It all started much like other mornings in their lives. Yifan came home at 6am, after a very late shooting schedule, and there was Eden preparing to go to work after her morning run in a small gym that she installed in the house.

He greeted her warily and she nodded and politely greeted him - their usual protocol. “You should eat breakfast before you go to sleep,” she spoke to him just before she entered her room and he thanked her, feeling slightly touched.

The breakfast was rice porridge and Yifan made himself a small bowl of it and guzzled it down. It warmed his stomach but it didn’t take away his tiredness. Half an hour later, he was in his bed, ready to travel into dreamland and thanking that he didn’t have schedule that day.

Yifan didn’t know how long he slept for until he heard his phone ringing uncontrollably on the bedside table. His hands reached for the phone in his half-asleep state and he groaned. It was his manager who left the message, “Yifan, you have to come into the office now. I’m coming to pick you up” twenty minutes ago and kept calling him because he was in front of the house and couldn’t reach Yifan.

At the speed of light, Yifan rushed to get dressed, in a simple white t-shirt and jeans. He threw on his cap for extra coverage purpose, he also grabbed a face mask for extreme measures and ran out of the house.

When he got to the office, he was disappointed because all he was required to do was to listen to Director Cheung, who was keen on inviting him to talk through a new project that she needed him to look over. Yifan looked at her, his jaw agape, as she babbled her way through the project. By the time the meeting ended, it was 4PM.

“Eh eh eh?” Yifan heard one of the girls on the office floor speaking to another person, “have you seen Zhou Bai Xue’s video?”

Yifan’s back stiffened and he became extremely cautious. Being in the industry where scandals are rampant and living in the era of people recording themselves constantly made him aware of a lot of things. “What are you guys talking about?” he walked over to the two girls and asked as he was unable to contain his curiosity. If the video of Eden was a scandalous, he could probably shorten their marriage life.

The office girl looked up at him in timidly, “It's currently trending on Weibo, Mr.Wu.”

Yifan immediately returned to his van to return to his house as he decided that he would watch it on his way back home since he was sure that he would be stuck in the traffic due to rush hour. He comfortably took his place in the spacious passenger area of the van, leaned back the chair a little bit and clicked on the hashtag that has her name on it #Young Master’s wife’s epic video#

The video footage seemed like it was recorded in an office background, sneakily. It was not a scandalous one as he had expected but it was enough to grab his interest. Eden was walking along the corridor in the office, with her secretary behind her, looking intimidating as usual.

Yifan kept looking at the footage and saw a man rushing behind her, while holding a folder in his hand, looking furious. As soon as he had gotten to her, he threw the file on the floor with a thud and yelled “ Zhou Bai Xue. You. Poisonous. .”

The entire office gasped and fell silent. Eden slowly turned in her heels to face the man. Yifan couldn't see her but he could hear her voice, even colder and more steely than usual. “What did you say?”

The man repeated himself, “You heard me, you poisonous . Just because you have control over the entire company does not mean you can do whatever you wish and fire me because you have a prejudice against me.”

“I have a personal grudge against you?” Eden asked, her voice was in disbelief.

“Just because your father owns a large part of the company, you rose up in ranks very fast and see everyone as your minions, and now you,” the guy jabbed his finger at her direction, “want to fire me because you feel threatened. All you do is work and nothing else. Other people also have social lives. Nobody is crazy enough to work hard like you. I'm even surprised that your superstar husband has not filed for a divorce!!!” The guy snarled, looking very livid.

“Mr Zheng,” Eden spoke calmly. The way she sounded so calm yet icy made Yifan have a flurry of chills down his spine even if Eden was in a video. He could see she had a smirk on his face as she walked towards the guy, who took a step back but stopped mid-way. “I thought you could deal with it because I clearly had paid you three months worth of salary in advance as compensation, but since you clearly decided to bring it up on me. Okay!”

Eden clapped her hands in a snap,which made the entire office jump slightly, “Bring it on. I am firing you because you are an incompetent piece of trash,” she emphasised words so clearly as she spoke, “also, your department is tanking. They are not being productive as they should be and you,” she pointed at him square in the chest, “are not doing the right work and the right decision as a leader. Your profits are not making the estimated mark and you are the problem. Not the department.”

She took a deep breath to catch up on her breath, “also, since you try to bring personal issues into this, can we talk about how you had been visiting to all the KTV places with young girls?” The man’s face has started to lose colour as Eden spoke. Eden was not done yet, “To me, I think you’re having a bit too much of personal time and leisure as a head of the department while the rest of the team were busting their asses to save their jobs. And, thank you so much for paying attention to my marriage. My husband and I are doing well, thank you. At least he’s not schmoozing around with the lady.”

Eden her heels and left the man, who was now speechless, in the middle of the office floor. After a few steps, she turned back again, “By the way, Mr.Zheng, you are still fired. Please pack up now.”

The video ended and Yifan was left feeling slightly confused and overwhelmed. Never had he ever seen Eden get fierce like this. She was almost livid and burning with fire as she spoke one word after another. He suddenly got worried that she might be in trouble on her way back from office since the guy she fired looked like he would hold a huge grudge against her.

