Dara slumped as she parked her car in the parking lot. Damn, why did she have to reach the office so quickly?

She bit her lip and stared blankly in front, not wanting to go up to her office just yet. She wasn't ready to see and feel that awful tension with Jiyong in the same office.

Why oh why must he come back? And why must they meet?

Jiyong never once asked her about what she did for years ago besides the day he found out. He was mad, consumed with rage as he hollered at her, almost losing his mind.

Dara had been awfully frightened. Scared. Hurt and broken.

And right now when Jiyong asked her that question again... Why did she do it?

All the memories came back. Pouring back. Resurfacing. Escaping from the cages where Dara had tried so fervently to lock them inside.

And it hurts because she knew Jiyong and her could have been friends if now for this. Look how they were talking so merrily until the topic of Sohee came up. Sohee was his Achilles' heel.

And she knew he was no doubt curious in addition to mad at her. Why had she done it?

Dara looked at the time and decided she had delayed long enough at her car. Appearing too late would be seriously weird because Sandara Park isn't someone like that.

She grabbed her bag and went up to her office, hoping she could endure just another day. Just another.

The tension grew thicker with every passing moment. The longer they chose not to talk to one another, the harder it was to start talking.

Dara typed away at her computer, using all the will power within her ability to keep her gaze trained on the screen. She really wanted to trail away and look at the guy sitting meters away in the same office, wanting to see if he was still mad.

He was. Dara thought, as she listened to his fingers tapping furiously at the keyboard. How could he not be angry? It's Sohee they were talking about. His beloved Sohee.

A knock came at the door and both Dara and Jiyong looked up curiously. It was Bom.

Bom, despite her happiness with TOP, dimmed slightly when she came into the office. It was so awkward.

"Hey Dara." Bom smiled. She shot a slanted glance at Jiyong. "Hey Jiyong."

"Hnn." Jiyong grunted in response.

Dara ignored him and looked at Bom. "Got new tasks?"

Bom nodded and handed Dara a file. "It's the Cheon Sang contract." she notified. "You have to look through it, identify if there are any suspicious clauses and draft our proposal. Here are our terms." Bom handed another document.

Dara nodded and looked it through.

Bom grinned. "Easy?" she asked. Dara nodded. "Peasy." she grinned back.

Bom glanced at Jiyong and back, the tension suffocating her from all directions. "Then I'll go back." Bom mumbled quickly. "Lots of things to do."

She quickly excused herself and got away. Which was rather strange of Bom because she would always linger for a bit to gossip before Dara could chase her back to her own seat to get things done.

Dara let out a small sigh. She wanted Bom in here with them, to make some noise, complain, whatever. Just someone to make everything seem less tensed.

"You need help on that?" Jiyong's voice made her jump.

She looked at him with her large eyes and blinked. "Oh.." she looked down. "Okay. You can do the identifying the clause part. I'll do the proposal draft."

Jiyong nodded. He got up from his seat and went over to her to get the papers. Their fingers brushed when he took it from her and Dara froze. Damn, even giving him a piece of paper made her nervous.

Jiyong got back to his seat and let out an inaudible sigh. He couldn't get it out of his mind.

The Dara he knew. The Dara that betrayed him. The Dara now.

The Dara then and now were pretty much the same. But why would she do that?

Jiyong shook his head. *You don't need to care, Kwon Jiyong. Just know she betrayed you and be cautious.* he opened the file and started working.

The two of them got the whole thing together after finishing their own parts and handed it to Yang Hyun Suk.

Yang Hyun Suk looked through the files and blinked. Then a tiny frown appeared.

Dara and Jiyong stilled.

And then that frown got deeper. And deeper. And deeper until he was clenching his teeth too.

Yang Hyun Suk didn't reach the end of the whole thing before he slammed it shut. He frowned at the two of them and removed his reading glasses.

"Did you two look over each other's parts after you did it, or did you do it together at least?" he asked.

Dara swallowed. "No we didn't, Sajangnim."

"I knew it." Yang Hyun Suk spat. He threw the files on the table with a loud slam and both Jiyong and Dara jumped in fright.

"Do you have any idea how many things contradicted with one another in there?" Yang Hyun Suk demanded. "If we even let our partners read a paragraph of this thing they'd laugh at us for being so amateur!"

Dara winced and Jiyong hung his head. Damn.

"You two do your own parts without considering the other's, and it's like two different melodies being played at the same time." Yang Hyun Suk frowned. "It's terrible. No team work at all."

He looked at Dara. "Dara, you're a prized advisor in our company. You were overwhelmed with work and that's why we hired an assistant for you. Use him well."

He turned to Jiyong. "And Jiyong. You're here to help Dara. Not to do your own task and whatever. Your part of the argument was pretty good, and so was Dara's. But when you put them together it's like they're bickering with one another. That's not how you do it."

He gave the files back to Jiyong and he took it gingerly. "Get it redone by tomorrow. This is absurd." he shook his head.

Both of them bowed apologetically and went out.

Dara didn't meet Jiyong's eye as she felt the dread kicking in. And it made everything worse.

Dara curled in a ball under her blankets and hugged her pillow. She hasn't done this for a long time. She hadn't done this since four years ago.

She always cried in this position because she felt safe under the blankets, like no one could see her.

Tears trickled down her cheeks and she sniffled, not minding how stuffy it was under all that cotton and cloth.

It wasn't just being scolded by Yang Hyun Suk that afternoon. She felt sad that she disappointed him.

And she disappointed herself because it's a mistake that should never have been made by someone like her, holding a position like that.

And what's more Jiyong and her were having a hard time communicating and it's not getting better.

"Why did you do it?"

Jiyong's voice haunted her mind and kept repeating the question over and over again.

Why? Why did she do it?

She knew the reason perfectly. Even if it was the dumbest stupidest reason in the world, she had done it. Made Sohee and Jiyong break up.

And what makes it harder to explain is that if things happened this way again right now...she'd make the same decision in a heartbeat.