There was once Taeyeon briefly asked her about the cuts on arm, but to her dismay, the only response she received were “keep quiet.”, “shut up.” or “none of your business.” Whenever subjects related to her and her master were brought up, she will either ignore them or bluntly respond like the previous.

Seeing the lack of response in front of her, Taeyeon sighed in defeated and lowered down her head. The sight of the cuts on her arms greeted her and only then she realized that some were in the process of healing while some were still new and fresh.

She frowned. 

Well... I think I can try to get use to this. She mentally comforted herself after spotting the number of cuts she had, observing them carefully on the lengths and depts. She then looked up slowly and eventually her mind wondered to the other girl who was now observing the filled-glass tube in her hand. The cuts on her arm were visible and even more severe than her and at that particular moment, she felt that hers were actually not that bad compared to the other girl. Slowly, she started to feel sorry for her.

How do you survive with him throughout all these years? Why do you need to follow his orders? 

She furrowed her brows while her mind wondered even further.

Do you actually know the reason on why he wants me dead? Did he tell you or you just followed his orders without knowing anything?

There were so many unanswered questions in her mind that she wanted to ask, but seeing the unwillingness from the other girl just now, she gave up and started to lose herself in her own thought until a ringtone coming from her side pocket abruptly broke the silence in the hall.

Tu-tu Tu-tu-tu-tu   kissing you baby…

, my phone! She mentally screamed to herself. How can I even forgot about it?

She immediately looked up at her panicky. For a split second, she thought she saw her side-eyeing her for the ringtone before she started to get on her feet and walked towards her.

“Well, you know what to do.” She smiled at her before retrieving the phone from Taeyeon’s side pocket and placed it next to her ear.

She gulped and slowly leaned her head towards it.

“H…Hi…Hi”

“Damn it, Taeyeon! You bloody short brat!”

She immediately flinched at the loud swearing, bringing the other girl to raise her brow curiously at her. The latter then decided to just switched on the speaker mode to monitor her.

“No replies! No response! None at all for the whole freaking day! What are you?!”

“I am… sorry…” She whispered.

“That’s it?” She raised her voice at her ridiculous answer. “So you think just by apologizing, the issue can be solved?”

Taeyeon remained silent.

“I can’t believe you. Ever since we asked you about that incident, you will always shrug it off. We even suggested you to lodge a police report but you kept insisting that it’s just a small matter.”

At the mention of the incident, the other girl looked at her surprisingly. She can’t believe what she was hearing.

Why is it you have the chance to do so once I know I left you at the alley but yet you didn’t?

“Because it really is a small matter… and maybe it’s just some crazy fan’s deed.”

“Lunatic fan you say? Fan who go as far as having your neck stitch and abandon you unconsciously?”

“But hey, she did inform Sunny about me. So ta-da, I am still in good health.” She tried to joke.

“Do not fool me, Taeyeon. I didn’t heard you mention this to Sunny or Jessica but why now?”

“I just…” She heaved a breath before continuing, “I just have nothing to say…”

At that particular moment, she felt a sense of loathe to herself, but she knew she had to.

I guess it is better to be this way. Rather than endanger all of you, I am willing to be hated as long as it worth it.

 “I am sorry, Yul. I don’t want to talk about this anymore… Please don’t call me again because I am really not going to answer any of your calls. Goodbye.”

Without waiting for her reply, she moved her head away from the phone, indicating to her that she wanted to end the call. She can’t control herself anymore, she was afraid that if she continued, she will accidentally caught off guard.

I really wanted to tell you but I just can’t… and right now I just don’t know any longer…

No matter how many times I apologize, I don’t think it suffice anymore…

Tears started to form, she tried to close her palms tightly to suppress the tears from spilling, but she failed. Thus slowly, she lowered down her head and silently cried to herself.

The sight of her made her frowned before she hesitantly walked away with the phone and sat down at a corner, only looking at her from a distance.

Why do I feel bad about this?

No. Correction.

Why do I EVEN feel bad about this?

She started to become frustrated with her own.

I never feel bad before and what is this sudden vexation occurs to me?

Is it that she had been following my instructions so well that I feel that she at least don’t deserve this?

No. Wait. I should not be even feeling bad at the first place…

Arghh! What is this?

She ran her fingers through her hair and finally yelled at her with a loud voice. "Can you at least shut up?"

To no avail, the sounds of sobbing were still echoing in the hall. She looked at her and realized that her eyes had gone glossy red and her cheeks were all stained with tears, she suddenly felt guilty. 

