"Listen , I don't know what you did with me last night but you ought better not tell anyone that this happened." said Hayoung, boiling with rage.

"Why should I when you were the one who did it first?"

"None of this would've happened if you didn't invite me out for a goddamn drink. You better shut your mouth."

"Your wife would be very upset to think that you cheated on her, when she was out there fighting for her life."

"I said shut the up." said Hayoung, having no choice but to resort to bribery. Never in her life had she been so cornered, that she had to commit a sin. As a lawyer, she knew what was right and what was wrong. But, here she had no other choice. Taking out her wallet, the girl handed $1000 in cash to silence the nurse and reminded her to completely forget about the incident.

"Fine." The nurse complied as they pretended to be strangers ever since.

Indeed, money could do wonders.

But sometimes, sins can't be buried forever.

Days since that incident, the two acted like it was nothing and even kept their distance. Hayoung on the other hand, decided to focus her mind on Namjoo's recovery. She was now, out of quarantine and placed in a normal ward as she slowly regained conciousness.

"How long was I out?" asked Namjoo weakly but her eyes were filled with worry. She knew Hayoung well and was aware that her wife probably didn't even sleep much, just thinking about her.

"Around 1 week or close to two. At least, you're okay now." said Hayoung not leaving her side, holding onto her hands tightly but inside, her heart was bitter. She wanted to kill herself for what she had commited. She wanted to run away.

"I'm sorry for making you worry."

"No, don't. You worked hard and it was just unfortunate that you had to catch a disease like that. Just treat this as your well-deserved break okay?"

"Mm. I will."

"I have to go now since I need to get back to the office. The bosses are all passing everything to me since I've took one whole week off. I'll try to visit you again tommorow okay?" said Hayoung as she planted a gentle kiss on her forehead before leaving.

But honestly, she wanted to leave as fast as she could.

The more she saw her wife, the more horrible she felt.

A penetrating pain shooting across her head caused Eunji to wake up. Aware that she had drank far too much from last night as she felt very, very dizzy. Yet, she was very sure that the last place was the beach so she wondered, what she was doing laying on someone's bed.

"Shall I just ruin my life even more? Shall I just the person who saved me as my gratitude of thanks? Am I even willing to a stranger?" All kinds of weird things went through the girl's mind, she wasn't thinking straight anymore. Confused as pain continued to numb her head, she couldn't move either.

It was then, she felt something being tossed towards her body. It was a new pair of clothes. Eunji wanted to raise her head up, to see who was the stranger that saved her, but she obviously didn't have the strength to do so.

"Change and leave. I'm checking out of my room so whatever happens to you, it's none of my responsibility." 

This voice felt very familiar. It was soft, gentle yet had a thick thorn in between that was cold. It couldn't be. 

As she heard the door closing with a thud, the drunkard was all alone, laying helpless on the bed as she couldn't believe it. She was very sure, that voice belonged to her former wife. Yet, what was she doing here in Busan?

She wanted to run after her, take her hand, pull her into a corner and kiss her lips. But she was in no condition to do so. She had no idea she would miss her wife so much, to the point it killed her internally. As she scanned around the bedroom, she took a whiff of the blankets and smiled like a fool. It was the scent of Naeun and that itself, eased her mind.

Eunji got better after an extra two hours of sleep, getting up, she noticed a box of medicine on the table. It was for hangovers. Picking the box, the girl smiled.

"You're still the same." she mumbled.

It was the annual sports festival at their high school and the atmosphere was still filled with lots of excitement. Eunji was casted as a 200m runner for the relay, pitted against the sport club members. However, halfway upon recieving the baton, Eunji twisted her right ankle. But with determination, she still continued to run and finished third place, before collapsing to the floor in pain. She was now stuck in the sick bay, getting an earful from the school nurse for overworking her muscles. But the deliquient used this opportunity to sleep, since she's "sick".

But her peaceful sleep was ruined by her best friend, Yoon Bomi as she threw an empty water bottle to her head.

"What the was that for, Yoon Bomi!" shouted Eunji as she rubbed her sore forehead.

"Well, you wouldn't wake up otherwise. It's just so difficult to wake up because you sleep like a log."

"Anyways, did our team win?"

"Nah. As usual, we can never defeat the sports club members."

"We did our best, that's all that matters." smiled Eunji as she eyed to the side of table, noticing there was a bottle of ointment. She remembered clearly that it wasn't there earlier. Picking it up, there was a small pink note attached at the top "It's for your muscles."

"Did you buy that for me?" asked Eunji.

"I'm poor, does it look like I have cash and the time to personally go out of my way to buy you that?"

