"But it's not my fault either," Sunghoon continued, his voice full of anger. 

Heeseung's eyes widened, looking at his friend in horror. "Of course not. I never-" 

"For years, you made me feel like it was my fault!" Sunghoon shouted, getting up and glaring at Heeseung. They were both crying now. "You never what? Never blamed me? Are you sure about that? Then why'd you start treating me like trash after the incident?" 

Heeseung stood up too, desperately trying to reach out to Sunghoon, but Sunghoon just flinched away. 

"Listen. I don't know what you're trying to do here, but get out. I really, really don't want to talk about this right now." 

"Sunghoon-" 

"No," Sunghoon said, glaring at him. "After treating me like shit for years, you don't get to come back and decide that everything is okay and that we can go back to normal. You don't. So get out," he snapped, opening the door and pushing Heeseung through it. 

Heeseung stood in the hallway for a moment, in shock. That hadn't been the way he'd expected that conversation to go. Not at all. 

In a daze, he walked back to his room. He sat on his bed, and opened the first drawer of his dresser. 

And there she was. 

Hyerin. His first love. 

He supposed she might always be taking up space in his heart. Even though he loved Aera now, Hyerin had been such a big part of his life. She'd shaped his life... her death had completely changed the trajectory of his life. It had changed who he was. He knew that he should tell Aera about it, and soon, before she found out in another way. But he couldn't talk about her without crying, and he didn't want his hardships to fall on Aera's shoulders. Not when she was already going through so much because of him. 

The picture was taken the day she died. Just mere hours before the incident. 

He was on the right, her in the middle, and Sunghoon on the left. They were a trio, the three of them. Best friends. 

And then everything changed. Just like that. 

All because of him. 

***

A/N 

To everyone who has been sticking around and waiting for this book to update, thank you❤️ Thank you so much. I know it's been a while, but I'm back! And soon I'll be doing regular updates again, so yay!!