Heartbreak (JiTzu x SaTzu)

Chapter 19

Friday Night, July 7th, 2023: 9:00 P.M

Jihyo's POV

"Se, I-I-I am home!" I yelled with as much energy as I could muster right now as I walked in through the front door of my apartment.

I was honestly so tired from yet another work related event this week. There has been one every single night since Monday. I really shouldn't be that surprised considering how N&J's internationalization efforts have been ramping up.

Se came to greet me at the entrance while wearing her glasses, "Good evening!" she exclaimed before clicking her pen and taking out a notepad, giving off the energy of a therapist, "How would you rate your current state?"

Last weekend, Se suggested that we started keeping track of how I was feeling on a scale of 1 to 10. We would take 3 measurements throughout the day. I was not sure how effective this was as it was all very subjective; however, it did show that I was apparently at my peak at around noon and my lowest at night.

"... About a s-s-six," I replied after hesitating for a moment.

Se raised an eyebrow, "You hesitated. What's your actual rating?" she questioned.

I let out a sigh as I walked past Se to walk towards the kitchen, "Okay, like a three."

Se wrote the number into her notepad before taking off her glasses and putting everything away, "Want to talk about it before we have dinner?"

I grabbed myself a glass of water and drank it all before leaning against the counter, "Nayeon and Jeongyeon just i-i-invested a large sum of money into N&J as part of our internationalization efforts. Today's event was in part to s-s-showcase everything we had planned."

"Isn't that a good thing though? You get to showcase everything you have worked hard on," Se questioned as she went to find two plates from the cabinet.

I let out a sigh, "I was the main highlight of the show. Being the lead designer on this project, while also being a model is very tiring to say the least. I was just under a lot of pressure to make sure that everything was perfect. It was all self imposed though. Nayeon and Jeongyeon stayed by my side and just told me to relax and e-e-enjoy the event as they would make sure it goes smoothly for me."

Se plated the stir-fried rice that she had made, "That's good of them, but there must be something else that happened to constitute this being a three. An evening like this has garnered on average a rating of five with one four so far."

I grabbed the plates from Se and brought them over to the dining table before sitting down, "The issue is that there was alcohol there. To be honest, I have not fully recovered from what happened at the author's event. We aren't official anymore, but I am still s-s-scared that something bad will happen."

Se gave me my glass of water and a spoon before sitting down across from me, "I am sorry you had to go through that. I really feel terrible that all of that happened while I was present," she said with a downcast expression.

I shook my head while smiling at Se, "Don't be. You stopped me from having a full on breakdown that night, and I am very thankful for that. Anyways, let's dig in! Those hors d'oeuvre left me starving for your d-d-delicious food."

The two of us started eating. I have to say, although I don't know if I am exaggerating, Se's cooking has become beyond this world. I am beyond blessed to come home late on tiring days like these to a delicious home cooked meal. Prior to meeting Se, I would either go straight to sleep or make instant noodles.

I asked Se about her day as I was busy preparing for the event, and she mentioned being busy herself. Se had a couple of workshops to attend before meeting up with her author friends that I met at the author's event. Her friends were disappointed to hear that we had broken up but were very happy to hear that we decided to stay together for the time being. They want to see me again so that they can quote-on-quote "tell me more embarrassing stories about Sejeong". I was definitely going to take them up on their offer so that I have material to tease Se about.