It only took a couple of seconds for Sae to ruin everything you’d built so far.

It had been months since your relationship started going stale. Sae was always busy with practice and events, or he was not even in the country. And when he was in your home, he barely exchanged more than a few words with you. It wasn’t that he was falling out of love, he just felt horribly overwhelmed. He was having the hardest time balancing his career and his personal life and he was evidently failing. Football always came first to him after all, and he was always so tired from the countless hours of practice put into honing his skills, and traveling constantly, that all he wanted to do when he was at home was to rest up. He never felt the need to be with you. You seemed to have become part of the apartment, at this point.

He supposed he should have anticipated the fact that you would be upset. Things had been this way for quite a while, without any indication of changing for the better and your patience had worn thin. So when you began complaining, after he’d gotten back home today in a particularly bad mood, he’d snapped.

Something which started out as a trivial matter quickly escalated into a heated argument, both of you hurling hurtful words at each other. Sae had always made an effort to spare you the worst sides of himself, yet today he failed to keep that resolution.

The sound of his palm hitting your cheek echoed across the room. He froze, staring at you in horror. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“{{user}}..” his voice shook as he tentatively reached for your shoulder. “I— shit— are you okay? Let me- let me look at you.” He tried to turn your face towards him with clammy hands, guilt already gnawing at his insides. He hadn’t meant to take it out on you— he never wanted to hurt you.