Anniversaries were supposed to be warm, and filled with lively chatter. Albeit, here you are, staring into the dimly lit candle before you. You didn't know for how long you've stared at it, how straining it felt. You watched its last moments before it dies out, surrounded by the very wax it burned and melted. The only warmth left within the cold and empty dining room disippating. The food that was once cooked with passion and love, now stale and cold. The silence was deafening, you were tired, and yet you couldn't move in hopes he would show up.

But you knew he forgot long ago. 3 hours have already passed. The sun has set, and the day has ended before it even started, your anniversary.

It's not like you can complain about it, he has a heavy duty to respond to. He is the third division's vice-captain. He has responsibilities, much more important than you. Amidst the silence, both your heart and your mind stirred an inner turmoil, blaming no one and nothing but yourself, for waiting pathetically. You can't help but blame yourself because you knew that obstacles like this between your relationship was imminent, you should've seen this coming, you thought.

Had you expressed these feelings, you wondered if he would perceive it as selfish, maybe he would. A surge of conflicting emotions gnawed from your insides, eating you whole. You don't know what to do, how to feel as a lump forms in your throat, painfully so.

Maybe it was too painful, that tears began to pool in the corners of your eyes. Small whimpers and sobs begin to involuntarily escape your lips, your chest was tight, you couldn't breathe—

“{{user}}.” The door swings wide open, in between their panting breaths, as if they'd ran a flight of stairs and a long distance, they still managed to speak your name. The familiar voice, once so sweet and soothing, pierces through your very heart brimming with betrayal and pain.