On a Sunday morning, Rose quietly left her boyfriends room.

The night prior, she had been at his accommodation and was sitting on his bed while using her laptop. Her boyfriend—Noah—was laying down behind her and silently using his phone. Rose noticed that his attitude suddenly changed earlier that day. It seemed to have happened after he had read a message on his phone, but she didn’t know why.

Rose looked toward him. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Noah replied, but did not look away from his phone.

For a moment, Rose wanted to enquire further. But seeing how upset he already looked, she decided she didn’t want to be annoying.

“Okay,” she said, as she continued to work on her laptop.

For about five minutes, no more words were shared between them.

“Why do you always do that?” Noah abruptly said.

Rose turned round. “Do what?”

“You always give up so fast,” he said. “When you seem upset I always try my best to help you. But when I’m upset, you never really try to help.”

“I…I just didn’t want to bother you.”

“Well you giving up so easily bothers me more.”

“I’m sorry. Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“I don’t think there’s any point now.”

This wasn’t the first time Noah had brought this up. Recently, Rose noticed he seemed to be becoming more moody with her. The usual complaint was that he felt she wasn’t playing an active role in the relationship.

That statement was something Rose couldn’t disagree with. For as long as she could remember, she was always rather passive. It became even more obvious to her after she began to go out with Noah, who was a much more proactive person. This—alongside many other qualities of his—made Noah seem near perfect in her eyes. But because of this, there was often a loud thought that would echo in her head.

I am a burden.

That night wouldn’t end there, as Noah began to vent further frustrations he had. They found themselves staying up all night discussing the current condition of their relationship. Never, had Rose felt like the worst girlfriend ever. Every complaint that he had, she was unable to say much back. She believed it all. Everything that he said was wrong with her, she agreed with deep inside.

Eventually, he had escalated the situation further with a single suggestion.

“Rose. I think we should take a break,” he said.

It was a day that Rose couldn’t help but feel was coming, seeing as their arguments were becoming more frequent. Even so, it did not lessen the pain she felt from hearing what he had to say.

But what made it worse was, she indeed felt that it was all her fault.

“Okay,” Rose said. “I understand.”

“You’re still doing that even now….” Noah said. “I know you can’t help it, but nothing will ever change if you always just accept things like that.”

There wasn’t much Rose could say in response. They had already stayed up all night talking about this exact problem, and in their discussion came up with several reasons as to why she was like this.

Noah had suggested she was too reliant on him to lead the relationship and never could quite independently make choices of her own. This made him feel like he was usually the only one trying to keep the relationship afloat, and was often the core of where his complaints came from.

Rose however—who felt she had tried to be better—eventually seemed to have accepted that this was just how she was. In her eyes, it was difficult for her to compare to her almost perfect boyfriend. He was smart, caring and seemed to be free of any obvious flaws.

Noah grabbed her hand. “This break. It’ll be for the best. It doesn’t have to be long, but we should take some time to figure out what we want. Um…what’s that saying? It’s not you—it’s me? Well maybe right now it’s a little bit of both.”

“Y-Yeah, you’re right,” Rose replied. “Maybe I should leave.”

Noah stopped her. “No, it’s late now. Stay here for tonight.”

With them both sitting on his bed, Noah then initiated a hug. Rose at first didn’t reciprocate, and her arms remained still. But eventually she hugged him back, and began to become teary eyed.

The night ended with that, as they both then fell asleep in his bed. When morning came, Rose left before Noah had woken up.

She was now walking to the nearest bus stop, as she planned to return to her university accommodation. It was quiet, which made her thoughts louder than she would like. The heaviness of her current dilemma weighed down on even her eyes, causing her to stare at the ground for most of the journey.

As tears suddenly began to fill her eyes, she accidentally bumped into someone.

When she looked up, it was a tall—yellow haired boy.

“Oh! I’m really sorry. It’s my fault, I wasn’t paying attention,” she said.

Rose then walked around him, and continued on her path. But she soon realised how teary her eyes had become, and quickly wiped them away in embarrassment—hoping the tall boy hadn’t noticed.

A few moments later, Rose was now on a bus en route to her university.

The first few minutes of the journey was difficult for her, as it took a lot of energy to not cry. She had taken a seat at the back just in case, but eventually was able to keep her composure and hold the tears in.

Knowing now that she could look up without crying, Rose began to stare out the window. There wasn’t anything in particular that she was focusing on, well—apart from her reflection appearing every so often.

But while she window gazed, the bus stopped, and she noticed two teenagers arguing outside a house nearby. With one being a green haired boy and the other a blue haired girl, it seemed the latter was upset at the boy.

The blue haired girl began to walk off in anger, but noticed Rose staring at them. This startled Rose—causing her to look away. The bus soon started to move right after and left the area.

When the bus made it to her university, Rose got off and took a moment to decide where to go. She originally planned to go to her accommodation, but felt like maybe she wasn’t in the mood to be cooped up in her room. And seeing how she already had her bag with some studying material inside, she decided going to the library to study would be a good distraction.

But, that wouldn’t be the case.

Now at a cubicle in the library, Rose kept on encountering things that reminded her of the relationship. The first, was when she made her way to the library. Nearby was someone with a radio, and coincidentally the radio was on the topic of marriages and how divorce rates were higher than ever.

The second one, was when she had bumped into someone while trying to find a seat. When their books fell and Rose went to pick them up, one happened to be titled ‘The Frailness of Love’.

