At Long Last

TomatoCultivator1402

Day 11, Tuesday.

Finally, she started to pack her belongings.

It wasn't as if she had no time to go about doing it.

Rather, a part of her had been naively trying to fool herself. If she didn't get down to packing her things to leave, the reality of the impending departure would not seem as stark.

Her mood and mindset towards their upcoming separation oscillated between helpless resignation and vehement denial.

But eventually, logic triumphed.

And packed she did.

That night, following yet another full day of rigorous piano practice, Jeong Hyeok too, noticed that the hotel suite was less filled than it used to be.

Bit by bit, article by article, Se-ri's physical presence was also fading from his life.

She had brought six pairs of shoes with her, as expected of the fashionista she was, but now, only two pairs were neatly placed by the door.

On the dressing table, where there were once five tubes of lipstick in varying shades of rouge, only one remained.

He knew better than to grieve at this juncture, but the growing pain was nonetheless very much present.

There were so many things he wanted to do with her. But the problem with him being here in Switzerland for work-related matters meant that the time he was allocated did not truly belonged to himself.

Even at this point as he was back in the hotel room with her, sitting in bed together, he was watching one of the latest videos of himself in practice, so as to identify and improve on any potential technical weakness.

Responsibilities awaited, and it was his duty to see to it that they were fulfilled.

"That sounded great, to my amateur ears, at least. How are you feeling about the performance, Ri Jeong Hyeok-ssi?" Came her sweet, clear voice, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Not too bad. A bit nervous, I guess? But I'm looking forward to it."

I am not looking forward to what comes after the performance.

Stopping the video clip of his practice session, Jeong Hyeok decided, he would give her the small surprise that he had been planning.

"Do you want to take a look at your private Instagram account?"

Se-ri narrowed her eyes in confusion.

Strange that he would ask her that, for Ri Jeong Hyeok was the last person on earth to hold interest in social media.

Even if he had been born in South Korea, he would likely be that one guy who owns a user account, but never uploads a single photo and would always have a blank profile picture.

"Hmm... okay. Wait a second." She reached for her smartphone on her side of the bed, unlocking it to open the Instagram application.

Flashing him a questioning glance while the app loaded, Se-ri noticed that she had been on her public, verified account.

A quick tap led to switched handles, and that was when she saw it.

There was a follow request to her private account that had gone unseen.

After all, since she held two Instagram accounts, a blue-ticked, verified one as "SerisChoiceOfficial" and the other, a private one with the handle "yoonsr_0202", it was inevitable that she missed out on notifications.

She tapped on it.

Under "Follow requests" on her private account was...

TomatoCultivator1402.