There's very little in life that can prepare someone for the bitter feeling of betrayal.  

Cheng Xiao's first thought was that there must have been a mistake. For sure, that wasn't her voice, but someone else who sounded similar. Though when she went through the rest of the calls and the messages, when she watched as the voice on the tapes, her former lover, her best friend, her personal assistant, confessed to a scary amount of detail her plan to have someone plant confidential documents from the company on her personal computer, so Cheng Xiao would be forced to cease her CEO functions... By then, there was no way to bring the pieces of her heart back together anymore.  

The one person she trusted over anyone else in the world, who she kept the closest, who she admired and loved unconditionally for years, was consumed in jealousy of her, to the point of doing something like this. And not seeing it happen under her nose was a mistake Cheng Xiao took full responsibility for.  

She'd had it with making mistakes like these – there was no more room for them. She had to protect herself and her company above everything else, meaning there was no choice but relying on nobody and trusting nobody. If she focused on that and devoted all of her time to it, there would be no time for being hurt, for thinking of her, crying over her, being angry at her, or giving her any importance at all. Because if she did, then she would have won. 

Cheng Xiao would permanently erase Kim Bona and every trace, every thought of her, from her life. 

"Brought work home again?" Eunseo appeared from behind her chair, laying a hand on her shoulder.  

Cheng Xiao jumped at her touch, swatting her hand away and standing up so abruptly she knocked the chair over. She let out a grunt and turned around, squeezed Eunseo's shoulders and bared her teeth at her, her eyes intense and vicious. She had to blink a few times before she realized the person in front of her was in fact Eunseo. 

When she saw Eunseo's body shrink under her grip, the hurt look on her eyes, her heart stopped and she reached for the sides of her face, rushing her own lips against hers. 

Cheng Xiao pulled away, stabilizing her breath, while Eunseo pulled her head against her shoulder, caressing her hair. 

"It's okay. It's me." Eunseo whispered in her ear. 

When they broke apart, Eunseo sat beside her at the table, watching as Cheng Xiao returned her focus to her laptop in an instant. 

"You seem very on edge, lately." Eunseo softly caressed her girlfriend's cheek. She didn’t move an inch to even take a look at her. 

"Lots of work to do." Cheng Xiao answered, dry and sharp. 

"Isn't it about time you hired another assistant? You don't have to do all that by yourself." 

"What are you talking about? I never had an assistant. I've always managed just fine." Cheng Xiao raised her eyebrows, tensing her jaw, as to remind Eunseo of her newly imposed rules before it escalated. 

"You always managed just fine..." Eunseo squinted. "Are you sure that's really how it was like?" 

Cheng Xiao closed her eyes and sighed in annoyance, trying to stop herself from saying something she would regret. 

"Yes. Just fine. I can handle myself, don't worry about me." 

"Okay, you're fine. But what about me?" Eunseo said, making Cheng Xiao stop typing and look at her with inquiring eyes. 

"It's as if you're here but you're not really here. You barely spend any time at home, and when you do you're always working. I can't have a conversation with you because you are so focused on your work you barely notice I'm talking. If I try to show you affection you're so unresponsive you might as well be made of stone." Eunseo swallowed and blinked, holding her tears back. "You just keep shutting me down. You're acting exactly like you did... before everything. Take a look at yourself. Your panic attacks and hallucinations are worse than ever. Why are you pretending you have everything under control when you know you're broken?" 

"I can't afford to be broken, Eunseo." Cheng Xiao shot up from her seat, breathing heavily as she said each of her words carefully and slowly, avoiding Eunseo's gaze. "Just look at what happened when I allowed myself to be miserable. I had my near-death plotted under my nose. I can't slack off again. No one can be trusted with this company but me. Why can't you understand what I'm going through? Do you think this is easy?" 

"It's not easy, but you're making it way harder on yourself than it had to be. Do you think trying to erase what happened and taking revenge for it on the world around you is a reasonable way to deal with it? I thought you knew better by now." Eunseo stood up, her fists balled and her gaze penetrating. "Think of me, for a change, and how I'm feeling. I don't deserve you treating me like this because of what she did to you. If this is really how you want to carry your life from now on, Xiao, I don't want to be a part of it anymore." 

Cheng Xiao's eyes widened and her lips came apart. Her chest tightened, as she hopelessly searched for words to say. 

Eunseo looked for an answer from the petrified girl, and when she didn't get it, she stormed off into the bedroom, wiping her eyes in the sleeve of her pajamas. 

How couldn't Eunseo stand by her side and just judge her like that? She couldn't understand knowing you almost died at the hands of your best friend. Or that the company you promised to run for your parents was at risk because of your carelessness.  

Thinking about the awfully dense spreadsheets she had to review until next morning, she dove head-first into work again, deciding she didn't need and could not think about her personal life for the moment.  

But all she saw were piles of numbers that didn't make the slightest sense to her, no matter how many times she went over them. When she'd had enough, she closed her laptop and flung it across the table, banging her head on the glass surface.  

