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Chapter 1: Final

You were lying in bed when the rays of light from your window woke you. You blinked yourself awake and turned to look at the space next to you: empty, like usual. You turn back and checked your alarm clock to see that the time was 7:20 a.m. You sighed when you realized your job at the restaurant started at eight o’clock.

You groaned then stared at the white ceiling in front of you, dreading the slow day that you knew was going to take place.

Every day was the same. Go to work, get yelled at, come home, do chores, check phone, no messages, sleep then wake up, and repeat.

A headache was building up and you raised your hands to rub at your temples, hoping the pain would go away. After two minutes, you decide to get out of the comfort of your bed and slowly sit up right. You sluggishly got your work uniform, and headed for your bathroom. You brushed your teeth, showered, and then got dressed.

After leaving the bathroom, you made your way to the kitchen. You easily prepared an omelet and sat down on your bare kitchen table, and ate away. You looked at the empty chairs and realized how lonely you must’ve looked like. You ignored that thought, and continued eating.

You checked your phone for the tenth time, to see no new messages, then realized you had ten minutes to get to work. You stood up quickly, and made your way for the door. You grab the door knob but stop, and looked at the calendar that was placed right next to your white-colored door.

There was a giant red circle on today’s date, decorated with hearts.

You blinked, and did a double take.

Feelings of happiness made their way to you, and you squealed with happiness. Today was the day that Hoseok, your boyfriend of two years, was coming home from tour. He should be arriving home at around 1:30 p.m. today, and just thinking of that had you smiling from one ear to the other.

After staring at the calendar for a short period of time, you decided it was time for you to get to work.

Instead of being gloomy like every other day, you had a bounce in your step and were full of bliss and delight. You looked at the light blue sky filled with white creamy clouds and thought that today was going to great.

That thought was instantly crushed once you arrived at your job. Your manager instantly came charging at you with a red face that looked like it would explode any minute now. Your heart started to pound, but knew what was about to come.

You were a bit clumsy for a dish, sometimes accidentally dropping plates. It was mostly because of your co-workers bumping into you, causing you to break more cups and plates than necessary. And you confronted them once about it, but it only got worse. They spread rumors about you to your other co-workers, triggering more of them to harass you. You tried to tell your manager but your manager didn’t believe you. So the harassment and breaking of glass continued.

Your manager would always yell at you, then threaten to fire you for not doing “your job correctly,” when you knew for a fact that he’s only taking out his frustrations out on you and you only. Then he would apologize the next day, saying he couldn’t fire you because he was low on staff and had nobody to replace you. Then the cycle would begin once again.

“_____! You have broken the most plates and cups out of all of the dishwasher staff I’ve every hired.” Your manager then took a long pause, getting eerily quiet. That scared you more; you preferred him yelling at you and knowing what was going to happen.

You looked around and saw all of your co-workers staring. Some of them were smirking and giggling, while others just looked at you and your manager with curiosity.

Your manager suddenly started speaking which brought your attention back to him. “_____, you’re officially fired. Pack your things and go.”

Your eyes widened, and stuttered to get your words out properly. “B-But sir, I honestly—”

“That’s enough. Just go! Ah, and don’t forget to return the uniform.” He said before leaving you standing there stunned. Laughter from some of your co-workers started to surround you, and you quickly went to the back room to get your things from your locker, but not before giving them the finger.

As you grabbed your things, which only consisted of some clothes and accessories, the tears you kept at bay started to slip and travel down your cheeks.

You took your phone out of your pocket. You were going to call Hoseok but stopped yourself before pressing the call button. You looked at the caller ID picture you chose which consisted of you and Hoseok covered in cake. You stopped yourself from crying, remembering yourself that you were going to see Hoseok and you didn’t want him to see you with red-shot eyes. Thinking back on that picture, you gurgled a laugh at the memory of that day.

It was Hoseok’s birthday, and you surprised him with a birthday party.

You pretended not to remember his birthday and had to get the other guys not to blow your secret. You had made the boys keep Hoseok busy while you got things ready. Hoseok would always call you, complaining how much he wanted to spend time together with you and started dropping hints about his birthday. You had to force yourself to not acknowledge his birthday and keep pretending to not know of anything, and it was killing you how sad he sounded. But the look on his face once he saw what you prepared made up for it. He looked like he was about to cry, and that made you about to cry as well. After getting over his initial shock, he ran to you and almost tackled you to the floor in front of his other band members.

