Revelation, 2020.

Prologue

"Are you on your way here yet?"

"I'm sorry I don't think I can go now," the guy answered.

"Eh? Why?" bewildered, the girl started looking at her parents sitting in front of her.

"I can rush there after an hour though," the guy quickly replied, not wanting to hear his girlfriend pulling out the anger card on him.

"No, don't rush it. Be well," she said as she immediately hung up on her phone.

"He's not coming? My Son, Yook Sungjae?" her dad asked, a bit disappointed by the look on his daughter's face that said it all.

She let out a sigh and smiled, "He's not. Let's just eat."

It was their first anniversary.

"What do you mean you can't?" he asked, sounding a bit frustrated.

"I've said it to you yesterday, right? That I have to rush-film the last episode and will be home late?" she answered.

"Sooyoung," he sighed. "Don't be like this."

"I'm sorry," she paused before letting him hear another verse, "I'll buy you a nice breakfast on my way home."

He was about to answer when he realized the call was already disconnected.

"She's not coming?" Kwangmin asked. "Drama-filming?"

Sungjae nodded and smiled, "She didn't even wish me a happy birthday."

She forgot about his special day.

The sound of door opening was heard. She turned her eyes into the clock and saw the finger was pointing at the number 7.

"Why are you home at this kind of hour?"

"I was fi—"

"Oh, don't you dare say you have a filming," she cut his speech, "Your manager even asked me where you were."

"Sooyoung, I'm tired," he sighed. "Can we just talk about this in the morning?"

"Morning when? It's already morning!" she yelled, letting out a drop of tears running on her left cheek.

7 am. He got home at 7 in the morning.

"Sooyoung," he called while he had her lying on his arm, "Promise me you'll be always be here?"

"I will. At your brightest and darkest, I will."

Love is the strangest feeling in the world.

It changes, it fades, but it doesn't go away. It remains there until it turns too ripe and gradually withers along.

Withering love changes your relationship, from the lovey-dovey one, to a toxic one.

Revelation, 2020.