LOONA oneshots ☾ .ᐟ

we used to be - viseul

🦌🕊️ genre: angst

happy reading!

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The campus café used to be their spot.

Vivi and Haseul would spend their afternoons tucked in the corner booth, papers spread between them, coffee growing cold as they shared music recommendations or dreams too big for any syllabus. But recently, silence filled the gaps instead.

Assignments piled. Schedules clashed. And what was once soft and easy between them began to stretch thin with stress.

Their friends noticed.

Sooyoung and Jinsol, always the first to pick up on Vivi’s moods, had started inviting her out more, just to get her to smile. Meanwhile, Jiwoo often stayed up with Haseul in their dorm, watching her cry between readings, trying not to break.

It came to a head one late evening.

Vivi was waiting under the dim campus lamp post outside the café, fingers curled around her jacket sleeves. Haseul approached quietly, wearing the same tired expression Vivi had seen too often lately.

"You're late," Vivi said softly, not accusing.

"Sorry," Haseul replied. She didn’t offer a reason.

They stood there in silence before Haseul took a shaky breath. "Can we talk?"

Vivi's stomach twisted. She knew that tone. "Yeah. Let's sit."

They sat on the empty bench nearby, a chill creeping in between them. The street was quiet.

"I love you, Vivi," Haseul began. Her voice was soft but steady. "God, I love you so much it hurts. But I can't do this anymore."

Vivi's heart dropped. "What... what do you mean?"

"School, pressure, everything—I wake up exhausted, I fall asleep crying. And I know you’re trying. I know we both are. But lately, it feels like we’re dragging each other down instead of lifting each other up."

Vivi shook her head, tears already brimming. "That’s not true. We can fix this. We always do. Please, Haseul—don’t do this."

Haseul looked down, her hands gripping the fabric of her jeans.

"It’s not about not loving you. It’s because I love you that this hurts so much. I’m failing classes. I’m losing myself. And you... you’ve been shrinking, too. I see it. Sooyoung and Jinsol see it. And I know you’re too kind to ever admit it, but we’re both hurting."

"I don’t care," Vivi said, her voice cracking. "I don’t care if we’re struggling. I want to struggle with you. I want to be here even when it's hard. That's what love is, right?"

"But at what cost?" Haseul whispered. "I miss you. And you’re right in front of me. Isn’t that the cruelest part? I miss the version of us that laughed until our stomachs hurt. I miss you humming while you worked and me writing poetry on napkins. And now we just... exist beside each other, hoping it’ll get better, and it never does."

Vivi reached for her hand. Haseul let her, but her grip was loose.

"Don’t go," Vivi begged. "Please. I can change. I’ll try harder. I’ll stay up with you. I’ll remind you to eat. I’ll skip club meetings just to be with you. We can be okay again. I know we can."

"You shouldn’t have to change for me, Vivi. You deserve peace. You deserve someone who doesn’t make you cry in your bed at night. I can’t be that person right now. I’m not... strong enough."

Vivi’s tears fell freely now. "Then we’ll be weak together. Isn’t that better than being apart?"

Haseul leaned in and rested her forehead against Vivi’s. "You’re everything good in my life. But I’m scared if we keep going like this, we’ll start to hate each other. And I never want to hate you."

"So that’s it? You’d rather lose me now than risk watching us fall apart slowly?"

Haseul nodded, her own tears finally breaking through. "Because if I lose you now, maybe there’s still a chance we’ll find each other again someday. Whole. Ready."

They stayed like that, forehead to forehead, crying quietly in the cold.

Eventually, Haseul pulled away. "Tell Sooyoung and Jinsol I said thank you—for taking care of you."

Vivi swallowed hard. "Tell Jiwoo and Jungeun... tell them to keep you warm."

Neither girl moved for a long time.

And when they finally did, it felt like the world had shifted.

That night, Sooyoung held Vivi close as she cried into her shoulder, Jinsol quietly rubbing her back. Down the hall, Haseul fell asleep on Jiwoo’s couch, Jungeun quietly sitting beside her, eyes full of something that looked a lot like heartbreak.

Even love, it turns out, isn’t always enough.