He hugged you so tight and covered your face with kisses which caused you to giggle and blush, and evoked groans and playful complaints from both Jungkook, Yoongi, and Namjoon. While Jin, Taehyung, and Jimin started to cheer and clap.

After that, it was time for cake. He looked at it then turned to look at you. He cocked his head to the side while pointing his finger to the cake asking you if you made it since you weren’t the best at cooking. You nodded and he grinned. He immediately grabbed a piece of cake with his bare hands after we were done singing him happy birthday which brought on laughs and protests.

He stuffed his face with cake, and the other members looked at him with mock disapproval. He turned to you and gave you a thumbs-up with his cake covered hand. You were sitting right next to him when he offered you a piece of cake. You opened your mouth and were shocked when he lightly smashed the cake all over your face.

You gaped at him, then grabbed a piece off of your face and rubbed it all over his face. He blinked at your actions but smiled nonetheless. He then proceeded to tell you it was the best birthday he ever had, kindling sentiments of pride and happiness to fester inside of you.

After that, both of you got distracted by the sounds of someone taking a picture and found the guys recording you and taking pictures of you two on their phones.

You and Hoseok decided to smile for the camera, and later got the guys to send you the pictures they had taken.

You really liked how they turned out and decided to make it your caller ID for Hoseok.

Tears started to stream more frequently as you recalled that precious memory and decided not to call Hoseok. You were going to see him later today, and you couldn’t wait to have your arms around him and vise-versa.

Having that thought in mind, you wiped your tears away and made your way out of the restaurant.

Maybe it was fate to have been fired, thinking back on it, you didn’t even scheduled this day off.

With that in mind, you made your way home.

After going inside your house, you changed out of your uniform and decided to get a dinner ready for when Hoseok arrived.

Forgetting about getting fired, you tried to get everything perfect. It took you four hours of finally getting the food to taste the way you want it after constant mess ups. But you did it; you finally made your boyfriend’s favorite Korean food, accompanied with a lot of kimchi. You smiled at the way you got everything all nice and organized on the table. But you felt like something was missing.

You decided to get the only bouquet of flowers in the house and centered it in the middle, giving it the touch that was absent.

You wiped the sweat off your forehead and checked your phone for the time. It was 12:34 p.m., and you weren’t dressed or anything yet. So you rapidly got into the shower and dressed in your best clothes which consisted of a light green dress that complimented your skin well with a pair of black high heels.

Looking at your phone’s time, you decided you had time to curl your hair. When you were done, you decided to apply a bit of make up to hide the dark circle and eye bags under your eyes.

After finishing, you looked at the results. You looked livelier than ever, and you smiled slightly pleased with how you turned out.

Now all you needed was for Hoseok to arrive and everything would be perfect.

You waited and waited, not taking note of the sky darkening. You patiently sat in the living room, waiting for your boyfriend to appear.

Your phone started to ring, snapping you back from staring blank ahead and saw it was a call from Hoseok.

“Hobi, whe—” You said getting cut off from his next words.

“I’m sorry _____, I won’t be able to make it today. There has been a change of plans. I’m sorry, I really wanted to see you today. But to be honest, I don’t think I’ll be coming back for a while” He said with a dejected tone of voice filled with regret, contradicting his hyper and bubbly attitude.

Everything came crashing down on you. First, the feeling of waking up and eating alone every day, getting fired, thinking that everything will get better once you see Hoseok, to getting everything ready, to not being able to seem after all.

“Hoseok,” You said with a monotone and blunt voice. “You don’t have to come here anymore. You should just focus on performing.”

“What are you saying? Why shouldn’t I come back home? Wait, are you breaking up with me?” You heard him say, with an underlying tone of disbelief.

“I think this is better for us. I can do this, live, on my own. I’ve been basically living these two years by myself.”

“Honey, what’s wrong?! I can tell from your voice that’s something’s wrong. I won’t know unless you tell me.”

“Why would you care now? Goodbye, Hoseok.” You said before ending the call.

You were left staring at your phone and watched the picture of you and Hoseok fade to black. Big fat crocodile tears slowed freely from your eyes, and a heart-wrenching sob escaped your lips, followed by another.

Everything you were keeping hidden finally resurfaced and you couldn’t hold it anymore. You stood up and went to the kitchen and slapped the bouquet on the floor, the glass shattering in every direction.

