Everything Meant Nothing | Part 4: New City, New Messes

All characters depicted in this story are fictional and 18 years of age or older. Everything portrayed is safe, sane, and consensual.

Part 4: New City, New Messes | Halfway To Him

I thought a new country would fix me.

That was the plan. New city. New flat. New version of me who didn’t lie awake every night thinking about a boy who broke my heart without even calling it a breakup.

But somehow, even in the middle of England, with clouds smothering the sky and red-bricked buildings that all look the same, I’m still thinking about Luke.

The plane landed in a light drizzle. The kind that wasn’t quite rain, just mist that clung to your skin like breath. The customs line was long. A kid screamed for ten minutes straight. And when I stepped outside into the arrivals bay, dragging my suitcase behind me, I felt exactly the same as I had back home, just colder.

The drive to Ashgrave University took an hour. The campus looked like a movie set for a moody drama; wrought iron gates, gothic towers, ivy crawling up the stone walls. The air smelled different here. Wetter. Older. Like pavement and rain and something I couldn’t name.

The cab driver asked if I was excited. I said yes.

I lied.





My flat was on the second floor of a long brick building just off campus. Not a dorm, exactly. More like university housing with a shared kitchen and three bedrooms. It was cute. Modern. Clean. At least until we moved in.

Min, my flatmate was already there when I arrived.

He opened the door wearing soft grey joggers and a tank top that looked like it was stolen off a luxury runway. His skin practically glowed. Like K-drama actor levels of glow. Floppy black hair. Big eyes. A warm smile that made you forget you were jetlagged and homesick and one emotional sneeze away from crying.

“Troy?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“I’m Min.” He smiled. “Your new favorite person. Come in.”



We clicked fast.

Min was the kind of guy who made things feel easier than they were. He offered me tea before I’d even unpacked. Sat cross-legged on the counter while I wrestled my bags open. Made fun of how many sweaters I’d packed. Called my accent cute. Called himself a skincare fairy. Told me he had a girlfriend... Yuki, who was in the girl’s dorm a block over and who would absolutely love me.

By the second day, I believed him.

We explored the local shops, grabbed bubble tea, and made fun of the campus map that looked like it was designed by a dyslexic crow. He took me to the best local coffee shop (tiny tables, cute barista, overpriced muffins), helped me decode the British grading system, and let me use one of his fancy serums when I woke up with plane-induced dry skin.

And for a second... a small, fleeting second, I started to think maybe I could forget Luke.

That maybe there was something new starting here. Maybe Min was a sign. The way he touched my arm when he laughed. The way he always made sure I was walking on the inside of the street. The little glances that could have meant something.

He was model-beautiful. Lean, long-legged, impossibly soft-looking. The kind of person you’d swipe right on and then swipe again just in case. I caught myself staring more than once.

But there was no spark.

Not the kind that burned.

Not the kind that hurt.

And he had a girlfriend too.

“I can tell what you’re thinking,” Min said one night, flopping onto my bed as I tried to organize my textbooks.

I looked up. “What am I thinking?”

“That you’re into me,” he deadpanned.

I blinked. “Wow. Full offense, you sound like a narcissist.”

He grinned. “Please. Everyone’s into me. But relax. I’m taken. Happily.”

“Yuki, right?”

He nodded dreamily. “She’s the only person I’d marry before thirty.”

I laughed. “I didn’t say I was into you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t have to. It’s the eyes. You’ve got the soft eyes.”

“Maybe I just have bad vision.”

Min kicked his legs like a kid. “Well, tough luck. This face? Taken. You’ll survive.”

I rolled my eyes. But deep down, I was relieved. Because even though he was everything Luke wasn’t... open, talkative, affectionate in ways that didn’t feel secret, he still wasn’t what I needed.

Our third flatmate was more of a ghost.

Min had told me about him. “Theo,” he said. “Tall. Gym-obsessed. Had a brutal breakup recently. He’s been kind of… in his own world.”

For the first few days, I didn’t see him at all. Just heard the faint thud of weights from his room. The occasional cupboard opening and closing. Maybe a flush. Maybe not. It was like living with a shadow.

Until tonight.

Min and I were on the couch, both in sweats, watching a K-drama I barely understood. I was halfway through my second cup of instant hot chocolate, debating whether I was full or just sad, when the front door opened.

Footsteps. Heavy. Slow. Someone dropped a gym bag on the floor.

Then I saw him.



Tank top. Big headphones around his neck. Black joggers. Hair damp. Shoulders broad enough to cast a shadow. He walked through the flat like it didn’t matter who was watching. Like gravity bent toward him. He didn’t look at me. Not even a nod.

And yet I could not look away.

There are people you clock the moment they walk into a room. Not because they’re trying. Not because they’re loud. Just because they are. Theo was that. He didn’t carry himself like a guy who knew he was hot... he carried himself like someone who didn’t care. Tall. Built. Sharp jaw and a mouth that looked naturally smug. Even soaked from the gym and silent as a ghost, he looked like an Abercrombie ad that had come to life just to ruin me.

I watched him vanish down the hall. Something in my chest fluttered and dropped.

“Oh,” I said, low under my breath.

Min didn’t even glance up from the screen. “Yeah,” he said like he could hear my thoughts. “He’s totally your type.”

Min and I had already reached the kind of closeness where me being into guys was just a part of the air between us. There wasn’t some big reveal. No awkward moment. He just knew. Probably before I even said anything.

Since day two, he and Yuki had taken it upon themselves to wingman the hell out of me. We’d walk across campus and they’d point out guys like they were on some kind of scouting mission.

“Ooh, him,” Yuki would whisper. “The economics major. He’s got a baby face. Want me to go introduce you?”

“No, thank you,” I’d laugh, but Min would already be halfway to calling him over.

Some days I forgot how new everything still was. That I had only just landed here. That back home, I was still the boy who got his heart broken by someone who never said the word boyfriend out loud.

And now?

Now I was sitting in this warm, dim-lit flat in a city that didn’t know my name. I had a best friend who wore sheet masks and made bad jokes. A girl who kept calling me cute. A second-hand mug of cocoa in my hands.

And I had just seen what Theo looked like.

I blinked at the hallway he had disappeared down.

Yeah. I think I might finally be ready to forget Luke.