The blonde teenager sat faced down at his desk in his bedroom. The only thing that illuminated the otherwise pitch-dark room was the monitor just inches away from his head. A red haired girl, at whose sight would tear out another small part of the young adult's heart.

"Jaune, come on," Another young man entered the room whilst switching on the lights, "you can't stay in here forever, did you even bathe at all today?"

"I'm perfectly fine, Ren," Jaune mumbled as he tried to walk, but flopped onto the floor as he lacked the resolve to do anything, "see? I don't get why you're so worried about me."

"I can smell you from here, and I haven't seen this door budge at all in the past few days." The worried look on his face started to worsen, "You haven't eaten much, I only see you come out of your room for water, and you haven't stepped out of this apartment since she left."

"Don't speak about her!" As weak as he felt, he still managed to gather the strength to yell that out, "Please, I just wanna be left alone, and if I die from it, then even better. You don't have to worry about me and this pain will just stop."

"Don't talk like that Jaune, I care about you 'cause you're like a brother to me," Ren said in a softer tone, "Nora cares too. We want to help and we don't want to help dispose of your carcass, and have rent raised when you die."

"Gee, thanks, that makes me feel so much better," Jaune mumbled through the carpet sarcastically, "but I guess I should at least take a bath."

"That's the spirit," Ren said excitedly, "You're also going out tonight. Nora and I need the apartment to ourselves, she's been a little, um, frustrated and I have blue balls. I left a fifty in your jacket pocket, thanks."

A few minutes later, Jaune was showered, dressed and out the apartment lobby. Not knowing where to go, he wandered the streets, aimlessly. Everything looked so different to him, so gray, like all the color from his life was sucked away. Of course there was reason behind his depressive state, but he just didn't feel like thinking about this reason.

It had only been twenty minutes of walking when Jaune noticed he was lost. "Wow, I must have been locked away in my room for too long," he thought out loud. Looking up he realized he was just outside a bar, "oh, what the hell?" he said under his breath as he walked inside.

"Something that'll help me forget a girl," the blonde told the bartender. He was presented with a bottle of some clear liquid and a shot glass. One shot, then two more, then three, until half the bottle was gone.

"You okay, man?" a voice came from his right, "you've been drinking that since I walked in here, mind if I get some?"

Jaune didn't speak a word, he just filled the glass and slid it over to whoever was to his right. He saw a hand pick it up and come back down with an empty shot glass. He filled it up once more, and the action was repeated. Finally he decided to meet the owner of this hand and turned his head toward this person. He was met with silver-gray eyes, and a smile. He inspected the rest of this woman's features, a plain black shirt and a skirt of the same color, but frowned at the tinge of red at the ends of her hair.

"What, you weren't expecting to see a man, were you?" The girl said as she downed another shot, "I'm Ruby by the way. Sorry if I'm bothering you, you looked like you needed someone to talk to, or at least some cheering up."

"Name's Jaune," He introduced himself, "and don't worry about it, I needed to get out of the house for a little bit, and I didn't really want to find out what kind of sounds my roommates make when they have sex."

The black haired girl giggled before taking another shot. "So if I'm not bothering you, what is?" She asked, while scooting closer, "you can't have a sad face for no reason."

"Just a messy break up, I'll spare you the details," Jaune said, trying to avoid having to think more about the metaphorical wound in his heart, "so what brings you to here?"

"No reason, just felt like getting drunk with a stranger, that's all," Ruby playfully said after finishing the rest of the bottle, "I'm just gonna guess that you're too drunk to find your way home?"

"I'm not too-," Jaune was cut off by the room spinning, "Okay, maybe just a little."

"My place is just down the street, care to spend the night? It does get kind of lonely and you seem like someone I want to get to know a little better," Ruby flirted just a little as she led the now drunk Jaune by the hand out the door.

"I guess I do, since you're dragging me along," Jaune said, though he didn't mind.