'' ᵖʳᵒˡᵒᵍᵘᵉ ''
Hwang Sunoh stared down at his phone, his heart feeling heavy in his chest. The words 'NO ONE WITHIN A 10M RADIUS LOVES YOU' remained on the screen, refusing to change no matter how long he waited.
He raised his gaze to look at the girl standing in front of him in the small alleyway near to school. Kim Jojo. The girl he had fallen for. The girl he had desperately tried to hold on to. The girl that was now heartlessly ending their relationship in the same spot that it had started a few months ago.
"Turn on your Love Alarm," he said. His voice was as quiet and weak as his heart, but Sunoh couldn't care less about that then.
Jojo sighed at him but pulled out her phone anyway, opening up the app. Sunoh waited while holding his breath, hoping—praying that everything she had said before was either a lie or a stupid joke and that she still loved him. His eyes were glued to his screen as he waited.
DING.
Sunoh's gaze snapped to Jojo's phone. A heart had appeared on her Love Alarm along with the words 'SOMEONE WITHIN A 10M RADIUS LOVES YOU'.
As his gaze trailed back to his own phone, Sunoh felt his heart crack. The message on the screen hadn't changed in the slightest. His throat felt tight and his chest ached. He let out a heavy sigh as he closed his eyes, trying to force away the tears that welled up in them.
"How many times must we do this?" Jojo asked, sounding tired.
Sunoh ignored her question. "Tell me what I did wrong," he begged, his voice breaking. "Please—if you tell me what it was, I swear that I won't do it again. I promise, Jojo."
"Sunoh, I—"
"Do you like someone else?"
Jojo sighed, her gaze trailing away from him. "That's not it."
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Sunoh decided to play the card that had worked for him once before—the one that had started their relationship in the first place. Perhaps if he said it again, she would remember how happy they had been and would reconsider.
"I want to kiss you—"
"Don't!" Jojo snapped at him, her face contorting into a look of annoyance which she directed at the floor. Quieter, she added, "Don't say things like that."
She can't even bring herself to look at me now.
"I...the truth is, I just don't like you anymore."
Sunoh shook his head, refusing to believe her and give up on their relationship just yet. "Look at me," he begged. When she refused, he placed his hands on her forearms and leant down to her eye-level while repeating, "Look at me, please."
Slowly—reluctantly—Jojo did as he asked. Her cold eyes didn't waver as she stared up at him blankly, the warm spark that had shone in them before gone without a trace.
"How much time do you need?" Sunoh asked. His eyes scanned her face again as he desperately searched for something—anything—hat could give him some hope. "I can give you all the time you need. I can wait. Just...just tell me that I'm not wrong in thinking that you still have feelings for me. Tell me there's something else that's causing you to act this way. Tell me what the problem is—we can fix it together—I know we can!"
Jojo refused to speak. While continuing to stare at him blankly, she held her silence.
Sunoh found his gaze falling to her lips. The lips that he used to kiss whenever he wanted. The lips that tasted so sweet, just like strawberries. The lips he loved. The same lips that were now forming a thin line after having spat venom at him, refusing to part and let something warmer slip through.
"Even if you say that they're gone, a kiss could bring back the emotions you once had for me," he whispered, more to himself than to her. "The love that we shared...a kiss could bring it all back."
Leaning forwards, the Hwang boy tilted his head just as he had done back when Jojo was with Il-Sik. Back when neither of them had feelings for one another, but both were curious and eager to become closer. Back when their love was only just beginning.
But just before he could capture her lips, Jojo turned her face away and sighed. As he halted, Sunoh realised that nothing—not even death could hurt him more than her rejection did in that moment. He glanced at Jojo's bored expression, his heart tearing itself apart a little more.
"Just now," he whispered, teary eyes focusing on nothing but the girl who refused to look his way, "I came within 9.99m of your lips. Is it so hard for you to move 1cm forward to meet me?"
Jojo turned to regard him blankly, her expression being enough of an answer without her having to speak.
Defeated, Sunoh leant away from her and straightened up. "You're heartless," he said as anger slowly mixed with the heartbreak crushing him on the inside. "Never turn your Love Alarm off again. Never, ever turn it off and watch...as my feelings for you change too."
She didn't respond. She didn't even blink. Just continued to stare straight through him without a care in the world.
Sunoh turned away from her just before the tears spilled out of his eyes, slowly trailing down his cheeks.
He didn't waste any more time there, striding out of the alleyway and away from his first love as quickly as his wobbling legs would carry him. One of his hands moved to clench around the fabric of his shirt over where his broken heart was, squeezing tightly as though he was trying to forcefully stick all of its broken pieces back together. Despite his efforts to keep his emotions under control and not lose face in public, sobs broke through his pursed lips as he stalked off down the road.