“Manager-ge, can you please drive to Eden’s office?” he suddenly told the driver.

“Yifan, it’s not en-route. Are you sure?”

He nodded.

When he got to her office, he found out the Eden had gotten off from work early. He felt bummed out but he immediately went to the house and hoped Eden was there.

As soon as Yifan entered through the front door, he saw her back. She was sitting on the sofa in the living room, changed into one of her many lounge wear of white silk nightgowns that skim the floor. As he approached her, Yifan found out that her shoulders were shaking.

“Eden…” Yifan rushed to face her and found out that she was crying. It made him feel strange; mostly because to him Eden is an indestructible person. To see such a person breaking down into tears was a surprising view to come home to.

She saw him and her hands immediately went to her eyes to wipe the tears away roughly. “Kris,” she lightly chuckled and greeted him, trying to pretend everything was okay. “I’m sorry,” her nose was red and she sounded like she has a terrible cold. Yifan wondered how long and hard she cried to reach this state.

“Do you want something to eat?” Yifan asked her. He had always been terrible with consoling other people when they cry.

Eden smiled, “Do we have frozen yoghurt?”

“Don’t you want ice-cream?” his confused answer was there.

Eden laughed airily through her tears, “I don’t think we have ice-cream. I told the house keeper that I can’t eat ice-creams.”

“Sure,” Yifan left for the fridge and took out a tub of frozen yoghurt sitting in the freezer, took a spoon from the cutlery tray and went back to her.”

Eden murmured a thanks in a slight sob and retrieved the tub. Yifan didn’t interrupt her but let her be in her zone. She hesitantly opened the tub, scooped a mouthful and put it in , smiling as she did so.

“I am really not useless, you know,” she mumbled on her fifth spoonful. He was startled and looked at her, not knowing what to say. “I worked in every internship placement before my father decided that I would be ready to take on the position.”

“As someone who works in the entertainment industry, I can pretty much tell you that people pretty much believe what they want to believe. If you’re higher up, there is no way for them to know you personally,” he told her, remembering his experiences while being in the industry.

Eden sighed, “I’m sure my name is floating around on the Internet. I was on Weibo and saw the hashtag.”

“Pretty much.”

“I’m so sorry.” Her sudden apology startled him.

“Eden, what-”

“Kris, you’re a public figure. People probably expect to see someone who is kind, nice, and homely but I just wrecked the image by acting vile,” she took in a deep breath, “I’m sorry.”

“Eden,” Yifan called her, “it’s really fine. I was involved in a scandal.” She looked at him and widened her eyes. “It was not true,” he laughed, “and I survived. I’m sure you will. Just hang in there.”

Eden nodded and continued eating her yoghurt.

Yifan’s phone started to ring and it was a number that he did not know, “Hello?” he walked upstairs into his room to take the call.

“Oh you picked up. Thank goodness. Kris. It’s me. Chanyeol.”

He frowned, “Chanyeol, wha-”

“Is Eden home?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s wrecked, isn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Yifan’s brows furrowed deeper in confusion. How on earth he knew.

“Okay, I tried to call Zhou Ye but her phone was off. Can you do me a favour?”

“I guess?”

“Can you keep Zhou Ye company before I get here? I wish I could come right now but I have to assist a surgery with my professor and it’ll take a couple of hours,” he spoke hastily as if he was out of breath, “I have to go now bye!”

Yifan was left, startled and confused, staring at his blank phone screen. “Okay…” he spoke slowly and put the mobile in the trousers pocket before returning downstairs to accompany Eden as he was instructed to, which he also intended to.

After three hours of sitting in silence and talking minimally, Chanyeol appeared at the doorstep, his face flushed and his eyes sunken in but was still wearing a bright smile. In his hand was a plastic bag, which contained a few tubs of frozen yoghurt in different flavours. As soon as Eden saw Chanyeol, her face lit up and she smiled widely as she took the bag from his hands.

Yifan went up to his room after a while, as he felt like he was being an outsider in their friendship and felt like they both were holding back with their conversation.

Chanyeol did not go back home early that night. As Yifan walked around on his balcony, to study for his shooting tomorrow, he witnessed a very intriguing scene; Eden Zhou and Park Chanyeol were sitting on the bench, in the backyard garden. Yifan heard a very distinct sound of wailing from Eden, just like someone else who was deeply, inconsolable sad. He stepped back in the darkness to conceal himself even though he was sure they would not pay attention to him. Chanyeol held her face in his hands and gently wiped her tears with his thumbs, mumbling something that Yifan couldn’t hear. Eden continued to cry harder until she was a sobbing mess, and then she did a very surprising action. She hugged Chanyeol, her arms settled around his waist, her face buried into his chest as she continued crying and Chanyeol was, too, also hugging her, enveloping her in his arms as he slowly her shoulder, while his lips moved as he mumbled words that Yifan guessed were the words of consolation.

Just what kind of relationship those two have? Yifan couldn’t help but wondered that the whole night.