Love Bites | | Choi San

Chapter 43

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

After an hour of Nabi gathering all her courage and cheering herself up with pep talk, claiming everything would turn out great, she finally decided she was ready to knock on her neighbor's door. It only took her two knocks and the door was opened.

"Hey!" She smiled.

"Oh hi," seeing San return a small smile back assured her once again that she was doing the right thing. "Well,  I want to speak to you about yesterday."

"I actually want to talk to you about that as well."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I wanted to apologize," San looked down for a second, one may have thought he was feeling doubtful about something.

"Apologize?" 

"Yeah... I was drunk and wasn't thinking straight I don't know what came over me" Oh.

Nabi's smile faded as quickly as it appeared on her face earlier. The air in the room hung heavy with unspoken words as they both stood there, the weight of their conversation settling around them like a thick fog. She remained silent, her gaze fixed on the ground, unable to meet his eyes. It was as if she was wrestling with something deep within herself, a battle between what she wanted to say and what she felt she should say.

After realizing she wasn't going to say anything in reply, he continued, "You don't have to worry about explaining things to me if that's what you were about to do, I get it, you're not a relationship type of girl, it's fine," it is?

"I hope we can still be friends and not be awkward about it though?" he continued, his tone hopeful.

Her lips curved into a small smile, "Yeah, of course," she replied, her voice soft. "That's what I wanted to say as well actually! I want you too, I mean, I want you as a friend. And...well," She mumbled not knowing what else to say, "Okay, um... great! I'll be leaving then. I have some work to do, some calls to make!"

"Okay, see ya," he said, nodding slightly.

"Ye," she murmured, turning to leave, her heart feeling heavier than it had in months.

Nabi unlocked the door and stepped inside, the silence of the empty house enveloping her like a suffocating blanket. The smile she tried her best to fake slowly erased from her cheeks. Of course, it was a mistake. She knew it all along. She shouldn't have believed her friends. The hope of things actually working out all came crashing down.

She made her way to her room, each moment a reminder of the emptiness that now consumed her. Sitting on her bed, she allowed the tears she had been holding back to finally flow freely, rolling down her cheeks like a river of despair. 

"I'm such an idiot." She whispered to herself as she tried to wipe off the tears but they kept flowing, "Of course he doesn't like me..."

As she sank onto her bed, Nabi allowed herself to confront the truth she hated the most about herself. She faced her greatest fear head-on, allowing herself to be vulnerable to the possibility of heartbreak once again, and it became a reality. It was easier to bury her feelings beneath layers of false smiles and hollow laughter, to convince herself that she was better off alone. Her sobs echoed in the silence of her room, she wanted to scream, to let it all out, but all she could manage was a choked sob.

With trembling hands, Nabi reached for her phone, her heart pounding in her chest as she typed out a message to the group chat to let them know how things went, only to erase it all and put the phone down again. What if they were tired of hearing her nonstopping problems about her feelings? Cause she was sick of it too.

Why did she have to catch feelings again? When would she learn her lesson? Or why did it have to be San out of so many people? She felt stupid and she hated it.

As Nabi's tears soaked her pillow, her phone buzzed insistently, interrupting the solitude of her sorrow. With a sigh, she reached over and picked it up, her vision blurry from tears as she saw her younger brother's name flashing on the screen.

"What?" she answered, her voice hoarse and strained, barely concealing the raw emotions bubbling beneath the surface.

"Hey, Nabi, you okay?" came her brother's voice, laced with concern.

Nabi rolled her eyes, despite knowing he couldn't see her. "I'm fine, just leave me alone," she muttered, attempting to brush off his inquiry.

But her brother, undeterred by her dismissive tone, persisted. "Come on, Nabi, I can tell something's wrong. You never cry like this. Did something happen?"

Nabi's resolve wavered as she listened to the genuine worry in her brother's voice. Despite the annoyance he often caused her, there was no denying that he cared about her well-being. She sighed, feeling the weight of her emotions pressing down on her even more heavily.

"It's nothing, just... a bad day," she admitted, her voice cracking with emotion. 

"I know that's not the actual reason Nabi, But if you don't want to talk about it I won't force you," it's not that she didn't want to talk about it, but she couldn't. what would she even say? 'oh by the way the boy you and mom think I'm dating, he's just my fake boyfriend, but I did catch real feelings for him and he rejected me so bad I don't think I will ever recover!' yeah, that didn't sound so good, did it.

"Ew stop being so nice to me it's weird" She joked, making the boy chuckle as she faintly smiled as well, "Why did you call in the first place?"

"Well I was bored and wanted to annoy you but now that you're crying I don't feel like it anymore!"

"Wow...What a great human you are!"

"I know right!"

"Can I call you back later?" She replied, struggling to suppress the sobs threatening to escape.

"Fine...But If you want me to come over just text and I'll get there in seconds, okay?" Nabi didn't know her younger brother owned the ability to be nice but it was cute. She smiled weakly before answering, "Okay." and hung up. And once again she was left all alone with her suffocating feelings.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

A/N Am I a bad person for this chapter? Maybe.  Also, Jungwoo is so cute :// he reminds me of my little brother except my brother is even more annoying since he's only 7.