The Girl We Never Found

~1~

My name is Jeon Rye.
This is my story.
All of this madness started on my 21st birthday...

June 13th-

"Rye, you know we're going out tonight right?"

"Of course, we've been trying to get into this club for over a month, and now that I'm 21 we don't have to sneak in."

"Man, we are going to be jumping off the walls with how lit we're gonna be. Plus, with all the fine women in Sin City, you are bound to get laid and get over that crazy ass ex of yours."

"I've been over her man, didn't you see me go on a date a few days ago."

"Yea I did, every five minutes you posted a selfie of you and your lunch date onto your story. Very convincing by the way...."

I scoffed, "whatever man, I ain't trying to convince anyone. I'm just telling you I'm over her. She broke up with me and we both moved on."

"Righhhht, that's good to know. So you don't care that, according to her last instagram post, her new mans gave her a ring."

"A ring?! There is no way she could be marrying that boyband wannabe! He talks too fast, while barely holding a conversation with anybody" I say, while scrolling back to the top of Jennie's Instagram. Before getting on a phone call with my best friend of 3 years, I had been scrolling through Jennie's timeline wondering if she deleted our pictures together. While she did delete most, there were a few saved from our freshman year of College.

"Damn, would you relax, it's only a promise ring. I thought you were over-"

"I am! I am. So let's just forget about it and party tonight. Get the boys ready, I don't even want to remember what's going to happen tonight."

"See man, now that's what I'm talking about! Tonight is gonna be the best night of your life, I can promise you that! I'm gonna tell the boys to pull through, Happy Birthday Rye!"

"Thanks Bruno, I'll probably miss the pregame so I'll see you at Sin City at 9:00 pm."

    With a quick 'see you later' I hang up, and unravel the black tie around my neck. Sighing, I feel the ache and burden of loneliness creeping itself back to the forefront of mind.

I am completely, and utterly alone.

    Getting up from my couch, I head to the small bathroom of my studio apartment and start to get ready for the most fun I would have for a while.

    When I dropped out of College, at the beginning of this year, I obviously did not think about all of the consequences. During sophomore year, my dreams of becoming an architect had expanded to much more. I wanted to design more than just buildings and landscapes, I wanted to create animations, design my own anime, and I still do. After beginning my second semester of junior year, and failing most of my midterms but simultaneously getting an internship at a small animation production company, I decided I had enough of business school and should take a leap of faith into the world of animation. Ever since that leap, I've been falling ever since. Not only did the company file for bankruptcy a month into my internship, but my younger brother started to plan to go to College in South Korea which will cause yet another financial strain for my appa (father). Then to top it all off, my girlfriend of 3 years breaks up with me saying she couldn't deal with 'my sudden change of character.'

I wasn't the one who changed, she was.

    Now in this small, cramped apartment, I'm living off refund checks from my school's financial aid, and a salary of $11.50/an hour working at a vintage movie theater.