out the door — j.jh
description. you could’ve only done so much to save what was already dying. | inspired by same mistakes - one direction, prequel to valentine.
pairing. jung jaehyun x gender-neutral reader
genre. angst, breakup!au
warnings. hinted cheating
word count. 0.5k
"Yeah, this isn't working out anymore," you uttered.
Jaehyun was standing a few feet away from where you are with his back facing you. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration but he didn't say anything back. The apartment has fallen silent again, and you're both suddenly aware of the ruckus you were making in the middle of the night.
"Where are you going?" he asked when he catches a glimpse of you from his periphery.
You don't turn around even when he calls your name several times. You walked up to your—his—bedroom, slipping inside and slamming the door in his face before he got a chance to follow you in.
"Hey, let me in. We," he stammered, "we can still talk this out."
You fall deaf to his imploring in the midst of your blind rage.
Relationships weren't perfect and your relationship with Jaehyun was no different. But you always thought it was a part of being with someone. But the past few months you've been together have been filled with nothing but fighting—a lot more than you normally did. You've spent more days giving each other cold shoulders than comfort, ignoring each other even when you lived in the same space. You'd argue over the smallest of things and sleep off unfinished quarrels. You realized you've spent more time apart than together.
And that wasn't what you wanted in a relationship and today was the last straw. Enough was enough.
But you come face to face with him when you open the door and it only takes one look from him to have you rethink your decision.
"You're not really leaving me, right?" he says as he eyes the bag you had in hand.
And right as the words slip out of his mouth, you're looking back on the better days of your relationship. The way he always made your stomach ache from laughing whenever you told him someone ruined your day. And the way he always held your hand to keep it warm. Or the way he was there when the rest of the world turned against you. Because at one point, he was all you ever had and all you ever needed. And turning your back on him was like turning your back on the only thing that made sense.
It all comes back in flashes. It was always the small moments that made you want to stay.
But the former outweighed the latter now and you brush his shoulder as you walk past him, because the small moments have long faded into the past. Your present was made up of nothing but sleepless nights and endless fighting that made you think that your relationship was headed nowhere.
He grabs your arm, spinning you around to face him. You don't wait for him to say anything, knowing well that if he tried to change your mind, you'll end up staying again. And the same damned cycle will happen again.
So you shake off his grip on your arm, turn around and walk away.
The real break up happened a long time ago, and Jaehyun knows this. So, he doesn't make a move to follow you and only watches as you walk away from him—fully aware that this was all on him and he'd be selfish to beg you to stay when he brought this upon himself. And he finally feels the weight of the decision he made months ago—that one night he let temptation cloud his mind and came home with lipstick stains of another—the moment you walked out the door, leaving him at the mercy of his own regrets when the apartment door closed.
© neo-shitty, 2020