Author’s POV:

 

 

 

"Dear, don't be like this." Yuri chased the slim and tall woman who walked ahead of her after telling her that she needs her time alone.

 

Every time when Taengoo happened to split, Yoona will become emotionally disturbed as well. Her nightmare to remember the terrifying past is not an easy battle. All of them still fighting the thing that gave them a dark scar in their lives, actually. Sooyoung cannot be contacted anymore after she knew Taengoo had changed last night. She had turned off her cellphone and cannot be found in her family or her own house. Evidently, Sooyoung must be scared to be visited by Byuntae. To remember Byuntae's threatening is equal to live their lives like in the past again.

 

Now, she was unsure if the personality she met last time was Byuntae or the others, especially after knowing from Jessica that Taeyeon had a few more personalities other than what they already know. Truthfully, it’s hard to know. The personality didn’t tell her name and foolishly she didn't dare to ask her name as well, at that time. Without communication with the other personality, it will only make it become harder to know who is who that they have seen or met before.

 

Yuri tried not to touch Yoona physically. She managed to run and blocked the girl to face her with a good gap she makes in between them. She knew Yoona will get extra sensitive to be touched anywhere right now. She had experienced things like this with her a couple of times. She understands her more than enough not to make her scared with her action. Yoona hasn't gotten a sleep since last night after she knew about Taeyeon. It worries her so much when Yoona still doesn't want to rest after they captured Taeyeon and kept her in the confinement room.

 

Yuri thought, Yoona should not feel that scared anymore since the confinement room has no door. Taeyeon and aunt HyeKyo have been sent there by using Sunny’s teleport power. Only the room after the confinement room has a door, but still very hard to get out. Taeyeon's alternate personality needs to solve different mind games in order to get out of seven escape rooms that she specifically designed for Taeyeon. None of Taeyeon's personality had tried to escape before, and that was including Taengoo. Maybe because only Taengoo and the kid leader have appeared while Taeyeon had been kept in the confinement room.

 

Now she wondered if that was part of the reason why Sooyoung cannot be contacted and Yoona become anxious? Did they probably think that Byuntae still can escape from the place and try to find them again?

 

"I love you. You know, I do. I'm on your side. Always will be. Nothing will hurt you, baby. Please calm down and allow me to help. I want to help, please." Yuri desperately begged.

 

Yoona and Sooyoung never want to share anything to her or to anyone why they were so scared with Byuntae. Sometimes, she hopes that she can read minds so she can know the thing that make them scared with Taeyeon’s personality that they assumed as the dangerous person. Did Yoona and Sooyoung happen to keep a secret or something important that make Byuntae not favouring them? They should become a team like how Taengoo treated them since they have been abused together. It doesn't make sense when Byuntae threatened them. She really wanted to find out more about why Taeyeon had a D.I.D too, but thought it will only make her girlfriend frighten to remember the past if she ever try to ask her about what really happen when they have been kept in the same room together with Taeyeon in the past. None of the media can be trusted other than the story from the real victims, she thought.

 

"I don't want to cry in front of you, honey. You're going to hate me if I cry." The slim woman told ashamedly. Eyes already gleaming slightly.

 

She looked so scared in Yuri’s eyes. Her face was red. Her body was shaking. Yoona needs her. She kept on yelling to herself mentally not to let Yoona endure whatever thing that makes her feel terrified.

 

"Dear, I don't feel like that anymore. Cry all you want while I'm around. I can listen to them. I swear I'm fine listening to your crying sound. I don't want you to be alone or to cry on your own. I love you. You always have me. Please don't be alone." She walked a step ahead and opened her arms slowly.

 

It didn't take too long for Yoona to accept her hug. She falls into Yuri's arms while closing her eyes and muffling with her palm, trying to fight her tears and not remembering the threatening she received before. Somehow, the tragedy that made them trapped in the same room with Taeyeon come again haunting her. It's like a highlight event in her life. Something that she can't erase from her mind simply.

 

Yuri stayed quiet for a moment when she noticed Yoona was trembling in her arms every now and then. Her hand that rub her back do the work most of the time. She told Yoona that everything will be alright after awhile. She still hardly to believe that Yoona was trying to control her tears, even if she already told her that she can cry while she was around. It’s all her fault for telling her how she hates a crying sound when they first dating. Yoona will not become like this if she ever said it’s okay to cry. It hurts her to see her beloved soul was trying to withstand her emotion like this. She can't push her to do the thing like what she wants other than hoping Yoona will find a peace again, somehow.

 

 

*******

 

 

Jessica checked her makeup in the mirror, but she can't see her face. Her mind clearly not there. She lost focus. The thing she did last night, she remembers them again right now. It begins when she caught Byuntae talking to a cat outside of the pet shop which was just a few blocks away from the last she had seen her. That's the starting how she remembers the name... Kim Byuntae. She really can't believe that she had known Taengoo four years earlier while she was splitting as Byuntae.

 

The situation almost the same like last night. The only difference, she was wearing high school uniform and having an argument with a young kid who bullied a street cat. It happened just a few yards away, facing her 3rd branch spa in Myeongdong. During that time, she heard Taengoo's personality kept on telling the young kid that her name was Kim Byuntae. Byuntae told the kid repeatedly like that just in case if the kid wants to report to her parents about her as what she overheard. The kid was sobbing hardly at her simple scolding, but stop shedding tears after a minute or two. The thing that captured her attention so much was when the kid followed her instruction to walk on four legs and talked to the cat to apologize. She had no chance to interrupt them when Byuntae carried the street cat in her arms that she named as 'Jessicat' and left the kid alone after that. That's how she remembers the name, Kim Byuntae.

 

She recalled back last night event, the beginning of how the memory come back to her again.

