The Pain Of Saying Goodbye...

The Pain of Saying Goodbye... (His POV.)

An apology, he thought as always, when he bought roses from the florist nearby his workplace before driving home.

An apology for the loneliness caused by his endless overtime work.

An apology for always cancelling dinner time,

An apology for always coming home last and leaving the house first... ...

The red roses were bought so often, the florist had began to recognise him the third time he stepped into the store within that month. With the misguided thought that he was simply a very romantic man, the florist would even often throw in some decorative flowers to complement the roses that he bought. In fact, the florist had began stocking up on roses after his third visit when she realised that he was buying roses very frequently. He had never bothered to correct the florist on the misguided notion though... ...

With the red roses in one hand, he unlocked the front door before opening it.

The darkness of the living room was beginning to be familiar with him. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, his mind began to wander randomly while he closed the door and took off his shoes. Trying not to disturb her from her sleep, he simply left the lights off and placed the roses on the dining table before walking in towards the bedroom.

When was the last time she had waited up for him to come home?

As he walked towards the wardrobe, he walked past the bed.

Then, he stopped.

A sense of foreboding began to creep up on him as his tired mind struggled to figure out what was so wrong that had made him stopped walking.

He hesitantly turned back and walked slowly towards the bedroom door before switching on the bedroom lights to look in the direction of the bed again...

Empty... Neat... It didn't look like anyone had slept on it. Weird...

Did she mention that she was going on a trip?

With her friends? To her parents?

As his mind struggled to process the reality that she was not in bed, he walked with dread towards the wardrobe that they shared. Taking a shaky breath, he quickly slided her side of the wardrobe door open.

Empty. Cleaned out. Even her luggage which had always been placed neatly in the wardrobe was gone.

Starting to panic, he quickly picked up his mobile phone and speed dialed her number.

Please pick up the phone!

Are you ok?

Where are you?

The ringtone went on and on, with no one picking up the other end...

Desperately running his free hand through his hair, he continued to call her line, hoping against hope that someone will pick up the phone. He walked quickly to the living room as he continued calling...

His eyes happened to land on the side table as he looked around in a panic to second guess where she had gone.

The phone slided from his hand onto the floor the moment he spotted the ring sitting in the accessories bowl and her keys with the little female doll keychain attached.

The ring that they had promised each other never to take off no matter what happened...

The little female doll key chain that was the other half of the little male doll key chain on his own set of keys. She had brought the his-and-her set the first time they went on a trip together and made him promised never to take it off his bunch of keys...

It was then he knew that everything was over.

She had finally given up on him completely and left him.

Numbed, he picked up his phone on the ground that was still attempting to connect to her and pressed the cancel button. He then moved unconsciously to the sofa and set down heavily. As his eyes wandered around the room without registering what he was seeing, they stopped at the three photographs placed on top of the short drawer.

High school... She had mentioned suddenly in one of their daily random conversations one day that she had never ever gotten a handmade lunch box. After a whole box of plasters, dozens of burned to crisp food and enough loud curses and swearing to himself that it was the first and last time he would ever attempt to cook, she finally got her wish of eating a handmade lunch box. The smile she had then, was one of the brightest that he had ever seen, it reminded him of the sun...

Piano recital... She had been practicing crazily the moment she knew she was going to represent her school on national TV. Her intense glare at the piano score in front of her, and at him whenever he suggested her to take a break, and her satisfaction when she performed flawlessly on stage...

Reading under a tree... He had told her that day that he had a sudden meeting with the basketball manager after school and asked her to go home on her own. The meeting went on and on till late afternoon before he finally managed to excuse himself... Walking out of the meeting room, he had found her sitting quietly under a tree, waiting for him patiently just so that they could go home together.

Leaning back against the sofa, he used his arm to cover his tired eyes in an attempt to stop looking elsewhere.

A single tear rolled down unnoticed by him as he reminisced the past... Scenes after scenes of them doing things together, going out together and even hanging out together at home flashed past in his mind... ...

He thought of the last few years when in a bid to provide a better life for her, he began to work longer and longer hours. The time spent together became shorter and shorter. The time apart from each other became longer and longer....

It was to the point where when they finally had time for each other, they had nothing much to talk about anymore.

How many times had she tried to strike up a conversation, only for him to brush it off with a single sentence that he was tired?

How many times had she tried to ask him to take a break from work to relax, only for him to tell her that his job would be overtaken anytime by his juniors if he took as much as half a day off?

How many times had she waited for him to come home with the dinner cooked and prepared in the hopes of eating together, only for him to return at close to midnight and telling her that he had eaten with his colleagues before coming home?

They had simply grown apart in the time they were together.

And it was his fault.

The tears began rolling down as he started questioning himself how he had managed to lose her. The intense amount of regret threatened to drown him as he belittled himself nonstop.

Wrecked with both grief and guilt, he curled himself into a ball as he began crying.

She wasn't going to ever come back to him anymore...