You immediately regretted doing that because now you were the one who had to clean it up. You tried to control your breathing and strained yourself to stop crying. You looked at the broken pieces of glass, and started to pick them up.

After you were done, you went to your bed and ignored the incoming calls from Hoseok. You laid there in bed, and let the tears roll down your cheeks. What was the point in holding it in? You were tired of being alone, and the feeling of loneliness was dreadful.

You were now drained out of your energy and finally cried yourself to sleep.

-.-

You woke up with a bad taste in your mouth on the floor of your bedroom. You didn’t even know when you fell out of bed, but you honestly didn’t care.

You ignored your throbbing headache, and sluggishly stood up and got yourself ready to hunt for a job. After getting dressed and eating breakfast, you decided to leave the house. You made your way to the busy streets and looked in every store. You applied to where they were hiring, and hoped you made a great impression enough for them to call you for an interview.

Spending the whole day out was tiring, and you were ready to sleep. Deciding to skip dinner and supper, you jumped right into bed and slept the day away.

You woke on the floor again, but this time, you woke up cold. Determining you had enough of sleeping, you changed into some comfortable clothes and put on some TV shows to watch. You were in bed, wrapped in blankets with a gallon of vanilla ice cream next to you, when your phone rang.

Thinking it was from a store, you instantly picked it up.

“Hello?” You said in a fake cheery tone.

“_____? We ne—”

You instantly end the phone call and drop your phone as if it had burned you. After that, you couldn’t focus on anything. All you wanted to do was to disappear. Nothing was going your way.

Thinking about Hoseok, you thought about how much this break up should benefit him. You were now unemployed and if you had stayed with him, you were only going to be a burden to him. He would eventually meet someone who greatly benefitted him and suited him, someone that was not you.

You smiled sadly, and watched teardrops land on your shirt. You quickly wiped the tears away, and continued to watch the TV show playing off in the distance until you fell asleep.

-.-

Four days have passed, and you kept waking up on the floor. You now had nothing to do, with being unemployed, and decided to do things you always wanted to do but couldn’t because you were too busy with work.

You started reading and painting again. You bought more books and acrylic paint and canvas. Today, you decided to paint whatever was on your mind. You put on some classical music and let the paintbrush do all the work.

You let out all of your frustrations and feelings into this piece. Once you were done, you took a step back from the canvas, and let your paintbrush drop. You were so immense in painting, that you didn’t notice you painted your ex-boyfriend’s face.

You stared at your picture, and didn’t know what to think. An abundance of thoughts were soaring across in your mind, and it was becoming to be a bit too much.

Your phone ringing brought you away from your thoughts.

You looked at the caller ID, learning from your past mistakes, and saw it was an unsaved number. You answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this _____?” You heard a nice and feminine voice ask.

“This is she.” You replied.

“Hello, _____! I’m one of the managers of Starry Skies, and I am calling to set up an interview, if that’s all right with you.”

You froze, but quickly answered. “T-That’s completely fine. Thank you!”

After setting up the interview, she hung up.

You stood there staring at your phone. Then you started to squeal in happiness. It seemed like things were looking up for you.

You had a small smile for the rest of the day. You did your chores and got everything out of the way. You were about to head to bed when a knock on the door stopped you.

A bit confused, since you never get visitors, you went towards the door. You looked through the peephole and saw a familiar silhouette. You looked down at your attire and noticed you were in your pajamas.

It was a bit late, and not willing to risk anything, you grabbed Hoseok’s old silver baseball bat from the bathroom closet. You had in one hand, while you opened the door with the other.

You had raised the bat but stopped once you saw who it was.

Standing in front of you was Hoseok, your ex-boyfriend. You immediately lowered the bat once you saw his wide eyes.

“W-What are you doing here?” You asked him, not believing your eyes.

“_____, we need to talk.”

“There’s nothing else to say. I would appreciate if you left,” you said, trying to close the door while he stopped it from closing with his foot.

“____, don’t tell me we don’t have anything to talk about. I came all the way here from across the world to talk to you. Don’t you dare tell me I just wasted my time coming here.” You heard him say with anger and a hint of desperation surrounding his every tone.

You sighed, and agreed, letting him inside your home.

After he made his way inside, you closed the door. Not wanting to look at him, you didn’t turn around to face him.

