✓ SIX THIRTY ━ johnny suh

. . . . chapter forty-nine.

( ❑❑❑ )

✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩

SONG    OF    THE    DAY      :
too much to ask - niall horan

. . . . . .

youngho carried on with booking a private room. he even payed full early.

man was he excited.

the room's insides were covered with blue led lights that kept the mood going. there was a complementary bucket of beer at the side too. the noise outside was muffled.

the stripper with him wanted to cut to the chase.

giving him a smirk, she began to take her furcoat off to reveal her toned body wearing nothing but a gorgeous piece of linge—

head down, youngho said, "please don't."

the woman halted the slow method of making the coat slip off her shoulders, confused.

"can we just talk?"

"o-of course!" she was alarmed, but didn't persist and immediately sat on a stool facing him. "what do you wanna talk about?"

youngho breathed in. deep.

"my girlfriend broke up with me."

he didn't want to rant about this in depth to ten and jaehyun. he was so desperate to not do it that he paid for someone else to listen.

it wasn't because he didn't trust them as best friends. far from that, actually. he just knew to himself that oftentimes, the best people to let your feelings out to were strangers. what was there to prove to them anyway?

"i haven't cried in a so long but i—" his voice cracked halfway, so he cleared his throat and proceeded. "i thought i had it! i thought this was it. this is the one. she's the one. but— i'm— i fucked it all up."

all the stripper could do was comfortably rub circles in his back as he cried the night away with his elbows resting on his knees.

( ❑❑❑ )

chia was starting to get sad again.

reading jang seoyeon's message was the fuel to the fire. she didn't even know what to say. would acting mad be good? or would sobbing through text be better? all was overwhelming.

in the end, she chose not to do anything but leave her on seen. cold, but she's been through the roughest of days so it was the least of her worries.

what was the conventionally appropriate way to reply anyway? 'we broke up but haha it's okay'? a thumbs up? heart-reacting her messages? hitting on her shamelessly?

she put her phone back to her pocket and walked to the convenience store behind the bus stop to get something to relieve the growing misery.

at first, she was hesitant to purchase what she had in mind.

"a pack of cigarettes please."

enthusiastically, the woman behind the counter asked, "which one?"

"decide for me?"

of course the lady had to choose lucky strikes. perfect!

eyes fixated on the pack holding both horror and regret, she handed her pay and id for age validation.

"how about a lighter too?" the cashier began to salestock. "you see, we have this promo. if you buy two packs of any cigarette brand, you'll get a customized li—"

"one pack is fine, thanks."

staring at it longer brought chia closer to tears minute by minute. she was there for him to not cross his mind, but man was it a hard task.

she remembered the first day they met. he had not—

"are you okay, miss?"

she snapped out of it once the cashier gave stuff back, blinking the prematurely formed tears away. "yeah. yeah, thank you. keep the change."

she stormed off back to the bus stop, ready to taste the flavor she began to become unfamiliar with due to not hitting any for so long.

she put her hand in her pocket to pull out a neon green butane lighter with small, lighter green flame designs. she pointed it to the tip of the lucky strike she held up with her teeth.

it did not light up the first time. but it wasn't the time to be disheartened! all her lighters were cranky like that.

or maybe it was the time.

frustrated, she kept moving her thumb up and down the striker, muttering prayers that wish the sparks build up into a flame so she could get this over with each time she did so.

nothing was happening. her tears by the rims of her eyes had thickened at this thought.

the shakiness of her hands paired with the blurred sight caused her to drop the item. this contagion passed on to her lips, the unconsumed stick once between them already on the floor beside her lighter.

chia could not help it anymore. she broke into a sob audible from a mile away. all the emotions flown like a downpour.

fate had never been on her side.

when she quit the addiction that pulled her back from becoming the best version of herself along with someone who was willing to push through each step with her, she thought her bad luck was melting away.

when she felt a special kind of love through each kiss, each word, and each moment of silence, she thought bad luck would be gone for a long time.

but the heavens would never allow her to have perpetual joy, of course.

how could it be otherwise when she's already been numbed by heartbreak that's only been there for a couple hours? how could it be otherwise when the best thing that's ever happened to her slipped away from her fingers after mere weeks?

though a bit more hushed, chia continued crying in the comfort of her own arms.

why do things never go my way?

✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩

( ❑❑❑ )