The truth is everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for -

“You’re telling me that you actually left?!”

Sooyoung was in disbelief as Seungwan recounted what seemed like a fantastical story. If they weren’t friends of many years already, she probably would be cursing the hell out of Seungwan right now.

“It wasn’t because I wanted to, but after that she pretty much chased me out of there…”

“And what about her questions?”

“What questions?”

“The ones that caused her to chase you out the door! If you couldn’t answer her then at least tell me.”

“I didn’t want to leave her hanging like that, but I really don’t have an answer right now.”

“…just what are your intentions toward the both of them?”

Sooyoung decided to not beat around the bushes and get to the bottom of this. When she received the call from Seungwan last night, she figured that the reason why Seungwan was unable to pick Seulgi up herself was because she was still at Joohyun’s place. This and Seungwan’s eagerness to see Joohyun right after her talk with Seulgi led Sooyoung to believe that there was already a winner in Seungwan’s heart. She could not have in a thousand years predicted that Seungwan arrived at the bar soon after she did, and took Seulgi away from right under her eyes without a word of explanation.

“I have no idea. My mind is a pile of mush right now.”

“Wait a minute, don’t tell me you did it with Seulgi last night!”

“…no I didn’t.”

“Look me in the eyes!”

“I really didn’t! She was passed out drunk, what could I have possibly done with her? We did cuddle the whole night though…”

"..."

“…I’ll say this much, I really feel terrible for Chief Bae. You said you couldn’t pick between them, but how come your treatment of them is so different?!”

“Seulgi was passed out! How could you reason with someone in such a state? She wouldn't have heard me even if I told her to let go!”  

“Now you’re just making excuses! Tell me truthfully, you actually do care about Chief Bae don’t you? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have visited her personally to apologize and even cook for her. But you couldn’t just completely forget about Seulgi either, in your heart you’re hoping that maybe one day the two of you could turn back time and return to the beautiful past you once shared. Tell me that I’m wrong!”

“…”

“Unnie, as your friend, I won’t scold you too much, but sooner or later you will have to make a decision. To revive the past or to move forward, you could only choose one. In the beginning I wanted to convince you to move on since you’ve already made contact with someone new, but now that you’ve told me the conversation you had with Seulgi, I don’t think she did anything wrong either…”

“See?! You realize my dilemma too! I thought that Seulgi had long forgotten the promise she had made to me, but the truth is that I was the one who fell for someone new first…”

Sooyoung sighed deeply.

“The other scumbags I’ve seen before were scummy in their transparent ways, but you’re a new breed. The guilt that you feel within is so great that you’re unable to accept nor reject either of them.”

Seungwan wanted to say something back, but there was a knock on her office door. Soyooung felt too that they’ve been taking too much time off work, so she gave Seungwan a pat on the shoulder and left the office. When Sooyoung opened the door, Seungwan saw that the person who stood outside looked like they were from the risk assessment department. Seungwan quickly ushered them in and asked what she could help them with.

“Chief Son, I need you to sign this report.”

After looking at the report, Seungwan raised her head questioningly.

“Why aren’t you asking Chief Bae to sign something like this?”

“Chief Bae took some time off, she didn’t specify the details, but she took two weeks worth of leave…”

“Two weeks?!”

“Yes…”

The risk assessment department worker was afraid to meet Seungwan in the eyes – they knew that the project they had underway meant a large workload for everyone involved, so when the head of their department left their position, it meant more inconvenience for the one that was overseeing the entire project. If this was a regular employee taking a such a long time off, they would have needed to submit their medical records and everything else, but for some with Joohyun’s status that also didn’t like to talk much, no one dared to ask her.