 

 

 

"Wait, please look at me!!" Byuntae knocked the glass door a couple of times to get the animal's attention. "I'm sorry. I know you hate the noise when I do that. Did I bother you, Jessicat-ssi?"

 

"Jessicat-ssi? She named and called the cat respectfully?" Jessica muttered alone. Can’t believe what she heard. She got amazed to hear the personality that she knew as 16 year old girl trying to talk to the animal. Maybe another correlation that she found between Taengoo and Byuntae again, although the respectful custom was given to a different species right now. "Jessicat? Jessi and cat? She combined it together to make a pet name?" She talked alone another time as she felt like she had a talk about this in her life before.

 

Her mind flew somewhere when the name makes her recall something. Everything trying to come back to her head slowly just by hearing the cat name. That was the pet name that she heard for the first time in Myeongdong, she thought. The name stuck in her head because it’s very similar as her name and the person that she seen at that time happened to call the cat respectfully too.

 

She stopped her intention to approach Byuntae after remembering the same name Byuntae had given to a different cat in the past. At the same time, trying to wipe her sweat and trying to catch her breath from her tiring run to check every 24hours convenience store, restaurant, and cafe that still open at that place. She won't believe that she had done that tonight. The feeling of responsibility to find Byuntae left her no choice. Luckily, she found Byuntae again.

 

Actually, she was about ten feet away from her, hiding near to a big pillar outside of TY Entertainment facing the road. Because the pillar was huge, she managed to cover her whole body. It has been almost five or less than ten minutes she was running here and there and going in and out from one door to another to find her. She thought that she had lost her. Afraid if Byuntae took a cab going to the place that she had been dreaming to go. Well, that wasn't truly the case anymore. Byuntae was there, staring and trying to make a conversation with the animal outside of the pet shop and just next to the entertainment company.

 

"You said you are hungry, but you feel lazy to move anywhere?" Byuntae talked with the fluffy American Shorthair cat with orange stripes.

 

The thing that she witnessed make her getting soft. Taengoo's personality could be cute just like Taengoo too, she thought. She wondered if Byuntae really understand the cat or she only tries to make a dialogue on her own? It could be possible Byuntae makes her own dialogue since she already knew Taengoo has a mental illness. Her life is so pitiful, she thought. Having a mental illness is truly giving her life a disadvantage. It looks so different to see Taengoo like this. Everything is just so hardly to believe right now.

 

Is this why she says that she will pity her and take back her word if she knows about her story? Well, she really doesn't know about that other than Taengoo makes her interested to know the wound that make her having a D.I.D. Is it related to the family that she lost when she was a kid? What is the correlation with meat, anyway? Taengoo makes her want to know her background so desperately. How can she fly an airplane when she has a mental illness? Isn't it dangerous if her alternate personality come out while she’s on duty? She won't believe she is a pilot if not because she had flown her sister to Jeju last time. And get married to someone? Her marriage is a contract for what purpose? She is getting impatient to know everything. If only Taengoo was sane and being herself, maybe she had already asked her everything she had on her mind.

 

"Jessicat-ssi, why you always feel hungry every time when I see you? But I always feel hungry every time when I came out as well." She huffed, "I guess that we are really meant for each other. We always feel hungry now and before. Don't you think our life is so interesting, Jessicat-ssi?"

 

Every time when Byuntae called the cat respectfully, it will make Jessica smile so brightly. Funny as the cat name was just like her with an extra 'T' and funny when Byuntae called the cat respectfully in a soft tone that Taengoo always use to her. Why Byuntae speak in this manner, but not doing the same thing to humans? Out of the blue, she remembers the thing she heard about ‘bring to walk and to feed’. Is this personality truly had dated an animal in her life? If that’s truly the case, then it makes sense now.

 

"Ottokhe, you cannot go out with me? I know you can! Please don't say no to me. I will let you out of your cage, Jessicat-ssi! I promise. I always help you when I come out."

 

She heard Taengoo's personality knocked the glass door again.

 

"Jessicat-ssi, please look at me! I miss you a lot, you know. Don't you miss me a lot too? Should I release you now? No, I'm not joking! I'm going to release you and the others tonight. The owner of this shop will not earn any single cent from abusing you guys to be trapped in here. I'm going to release everyone of you, so we can go to a party together and celebrate our freedom. I've done it before, and I will not hesitate to do it again and again just for you."

 

Jessica gets a little emotional to know this personality was actually against animal selling business. She never knows any D.I.D patient so far. She only had seen it on T.V. This was her first experience knowing someone with a D.I.D, so she really feels so different watching a D.I.D person in a real life. She can't truly describe everything that she felt right now other than compassion. For someone who had helped her before, she had no idea how to return a helping hand back towards this person. What had she gone through in her life? What really happened to Taengoo? Has she been abused?

 

The sound of heavy metal tunes coming from Taengoo's cellphone disturb the moment Jessica witnessed in there. Byuntae turned her body around to follow the familiar song ‘Devil's Cry’ that she heard not really far from her. Instead of running away again, she approached the person who had been hiding and following her. Never knew this person can find her easily. She looked piss off to see the gorgeous unnie was bringing the noisy phone when their eyes met just briefly. What a nuisance, she thought! Sunny must have known her location right now. She had no intention to play 'catch me if you can' game anymore. She shouldn’t provoke this unnie by waving her hand at her. Because by all means, she already caught her. She thought, if this unnie really wants to follow her, she must comply with her terms or Taengoo's life will be at stake. That’s how she’s going to threaten her, so no one will take her time this time. She noticed a big size of phone with apple logo next to Taengoo’s phone on the unnie’s other hand that make her interested to speak with her again.

 

Jessica gulped her saliva secretly when Byun