Only then did it hit her. She was losing Eunseo, who was the only person who'd always loved and believed in her. She couldn't keep being stubborn and making it all about herself. What would she do without Eunseo, now that she'd lost the Bona forever and there was nobody else there for her? She needed her, much more than she had realized or cared to show her lately. Because the thought of living away from her, of not coming home to see her every day, was not something she dared to imagine. 

Picking up on the adrenaline that swarmed her body, she didn't lose one more second in standing up and racing to the bedroom. There, she found Eunseo, her head on a white pillow with wet spots on it. Eunseo turned her head towards the door, her face showing a hint of surprise. The girls' eyes met, and without drifting her gaze away, Cheng Xiao launched herself towards the bed, searching for Eunseo's body and grabbing it with all of her limbs, as if she was scared that if she didn't do so, she might run away at any moment. Because her life depended on her staying. 

"You can't leave me, Eunseo. You can't. Please don't." She said, her body trembling closely against that of her lover. 

"I don't feel like it makes any difference if I'm here or not, Xiao." 

"I know. I can't believe I made you feel that way, I swear I know I messed up, but I want to take it back now. I'm so sorry it had to get to this for me to realize it." Cheng Xiao tightened her grip as her tears started to flow. "I hate that even after all I've been through, I still have no idea how to solve my problems. I hate that when I try to solve a problem I end up creating even bigger problems. I hate that she still managed to ruin my life by turning me into this. I hate that I see her everywhere I turn. I hate that when I think I'm getting better and things are going to go well for me now, I keep crashing down. I hate that my medication just keeps getting heavier and I don't get any better. I hate that it might be too late for us now. I hate that--"  

Eunseo put a finger on Cheng Xiao's lips and turned to look her in the eyes. 

"No. No more hating this, or hating that, or hating yourself. Let love in your heart and put hatred away. Let yourself see my face instead of hers. You deserve all the love in the world, and I can give it to you, if you let me. That's what I promised you, right? We've been through this before, and you've been so close. Don't give up on yourself... on us." Eunseo paused, as Cheng Xiao bit her lip and nodded. "I can't instantly make you feel better, but I can hold your hand and help you through it. If you promise you're going to make an effort, then I promise I won't go anywhere." 

Cheng Xiao was pulled in by the emotion behind Eunseo's gaze, into a world where nothing could go wrong, where she would be safe, where she would be loved. Where no hint of the people who wronged her existed. She nodded once more, and as if in baby steps, she let her lips be trapped by the magnetic force of Eunseo's. 

"I can't believe I've been treating you like this when you've been here for me all along. I can't be selfish to tell you to stay when you don't deserve someone like me, you have your problems to deal with and I only keep making them worse and hurting you, I--" 

Eunseo pulled her body up, then sat with each leg on Cheng Xiao's sides, trapping her body underneath her own. She interrupted her by once more pressing her lips against hers. 

"You already promised, so now you can't take it back, and I'm not going anywhere." Eunseo whispered in her ear, then let out a breathy chuckle that Cheng Xiao felt on her neck, travelling all the way down her spine. Then, she planted short kisses all the way down her neck, to her shoulder, making her back arch in reaction and her lips release a quiet whimper. 

Eunseo showed her a smirk, then travelled back to her lips, her hand sneaking through her lower back, under her shirt, taking in the softness of her skin. Cheng Xiao broke apart their kiss to take a few shallow breaths. She placed either hand on the sides of Eunseo's face, forcing her to keep her eyes locked on hers, so at last, now that she felt it would come so naturally out of , she could say it to her. 

"I love you, Eunseo. Thank you for showing me what love feels like." 

Then, before she gave her girlfriend time to react, she pulled her lips back against hers, then dug her nails in the skin of Eunseo's upper back, letting herself go and be trapped in the world Eunseo had pulled her into, a world she wouldn't want to come back from ever again.

Kim Bona thought she was well at peace with the idea of going to jail. She had quite some time to prepare for it, after all. That was until, through the corner of her eye, she saw the emotions run through Cheng Xiao's face as she walked away with her head down, her hands cuffed behind her back as she was dragged into a police car by her childhood friend, like the true criminal she was.  

But Bona felt more like a criminal for the way Cheng Xiao felt when she find out than for anything else she might have done. Not a second went by in her damp, dark cell, when Bona didn't think of her. How was she doing now? Was she safe? Had she forgotten all about her and moved on? Was she suffering, asking herself why? Did she think of her just as much? Did she... hate her?  

There was nothing more that she wanted other than hearing news of Cheng Xiao. But then, it would probably be for the worst. Bona repeated to herself things were meant to be just as they were now. It wasn't as if she had any other choice, anyway. 

Her efforts to reason with herself were shattered when the door to her cell opened, and a guard came in with an announcement. 

"Kim. You have a visitor. A foreigner." 

Bona tapped her fingers on the white table of the visitation area, anxiously staring at the door, picturing what Cheng Xiao would look like when she walked in. What she would say to her. How much she could tell her so she wouldn't hate her.  

