Stop Sign

“Ri, it’s Nayeon and Dahyun’s wedding. I don’t even know this person.”

“Yeah but I totally saw you two getting chummy before the ceremony started.”

“That’s because I want to be friends with Nayeon-unnie’s friends too, what’s so wrong with that?”

“Cause I know that look! She probably thinks you’re flirting with her too! She totally looks like someone who just flirts with anyone she sees. I know these types of women, Tzuyu. And I don’t trust them.”

“Then what do you want me to do? Ignore every girl there is here? This is Dahyun and Nayeon’s special day, I don’t want to ruin it and you’re not really helping.”

“So, I’m the problem now?”

“Ri, just don’t get jealous, okay? I love you and I don’t want you to worry about me and other women. I only want you.”

“I want to go home.”

“What?”

“I want to go home, Tzuyu. If you won’t take me home then I’ll go home myself.”

///

“Why are you always home so late?”

“I was out with friends, why? Can’t I have time with them?”

“I never said that. I just worry about you sometimes.”

“Well, I’m fine and you gotta stop worrying about me like this. It’s like you don’t even trust me.”

///

“Why do you smell like another girl’s perfume?”

“Oh, I met Jihyo’s sister, and we hung out in their car.”

“Did she like, smother you all over in that car?”

“Ri, she’s just in college and the perfume was just pretty strong. You know the kind that sticks to your clothes.”

“Or you could be lying to me, and you had sex with someone else.”

“What the fuck, Ri?”

///

“How long have you been cheating on me?”

“How long, Se-Ri?”

“About six months already.”

“Is it a guy or a girl?”

“It’s a lot of people.”

“Why would you do this to me? I love you.”

“I’m sorry, Tzu. I guess this really isn’t working out for the both of us.”

“I can’t even look at you right now.”

“Tzu, I’m sorry. I want to work this out too—“

“But it can’t. I can’t trust you anymore. I can’t lay in bed with you knowing that you slept with other people. I even let you meet my parents and for what? For you to just think that it’s okay to do this? You made me believe I was doing everything wrong and that I needed to be better, but I’ve done everything to make this work. To be with you forever.”

“Tzu, I’m sorry. I have to go.”

“But I love you.”

“I can’t accept your love anymore.”

Tzuyu laid there on the floor of her apartment when Se-Ri left her there. There was nothing in that moment that could describe the agony she was feeling. She always pictured herself with Se-Ri, in a house, far away from the city, enjoying their morning tea or coffee and just in love. Content.

Happy.

But at that moment, the memories she had with her; the good ones, the ones that were enough to forget about the bad things, they were all gone.

She was starting to realize that she was living a big fat lie all this time. It devastated her. Being so in love with this person for so long and yet she was so blinded by the fact that things were going to end this way. That she was going to do this to her.

She got cheated on. And it wasn’t just with anyone, it was by the one person she gave her everything to.

Tzuyu gripped the ring in her hand tighter, the edging of the rock was piercing through her skin, just letting the pain linger for a while so she could overpower the pain inside her heart.

But when the thumping in her chest got deeper, heavier, and more painful, she threw the ring across the room and cried. The tears kept flowing and she tried to wipe it away to make it stop. Each wipe she made with the back of her hand; the tears came back again.

She wasn’t like this. She always had her shit together; even when the pain was too much, she never cried.

Suddenly Se-Ri’s smile flashed in her mind, her hand holding tight on hers, their first date, their first kiss, the first time she said ‘I love you’. Everything started to come back and all that Tzuyu could do was cry it all out.

“Fuck!” Tzuyu tried to claw out the pain from her throat. “Fuuck!!”

She turned over and knelt on her knees, gripping on the spot of her shirt where her heart was and started shouting. As if she could release the pain if she did. But nothing, it was still there, gradually growing bigger and bigger until she couldn’t shout anymore.

She threw her fists on the floor and forced herself up. She swung her arms over the tables and notebooks, piles of papers were thrown on the floor, the lamp that was on her way tumbled over after she pushed it away and then pushed away the books that were on the shelf. They were all Se-Ri’s.

Tzuyu started to puff her chest, trying to fixate her vision as she started to feel overwhelmed by sadness and anger, her blood boiling at the thought of Se-Ri cheating on her but then the image of someone else holding onto her the way she used to, broke her heart.

Her phone lit up from across the room and she stumbled on the books that were scattered on the floor as she tried to make her way to it.