The day I rescued you and everything changed (TxT's Soobin Fanfiction)

Chapter 12: When did things change so much?

I shifted in my seat uncomfortable. I arrived at work so much earlier than usually and until now no one else was to be seen. I had chickened out and just left a text for Ari, saying that I had to go to work early and therefore she had to get to work on her own. My phone dinged. I picked it up, almost certain it was her, being mad at me. Instead, it was Kasumi. "Have you talked to her yet?", she wanted to know. I sighed. No need denying it. "I didn't feel ready yet. I will go over to her today evening", I texted back. "You better", she wrote back just a second later. She was right, I shouldn't stall this. I sighed and thought back to when I first had met Ari.

--- Flashback ---

I smiled at the girl behind the bar. She was good-looking and had a charming smile. "I haven't seen you here often yet", she said, "Is it your first time?" I nodded and discreetly pointed over to my friend who was flirting heavily with another girl. "He dragged me here and then just abandoned me", I explained. "So you're lacking company?", she asked with a smirk. I blushed but agreed. "My shift's almost over", she went on, "If you still need and want company then..."

Twenty minutes later, she came back from changing into her normal clothes and took my arm. "I know a nice little bar just down the street. It's not as noisy as in here", she told me. I hesitated a bit as I didn't want to leave my friend. But on the other hand, he didn't need me anyway it seems. And I preferred bars over clubs in general. "I'll just tell my friend, alright?", I said and she nodded with a big smile. Her eyes sparkled and I almost had called her cute out loud. I rushed over to my friend and told him about our plan. He had smirked at me and wished me a good night. I had rolled my eyes grinning and wished him the same before returning to Ari.

We sat in the bar for so long and forgot about the time over our chattering that they politely asked us to leave. I had walked her home, realizing that she was just right around the corner to where I recently moved in. And we would even go to the same school. I had offered her to take her along after the weekend. The next day she came over with a cake, as a thank you for the nice evening, as she told me. She soon became everything to me and with our heads up in the clouds, we became a couple so fast that even my friends had been surprised. We spent basically every single second together. I didn't regret it. She was cute, lovely, selfless and so easily to be endeared. Coming from a poor family, she was astonished when she saw my apartment the first time. It wasn't something fancy but for her it was like a little castle she could feel like a princess in. And she loved that role. And I loved to see her being that happy. She had deserved it. We often fell asleep cuddling on the couch. It was enough for both of us.

--- End of flashback ---

She still slept over often, but by now she mostly slept in my bed while I moved into the living room. Maybe it all went wrong when I got this job. Suddenly I had a relatively high income and I guess Ari saw this as her chance to finally be part of the upper class, making her unsatisfiable. And somehow, our relationship turned into this. I sighed and let my fingers run through my hair. I wonder how it had turned out for my friend I had been in the club with. Was he still with that girl from back then? She had been quite cute, right down his alley. And what was with the rest of my friends? One of them recently texted me, simply asking if I still was alive. As I wanted to answer, Ari had told me not to, suspecting them to have heard of my new "richness". I would give up all of that though, just to return to what it had been like before. Maybe I should text him back now, apologizing for making him wait. Maybe he still was in touch with the others too. Maybe I could turn it around again.

•••••••

One after the other, my colleagues arrived and I finally started working properly. In lunchbreak I found a new message from Kasumi: "If you need anyone to talk today evening, feel free to come over. But I won't let you in unless you told her, you hear?" I smiled. She was annoyingly stubborn, but right. I needed that little push that came with her offer of emotional support. I really must have been fated to meet her.

I put my phone away again after texting her back and started the second half of the day. And only a few hours later, I was back in my car, on my way to face Ari. I had decided to not look at my phone anymore; I didn't want to find a text from her making me nervous already. I parked and got out, walking straight to her house. I knew she was already home; she usually took the earlier bus home when I couldn't drive her for whatever reason. I turned around the corner and stopped in my tracks. I saw Ari. She was standing in her doorframe. And she wasn't alone.