Since those two moments happened before she’d found a place to sit, Rose was hoping for nothing else to happen once at the cubicle. But an hour or two later, a new encounter would force her to seek a new seat.

Three girls had sat opposite to her and began to gossip among themselves about couples they knew.

Like gossipers usually tended to be, they were obnoxiously loud and was too distracting for Rose to concentrate anymore. Plus, she was now often checking her phone in case Noah had sent any messages, seeing as he would likely be awake now.

She felt stupid about it, but wondered if he was worried at all that she left without saying anything. But there was no text from him the entire time she was in the library.

Eventually Rose got up—gathered her things—and found another seat to study in.

She ended up staying at the library for most of the day. However, it was difficult for her to tell if she was focusing more on her books or the music she began to listen to on her phone. Even if it was her usual playlist, the sad songs were a lot more noticeable now.

Seeing how even to get ‘okay’ grades was a struggle for her, she new this break was about to make it a lot more difficult than it needed to be.

When it began to get dark outside, Rose decided it was time to head to her accommodation. On the way there, she came across a familiar face. It was Sabrina, the captain of the archery team. She was with a fellow teammate and seemed to be heading to the library.

“Hey! Um….Rose right?” the captain said, as she approached Rose.

“Oh hi. Yes, I didn’t think you’d still remember my name,” Rose replied.

“I’ve always liked your name,” the girl said with a soft smile. “Kind of wish my parents named me after a flower.”

Like usual, the captain was extremely friendly toward her. Ever since Rose had went to the archery tryouts a few months ago, Sabrina would always greet her when they saw each other. But their paths hadn’t crossed in awhile, so it came at a surprise to Rose that she remembered her name.

“It looks like you just came back from the library,” Sabrina said as she looked at the books hanging out of Rose’s bag. “I remember you saying you were struggling with your studies last time. Still the same?”

“I-I’ve been trying to study harder since then. So I‘m doing okay now,” Rose replied.

Doing ‘okay’ was standard for Rose. In fact, the one thing she was actually good at was being so average at everything. She was not someone that stood out, which made her wonder why the captain was always so overly nice to her. It didn’t help that she had only attended archery once, but never returned due to not feeling competent enough to continue.

And on top of that, Sabrina was someone Rose was rather envious of. She was captain of a team, came across incredibly smart, and was obviously a hard worker. Yet, she still managed to carry herself with a sense of humbleness.

Sabrina—was yet another person—Rose felt was close to being perfect.

“That’s good to hear! Well listen. If you’re maybe looking for a little break, the archery club is doing another tryout session soon. It would be nice to see you there agai—”

The captains pocket suddenly vibrated. She pulled out her phone and looked at it for a few seconds. A smile then formed on Sabrina’s face as her cheeks began to glow. Seeing this, her friend peeked her head over to see what she was looking at.

“How cute,” she said, as she nudged Sabrina and giggled.

For a moment, it felt to Rose like they had forgotten about her. But the captain then looked back up from her phone.

“Sorry, it was nice talking to you again,” she said, as she started to walk with her friend. “Good luck with your studies.”

Soon, Sabrina and her friend had walked off while giggling at each other.

Interactions like that were common for Rose, as she could never really come up with something interesting to say. She didn’t have anyone that hated or loved her really, apart from maybe Noah—who’s feelings about her were now a mystery. But because of this, most conversations with people were very simple and lacklustre in a way.

After continuing her journey, Rose eventually made it back to her accommodation.

Once there, she threw her bag onto her desk and sat down on her bed. Her eyes then hovered to her bag, as she noticed her phone hanging out of it. Rose got up and pushed her phone deeper inside so that it was out of view.

After sitting back on her bed, she still couldn’t help but look over to her bag.

A minute or two later, Rose was laying on her bed with her phone in her hand.

“He still hasn’t messaged me,” she said to herself.

Rose wasn’t sure how long this break was supposed to be. She never really considered that he would suggest anything other than a break-up, so just a ‘break’ somewhat confused her.

After pondering whether to ask about it or not, she rolled to her side and continued to look at her phone with a sad gaze.

“M-Maybe he’s waiting for me to send something first.”

But as Rose began to think of what to say, her phone suddenly vibrated.

It was a message.

She sprung up from the bed and eagerly unlocked her phone. The message read:

Why must you take so long to respond?

It however wasn’t a message from Noah, but was one from her mother.

Her step-mother.

Rose scuffed and got up from the bed. She opened the drawer with a lock at her desk and put her phone inside. She stood still for a few seconds as she waited just in-case Noah sent a message.

But he didn’t. So she got the key to the drawer and locked it.

The rest of the evening she managed to avoid opening it—and eventually—it was time for bed.

With the lights now off, Rose quietly laid down on her pillow and closed her eyes. She was sad, but she was also tired. So she soon fell asleep.

Oddly, there seemed to be a breeze that brushed by as she slept. Rose was sure she had fallen asleep with the window closed, so guessed that she was simply dreaming. But the breeze became more frequent, making her wonder if she had indeed left the window open.

Even if it was a dream, Rose felt the wind was becoming quite annoying. So she opened her eyes to shut her window.

“H-Huh?” she said.

Still laying on her back, Rose looked up but saw that the ceiling seemed to have disappeared. Somehow, she was now staring at a bright sky—with the sun out rather than the moon.

Rose slowly sat up, but her heart skipped a beat when she looked around.

She had awoken in a field of flowers.