"You could've showed that you care at least." said Eunji, hitting Bomi's arm.

"Your pretty girlfriend was kinda worried. Well, she's not here now since Namjoo dragged her to watch Hayoung's basketball match."

"And you're here ditching because you don't want to be under the hot sun?"

"Uh, I'm running away from Chorong unnie."

"What did you do this time?" sighed Eunji with a laugh.

"Erm, I needed to buy food so I went to extort some cash from the juniors."

"I'm not surprised." said Eunji with sarcasm as she picked up the ointment bottle. She knew whose handwriting it belonged to at first look. It was neat, gentle and feminine. She was very sure that her girlfriend, Naeun secretly bought her and just left it there, because she was shy in giving things.

Althought it wasn't much but that made her fall in love with Naeun, even more.

Things were busy at usual at the chicken feet restaurant, Chorong was always in the kitchen while Bomi handled the cashier as their two-part-timers, both high-schoolers were in charge of serving the customers. Surely they were understaffed, but due to the burden of costs, it was difficult to hire more staff.

"Bom-ah, someone's coming over today?" said Chorong, talking over from the kitchen.

"Who is it? Your relative? Friend?"

"No, a new staff member."

The younger girl paused her fingers that were busy calculating the money. "Staff member?" She was confused. "You didn't tell me that we were gonna have a new addition to the family!"

"Why are you making a fuss as if I'm pregnant or something?!"

"I mean, you didn't tell me about this!"

"I'm technically the owner, not you."

"Fine" pouted the younger girl. "Is it a guy or a girl?"

"Now, you're being too picky as if I'm dating someone."

"Unnie~~~" whined Bomi.

"Alright. It's my relative's friend and she's going to be working full-time here."

"Are you close with her? Have you seen her before? Is she your friend? Is she pretty?" The younger girl began interrogating her wife.

"You'll see when she comes." chuckled Chorong while trying to control her laughter. She knew how prone Bomi was with jealousy because obviously, her wife was a bit obsessive and didn't want anyone else to touch her. She used to view every single woman and man on the street as her enemies, afraid that they would steal her away. Although Chorong did warn Bomi to fix this habit of hers, she still found this cute otherwise.

"Welcome!" said one of their part-timers as a lady entered the restaurant. Immediately, the part-timer froze because she was just, too beautiful.

'W-Wow..who is she? I think she can rival against Naeun's beauty?" mumbled Bomi, slightly taken aback.

"Silly, she's the one who'll be working with us from today. Hi Joohyun-ah!" nudged Chorong before waving at the beautiful girl.

"Hi Rong-ah!" The girl smiled and it even made her more beautiful than ever. 

Surely their friendly greetings meant that they weren't strangers, but really close friends.

"W-What are you doing just standing there Subin-ah? Get to work!" stuttered Bomi as she ordered her part-timer around.

"Boss, s-she's going to work with us from now on?" asked another of their part-timer, Arin. 

"Of course. She'll be your manager from now on, so be careful." smiled Chorong in a rather, intimidating way before she walked into the kitchen with Joohyun, excitedly explaning to her, how their kitchen operates. Bomi on the other hand, felt like she was completely ignored the moment the new staff came in. She had never seen her wife so happy before and it made her uneasy.

"I've never even seen her before in my life. Chorong unnie didn't even tell me about her. How much secrets does she keep about her private social life?" The girl thought in silence, while pouting, head on the cashier counter. Observing the lady in the kitchen, she admitted that she was quite pretty but pretty women, according to Bomi, are dangerous. (Well, excluding Naeun)

"Hi. Sorry, I didn't introduce myself earlier. I'm Bae Joo Hyun but you can call me Irene. Chorong and I have been friends since we were in college."

"Unnie!" said Bomi as she turned to the direction of where her wife was. "You have friends?! I thought you didn't have anyone!" The girl was surprised.

"Shut up! I have friends okay! It's not just Changsub or Hoya, I have girlfriends too okay!"

"She's always keeping all kinds of secrets from me..." mumbled Bomi before forming into a fake smile. "Hi. I'm Yoon Bomi, Chorong's wife and she's mine." The girl said, immediately marking her territory.

"Of course, you're married to her after all. Anyways, do show me around and tell me what kind of work I should be doing."

"Alright. Irene-ssi." The girl said with a forced friendly tone, she still had her shield up because it was all too sudden, to have a new employee in the restuarant. 

Stuck in bed, Namjoo spent every single day in the hospital ward as she did her best to get well quickly. But, she felt lonely because Hayoung didn't visit her as often as she had promised too. Sometimes, she wouldn't see her for two days straight before appearing again, but staying around for 15 minutes and leaving after that. She wondered if this was how Hayoung must've felt, having to endure and wait for her to return back home from her late night duties. Maybe karma has gotten back to her. Her yearn to see her wife, grew even more.