She stood up and paced back and forth, contemplating for umpteenth times before forcing herself to make up her mind.

Urghh, I hate this. She looked at her in disgust and immediately left the hall. After minutes later, she returned with a guitar in a hand and threw it lightly onto the floor before unbinding the other girl’s hand.

“I figure you need this stupid guitar from my car.”

Her voice was still filled with frustration, resented that she was doing this to get rid of this confusion.

Unable to react, Taeyeon was shocked and kept on looking at her as if she was seeing an alien despite the other had finished unbinding the rope.

“This is just temporary. I am going to bind you back later, but for now go play with your stupid guitar or whatever, your crying is just annoying.” She mocked in revulsion. 

Taeyeon continued remained transfixed by her actions.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“…”

Seeing the lack of response, she groaned before shoving the guitar to Taeyeon’s feet. “Pick it up before I started burning the guitar into pieces.”

Taeyeon hesitated at first but after noticing the other girl gave up and walked towards her previous spot at the corner, she only started to wipe her tears and picked up the guitar from the floor before testing the strings. After noticing the tones were still functioning, she lifted her head.

“Thank you…” She said softly to her.

“Oh please. It’s not a big deal.” She averted her gaze away from her. “Besides…”

She muttered to her herself. “You are going to be death anyway once my master returned…”

At that particular moment, the actual fact that she almost forgotten had suddenly struck her, without seconds she immediately drowned into her own thoughts.

Once he returned…

How can I almost forget…

Her heart suddenly grew heavy. She looked back at her. She didn't know why she felt that way nor could she completely comprehended herself but this girl brought something different to her, as if she was not lonely anymore, as if she was alive inside...

The other girl was strumming the guitar while humming a soft tune, resonating the hall with her voice. Clearly, her mood had started to improve and eventually a small smile was formed without her even realizing it. She then turned her head towards her direction and accidentally met her gaze.

At least... She heaved heavily while looking fixedly at her. At least I still have some time to know you before it ends completely.

It’s such a waste that you are going to end like that…

You seem like a fun person…

She immersed herself into her own thoughts until she realized that the other girl was smiling at her for a long time.

That smile…

Her thoughts were broke off midway and without seconds her gaze was eventually transfixed by her smile, she never noticed that there’s a chin dimple whenever she beamed a cute smile to her until now. Her heart involuntarily skipped unwittingly at the moment.

She quickly closed her eyes, letting herself calmed down.

Why is my heart just…

She hurriedly shook her head, trying to shrug off the strange sensation she was having and focused on the melody on the guitar instead. Unknowingly, she slowly found herself began to relax under her soothing voice and the strumming of the guitar, picking up the beat and flow of it as she went by. She soon found herself entertained by the current atmosphere until she didn't realize she was subconsciously humming the tune, following Taeyeon’s lead steadily while enjoying the moment. She was really relishing the gentle and calm melody that she had almost forgotten how long she had been humming throughout the whole night. Their voices mixed uniquely well and the harmonization sounded unexpectedly smooth that both of them were surprised on the outcome. When the tune ended, she opened her eyes, finally bringing her senses back.

“Seriously you sounded good.” She grinned at her.

"..." She ignored the compliment from the other and quickly stood up before hurriedly walked past her.

Geez... Her grin slowly faltered at her abrupt behavior. What's wrong with you?

She quickly paced towards the kitchen without hesitation. Knowing that the other couldn’t possibly do anything in a locked mansion or harming her, she decided to leave her alone at the hall. She pulled the kitchen chair and immediately poured herself a few glasses of wine and consumed them, hoping that the wine will get rid of her abrupt skips from her chest.

She poured more wine, refilling the previous empty glass over and over again.

At that particular moment, the resentment towards herself started to grow. She detested that she was actually letting her guard down by giving chances for the other to step up.

I hate it. She murmured while clutching tightly onto the table until her knuckles turned white. “I ing hate it.” She gritted her teeth.

She clutched more tightly when the image of the harmonization scene with her flashed through her mind.

She didn’t know why she reacted that way nor could she fully denote her own actions earlier but she knew she resented that she was actually enjoying that moment with her just now.

She took another glass of wine into her lips.

She couldn’t even fathom how she liked the fact that the girl intrigued her, prompting her just like that but at the same time resented the bizarre commotion she was enduring whenever that girl was in front of her.

