Y/n ran. She didn’t walk away quietly or pause to reconsider—she ran, swift and unyielding, as if the weight of the world might finally catch her if she dared to stop. Call her a coward, mock her if you want, but she didn’t care. Sometimes, everything becomes too much, and the only choice left is to escape. One moment, life feels light—smiles, laughter, the illusion of normalcy. The next, a surge of anger or despair grips you so tightly that you can’t breathe.

That’s where she was now. Overwhelmed. Broken. Human.

It wasn’t something she liked to admit. Most days, Y/n convinced herself she had lost every shred of humanity left within her. But moments like this—a frantic need to run, to hide—reminded her that deep down, she was still capable of feeling, even if she wished she weren’t.

Was she selfish? Yes.

But wasn’t it okay to be selfish sometimes? Wasn’t it okay to prioritize herself for once? She told herself it was fine. What’s done in love, after all, is done well—or so she justified, not to anyone else, but to herself.

She couldn’t help but wonder: when had she lost herself in the desperate need to please others? The idea of saying “no” seemed foreign, lodged somewhere deep in her throat but never finding its way out. She had been raised to say “yes,” to be agreeable, to be needed. But now she questioned it all. Did anyone actually need her? Or was she simply a convenience, a fleeting thought in someone else’s moment of need?

Y/n had given so much of herself—her time, her care, her love—always with a smile that masked the pain of receiving nothing in return. Didn’t it hurt? Of course it did. But she had grown numb to that hurt, a dull ache she carried like a second skin.

“Don’t you care?” they would ask her.

She cared too much. That was the problem. Caring had hollowed her out until there was almost nothing left. But no one saw that. How could they? You don’t tell the sun to stop shining, the universe to stop giving, or someone to stop loving. And yet, deep down, didn’t everyone wish they could stop sometimes?

The world was full of lies—empty reassurances and pretty words that meant nothing.

And now, here she was, Jang Y/n , doing the one thing she never thought she’d do: being selfish. She had pushed away the people she loved and cared about most. Why? Maybe to test them. Maybe to see if she was truly good enough for them. Or maybe because she needed a break from the endless cycle of giving. Call her irrational, immature, or selfish—it didn’t matter. Everyone had done the same at some point, hadn’t they?

Sometimes, people forget to love themselves while chasing the love of others. Y/n wasn’t going to let that happen anymore. She needed to find herself, to love herself, before she could let love back in.

Yes, she had lost the person she loved—the one whose arms once felt like home. But she hoped he would understand. She needed this time. She needed to leave the past behind, even though it was far easier said than done.

Maybe, just maybe, when she was ready, he would still be there. Waiting for her, as he always had.

But for now, Y/n stood alone, with nothing but her resolve to find herself again.

Cover credit thvfiqz