Discharging herself from the lonely and dull place, she was relieved to be back in the dorm again, the only place she cherished much. She missed the presence of her own bed and the familiarity of the surrounding which gave her a sense of comfort and security, and an inner calming sensation.

Lying down on her cozy bed, she was glad that everything was going well for her until the thought of her came across her head, she frowned and immediately sat up. Whenever the images appeared, she will eventually think about the stitches and the lies she had to create to her manager and friends for the past few days. The more she thinks about it, the more she felt remorse on her actions.

She ran her hand through her hair and got off the bed, heading towards her laptop to take her mind away from these setback temporary by settling herself by monitoring the comments and information which she had missed in the net for the last few days. In the midst of looking through the photos, she was shocked to find out an article with the title about her being unconscious at the alley. At the sight of it, her eyes immediately flew wide opened.

Panicked, she quickly read every single word of the article in a rapid pace without missing any details from the beginning to the end with a bated breath, wanting to know the content of it. When her eyes finally scanned till the last sentence of the article, her shoulder instantly relaxed a little but there was still uncertainty in her. It was fortunate that the picture was blurry to be able to confirm the person was her and the source was unknown, leaving a huge interval for everyone to judge the article by themselves. She was grateful that most of the netizens considered the article as shady and skeptical. Knowing that articles like this will eventually died off as time passes, she decided it was better for her not to worry too much about the issue and focused on her singing and fans instead.

She closed the tab off and continued browsing the remaining pictures and videos in the net as if nothing had affected her but deep down she knew she was still worried about the possibility. Trying to keep her mind occupied, anything away from the article temporary, she decided to observe the fancams especially the latest fancam on that particular day where she was walking out from the company. After watching it, she was surprised to find out a highly apparent pink sport car across the road which the fancam only managed to capture it for a few seconds, she then repeatedly rewound that part and tried to zoom into the driver but to her dismay, the car windows were all tinted.

Leaning back towards the chair, she started to lose herself in her thought while trying to remember whether she had seen the pink car, until the sudden vibration from her right pocket made her jumped, bringing her senses back. Cursing, she pulled out her phone and looked onto the screen before answering the call. It was Jessica.

“Jes—“

“Is it you in the article?!” She shouted.

“What? Calm down. Jess. Nothing happened” Taeyeon blatantly lied. “It’s not me. You don’t have to shout so loud through the phone though”

 “Can you stop lying to us? It’s there already”

“What… what are you saying… “

Somehow she got afraid suddenly. Nevertheless, it was still not enough to bring her down, thus she continued another, “Jess… it’s not even funny, there’s no source for that particular article and the picture was blu—“

“Sunny told me” Jessica cut in without hesitation. “She told me about the incident where you were unconscious and the creepy girl who directed her” Jessica continued, “Coincidentally, the date where you were unconscious was the same as the incident mentioned in the article”

Taeyeon gritted her teeth, she should have known. It was Sunny who had told her. Who else left? But she won’t let this small matter interfered her attempt, not this moment. She had to hold onto it until the very end of it.

“Taeng, why can’t you just tell us? I just don’t understand, we are trying to help here. If it’s about the creepy girl blackmailing you, let us know. We will seek for ways“

Despite the thousands of the used excuses she had created, she will always find a way to cover up. For the sake of her friend, she will continue her undisclosed desire, just this once.

“I said it wasn’t me in the article…” Taeyeon paused a little.

She resented the feeling of betray but she knew she had to, no matter how hard it would be.

“And Jess, I am disappointed with your actions…” Taeyeon proceeded counteracting by twisting her own words. She knew that the trick to make Jessica dropped the subject was to keep getting on Jessica’s nerves.

“What are you talking about? If it’s really y—“

“As your friend, I thought trust is the key between us?’ She intentionally interrupted, “How can you just believe that one article just because the dates clashed and the incident was almost as similar as the article? If I can assume that, I bet there will be whole lots of scandals out there with the identical stuffs and cases occur”

 “What the—“ Finding her indirect insults ridiculous, she raised her voice a little for defense. She cannot believe what she heard from her.

“How can we actually trust you if you are the one who is keeping things here? The heck! Sunny was the one who saw you at the alley and that’s only one of your suspicious acts. We haven’t even considered the weird behavior you are emitting these few days, spacing off whenever Sunny mentioned about that creepy girl and the incident. Tell me, what is that suppose to be?”

She flinched with the sudden increase of volume towards the end of the sentence, she didn’t expect her to be this mad. She thought it would be not too severe, but she was wrong. Her friend was real furious at her.

Clenching her fist, she inhaled deeply before continuing, “Don’t you get it? You still don’t know me well. Spacing off is one of the things I usually do whenever a subject is mentioned, it doesn’t necessary point towards me being suspicious” She purposely irritated. “Seriously, you two had indulged in this incident that it started to cloud your sane mind”

“Do you think that there’s so many coincidences in this world? Hell, look at the pictures. It’s so evident, there’s no denying th—“

“Oh by the way, I never knew you are an investigator now…”

In order to make her attempt worked, she knew she had to continue her plan. Without backing away, she persisted cutting in ceaselessly. “It’s like everything in the net is believable and just by basing on your own theory, you can find out the person in the picture” She mocked, “Wow Jess, I need to solute you, really”

She clenched her fist. Containing herself, she tried to hold onto her fury as much as possible, but the fact that Taeyeon kept on scoffing her, making her sounded so silly and foolish had induced her wrath, doubling the intensity in her.

Taeyeon kept on irritated, “You know what, I will still give an ‘A’ for the effort you put into, for going through all these hassle just to ask like this. For your information, that’s not even me, for goodness sake. So can you stop asking me already? It’s so annoying! Damn it!”

Her clutch onto her phone tightened. She was furious by the way she talked to her, her sarcasm and the tone she emitted to her had indirectly hurt her. The harsh words pierced through her like millions of needle jabbed into her heart continuously.

Through the phone, Taeyeon was able to detect the wrath coming from her friend’s through her heavy breathing and the absence of her replies throughout her mockery - She knew she was almost there, almost getting on her nerve completely.

She continued another, “Stop stirring alright, it’s not going to d—“

 “Yeah…” She paused, “You are right, Taeng…”

That startled her. She never expected that kind of reply; she thought that she would be yelling, cursing back with her high pitch voice and throwing out the same amount of harsh words towards her which Jessica usually do when she is furious, but it seem’s that it’s not the same case anymore.

Jessica continued, “Even though we had practically known each other for so long but at times… “ She chuckled sadly. “I felt like I don’t even know you at all… ”

The phone suddenly died off.

All at once, her heart ached. Her phone slipped out from her grip, landing onto the carpet with a thump, she felt numbed now with her words were still resounded in her head. This is not what she wants; for the people around her to be hurt that way. She felt a sense of loathe to herself for not doing her part properly. The entrance for the vacant space had slowly enlarged, consuming her, adding more guilt and remorse into her existing fear. She resented that she had indirectly harmed her friends.

Sustaining herself, she clenched her fist.

I am sorry… I really am… Jess… I didn’t mean to hurt you…

She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply while trying to prevent the tears from falling. She then slowly crawled up the bed and curled herself, letting herself drown into deep regrets.

Forgive me… Jess… forgive me.