starting [word] prompts along with the regular requests. Let me know what you think 'cause I might just consider it.