The Man Between Her and Me
"You really have nothing going on with Jae-woo, right?"
So-hee asked in a whisper. In front of the club’s restroom mirror, our gazes were cold as a refrigerator. My hand trembled slightly as I reapplied lipstick—not from the alcohol.
Jae-woo was So-hee’s man.
And I was her only best friend.
Seven years. The word friendship had grown dusty, then quietly rotted.
The Weight of What Was Hidden
Truth is, I was first.
Freshman orientation: the moment Jae-woo spoke my name. That was the beginning. But So-hee said she liked him first, so I shut my mouth.
You’re nothing, just a friend’s boyfriend.
I chanted it like a spell.
Whenever the three of us were together, every time Jae-woo’s eyes grazed me, I clutched my heart. His gaze was so warm, so aching I couldn’t breathe.
So-hee never knew. The night she told me she’d slept with him for the first time, I vomited in the bathroom. When she said, I think we’re really in love, I replied congratulations while imagining her dead.
Words That Become Sparks
That night. So-hee was away on a business trip, and Jae-woo came to me.
"Just one drink."
For the first time in three years, we sat alone.
"Actually… I liked you too. But So-hee…"
Something exploded in the dark. Seven years of restraint, of secrecy. I swallowed his lips first. That night we slept in So-hee’s bed—on the white sheets she cherished most.
A Scorching Fragrance
By morning, guilt rushed in. Yet a stronger emotion followed. Jealousy and remorse braided together, ending in a strange release.
When So-hee returned, I said, I’m sorry, it was a mistake.
But my eyes said something else: He’s not yours anymore.
Jae-woo stood beside me. So-hee collapsed. The two people she loved most had betrayed her at once.
The Aesthetics of Ruin
Why did we go this far? Simple desire? Or something deeper?
Psychologists say jealousy is less about love than power.
I didn’t want Jae-woo; I wanted to steal what So-hee possessed—her careless happiness, her certainty, her ownership.
We’d long used each other as mirrors. So-hee confirmed her goodness through me; I hid my darkness behind her. The moment the mirror cracked, we had to face what we truly were.
The Last Perfume
We never met again. So-hee left the city. Jae-woo ended things with me.
"We both… became too filthy," he said.
I don’t regret it. In a single hour we burned seven years of friendship to ash.
The scent of what burned still clings to my skin: jealousy, betrayal, and—sharpest of all—liberation.
So, what about you?
Could you steal the dearest thing your closest friend owns?
And the next morning, could you bear the fragrance left behind?