But the first thing she saw when the door opened was the enormous bag of seaweed. Then her.  

"I brought snacks!" Xuan Yi exclaimed with enough excitement to earn a scolding from the security guard. 

"Of all the people in the world." Bona sighed, muttering to herself. 

"Tch. I thought you'd be happy to see me. You haven't been getting any visitors and you're complaining? So ungrateful." Xuan Yi pouted. 

"Why... are you here?" 

"Well, I thought you'd be quite sad that you're in jail when you didn't do anything, so I'm here to cheer you up." Xuan Yi forced a wide smile and pointed at her own face. 

"What are you talking about? You're visiting a criminal to tell them they didn't do anything? What kind of sick story is that?" 

"The truth. I just want to know why you're not doing anything about it." 

"I'm not doing anything about it because I'm guilty, Wu. There's no getting me out of this now. I got caught, period."  

"You're guilty, alright. But of a crime? Against Cheng Xiao?" Xuan Yi crossed her arms and her legs and leaned against her chair, wrinkling her nose and shaking her head negatively. 

"How are you even so convinced of that nonsense?" Bona huffed, rolling her eyes. 

"Glad you asked! I actually minored in Psychology aside from Marketing. And I have a magical gift at reading people" Xuan Yi twirled her index finger in the air and winked at Bona. "Plus, you're trying so hard to convince me you're a criminal you end up saying completely artificial and fabricated sentences. That's the polar opposite of convincing." 

Bona gulped and looked away. "Aren't you trusting your magical gift a bit too much? Aren't you even considering you might be wrong?" 

"No, not a bit. I mean, I did consider it, but after coming here and tricking you into telling me I'm right, no." 

"When did I ever?!" Bona scoffed and shook her head. "Look, you should find some hobbies to occupy your time. You're wasting your time and mine." 

"Well you are my hobby." Xuan Yi grinned and winked seductively. 

Bona gritted her teeth, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths through her nose. 

"That's my cue, then. But be assured I'll come back everyday until you tell me what's going on." 

Xuan Yi kept her word and came back every single day at the exact same hour. In a ridiculous sort of way, with each day that passed, Bona found herself anticipating Xuan Yi's visits more and more. Her thoughts of Cheng Xiao were progressively replaced with ones of Xuan Yi and their conversations, which turned out to be peculiarly interesting and amusing. Hell, thinking of Xuan Yi actually made her smile sometimes. And would you believe she actually let herself smile in front of her?  

That woman had a way of getting to her in a way that simultaneously irked her and excited her. The truth was that she was able to make her time in jail as bearable as it could possibly be. Even if only in those moments she was with her, and not thinking of Cheng Xiao, or Wonho, or Mei Qi, or... 

Marking a week of regular visits, Xuan Yi initiated their usually ually tense conversation a bit differently. 

"I think this is the day you finally tell me the truth." 

"Oh yeah? What gives you enough confidence to boast about it, Wu Xuan Yi?" 

"I've been doing some investigating of my own. Talking to people, making some friends. I brought a couple of them here today, actually." 

Bona swallowed and stopped her own breath, fearing that Xuan Yi had found the one person she shouldn't have. Her heart rate accelerated with each of Xuan Yi's steps towards the door, and when she opened the door to let her 'friend' in, what Bona feared the most happened. 

"This is Meng Mei Qi, who I believe you know already." Xuan Yi introduced, making Bona jump from her chair. 

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Wu? You should have stayed out of this. This is none of your business." Bona yelled, making the security guard change stance. 

"As I was saying, Meng Mei Qi, who you know already, happened to tell me her side of the story." Xuan Yi said, ignoring Bona's alert state. 

Bona's head snapped to Mei Qi, who kept her head down and bit on her lip. 

"You told her, Mei Qi? What did you do? You know what's going to happen. What are you thinking?! You have to go back. Now." Panic started to take the reign on Bona's body as she desperately tried to push Xuan Yi and Mei Qi out of the room. Xuan Yi resisted by keeping a hold on her and immobilizing her arms. 

"I also have another friend, Yoo Yeonjung." A short girl in a black suit entered the room, briefcase in hand. Bona stopped for a moment to take in her figure. "A young, yet very reputable lawyer, with a few cases of coercion under her belt." 

Bona's stare twitched between the three women in the room. She felt trapped, as small as a speckle of dust against the corner of the room. It was over. 

"Now, you go calm down, take your seat, and tell all of the truth."

---

A/N: Please don't be mad at me you didn't get many answers yet! I actually had a hard time deciding if I should jump right into the answers or if there was something relevant to get to first, and Eunxiao/Boxuan is always relevant, isn't it? Keke. Next chapter will be all answers, pinky promise!

This chapter took me long since I moved sections at work and I was piled up to my head the past few weeks. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get next chapter as soon as I'd like, as I'll be travelling for 2 weeks to visit family and also going to KCON yay~ Thank you for always bearing with me, you guys are the best!