It was past midnight when he came back after the quick ride to Jessica’s house. He decided to only walk towards his apartment, realising it was just actually two blocks away from the street Jessica was living in. He groggily entered his pass code and went inside.

He shuffled towards the sofa, not bothering to turn on the lights, he slumped down his tired body as a sigh left his mouth. It had been once again an atrocious day.

He looked up, staring at the ceiling which suddenly looked very mysterious and interesting. The ceiling seemed old, cracked, empty. Funny how it mirrored his heart well.

It was hard to think about what happened between him and Jessica before. It was like a novel with a missing ending. It did not matter how much he would contemplate, he would never know what happened. Curiosity, it would bug him so much, and it had actually started years ago. The missing part, the most important part, the ending, did Jessica rip the last page off? Only Jessica knew what happened, she was the only one who could tell their ending, but she refused to talk about it. Not only was he dying of curiosity, he was also dying of pain and agony.

Taeyeon wiped away the tear that stubbornly escaped out of his eye. Seriously, why was he thinking like this again?

The past is the past, move on, burn the novel and give up, no happy ending and no sad ending either. All that there was, was nothing but a blank page. Right. That’s it.

He lied down on his red sofa and closed his eyes. Oh, Mr. Shin would have a word with him tomorrow, whether for another chance or a kick. If Mr. Shin would decide to kick him out... it must be a goodbye then. At least even that part of his life had had its ending.

**

Jessica was tucking Jaeyoon in when the doorbell rung. She glanced at the clock, wondering who would be visiting her at this hour, 1 in the morning. Nonetheless, she walked out of Jaeyoon’s bedroom and carefully went towards the door. She kept her phone in her hand.

She pressed her ear on the door but heard nothing but the frantic ringing of the doorbell, slightly vibrating against the door. She bit her lip, taking a deep breath as she asked, “Who’s this?”

The ringing finally stopped and she started hearing the sound of trolleys being wheeled over. “Jessie, it’s me.” A sigh went off her lips as relief washed over her body. It was just her best friend, Tiffany.

She immediately unlocked the door, a smile never leaving her face as she saw her best friend standing just centimetres away from her. It had been a while ever since she had last seen Tiffany and she totally missed her.

“Tiff?” The happy feeling however vanished quickly as she realised Tiffany’s face was a mess. Her mascara was smudged and trickling down her cheeks along with her tears that kept on flowing out of her eyes. “Tiffany,” she called again when she heard no response, but Tiffany still had shut, trembling, as she continued to cry in front of her. Feeling sympathetic, Jessica pulled her forward and engulfed her in a warm hug.

“Jessie,” Tiffany mumbled, gripping on Jessica’s night gown tightly.

Jessica tapped Tiffany’s back a couple of times in attempt to calm her down, however she burst out crying even harder. “Tiffany what’s wrong?” she asked softly, still patting her back.

Tiffany eventually stopped weeping and pulled out of the hug. “Jessie, we need to talk.” She said, her tone taunting, making Jessica frightened and anxious the next second.

She nodded her head slowly and muttered an uncertain, “Sure.”

 --

Jessica tilted her head as she tried to digest what Tiffany had been telling her. It was totally ridiculous and did not make sense to her at all.

“You know Yul could never do that to you, Tiff,” she pointed out, sipping on her black coffee. Jessica was sure Yul was not that kind of man. He was still her best friend after all. She knew him since birth, so every single trait and flaw in his personality had been already exposed to her.

“I know, but Jessie, don’t you just get that feeling that your lover is cheating on you? His gestures, the way he treated me those four days when we went to a holiday – “

“You two went on a holiday? I thought he was in Scotland...”

Tiffany bit her lip and nodded with a sigh. “He... lied. I don’t know why. It’s not like you’d mind anyway.” She looked at Jessica with confused eyes.

Jessica however could not help but to feel something was really suspicious. Yul knew she would not mind if he wanted to have a holiday with Tiffany... but why did he lie to her? Could Tiffany be right? Was Yul really cheating? Was that holiday... not really meant for him and Tiffany?

No.

Impossible.

Jessica pinched the bridge of her nose and stood up. “Tiff, we’ll talk about this tomorrow alright? Let’s sleep first.” She was about to walk when Tiffany pulled her down.

