A Coffee Cup with Your Name

J.C.W

It's three months before graduation for your master degree, and you still have tons of thesis writing to get done. You have all the materials ready, all you need to do is writing them down into pages and pages of academic paper that you at least hope will be decent enough not to cause you any embarrassment in front of your professor.

Which is hard.

Writing has never been your strongest suit. Doing presentation in front of hundreds of people, that you can do. But, turning what you have in your brain into written words?

"Just kill me...." you whispered to no one but yourself.

The backspace key on your keyboard has been your best friend again today, helping you erase nonsensical words as you type. Type, erase, type, erase. An hour passes since you started writing, but you're still at zero. The new chapter of your paper is still stuck on title.

Giving up, you lift your fingers from the keyboard and rest your back on the coffee shop fluffy couch. You managed to finish a chapter yesterday, but maybe today you won't get another piece of such achievement. You are thinking to rest your brain for a while so you take out your earphone from inside your bag. After plugging it on your phone, you soon scroll through your playlist to find some songs that will hopefully motivate you again.

Right when you press play on the song of your choice, on the corner of your eyes you can see someone standing besides your table. Thinking that maybe the person needs any assistance, you pull out your earphone and look up.

"Can I hel-" your words are cut off when you see who it is standing less than a meter away from you, "Changwook-ah.."

"Aya, it's been a while.." the corner of his mouth rises to form his signature smile, along with his deep set of eyes that now curves like a crescent-moon. His smile is contagious, as it always has. You soon reply to his warm greeting with your own welcoming smile.

Although you are not sure how you are able to smile like that.

Changwook is not someone you should be glad to see again. The story-or history-between the two of you is not something to celebrate.

***

"Changwook. Ji Changwook." he offered his hand and introduced himself as the new guy at the advertising agency you were working at. You took his hand in a handshake and welcomed him as a team member of a project you were working on. You had only been working there for less than a year, but Changwook was still your junior so you always made sure to spend time to get him used to things. You never expected that those endless hours of overtime works together would make the two of you more than mere coworkers.

You two had effortlessly became some sort of a couple.

You talked about everything with him. Movies, songs, books, and also more personal things about each other. He knew your fears and dreams in life better than anyone else, just like you knew his. Hours with him felt like seconds, while minutes without him felt forever. Things were perfect.

Except for one important fact: you both were not single.

You were in a long term relationship with a boyfriend studying abroad, and Changwook had a girlfriend back in his hometown. You both knew what you were getting into but neither one of you could stop. Some affairs start when couples are involved in fights, arguments, or distrust-topped with a third person coming along the way. At that time, however, there were nothing like such.

The relationship between you and boyfriend had gone stale, the only thing remained was the commitment you both made some years ago to get married. But lately you hadn't been sure about whether the two of you still hung on to that commitment, with your boyfriend's intention to look for a job abroad rather than coming home to you. As affectionate and caring words lessened, your relationship with him had became suffocating.