Jen, a Junior at UCLA, struggles through the school year as her romantic life takes drastic turns. Adam, her jealous boyfriend of three years, has been acting rather distant recently. Not to mention his insecurities are out of control because she re...
"Hmm, do you think I should get the red one or the teal one?" Sarai asks.
"Teal. It'll compliment your skin well."
"Okay!" She beams and throws the blouse into the mesh bag.
I scan through the items absentmindedly but quickly lose interest.
"Wow Jen, don't buy the entire store," she chimes in sarcastically.
"Sorry. Nothing has really caught my eye."
She approaches me. "You're thinking about him again huh?"
"Who?"
"Obviously Jimin."
The corners of my lips perk up shyly hearing his name.
"Yeah..."
She nods in sympathy.
"Hey we've been out for a few hours. Let me just try these last things on and then we can go home. Okay?"
"Okay," I reply.
"And before we head back let's stop by Wetzel's Pretzels," she nudges me playfully.
My eyes light up. "Carbs are the key to my heart."
"I know," she smirks.
Sarai wanders into the fitting rooms and I sit on the sofa outside.
I look around and people watch for a few minutes.
My entertainment ends abruptly when a couple holding hands strolls past me.
Yeah that definitely helps take my mind off Jimin.
I pull out my phone and reattempt at distracting myself.
I open Instagram and scroll through with minuscule interest.
I pause when I land on a recent post by Taehyung.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
He has damp hair with his bangs practically covering his eyes.
He's sporting these beautiful hazel contacts and he's winking.
He wears a black leather jacket, a plain white t-shirt, and, of course, small Chanel earrings.
Incredibly handsome indeed!
Being the infamous flirt that he is, his caption reads: "The night is young, where are all my beauties going?"
It was posted eight hours ago.
In LA, it was currently 3pm which meant it was uploaded around 11pm KST.
Feeling a smidget curious about his Saturday night shenanigans, I click on his story.
A selfie with wet hair and an open robe that exposed a thirsty amount of chest. -8 hours ago
A selfie wearing the white t-shirt. -8 hours ago
A selfie with the leather jacket added on top. -7 hours ago
A picture of a dozen bottles of liquor with the drooling face emoji. -7 hours ago
A boomerang of a group of people clinking shot glasses. -6 hours ago
Another boomerang of Taehyung taking a shot with Jimin. -6 hours ago
My eyes shoot open. I click back and stare at him. My Mochi.
He beams at Taehyung as they throw back the alcohol.
Jimin looks gorgeous as always. He's wearing a leather jacket similar to Taehyung's but he has a black and white striped shirt on with a simple silver chain.
He looks so happy and it makes my heart hurt.
I rewatch the clip one more time before I continue viewing Taehyung's story.
Full length mirror selfie. -6 hours ago
A video driving on the freeway which shows the city lights. -5 hours ago
The next video blasts loud music and I quickly lower the volume. Taehyung holds his phone at arms length. He winks into the camera before showing his surroundings. His friends are downing more shots, posing, or dancing to the bass heavy music. He pans over to his left side and a pretty girl blows a kiss into the camera. Taehyung then moves the phone back on himself and takes a sip of his drink before the video ends. -4 hours ago
This 3am upload is his final update for the night.
Wait. Hold on.
I rewatch the video and fixate on one SMALL detail.
The part with the pretty girl comes up. She raises her hand to blow the kiss and that's when I see an arm wrapped snugly around her waist. The person's face is not shown because of the diagonal angle of the phone, I can only see up to their shoulder and half of their torso.
However, this is enough for me to see that the arm belongs to someone who's unmistakably wearing a leather jacket, black and white striped shirt, and a silver necklace...
"Jen? Jen!"
I raise my eyes slowly towards Sarai.
"Are you okay?" "Yeah," I respond dryly.
"Uhh well Ima go pay for these and then we can go," she looks me over cautiously.
"Great," I mutter.
Once she departs, I stare back at the screen. I rewatch the video five more times.
Each time, I try convincing myself that it isn't his arm.
As Sarai and I exit the store, I walk with a lack of attention.
My body was physically present but I was emotionally and mentally absent.
We enter the pretzel shop, Sarai asks me a question, and I nod robotically, completely unaware of what I agreed to.
We sit at an empty table outside and she chatters away while I stare off into the distance.
"Jen, what the hell happened?" "Hm what?"
"You were okay like twenty minutes ago but now you turned into full zombie mode."
"Oh it's nothing. I'm fine."
"Bullshit. You are clearly NOT fine."
"I don't wanna talk about it."
"Keeping it bottled up won't help either."
"I said I'm fine so STOP FUCKING ASKING!" I snap back.
She looks at me with hurt and shock.
I immediately regret my tone. I had never raised my voice at her and my anger was obviously not directed at her.
I lower my gaze and massage my temples.
My eyes moisten and I bite down on my tongue to control my emotions.
Sarai reaches out and places my hand in hers. She squeezes it in comfort.
"I'm sorry that his absence has caused you so much pain."