She took another wine and consumed them in one shot before pouring another, treating the wine like water to be drank. She consumed the wine repeatedly, switching to the next bottle when the previous bottle had been emptied, not caring how much and how long she had been consuming them. The melody resounded from the hall only increased her intensity of drinking, reminding her on the earlier scene again.

“ you, Kim Taeyeon.” She drank another furiously. This time, she took the whole bottle of wine into her lips while clutching the bottle so tightly. She released her resentment onto the glass bottle in the process until the pressure applied shattered the glass bottle into pieces. She chuckled at the sight of the mess and stood up from the chair. She couldn’t even care less on the small pieces of glasses piercing into her palm, she just wanted to grab another bottle of wine on the rack so she swayed herself towards the wine rack, bumping onto the furniture on the way to reach the bottle. That was when she felt her head started to throb loudly, she quickly leant her head against the wall, but to no avail her head ached even badly. Thus she slowly slid herself down onto the floor and rested her head on it, lying down with her heavy eyelids. She almost passed out if not for the kitchen door which slammed opened at the right time, making her awake for a little.

“What did you just do?” Her eyes went wide when she noticed a few pieces of shattered glasses which scattered around and a few drops of blood on the floor.

“Gggoawayyy…” She groaned while trying to stand up but failed as she accidentally stumbled onto the nearby chair.

At that particular moment, Taeyeon abruptly grabbed her arm and pulled her towards her.

“Gerroff me!” she tried to yank her hand away from her arm, but to no avail, after much draining of her energy, her weaken state had kept her from further protesting. The floor underneath her kept spinning due to her tipsy state and in a feeble manner, she decided to freely deterred her previous judgement on the other, thanks to the alcohol which kept her from reacting sensibly and rationally at that particular moment.

She followed her pull until she ended up onto her lap. She almost pulled out the dagger after she realized her current situation she was into but after noticing the other girl started to pour the antibiotic onto the cotton, she only sunk in slowly.

She put the cotton away. “Right now, I am going to take off the small pieces of glasses from your skin. So it might hurt a little.” She warned her.

“Pshhhhhh… asifthisis se……” She scoffed.

She cannot make out the last sentence from her blabbering, but she figured it must be her mockery towards her warning. She then took out the glasses from her palm one by one, cleaning the wounds before applying the antibiotic onto them.

She gritted her teeth once the cotton contacted onto her wounds. The slight pain caused her to avert her attention to the girl in front of her. Although the image in front of her was blurry but seeing her up-close one more time, her sincerity and her caring gesture once again confused her. The tender gaze when she looked into her, she couldn’t fully denote them. She had never felt this way before, felt this confused and frustrated.

“Stop this sss…” She looked at her with a mixture of sudden hatred.

Taeyeon was surprised by the sudden outburst.

 “I cannoot b’defeated by chu…”

“What… What are you talking about?” Taeyeon suddenly grew amazed by her difference. She thought that maybe it was the alcohol which clouded her mind, making her sounded so disparate.

She clutched Taeyeon’s shirt tightly, “Just stoppppit…” She looked into her eyes, “Pleaseeee stop… Taeeeyeeeon…”

“Stop... stop what?”

 “Do chu kno how muuuch I hateee yor actons?”

“I am not doing anything…”

“Stup whateeeever chu areee acting rite now… Please…” The last word from her was almost sounded like a whisper.

“I am being serious, you are harming yourself…” Taeyeon still couldn’t understand her fully.

“I had becom so fragileee… and weak…” Her voice faltered.

She looked at her with furrowed brows, not really comprehending her words.

"Whyyyy do chu keep doing this to me?"

 She shook her head and sighed, “You are drunk." She continued applying the wound, "Honestly... There’s still part of you which I don’t un— “

“Stopppit!” Her voice abruptly shuddered out as her fear crept, reminded her back on her previous resentment. She immediately got down from her lap, slowly trying to get her way to her room while leaning onto the wall for support.

“But I haven’t finish your w—“ She quickly grabbed her arm before she stumbled onto another table nearby.

She flailed her arm. “off!”

She tried to grab her arm again but the dagger in front of her eventually stopped her from getting to her. She saw her eyes, her eyes which were replaced by hatred and fright. That’s when she knew that she had to give some space to let her sort herself out, so she compliantly stayed rooted until the other managed to get her way to her room. She then looked at the direction where she left and the mess on the kitchen floor before frowning.

Why... don't you let me...