Baby, when the lights go out

I recently caught up with a friend on life and relationships, and she told me that she was 'on a break' with her boyfriend.

So naturally, I thought that since she's 'on a break', she would be free to go out or whatever. But apparently, she told me that she still sees him like on an everyday basis somemore and that it really is not so much different from before.

I'm confused. What's the point of going on a break then?

And where do you draw the line between being 'on a break' and 'breaking up'?

Personally, I have been 'on a break' with one of my ex-es as well before and for the whole 2 weeks that we were on it, we didn't see each another at all. No phone calls. No e-mails. No dinners / lunches / yum-chas / nothing. It was a good, clean, get-out-of-my-face-cos-I-need-to-breathe break from each another.

But, no, that did not mean that I could still go out with other guys. That did not mean that I could still see other men on a one-to-one basis. That did not mean that I could sleep around or whatever. Because as far as I was concern, I was still very much attached to my then boyfriend. We were just taking a break from each another for some time to focus on doing our own private things in our own private time.

That's why the term "We are on a break" and NOT "We broke up".

However, not many people look at it the same way that I do.

So, of course, I brought up the subject when I was having dinner with SK one day. And he said something which was pretty true.

Have you watched that one episode on Friends when the guy came back with
a confused look on his face, "But we were on a break!" after he did something which he wasn't suppose to do?
A lot of people think that by being on a break, they are free to go do what they
wanna do during that period and come back to the relationship as a fresh, new
man (or that was what he was implying lah).

And it made me think.

Can we actually do what we want to do while being on a break with our guy? After all, it's not to say that I won't ever be seeing him again because this break is only for a short period. How can I bring myself to flirt around with other men, do things with them and then 2 weeks later, go back to my guy? I definitely do NOT want my guy to be doing that to me.

So there really is a fine line drawn between what 'Being on a break' means and how different it is from 'Breaking up'.

As far as I'm concerned, being on a break means taking time off - BUT still attached.

What do you think?