“Jessica – “

“Tiff, I’ll give you all of my time tomorrow to talk to you about this. Don’t worry; we’re best friends are we not?” Tiffany hesitantly nodded and gave Jessica one last hug. “Stop thinking and just sleep you hear me?”

Tiffany just gave a knowing smile and went off.

**

Taeyeon fixed his tie and took careful steps towards Mr. Shin’s office. Although he kept saying that it wouldn’t matter if he’d be kicked out, there was still a part of him that did not want to let go of this job just yet.

Every pound of his heart echoed inside his head as he strode in a very slow pace. He saw Joohyun eyeing him; her eyes disappointed. Taeyeon just bit his lip and glanced back at her apologetically. He turned to his right and faced Mr. Shin’s door.

The beating of his heart couldn’t get any louder as he gathered all the courage he has and stepped inside.

Mr. Shin was standing, his back facing Taeyeon. His hands were inside his pocket as emotionless eyes stared outside the window.

Taeyeon didn’t know what to do and just stood there straight, staring at Mr. Shin’s reflection, waiting for him to say something.

“So you’re here,” the old man turned around and faced him. He might not say it but Taeyeon could see the forlorn and disappointment in his face. He just nodded his head. “Where might you be yesterday, Mr. Kim?”

Taeyeon’s hands balled into fists as his ears turned red in embarrassment. If he said he went to the family day, was it enough of a reason for him to just ditch an important event? He lowered his head and just stared at the white floor.

“Do you know how important that meeting was, Mr. Kim?” Taeyeon just once again nodded. “We lost 3 clients because of what you did. Now tell me, was it worth it?”

Taeyeon could feel his legs weakening as the burden and guilt kept increasing on his back. He shook his head lightly.

“Talk, Taeyeon.”

“It wasn’t... w-worth it Mr. Shin,” he stammered.

“Where did you go, then? What did you do?”

Taeyeon could feel himself trembling. “I... I went to the... family day.” He bit his lip and cursed himself mentally. He already knew that what he did was stupid and admitting it was definitely worse.

“As far as I know you’re single and don’t have any children.” Mr. Shin walked closer.

“It’s... for a friend. I don’t want to disappoint her and her son.” Taeyeon answered truthfully.

“Her? So you like this woman.”

His eyes widened. “I...” he was about to deny it but what’s the use of it? Nothing would change the fact that he was about to go jobless even if he denied he liked – loved Jessica. “Y-Yes... I-I love her Mr. Shin.”

The man chuckled – Taeyeon could not identify if it was a mockery. “You’re whipped aren’t you?”

Taeyeon gulped, shocked but decided to brush it off and just nodded.

“Was it her that caused you to leave your work without permission?”

Taeyeon couldn’t deny it, “Yes.”

“Is this girl the one you were dating before? What’s her name? Sica?”

Taeyeon took a deep breath. He wanted to just skip this conversation as it was getting really embarrassing. Of all people, why did he need to talk about his relationship with Jessica with Mr. Shin? And just when the topic went to reprimanding him to talking about this? However, he didn’t have a choice but to just say yes.

“Now tell me again, was it worth it?”

Taeyeon finally looked at him, confused.

Mr. Shin smiled and patted his shoulder. “Taeyeon, was it worth losing 3 clients to spend time with your loved one? I believe you haven’t had enough time to be with her.”

Taeyeon released a sigh of relief as he eventually understood. He broke out a wide smile and answered proudly, “It’s... it’s absolutely worth it Mr. Shin,” he finished with a grin.

Mr. Shin walked back towards his seat. “Just don’t do this often Taeyeon, we might go bankrupt,” he jeered, looking at Taeyeon with the mischievous smile that was somehow similar to his father’s.

“T-Thank you, Mr. Shin,” he bowed and Mr. Shin gestured him to go.

As soon as he went out of the office, Joohyun was already outside, waiting for him. “Mr. Kim, what you did was totally unacceptable,” she commented, walking ahead of him, still with a bewildered expression. He followed and put his arm around her shoulders.

“Totally?” He joked.

Joohyun faced him and sighed. “Mr. Shin was just really nice Mr. Kim. But here,” she passed him a pile of folders. “These are your paper works last 2 weeks. Mr. Shin wanted you to revise and redo them.”

Taeyeon stared at