Year 2019
Once, Hannya and Sebastian had been the golden couple.A fire too bright, too wild to die.
Until one day, Sebastian called her.His voice was heavy, uncertain.Three words changed everything:
"We need to talk."
When they met again, Hannya barely recognized him.There he was, standing by the bar where they had first met.The same place where laughter had once echoed, where their story had begun.But that day, they didn't go inside.
They walked in silence, searching for a café.It was late afternoon; the air outside was thick with summer heat.When they entered one, the warmth inside felt wrong—too bright, too cheerful, as if the world were mocking them.
They spoke about nothing for hours.Work, the weather, plans neither of them meant to keep.Then came the silences—long, heavy, like pauses in a song that would never start again.
The drinks arrived:a cup of hot tea for her,an iced frappé for him.Even their choices betrayed them—warmth and cold, side by side.
Sebastian watched her closely, arms crossed, eyes narrowed, as if expecting her to explain something.Hannya couldn't.She only felt smaller under his gaze, like a child being scolded for something she didn't understand.
What had changed?When had he started looking at her like that—distant, detached, already halfway gone?
She took a sip of her tea. It tasted like nothing.He scrolled through his phone.Neither of them used to touch their phones when they were together.
"Aren't you going to say anything?" he asked finally.
She looked up. Her voice failed her.There were no words that could fix whatever had already begun to fall apart.
"I got promoted," he said, as if offering good news could fill the growing silence between them.
He told her about the meetings, the new people, the project that would change everything.She smiled faintly, though worry sat quietly in her chest.He seemed proud, distant, unreachable—like someone already living in another world.
Her world, it seemed, had no place in his anymore.
Time blurred.The café filled with the hum of voices and the clatter of cups.A pop song about nostalgia played softly in the background, cruel in its timing.The waiter avoided their table.The friends nearby whispered and glanced their way.
Her tea grew cold.His frappé was almost gone.And yet, they held on to an old ritual—switching drinks before they finished them.
The frappé tasted bitter.The tea, lifeless.
Then Sebastian began to talk about memories—trips, jokes, moments they had shared.Hannya just listened, not understanding why he was bringing them up.Maybe he was saying goodbye in pieces, letting their story dissolve one memory at a time.
A woman walked in with a baby.The child looked at Hannya, curious.She smiled weakly. The baby turned away.
Sebastian sighed, the kind of sigh that ends a chapter.Then, quietly, almost gently, he said it:
"I want to break up with you."
No hesitation.No soft words to hide behind.
Hannya froze.He looked tense, his decision solid but heavy.
"I just don't feel comfortable anymore. It's not you…"
And then came the lines.The ones she had heard before, borrowed from movies, songs, and other people's heartbreaks.Each one a clean, practiced cut.
"This is what's best for me.""This will help you grow."
Words that rang with finality.But beneath them, something else—something unsaid.
Hannya's voice trembled."Tell me the truth. Is there someone else?"
For the first time that evening, he met her eyes.They were wet, though his face stayed rigid.
"No," he said softly. "It's just… not the same anymore."
He kept talking, explaining, apologizing, convincing himself this was right.She stopped listening.
When they finally stood, the café had emptied.Outside, the city glowed a deep blue—the color of endings.
She didn't look back.She didn't want to.She just wanted to go home.
And that was how it ended.So easily. So quietly.
Before she left, she asked one last question:
"If I called your name, would you hear me?"
He hesitated.Then said, almost in a whisper:
"Even then, it wouldn't be the same."
That was the last time they saw each other.The end of them—and, though neither of them knew it yet,the beginning of everything else.