A/N:
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR CLICKING ON THIS BOOK TO READ!
*pulls you into a bone-crushing hug*
"Welcome to the heavenly hell" *whispers while cupping your cheek lovingly*
I'm weird and creepy like that, hehe. I'm just going to "hehe" my book away :)
I'm back with a hilarious, dramatic story so unlike my usual stuff but nowadays I'm into chicklit and humour so why not?
The word count for each chapter will be around 1500-2000 words, trying to keep it a bit shorter.
I won't disappoint you for choosing this story!
Now, if you excuse me, *puts a speaker near mouth as she yells*
WARNING:
DARE COPY MY WORKS OR PLAGERISE, I'LL MAKE SURE TO SUE YOU IN A WAY THAT YOU'D BE MOST AFRAID OF.
IT'S MY HARD WORK, USE YOUR OWN BRAIN FOR YOUR PLOTS! DON'T STEAL MINE!
THANK YOU!
*clears throat* Let's begin with the story, alright?
Thanks for choosing my story to read!
Happy reading!
Love,
Akshaya.
DEDICATION:
To all the "what-ifs" today's lovers have, to all the "oops" they should've made.
EPIGRAPH:
"What were we before we became us? What were you and I? Why did we become what we are now?"
-Park Jihee,
Before Us.
PROLOGUE:
"Let's break up."
That one sentence changed our lives upside down. But this breakup didn't hurt me, it didn't hurt him. Because we both met up for the same reason that day, to break up. We didn't see it coming but we also saw it coming. We both were nervous and didn't know what to say so we said it on a count to three. And then we laughed and hugged each other before parting our ways.
Funny, right?
We just had a very good understanding. We could've been a great couple with that understanding. Most couples break up because they lack understanding but it was very different in our case.
And what's funnier was, we remained the best of friends even after breaking up. It was like we skipped a year, dreaming. A year of being together. A year which was pure heaven and pure hell. A year that changed a lot between us but couldn't change us.
You're curious, right? What happened to us? Why did we break up? Why did we stay friends?
I picked the beer bottle up and chugged a big sip. How did it end? I don't quite remember...was it the day I got rejected in an interview? Or was it the next day?
Whatever day it was, I remember being pissed that I failed in the interview of that interior designing company. Well I was way better but these people just didn't like cute stuff and said that I decorated the room for a toddler who is obsessed with cartoons instead of a woman in her late twenties. Well my room is decorated in the same way and I'm a woman too, just in my early twenties.
My boyfriend, Chance Wilson, was also probably frustrated with his architecture job. Or maybe he was the best in his company. I didn't know much about his work except the fact that there's a pretty girl who wants him. So I went to a bar alone to get wasted over drinking, to clear my mind. May Jayden, my roommate accompanied me and we went there to forget our life for a night.
Chance didn't call me today and I didn't bother either. We were drifting away, fading away into our own lives to be bothered about a relationship. We knew we wouldn't last long if he got that promotion he was talking about since he would be too busy or if I got that job as an interior designer. But the reason has to be the former now because I didn't get the job.
As I looked at the beer bottle in front of me, I couldn't get myself to drink it. I had to talk to Chance to calm myself down. I wanted that job so badly but I didn't want to take that anger out on him. I didn't want to end on bad terms but I knew the ending was near. We were fading away. Still, I didn't want to fight with him.
I took a deep breath in and May gave me a reassuring hand squeeze. I grabbed that bottle but as I put it to my mouth, my phone beeped.
Channie:
I have something to say. Can you meet me near the grocery store now?
I mentally prepared myself as soon as I saw the grocery store, the place where we meet. Whatever he wanted to tell narrowed into two things: he either will propose to me or break up with me. Considering our situation now, it was surely the latter. I can't keep on dragging it till it becomes nothing, I had to accept that we weren't going to work.
May took the beer bottles to our flat as I headed to the grocery store. We both wanted one thing: to end on good terms. Since I wasn't feeling much of a connection either, it wasn't really that hard to face a breakup now. I would've broken up with him too tonight, even if he hadn't texted because I would've texted him to meet me there.
When I arrived at the store, Chance was already there, his right hand in his pockets. He was holding a cover with his left hand and I was pretty sure there were some noodles inside. We smiled at each other as we walked to the bench near the grocery store.
"I have something to tell you," We both said in unison and then burst out laughing.
"You go first!" We said in unison again. I shook my head at our antics. We always think alike or similar. Even if the opinions were different, we would understand each other easily and we always had each other's back. We had a good understanding, even in breaking up.
We looked at each other as we began eating the noodles he bought and nodded to each other. "We'll say it together at the count of three, okay?" I said and he grinned.
"Like always."
"One,"
Are you going to ask me out?
"Two," He looked at me sadly and I shook that thought away.
"Three!" We looked into each other's eyes as we said in unison, "Let's break up!"
"We both saw it coming then," He snickered and I elbowed him, nearly choking him on the noodles.
"Well don't miss me too much, okay?" I grinned at him as I completed my cup of noodles.
"I won't miss you or these cup noodles! Had enough for a lifetime!" He shook his head.
I pouted at him. "Whatever, I won't miss you a single minute!"
"Don't act this cute with your next boyfriend!" He squished my cheeks and I swatted his hands away.
"Don't act this touchy with your next girlfriend!" I imitated his voice as I stood up. "I'm going now so that I will save both of us a bittersweet moment."
