Someone told me
They saw you recently, oh no

Harold received the text, all right. He was looking pretty angry as the rain poured down heavily that noon. He clutched the phone, wanting to have the urge to throw it out and shred it to pieces but he kept his cool, keeping the anger inside himself. His eyebrows were furrowed—tightly knit and sharply curved as Red but his expression—if looked into another angle—he was jealous. He wanted to strangle the person who sent him the text and whoever that guy was who was with his girl—used to be, his girl.

Devastatingly a mess, was he and he cannot deny it. The rain poured as his emotions in a loud cackle against the window, depicting the needles and shrapnel that fell into his crushed heart, somewhat enduring like a masochist, the pain that stayed with him for almost three months and surprisingly, the text he just received was enough to kill him on the inside. Harold swore he could kill anyone out of rage right now, but all he could do was stare at the wall—as if the wall angered him and replied such a grimly stare well enough to kill a man and shred him to bits.

They said you looked so happy babe
Then I felt strengthless

He looked through the text once again. Words crashed down on him but he tried not to cry. He was a grown man and he needn't to cry such awful tears of jealousy. But then, there was a follow-up text he just noticed sent on the minute before. Harold breathed an apology towards his friend who had texted him, Erik and came out a curse from his mouth. Although he wasn't there to hear it but the anger suppressed into those words was enough to penetrate his soul and feel a shiver on his spine.

'She was smiling..'

He hated those words. He didn't want her to smile—not anymore will he want her to smile. Harold began to question himself, another surging of emotions wavered and it was enough to bring him to compelling tears that rolled down his cheeks as every question wandered all over his mind—as every idea bugged inside his head.

Maybe I hoped you would be unhappy
Are you over me already?
There's no way

Such resurgence of feelings had wandered aimlessly throughout his body. He thought of her and what he could have been missing that made her be attracted to this man his friend told her she was with. He was sorry about his thoughts—he wanted her unhappy and devastated as he was but it seemed like he was the victim of love here and she was the player who deceived him like a prey. If what they fought over was something they failed to understand on each other's part then he wished that he could rewind time and stop them both from uttering a single word about it, hopefully, preventing that quarrel that ruined both of them—oh yeah right, him.

What do I do? I can't acknowledge this

He paced around his room before finally deciding to head out. He needed air and it was getting stuffy inside. Harold felt uncomfortable and as he walked by the streets and gazed at the sidewalk, his mind kept exploding with new conclusions and ideas. Clearly, he couldn't accept the fact that his girl had been carried away so easily in just a short period of time against their two years of strong relationship. Was she—no, it was outlandish. She wasn't cheating on him. She kept no secrets and showed him that she only loved him and only him, which sounded more painful than before.

Harold wanted to believe that she wasn't over him yet. He wanted to believe that there was still a chance for them to make up for their huge misunderstanding. He wanted to believe that this man was just her brother or cousin and that was his highest bet. She was a family person and would do anything for them—even covering up tears of despair and sadness to make them happy and entertain them.

How you easily forgot me and are so happy
It's too cruel, you're a cruel woman
I never knew this till now, I've been deceived

His mind floated to those questions. He was desperate to have them answered and if he can, just snatch her back to him and never let her go again. A girl like her was something else, he thought. Someone who can round someone's world and did she indeed but she was brilliant at letting someone fall so deeply and forget them in over three months. He brought up his phone, the text still plastering on the phone screen, but by this time, he took the liberty to answer.

'Are you sure? 'Cuz, I swear that I'll cut your tongue out'

He felt pretty satisfied and it wasn't long a moment before his friend had replied his message. But then again, only more grimace came and he regret having to reply at his message. Harold cursed him again and his photography skills as he found her picture smiling with the man who didn't look like a relative and he stared in awe at her hair—loose, neatly cut and straight towards her chest and the blonde locks were washed away by a platinum colour with ash highlights and certainly he was flabbergasted with this new appearance.

I haven't forgotten you yet
Whatever I do, your smile won't get erased

He spent the rest of the day gazing at her picture without the slightest thought that attaining her back could be quite the likes of Mission Impossible. He even turned his phone into airplane mode, ignoring the texts of those who sent in the same rumors and even turned off his WiFi so he could get peace and an evening to stare at his beloved former beloved.

Her smile—her lovingly rare, blooming smile—which radiated such sunshine in him that could burn forever. She was happy there—trully happy, undoubtedly happy and was he so jealous of that and whoever had her smile like that. He was a selfish bastard who wanted her to smile like that only to him and nobody else. The photo he saved into his phone's Gallery was on for hours and Harold reminisced every moment he made her smile like that but hardly could keep a long list since she wasn't an avid fan of comedy. But then, she surprises him with that smile for the first time during a get together with their friends when Trevor joked and managed everyone to laugh at it.

There's no way, this doesn't make sense
I wanna believe that they saw wrong

As hard as the day passed by, Harold found himself sitting by the window, leaning his back and keeping his head down low, grimacing the thought that his girl had been taken by another. Of course, he wouldn't believe such thing just happened. All this time, he thought that she wasn't over him yet and he still have the chance to clear thing up with her and get back with her—but, this was a very surprisingly turn of events.