“Look at me, ____.”

Not moving, you heard him take a few steps closer to you. You can now feel him behind you.

“Look at me,” you heard him say gently. You slowly turn around, and look at anywhere but his face.

You saw that he was wearing a long black jacket with a black-and-white shirt underneath. Hoseok was also wearing a pair of black skinny jeans with black combat boots. You then looked at the black beanie he was sporting and decided to leave your vision on his hat.

“_____, not once have you looked me in the eyes once I stepped in here.” Hoseok said while taking his beanie off.

You gradually raise your eyes to meet his. Finally looking at him, you can see the dark circles and fatigue on his face. His skin was paler than normal, and his usually clean and neat hair was unkempt and disarrayed.

You had to stop yourself from flinching once you see his unwavering stare that was filled with love and longing.

“Why did you break up with me, _____? I thought we were doing well. Was it me? Did I do something to aggravate you? Tell me, please.” He said with his voice breaking on the last word.

Tired of crying, you told yourself you wouldn’t do it anymore. But seeing him in front of you with a look of dejection and gloominess, you could all ready feel the tears start to pool in your eyes.

“You know that I’ve been on my own for years, right? I’ve been fighting my fights all alone. That was, until you came. Every time I saw you, my day would brighten under any circumstance. You gave me the best days filled with every memories I will treasure for the rest of my life.”

“Then, why?” He asked, grabbing both of your hands in his.

“I was just so lonely without you.” You told him with a trembling voice. “Every day was the same. I think I was just breathing and living without really living, you know? And I dreaded every day without you, so when I saw that it was the day you would come home, it made my shitty day all right. But then you said you weren’t coming, and then I realized how much that affected me, and I don’t know. I just don’t know!”

He pulled you into a hug, while tears you didn’t know were already pouring.

“_____, I’m sorry to have put you through all of this,” he said, causing you to cry a bit harder. “I guess I didn’t see things from your perspective. I had the other guys, but you were just here, by yourself. God, why didn’t I see that?”

You snuggled more into his embrace, and finally wrapped your arms around his torso.

“I should have told you sooner then.”

You looked up from his embrace, “Tell me what?”

“I wasn’t going to come for a while because we were going to finish things up early. After a month, I was going to come back for a break.”

You tried to stop your sniffling. “A break?”

Hoseok nodded. “We were going to have a very long and needed break. Can you imagine that? After being gone for a long time because of touring, I would be able to wake up right next to you. I would eat with you in your kitchen, visit my family with you, and more.”

“But that would make things worse,” you whined and gripped his clothes tighter.

“Why would that make things worse?” He asked, after kissing the top of your head.

“Because things would be too good. I would get comfortable in seeing you every day but then you would have to go b-back. And I’ll be lonely again.”

“Oh, ____. I am bound to go back, would you prefer me to abandon my members and ARMY?”

You shook your head “No.” You knew you could never do that to him, and the people who so dearly cared for him.

“Then what do you suppose we do?” He asked while silently rocking us back and forth.

“We work through this,” you tell him.

“Would we?”

You nod vigorously. “I’ll make new friends, I’ll even adopt a pet.”

You felt the vibration of his chuckle through the hug.

“And I will call you more often, and we could video chat more.” He said after me. “And I will try to visit more often, and come home to my beautiful girlfriend with her beautiful dog.”

“That sounds nice, Hobi.” You mumble, with a small smile stretching on your lips.

“You mean that?”

You nod again.

“Does that mean we’re back together? I need verbal consent.”

“We’re back together. And Hobi, I’m sorry.”

“No, it was both of our faults.” Hoseok said while cupping my face. “We just needed to speak what was on our mind. I never asked you how you were feeling, and I guess that caused you not to speak your mind.”

“Seems like you’re right.”

“But we talked things through, and we’re going to get through this. Just like all of our ups and downs.” I smiled at his words, tears of happiness started to cloud my vision.

“I’m so glad to have you in my life, Hobi. You’re really the highlight of my life, you know that?”
♠ ♠ ♠
First of all, happy birthday J-Hope! I hope you continue to bless us with more years to come!

This story was inspired by a song by That Poppy. It’s called Lowlife. But I really really REALLY love the acoustic version. I put the song in repeat and wrote this. To be honest, I played it over sixty times. No joke. The part that’s not italicized in the description is the first line of the chorus, and I really recommend listening to this song~