Dark clouds swallowed the last light on the horizon. The waning moon hung faintly above.
The curtains swayed gently in the evening sky as wind blew through the low rise apartment complex.
Yu Ning's lashes fluttered as she stared blankly at the tablet in her hands, an aching pain seeped through her chest as her eyes darted down the luminescent screen.
Her nails tapped faintly against the screen.
She sat cross legged on the bed as another figure slept soundly beside her, his breathing even.
Black ink formed coils around his arms, and another tattoo could be seen peaking through his slightly lifted shirt.
In front of her, rows of obscene images and videos flooded her peripheral vision.
The stylus trembled in her hands as she scrolled more aggressively, hundreds of intimate photos of different women filled the screen.
The names of each woman recorded under each image and video with the dates of each file next to their names.
Feeling as though her dinner she had earlier was about to rise out of her throat, she shut the tablet close.
Her breathing erratic as her gaze landed on the sleeping figure next to her.
"Zi Xuan." The man next to her did not budge.
"Zi Xuan!" She said a little louder, nudging him awake. Her voice more strained this time round.
He sat up almost immediately, in a dazed state.
"What's wrong?"
Yu Ning tossed the tablet to him, staring at him not saying a single word.
Zi Xuan, still muddle headed, flipped open the tablet in a daze. His gaze landed on the contents of his own Baidu Drive.
The room was quiet for a few seconds, the only sound that could be heard were the cars driving down the highway amid the howling wind.
"It's not what it seems like-", Zi Xuan started, reaching out to grab Yu Ning's arm.
She dodged his grip.
"Don't touch me, " Yu Ning exasperated.
Her eyes were red now.
Zi Xuan scrambled around, sitting up to find an excuse. His upper body was bare and his trousers were in disarray, as if hastily put on.
He reached out to hold Yu Ning's left arm again but she stood up abruptly, causing him to stumble sideways.
Her brows furrowed as a pained look swept her face.
"Explain it."
"It's not what it looks like-"
"Explain. It." she snapped.
Her eyes pinned on the dazed man in front of her.
His lips tightened, as his gaze fell to the floor.
Seeing that he did not want to explain the situation, the frustration she bottled up exploded out.
The tears had long fallen from her face before she realized, trickling onto the floor as she screamed at him.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?"
Her voice was hoarse from yelling and her words became incoherent as she listed all the nonsense she had put up with over the years.
Zi Xuan listened to her rant on, trying to justify himself but he was harshly cut off.
"Babe, we had broken up that time-"
"This is sick... Do they even know you filmed them?"
The man in front of her suddenly paled, as he stuttered, "You're not going to call the police are you?"
His gaze suddenly piercing through hers.
A chill ran down her spine.
Silence filled the room for a brief moment.
"I'm leaving."
It's over.
Packing up her bag that was thrown on the floor, she gathered all her make-up and items on the study table.
He watched her gather her things without moving. His brows furrowed as he tried to conjure up another ridiculous lie.
Not looking back, Yu Ning left the room and darted straight for the main door.
Just as she reached the door, an elderly woman nimbly walked out from the kitchen, calling out to her in a soft voice.
"Yu Ning? What happened?" the elderly woman's voice croaked.
Tears streamed down Yu Ning's face as she hastily tried to dry it with her sleeve.
Her eyes not meeting the elderly lady in front of her.
"I'm sorry for causing a scene," she choked out and slipped out the door.
The night sky was dark, only a street lamp illuminated the driveway
Below the apartment complex, Yu Ning sat on the bench. Her head was lowered down and she held her phone with both hands.
The tear stains had just started to dry when her phone buzzed. Once. Twice.
The screen in front of her lit up.
[Yay! We have located your driver, they will arrive in 9 minutes!]
Then another two notifications popped up.
[Shu Hua: Yu Ning, what's wrong? I'm sorry I missed your call earlier, I was in a group project meeting.]
[Song Yan: Shu Hua texted me to ask if you were okay? What happened?]
[Work Group Chat: David's farewell party will be at 8pm tomorrow, The Pavillion Bar, The Bund.]
Yu Ning stared blankly at her notifications before typing. Her phone screen glowed under the dim lighting, as she replied to her chats.
[Yu Ning: It's nothing. I just wanted to ask about our elective's project deadline.]
She glanced at the digits at the corner of her phone, the clock has just turned to half past nine.
Occasionally a car would pass the roundabout drop-off point that she sat by.
She had noticed a couple of instances where the people alighting from the cars would sneak a glance at her.
"Never seen a girl cry over a breakup before?" she muttered to herself.
The lights that lit up the surrounding apartments started to dim one by one.
Her makeup had been smudged and her mascara and eyeliner stained both sides of her cheeks.
While not looking awfully hideous, she definitely seemed to be in distress, furiously typing on her phone as she sniffled.
[Yu Ning: Actually... I broke up with Zi Xuan. I found illegally downloaded leaks of other woman on his phone-]
She typed then deleted the string of messages.
[Yu Ning: He's been sleeping with other women and videoing-]
Deleting the paragraph again, Yu Ning paused. Her hands fell on her lap in defeat.
A sigh left her lips as she squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that she would run out of tears soon. A loose tear slid down her left cheek and she blinked rapidly, hoping it would help to dry her tears.
Just a month ago, she had found out that Zi Xuan was cheating on her with an "online friend" that he had met. The girl had told him that she would treat him better than Yu Ning could.
During the confrontation, they had an ugly fight about this. Zi Xuan had slapped her hard on her face after she screamed at him accusing him of being a cheater.
Hearing the commotion, Zi Xuan's grandfather had rushed into the bedroom, preventing the fight from escalating any further.
After that incident, Zi Xuan had showed up at her house with flowers and a bunch of gifts, apologizing to her.
In the end, she still decided to stay in the relationship, naively thinking that Zi Xuan would change.
She believed that a man would only raise his hand at a woman if she was at fault.
Her thoughts overlapped with a memory of her father yelling at her mother.
"You're my wife, you should listen to me!" A harsh voice sounded out in her memory.
Yu Ning closed her eyes as she leaned against the concrete wall. The cool concrete touched her back as she waited for her cab.
The car ride back was silent, as she watched the streetlights blur from the window seat. Her long black hair swayed in the wind as the cool autumn air blew through the partially winded down window.
Her reddened eyes drifted to the city lights around her. Any dull memories she had were drowned out by the sound of cars passing by as they drove into the night.
For the first time, in a long time, she felt that the city air seemed clean.
She hoped that maybe she could also feel clean again someday.