He stood up too and we hugged each other one last time, a little tightly for a few seconds before letting each other go. Maybe if we held onto each other that way, we wouldn't have broken up at all. We knew that we would fade but we just let us fade away. I have no regrets though, he gave me a year of beautiful moments to hold onto.
I turned away but then his voice stopped me as he called my name. "Park Ji Hee,"
"Yes, Chance Wilson?"
"You'll still be my best friend, right?"
"We were always best friends before we became lovers, Channie."
"But most don't stay as friends once they break up-"
"We aren't like them, are we?" I cut him off with a smile.
"Do we love each other a lot or did we never have?" His question caught me off guard.
I shifted my weight onto my left leg. "What do you think? We will stay as friends anyway!"
"Yes, we will." He smiled at me.
We will fade away with time, there won't be us anymore. I couldn't help but think that we won't even stay as friends for long. Or maybe we can if I stop being a pessimistic person. Then we turned away and parted our ways, walking away from a year of memories from a place where we met and where we left each other. I still remember how we met.
I was walking home to buy cup noodles and eggs that May Jayden, my roommate, asked me to pick up from the market. I stopped by the grocery market to pick up other snacks for myself and the things May asked me to pick up.
I was picking up some cup noodles when I heard a guy grumbling into the phone, picking up some instant noodles.
"Mitch, we can't forever feed on these stupid instant noodles like Asians! I need to taste some actual food before I pass out-" He kept ranting, pressing the phone to his shabby blonde hair which is highlighted with purple and blue in the front.
How dare he insult my race like that? Racist jerk! I frowned but decided to annoy him by picking as many cup noodles that I can. But that's exactly when I heard him commenting that I'm a crazy, Asian addicted fangirl of BTS just like his friend was.
That's when I had enough. He was moving close to me, probably checking me out as I walked ahead to the cashier. I wanted to see his face when he sees that I'm indeed an Asian chick. It was my race and I'm a fangirl too, so what? I like my country's music afterall.
"Miss, do you intend on buying all of this?" The cashier, a girl who probably works part-time here asks me and that's when I realised that I might've picked the whole section of cup noodles entirely.
That racist jerk had the audacity to laugh. I crossed my arms against my chest and narrowed my eyes on the girl.
"Bill them, I will take as many as my pockets are worth!" I tell her and she counts the products and multiplies that by a 43. I blushed, did I really pick that many?
"They cost $225, $5 each, miss." The cashier girl says and I dig into my pockets to take out my wallet. Except that I didn't find it there. My eyes went wide and my cheeks flushed as I kept searching for them when that racist jerk tapped my shoulder.
"This fell from your pockets." That guy's eyes indeed went wide when they met my doe eyes. His eyes are piercing blue, a bright, electric blue. And his smile didn't look as smug, it looked quite cute on him.
I heaved a sigh of relief and grabbed them from his hands. I opened and saw that I had only $200. My pocket money, the money I made from selling portraits, for this month and I cannot afford to use it on these. But I can't back down, I couldn't.
"I'll buy as many that $160 could get." I was crazy enough to spend a good amount of money on just noodles. And though I was cursing the racist jerk in my head, now I understood him somehow. Or maybe May will understand him better once I show these to her.
After paying her the amount and coming out of the shop, I remembered that I didn't buy eggs but I didn't go back in. I didn't know why but I felt like at this point, there would only be flies left in my wallet.
"Do all Asians buy noodles like this?" Came that annoyingly cute voice of that racist jerk. I didn't know why I even found it cute. But somehow it sounded cute.
I turned to face him. "What's with you judging Asians and noodles?"
He shrugged, "My best friend is addicted to Asian girl bands and he is so obsessed that he has been trying to make me eat noodles for a few months now."
"Well we do love noodles but just instant noodles or cup noodles is boring even for us. You might like Korean noodles once you eat them with meat and stuff-"
"Holy shit, you had to be a Korean! Why aren't you something else?" He cried, holding his head, the carry bags hanging on his hands.
My mouth parted and I grumbled, "Racist."
"I am not! You better hide yourself somewhere, my friend might kidnap you if you wander around these surroundings! He is obsessed with Korean women!" He exclaimed and I just kept blinking.
"Well, I want to meet your friend now, I want to fangirl over my country's music with him!" I exclaimed excited over seeing an international fanboy.
"You both are crazy!" That cute blonde racist jerk bit his knuckles to keep himself from exclaiming.
"You're just too sane," I shrugged. Then we stared at each other and somehow his cute startled expression got me cackling and I burst out in a fit of laughter. He looked at me like I was batshit crazy before joining my laughter.
"Am I?"
"Well except for your hair-"
"It was Mitch, I swear he is crazy! He coloured both our fringe this way because he wanted to look cool like those anime guys!" He whined as he closed his eyes, shutting them tight.
"You look cute though," I said and hopped away before he could realise that I complimented him.
"Stop there you Korean girl!" He chased me, "How dare you call my hotness cute!?"
"It's Park Ji Hee!" I still hopped my way like a rabbit, without looking back.
"It's Chance Wilson!" He imitated my voice with a high-pitched girly tone.
"Then Chance, you won't get a chance to live if you insult my voice!"
"What? Like this?" He kept teasing me and somehow we ended up becoming good friends. My first American male friend.
It felt like I was the female lead in a Kdrama and for once, I felt loved. Chance was the guy who understood without having to say anything. Our cultures, our lifestyles, everything are so different but with Chance, it always felt like home. It always will, even if we aren't together anymore.