Chasing Butterflies

Bleach Blonde

[2 Years Later]

Izzy walked slowly down the sidewalk, not wanting to back home too soon. Youngkyun was acting weird, again. So she decided to go for a walk and she also hadn't been out of the apartment for too long and she was growing restless. She tried to keep her mind blank but thoughts of Younkyun kept slithering their way into her head. He'd been acting stranger than usual the past few weeks. After two years of dating and living with him, Izzy knew when something was wrong. When she first moved in, Izzy didn't mind him 'going out' with friends, even though he never invited her to come with them she didn't question him. After all, he had let her move in when she ran away from her parents, he gave her clothes, and he loved her for two years. She had offered to pay half the rent when she first moved in. She had rambled on about getting a part time job and not wasting any money on 'frivolous things' like new shoes and shopping trips until Kyun pulled her close and kissed her just to shut her up.

"I'll take care of everything," he had told her. Izzy had briefly wondered where he would get the money, as he never seemed to go out for work. But those thoughts quickly vanished when he gave her that smile she loved and told her not to worry about a single thing. And the truth was that she liked not having to worry. Because while she had left behind a luxury life where all her needs were taken care of but her freedom was stifled, she had put herself in a remarkably similar situation.

Izzy hadn't realized it at the time but her while her living arrangement had changed, her life hadn't. Youngkyun gave her everything that she could ever wish for. She didn't want to admit that she had left behind one prison for another. Food, clothes, a place to live, and people to interact with, these were all things that Youngkyun had given to her, just the way her parents had. While Izzy would never admit it out loud, her mind knew the truth. But her heart didn't care.

Even when Kyun began coming home later than usual, she didn't say anything. When he drank too much to cover the smell of perfume on his clothes, she didn't question him. Izzy wanted to ignore it, to pretend that he wasn't doing what she feared. Because after two years together Izzy hoped that he loved her enough not to cheat on her.

Izzy paused in tracks, her eyes slid up the front of the apartment building to the window that she knew was her and Kyun's bedroom. Izzy sighed as she pushed aside the fears and doubts of her relationship and walked through the building door and up the stairwell. Everything is fine. Nothing is wrong. Just smile and go in there. Her encouraging mental chants didn't do much to ease her mind but she didn't dwell on her anxieties any longer. If she wanted to keep living a life free from her parents then she would suck it up and go into that apartment and ignore whatever was going on with Youngkyun because she was sure it would pass. The door pushed open with a slight creak and Izzy's boots touched the familiar, scratched-up, wooden floor. Sparing a glance at her phone Izzy yawned, it was 2 in the morning and she was just getting in. She hoped Youngkyun wouldn't mind too much.

Izzy shuffled one foot in front of the other and moved towards the bedroom door until her hand descended over the rusty doorknob. Then she froze. The sound on the other side of that door had her frozen solid, hand hovering just an inch above the doorknob. No. He wouldn't.

But the feminine moans coming from the bedroom told her otherwise.

Her hand pulled away, falling back uselessly at her side. Izzy turned around and wandered back to the living room at a zombie like pace. She sunk into the couch, her tear filled eyes scanned over the familiar apartment, taking in the home that she's called her own for two years. But it wasn't hers. It never was. A tear escaped from the corner of her eye as Izzy realized that even though Youngkyun may have loved her at some point, she was now nothing more than a pretty girl that he could show off. And it seems he's found a new girl to string along.

Izzy wasn't sure how long she sat on that old couch, trying to block out the sounds of their groaning. But the longer she waited the clearer her mind became, and her mind made a decision that made her heart scream.

"Izzy! What hell are you doing back so early?" Youngkyun's voice echoed eerily in the apartment.

"It's two in the morning, Kyun." She didn't know how to say the words, she didn't want to.

"Uh did you have a nice walk?" His attempt to distract her didn't work. Not even his shirtless body, which always managed to catch her attention, could sway her mind from the decision she had made.

"Babe, what's taking you so long?" The nasally whine came from the lipstick-smudged mouth of bleach blonde girl with a bedsheet wrapped around her as she came into the bedroom doorway. The girl's eyes slid from Youngkyun to Izzy and they widened in realization. "Oh uh," she swallowed nervously, "Maybe I should go." She hurried back into the bedroom, probably to look for her clothes.

Izzy's teary eyes left the empty bedroom doorway from slid to Youngkyun, who stood leaning against the kitchen counter, jaw clenched. "How long?" She whispered.

"I don't know what the hell you're taking about." He denied her question with cold eyes.

"I saw her, Younkyun. I've been sitting here for twenty minutes. You think I didn't hear you?" She didn't do anything to hide the pain in her voice.

The blonde girl tiptoed out of the bedroom—fully dressed this time—sprinted through the apartment and out the front door. Izzy didn't blame her one bit. She had an urge to do the same thing.

The room was deadly silent "What do you want me to say, Izzy?" His furious tone pierced her ears and made her flinch. "Yeah, I had sex with her. There. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

A tear dripped onto the leather couch as Izzy's head shook from side to side. "Not at all." She took in a shaky breath. "Are you going to stop sleeping with other girls?" Yungkyun's eyes narrowed. "If you love me at all, you'll stop. We can go back to the way it used to be," those were not the words she had decided on, but her heart was screaming for her to give him another chance.

"Get out."

Her eyes flew up to the face that she had known every day for the past two years in shock. "What?"