Perhaps, she started to understand slowly as to why Hayoung would go almost crazy whenever spending time with her. Because time together was so precious.

"Are things busy at work?" Namjoo asked while never letting go of the younger girl's hands.

"Mm. Sorry, I wanted to visit as much as possible but my bosses are all too cruel." Hayoung pouted. "It's all a lie."

"Who asked you to take not one, not two but seven days off?" Namjoo sighed. "Sometimes, there comes a point in life where we have to choose career over love."

"Am I having life lessons with you again?" Hayoung rolled her eyes playfully before smiling.

"How long are you going to stay? I want you to stay longer, it's lonely without you around."

"Mm. As long as I can." said Hayoung, looking towards the window as if she was trying to avoid Namjoo's gaze. "I don't deserve your love."

It was then, Namjoo leaned in for a kiss just like what they would always do. But this time, Hayoung suddenly moved away.

"I forgot that I have something to do. Sorry unnie. I know I'm always saying this but-"

"It's okay. Go." Namjoo said, interrupting her words in between as she looked at her, confused but perhaps, her wife was just really busy. Watching her leave as the door shut behind, Namjoo sighed. Thoughts swirled through her mind, wondering what was going on. Was she having a bad day at work? Is she on her period? Has she been getting enough sleep lately? Why is she acting so cold?

Soon, Namjoo was set to be discharged from the hospital. Not only that, her higher ups gave her a three-month break as a reward for all of the hardwork she had done. The girl was extremely ecstatic and couldn't wait to share the news with her wife. Earlier, she had informed Hayoung to fetch her back home and couldn't wait to see her again. She had planned to immediately wrap her arms upon seeing her wife, being in her embrace and started telling all kinds of stories with her in the car. She couldn't wait to do all these things with her.

But as she got out of the ward room and into the lobby, she wasn't there. That's when she recieved a message from her wife;

"I'm sorry baby. I can't fetch you today."

Upon reading, there were a strange mixture of feelings going through her mind. Hayoung was acting strange, far too strange. She wondered, what went wrong? Did something happen when she was not with her?

"I heard the news that you're going home today." A familiar voice from behind.

"Oh, Sungjae-ya! Don't you have work to do?" said Namjoo, immediately forming a smile as she waved to her friend.

"Come on, if I keep working and working, I'll vomit blood." The man joked. "Just came over to inform you that you should still rest at home for the following first week. Best not to be outside and remember to take the meds that the doctors gave you."

"Of course. I'm a doctor myself, I know these simple procedures."

"And it would be best if you could y'know, avoid having ual ." The man said awkwardly.

"Right." Namjoo laughed awkwardly.

"Anyways!" Sungjae said to break the awkward silence. "Who's fetching you home?"

"Well, my wife just texted me saying that she can't fetch me." The girl sighed. 

"Alright. I'll fetch you home then."

"Wow, really?"

"I can't have you taking the public transport, who knows, you might infect everyone!"

"That's not a nice way to put it!" said Namjoo, hitting his shoulder.

The two same-aged friends spent time, chatting away since they rarely got the time to do so, at work. Sungjae talked about his wife, Joy while Namjoo talked about her wife, Hayoung.

"I didn't know that my wife has terrible drinking habits." sighed Sungjae, as if he had a hard time handling with his wife.

"Please, my wife is worse." said Namjoo, rolling her eyes.

"She's gets really aggressive especially in that area. It's quite a handful when I go out drinking with her. Can't let her touch anyone else." He said with worry.

"Mine can handle alcohol well but once she goes over that limit, it's the end. She has different stages. At first, she's gentle and soft, almost like a kid but if she goes over, she's a beast."

"How do you know that? Did you guys like test how far you could get drunk?" asked Sungjae in amazement.

"I guess so. It's all because of that one incident back in college. You wouldn't want to know." she sighed.

"Alright. I won't peek into any details."

"Thank you Sungjae, you're a really good friend." 

"Honestly, you don't look quite good these days. Something bothering you?" The man confessed.

"I don't know Sungjae-ya...it just feels so strange..."

"What is?"

"I feel like Hayoung's been avoiding me and I don't even know why?"

"All of sudden?"

"Yeah, it's disturbing me...I don't know what is she hiding.."

"What if she cheated on you?" Sungjae said all of sudden, before feeling a pinch on his shoulder. "Ouch!" he shouted.

"How can you say that?!"

"I mean, things like that do happen in relationships, I'm just pointing out the worst possible scenario.."