As the night fell and the city lights started to flicker, Harold took a deep sigh and stood up from his seat, turning to leave his apartment for a quick stroll around the block and hopefully rest his troubled mind from the news he received that day.

As crazy as this was, he was still believing that somewhere inside her, she was still in love with him and was just waiting for him to get back together with her—using that hell of a man to provoke him into taking her back. It was rather a detailed thought but he can't help but imagine things and that was exactly what he dreamt of that same night. He woke up like a crazy man, refusing to believe that she didn't call in the middle of the night to meet up with him and eventually talked it up, but to his dismay, there was neither call nor text—nothing at all.

Someone said, oh no
They saw I had another girl

It was exactly two months since Harold received the text but he never can get over that picture still. Today supposedly, he and his friends was gonna meet up over lunch but things went to into a different turn and he and Alma came face to face—something that he was hoping to avoid but compelling inside was the unstoppable urge to hug her and never let her go. She looked at him grimly and cringes as Harold called her by her nickname he used to call her.

"Astrid, if you would please—"

"Congratulations" she said.

Harold rose a brow, his confusion slowly rising at the suspicious word she sprung out on him. He stayed quiet, pondering over the word and patiently waited for her to explain what it meant. Alma huffed in frustration and crossed her arms, "For your new girlfriend, of course" she barked.

"What?"

"Oh God, don't do that shit or I'll end up punching that goddamn face of yours" Alma growled.

She's not even that special

Harold took a few more seconds before it had hit him. She must've seen him with the ludicrously annoying neighbour of his who has been trying to get his attention for years. Exactly a month ago when Harold took out his laundry, she followed him to the laundry shop and they engaged on a short conversation until she tackled him to the wall and attempted to kiss him. The memory was so explicit to his disgust that he gagged as he remembered that event, then again, Alma saw wrong and he was now committed to clear that matter up, even if it takes a good beating from her.

I bet my all
That that's never happened before

He took her to a café to calm her down, bought the girl a cup of coffee and cleared things up with her. Harold straightforwardly told the neighbour that never can they date and never will he be replacing Alma with anyone. The girl was reduced to tears but nonetheless, she gave out a nod and a sad smile, wishing him the best of life and he wished hers too. After about a week, Harold received word that his neighbour, which name he learned was Lindsey, was leaving the building and moving to the neighbouring state because of job matters—but Harold deduced that it was her excuse to get away from him.

Maybe she wished you and I would break up
I'm sure she was just a friend
There's no way that happened

That girl had a long history with them. She was envious of Alma and her relationship with Harold and had numerous attempts to get in between but every attempt ended up with her being so devastated and the golden couple ended up growing stronger and finally, hearing that these two broke up sent her to an unending fit of joy and laughter. Lindsey Cho, a girl with a long line of Korean descent, kept repeating Pacify Her and Strange Love in her stereo whilst dancing with joy. Lindsey watched him as he wallowed about Alma and wished to comfort him and take the time to slowly captivate him but she had the uncontrollable pulse of adrenaline and desperation and tackled Harold without his consent and attempted to kiss him.

In all honesty, Harold never liked her and never will he consider her a friend. Alma however, was not aware of this Lindsey girl and kept living her life without knowing her and Harold was thankful that Alma never knew her—he'd never let her meet that jinxed up girl. It surprised him though that she came down with that simple straightforward message—maybe, he thought, that he should have done that before so she would stop. He was under the impression of the "stubborn-stalker-girl" cliché about her but he saw that he was wrong and cursed himself for it.

What do I do? I can't acknowledge this
How you easily forgot me and are so happy

All Alma knew was that Harold was the devastated man who she broke up with but was so surprised to find him seeing someone else about four months after the broke up. She has to admit that that was a fairly long time for the pain of the heart to cease, even just a bit but still, her eyes couldn't believe her still. It was a tiring day at work and all she wanted was a cup of iced coffee and headed to the nearest café and surprisingly found Harold talking with another girl which she had recognized was from his apartment building.

"Before you leave me, please think twice!"

Maybe that was what he meant about those words. She remembered them so clearly in her head. It was that day they broke up and she was about to walk out when he shouted those words but she didn't stop and left in the pouring rain—the usual cliché, but nevertheless, never ceased to affect hurt lovers everywhere. She regrets leaving and if she only had known that this was what it was leading to, she wished having gone back and reconsider giving themselves another chance to make up for their misunderstanding.

He had another lover waiting and it was up to her if they'll continue their relationship and let the girl get lost or break up and let the other girl have her chance—at least that was the conclusion in her head. She was crazy for thinking such things and it was so cringe-worthy and so not like her at all—she hated herself for that but it was just the idea popping inside her head and of course she can never prevent her mind to making up its own conclusion—it was her mind!

As such, this disastrous day, outlandish timing and a mishap continues to disgust them both.

Yeah, I'm a sucker for angst and post-break up fics. This has a part two.

I tried fitting the whole song but I have cut it because it was getting long and I know we don't want chapters that are too long. Also, I'm aiming every chapter hits only a 3k word max, no more.

RUMOR is another Korean song added to list and is sung by the co-ed group K.A.R.D. The lyrics captivated me most and it motivated me to make a one shot about it—actually it's now a two-shot.

Where are my K.A.R.D stans at? C&M and BMin FTW!