Jessica reached towards the fridge and grabbed two cans of beer. She gestured Minho to take a seat at the dining table and held up a drink. Minho obeyed like a puppy and quickly sat down on the uncomfortable black chair. He glanced at Jessica, and slightly frowned. 

"Want one?" Jessica asked, holding a can of beer. Minho shook his head in response.

"No thanks. I'm underage," he answered. Jessica raised an eyebrow, examining the young boy. He looked mature enough to drink, but of course that was only Jessica's thoughts. She shrugged her shoulders, put away the cans, and grabbed a bottle of wine. She reached towards the cabinent and grabbed a fancy glass as she walked towards the table. She sat down across from him, and began to spill the grape wine into her empty, clear cup.

"So, what do you want to know about Krystal? Do you want to know her to the point where you're going to be sympathetic over her or to the point where you want to be more than just friends?" Jessica asked.

"I want to know everything about her," Minho answered confidently. Jessica stopped swirling her glass of wine and paused for a moment. Then, with a fierce look in her eyes, she glared at Minho and clenched her fist under the table. Crossing her legs, she hungrily sipped the wine and wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

"Look buddy, if you want to know everything about her, you're going to the point where you will never, ever want to see her again. You're going to the point where you'll pretend that she doesn't exist, but the mere sight of her will haunt your mind. You still want to know everything about her?" Jessica hissed. Minho straightened his back and nodded his head.

"L knows everything about Krystal. Why can't I when I'm her friend?" Minho pointed out. Jessica laughed and chugged down the purple liqud.

"Ah, Myungsoo. He's such a kid," she muttered. "He left Krystal because he's a coward. A man who's a coward. Does that sound new to you?"

Minho kept quiet and blinked his eyes. "Are you drunk already?"

Jessica sputtered giggles. "Me? Drunk? No, I don't get drunk very easily. I just get emotional. Please excuse me if I start throwing random objects around the house. If I ever do, I would advise you to run out of this house."

"So what happened to Krystal? I want to know every little fact and detail about her," Minho said. Jessica glanced at a family portrait at the far end of the room.

"You want to know everything? Alright, frog boy. I warned you. To be honest, it started with… our parents."

"So what did you do? Ditch school or something?" L asked. Krystal stared down at her cup, then slowly nodded her head.

"Mhm. I ditched. I couldn't handle everyone," Krystal confessed. L nodded his head and glanced out the window. He heaved a sigh, and examined all the cars passing by the street. Krystal did the same, watching the world pass by her as if it never cared about her.

"Really? I'm not surprised," L mumbled. Krystal shrugged her shoulders, and watched a particular car rushing back and forth quickly. The red vehicle caused mothers and their children to run across the street, hoping not to get hit by the drunk driver. For a moment, she saw a terrifying image in her head.

"What if I… What if I just walked on the street right now?" Krystal asked. L froze. His skin went pale, and he slowly turned his head around. He watched Krystal's eyes grow distant, and for a moment, he feared what Minho had told him was coming true. "What if I just walked on the street and a car accidentally crashed against me and…"

"You're not thinking of commiting suicide, are you?" L asked. Krystal stiffened. She bit her bottom lip, then stared at her unfinished drink. She sighed, and stood up from her seat. L's eyes carefully observed her every move. He searched in her eyes for any signs of suicidal thoughts, but he couldn't see anything in those lost eyes.

"No, it was just a thought," Krystal mumbled. L stood up along with her, and left the cup on the table. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the café. Krystal widened her eyes, but she didn't dare to protest against L. After walking three blocks away from the café, Krystal grew curious of where L was going to take here.

"Where are we going?" she asked. L's grip tightened, and Krystal squinted her eyes.

"Back to the past," he stated clearly. 

All Krystal did was pray that wherever L was going to take her, it would be paradise.

Minho grew restless. Jessica wouldn't continue speaking after she had spilled out the cause of Krystal's past: their parents. In fact, the phone kept on ringing, and the caller did not leave any voicemails. Minho was about to stand up and pick up the phone, but Jessica's icy glares forced him down his seat. Minho tapped on his foot, and heard the phone ring for the millionth time.

"How long are we going to stay quiet and listen to the phone ring?" Minho asked irritatedly. Jessica sighed and gulped down her fourth glass.

"Wait. Here it comes," she muttered. Minho raised an eyebrow, but his frustrated looks faded when he heard a loud glass crash.

"Stupid wife! Are you seriously still at work? Who cares about your little newspaper article? No one is going to read the damn long article! Jessica, set your mind straight or I'll beat you up until you learn how to behave like a woman! Stop acting like your pathetic mother! Someone in the damn house pick up the phone! I need my folder for work, unless you want me to starve the rest of you weak women!" a raspy voice yelled. The man's voice roared in the room, and suddenly the phone stopped ringing. Minho felt his heart race not from excitement, but from fear. Jessica sighed, and poured the wine down in her fifth glass.

"I-Is that it?" Minho stuttered. His face was pale and his flesh grew cold. His breath was quick and short, and the man's horrible voice rang in his ears nonstop.