"There's no way she would cheat on me okay?"

"But what if?" asked Sungjae, glancing at the girl whose expression stiffened. "What if?" he repeated.

Namjoo gulped. "S-She should have her reasons. Even if she did cheat on me, she isn't the kind of girl who would suddenly do that. I trust her."

"Hmmmmmm.." The man hummed for a long time. "I guess you have a lot of trust in your wife. If only I could be like to Joy too." the man said with a sigh.

Arriving at the entrance of her apartment home, Namjoo unlocked the door as she sighed. Walking inside as she reached the living room, she noticed Hayoung's purse on the table. 

"Is she home?" The girl thought, confused.

"Hayoung-ah?" As she looked around, she couldn't see the girl anywhere. Entering their bedroom, there was something curled up in the corner. It was none other than her wife, still dressed in her office clothes, head tucked in between her knees as she refused to move.

"Hayoung-ah?" The girl said again, moving nearer as she could hear her silent sobs. "What's wrong? Did something happen?" The girl crouched down, holding onto her shoulder with a puzzled expression. Hayoung was shaking. Shaking in fear.

"It's okay. I'm here now." Namjoo said softly in a gentle tone, pulling her wife into a warm embrace.

"I'm sorry." the younger girl sobbed. As she raised her head up to look at her, she was in a mess. Swollen eyes, tears flowing through her cheeks as her lips trembled.

"I'm sorry that I cheated on you." she confessed as tears began to overflow her eyes even more.

Returning her feet back to Seoul, Eunji looked up at the bustling busy life that she missed. After thinking and clearing her thoughts for over a month, she made a resolution for herself. Thanks to her mom's nags and recieving a good earful, she returned back to reality and realised her mistakes. She came back with a determination, a will to win back her wife's heart. No matter what.

"Indeed, moms are the best. They will always help us to find the right path back in life so that we can fix things, before it's all too late. There is still a chance"

Walking up the staircase as she carried her luggage, she pressed the doorbell and cleared .

"Eunji-ya! Welcome! I didn't know that you were coming so early!" said a tall man as he opened the door, while carrying his daughter in his arms.

"I figured I had to move fast. Thanks Seungyoon-ya for letting me stay over your house for a bit. I promise to clean up my mess as soon as possible!" Eunji said with sorry eyes, placing her palms together.

"It's okay, come on in! I'll show you to your room." the man said with a smile.

Seungyoon had been childhood friends with the girl since they grew up together in Busan, before attending the same high school and college together. Although people always thought that they each had feelings for each other, they were simply had a loving sister-brother relationship. After all, Seungyoon was now happily married and a father to two lovely daughters.

"So, what's your plan?" the man asked, while helping to change his daughter's diapers.

"Well, I should start talking to her first and ask for her forgiveness."

"That's going to be hard."

"I know. I screwed up and I don't mind if she slaps me out of anger or anything. I deserve it." The girl sighed.

"Don't be so hard on yourself like that. Anyways, I wish you luck. I hope everything goes well between the both of you." said Seungyoon, patting onto her shoulder because that was the most he could do, to comfort his friend.

"Thanks." The girl smiled.

That afternoon, Eunji arrived at the office building of Son Corporations. It felt weird to stand in front of the place that she used to work at. She used to have such a pretigious title of "Vice President" but now, she's simply a visitor. Heading towards the reception, she felt awkward to approach the lady, who used to be under her control.

"Hello Bos- I mean, Eunji-ssi. What brings you here?" asked the lady with a bow.

"Erm, have you seen my wif- I mean, have you seen Son Naeun around?" Eunji asked awkwardly.

"Oh, she's currently on a business trip with her father in France. She should be back tommorow."

"I see."

"Do you want me to leave a message or anything?"

"No, it's okay. Thank you." The girl bowed as she decided to leave.

I guess you've already planned out your future already. A future without me.

As she passed by the lobby, there were a group of employees gossiping over something. Being the Eunji she was, she sneaked in, pulling her ear closer for a eavesdrop while hiding behind the wall.

"Are you serious? But didn't she just get a divorce recently?"

"I heard them talking. Naeun's father is planning to arrange a business marriage with the Lee Corporations for a better partnership."

"Lee Corporations? Are you talking about the handsome son, Lee Taemin?!"

"Oh my, I think they would actually look good together!"

"I know right?!"

In that very moment, Eunji could feel the hole in her heart piercing through. It hurt so much to hear those very words.

"Arranged marriage".

--

A/N: Do something Eunji! You have to stop that marriage from happening! How will Namjoo react to Hayoung's confession? What will unfold in the restaurant with the arrival of the hot beauty, Irene? I will update soon~