Just now, I vowed to show you that my feelings for you will change some day...but how on earth will I do that when all my heart has ever known is you?
─🌊─
"Why?"
The utterance came in the form of a broken whisper, and the owner of the shaking voice cursed herself for it. Seo Nari blinked back her tears, desperately trying to pull herself together as she refused to appear any weaker than she already had.
"I don't understand, oppa," she carried on. "Why? Why?"
"Because I'm bored of you," the boy standing in front of her responded casually, as though he had been discussing his favourite colour or usual takeaway order with a friend. There was no sadness and no remorse in his voice. "You were fun to play with once, but now you're boring. I'm sick of being with you, so I'm ending things."
"I can change," Nari said, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I swear, I can change, Taejoon oppa. I can take up new hobbies—apply for different jobs—I can change what I eat and how I talk and how I dress—anything you want, I'll change it all! So please—"
"Do you really think that will help?" Taejoon responded. He leant against the black iron gates beside him and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I doubt it. It certainly won't make me like you again, so what's the point? No matter how much you change, you'll still be you. You won't ever change your backstory or your true nature and—to be honest—that's the most boring thing about you."
Nari took in a deep breath, struggling to keep her tears at bay.
"I'm rich, you're poor," Taejoon pointed out in such a bored voice that the young girl wouldn't have been surprised if he chucked a yawn into the middle of his speech. "I have class and style while you're just a wannabe. You save up to buy fake designer items from the flea market while all I have to do is snap my fingers for the products that haven't even been released yet to be sitting in my room waiting for me. I can't introduce you to my friends or bring you anywhere because you don't fit in with my lifestyle at all, and you never will. And not because you can't—it's because you don't want to. How many gifts did I give you? How many makeovers did I pay for? How many parties did I invite you to? You're the one that refused it all. You can't blame me when it's clearly your fault."
"Oppa, please, please—"
"No, you don't understand, Nari," Taejoon shook his head. The conversation seemed to be boring him, and this only hurt the young girl more. "We're too different, you and I. We value different things. We pour our heart and soul out into different aspects of life. We just...don't fit. And don't cry—come on, Nari, did you honestly not see this coming? I thought that it was obvious from the very beginning—it was never going to work out between us."
"Then why did you date me?" Nari cried, her tears finally staining her cheeks that had reddened from anger and shame. "Four years—four years, Taejoon. Not days, not months—years. We dated for so long, and now it's over? Just because you said so?"
"Come on, Nari, you can't be serious—"
"Turn on your Love Alarm."
"Oh, great, there you go again with that stupid app—can you stop being childish for once and just listen to—?"
"Turn it on!" Nari screamed, hitting Taejoon's shoulder harshly with her fist.
The boy stumbled back a little from the force of her shove. A look of shock flickered through his eyes as he regarded the crying girl in front of him, but they quickly turned cold once again.
"Fine," he gritted out, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone as she had asked him to.
Nari copied him, the two holding out their phones for one another to see, one's grip being lazy while the other's knuckles blazed white from the pressure with which they were clutching the device.
DING.
Nari's gaze flickered between the two phones in front of her. A heart had appeared on Taejoon's phone, the sign 'SOMEONE WITHIN A 10M RADIUS LOVES YOU' shining on the screen. On her own phone, the heart refused to show up no matter how long she waited.
"See?" Taejoon said, putting his phone away. "I told you—I just don't like you anymore. I haven't for a while now...I just didn't know how to tell you."
It was getting harder for Nari to control her emotions. She wanted to drop to the ground and scream and cry her heart out, but she stood frozen on the spot, staring down at her phone screen through the tears that blurred her vision.
'NO ONE IN A 10M RADIUS LOVES YOU'.
Taejoon sighed again. "Look, I'll admit that the time we spent together was a good four years. We made some great memories. We travelled, we laughed, we had fun together, and it was great. But the thing is...the spark we felt four years ago is gone now. And on top of that, there are things in this world that are much more important to me than you will ever be. You just aren't worth sacrificing my everything for—especially not when I don't feel anything for you anymore."
By the time that Nari managed to tear her gaze away from her phone, Taejoon was already standing on his porch, the black iron gates and the vast expanse of his front garden separating them.
"Oppa..." Nari called after him weakly, grabbing onto one of the bars of the gate to prevent herself from sinking to the concrete.
Taejoon gave her one last long look before turning away and disappearing into his mansion, slamming the front door as he shut Nari out of his life once and for all.