"That's not it. Wait for two more minutes," Jessica told him. That was exactly what the two had done. They waited for exactly two minutes, then the phone rang again. This time, it wasn't a man's voice. It was a woman's voice, but her tone was scratchy and full of bitterness.

"Darn you Krystal! I know you're home! Pick up the phone for your dumb father! Jessica, if you're home… pick up the phone! Stop being the idiotic rebel who wears mascara to cover your ugly face! If I get a call from your father, I'll whack you until you stop breathing!" the woman threatened. The voicemail stopped, and silence scattered itself across the room. Minho had his hands gripped tightly around his knees. 

"What horrible parents you guys have," Minho whispered. Jessica had tears swelling up in her eyes, but she refused to let them out. "Do your parents beat you two up?"

Jessica snorted. "No. They're cowards, too. They just shoot us dirty look- or excuse me, shoot me- dirty looks. Krystal… Krystal isn't the one tying our family bond, so they don't really care about her."

"So what happened?" Minho asked. "Why are they like this now?"

"It started with a minor fight. Mom and Dad couldn't get along. They tried to resolve it smoothly, but then Dad started coming home drunk and he became extremely moody. Mom hated this and tried to talk to Dad, but all he would do is storm out of the house and work. There was a specific day when the two brought me and Krystal to the dining table for the first time in ages. We hardly had dinner together with the four of us, and Krystal was extremely happy. Mom tried to start out slow, but Dad paced forward. He got straight to the point about how they were going to have a divorce, and Krystal was dreaded. She ran out of the house that day, but we all knew that she was at Myungsoo's house. When she came back, she looked like a worn out bag of sack, covered with dirt and mud all over her clothes and hair.

"Every night, Krystal would come to my room and she would cry, praying for Mom and Dad not to break up. It was clearly obvious that they were going to break up soon, and news of divorce never surprised me because it's what happens often these days. I love my sister. People tell me that I hate her, but I do love her. A year later, Mom discovered about Krystal and how she was crying. Mom, who felt totally upset, started to smoke because she claimed that it was the only stress reliever she could get in a short amount of time. So now we got a drunk father and a mother who smokes almost a pack a day. Mom and Dad started fighting, discussing whether or not if they should divorce. Everything got messed up from there.

"Our house soon became the loudest in the neighborhood. There were nothing but arguments and quarrels. Krystal hated this. She wanted her family to bond back. So what did I do for her? I became a rebel. It was the biggest mistake in Krystal's eyes for me to be a rebel, but… but it was the only way to stick with the family. My parents were furious, and they decided that we weren't mature enough to handle ourselves. They thought that they should stick together until they can 'tame' me to be mature without one of the two parents. You can't put two people you hate in one room, though. They scolded me for being a horrible daughter, and they yelled at me for flunking school. I didn't care. Krystal wanted our family to be together, and that was exactly what I planned to give her."

"But she mistook your plan," Minho blurted. "She thought that you became a rebel because you hated your life. No, scratch that. She thought you became a rebel for no apprent reason."

"She has no clue that I'm doing this for her," Jessica whispered, rubbing her hands. Her eyes were wide and she started to shake. A tear dropped down from her eyes, and she quickly gulped down her glass of wine. "B-But I'm okay. As long as she's happy that we're sticking together, I-I'm okay. I'm the last glue that can attatch the family. I'm the bridge; I'm the bond."

"Where does L come in, then?" Minho asked. Jessica glanced at Minho, and quickly wiped her eyes. Mascara smeared below her eyes, and the corner of her lips tugged downwards.

"Myungsoo? Ha… He just made things a lot worst in Krystal's life," she muttered. Her tone was covered with bitterness, her eyes cold and dark. She glanced at the time, and noticed how late it was. She sighed, and stood up. "You better go."

Minho stood up from his seat. "I want to stay and learn more-"

"I said go!" Jessica shouted. She grabbed the table and threw it across the room. The kitchen became a mess, and the table broke into pieces of splinters and woods. Cruelty blinded Jessica's eyes as she reached to grab the empty bottle of wine. She smashed the glass against the ground, and collapsed on her knees. Minho's eyes widened, and he quickly dashed out of the room. As he touched the door, he glanced back at the lonely woman who could not stop crying.

"I'm coming tomorrow to know the rest," Minho informed her.

"Shut up and just leave!" Jessica screamed, grabbing a clear vase from the kitchen counter. Minho ran out of the house, his heart pounding in fear and his eyes blurry with tears. Before he left Krystal's property, he heard a glass shatter against the door.

Krystal stood still like a statue as she recognized the familiar area she was standing on. L gripped his hand around Krystal's, fear crawling up in his body. Both were scared and terrified. Krystal glanced at L, who firmly stood on his spot with a hard expression on his face. Krystal covered her quivering lips with her free hand and felt her eyes water.

"M-Myungsoo… This place…"

L gulped. "Yep. I took you here for a reason."

They were standing on the grounds of Myungsoo's house, where everything was perfectly painted and well structured compared to Krystal's home. Not to mention that it was also the last place the two of them wanted to be at together: the place where their friendship shattered into pieces