Author's Note: Hi! Sorry for the late update. I won't go later than three days next time. Thanks again to my subscribers and to those who left comments (ssnaya, babujjung, prettylittleliar16, and ackung)! You make me very happy!

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While the internet set Krystal's already existing fandom ablaze, the company was awfully quiet. Nothing. No one scolded, and no one exchanged blames like the two models expected the chief or their managers would respectively. 

About three hours ago, on that particular space on the floor of that now legendary elevator, the police could have drawn the outline of Sulli's stunned being.

Could have.

That is if someone even called the law enforcement over something that ridiculous.

Sulli held her breath then when Krystal, for the umpteenth time that day, had crossed gazes with her, long torturous gazes. With the deepening shade of pink on the usually cold girl's entire face, the taller was merciful enough to crack a joke instead.

At the moment though, Sulli was just tired. She just wanted to crash into her bed and be greeted by the same silence the company was in the soonest she opens the apartment door.

Sulli turns the knob. She cringes a little because she seemed to have left it unlocked.

Or maybe she did lock it earlier this morning.

Pushing the zen black door aside, the familiar figure of a person she believed to have been living across the hall from hers was revealed.

Sulli scrunches her nose at the sight.

'I gave you keys?' she asks in sheer disgust.

'No,' he said, sounding playful, 'My genes gave me strong feet.'

Or scratch that.

Maybe Sulli was really tired. This person, whose arms were crossed and was looking rather amused, has not only been living across parallel doors to her apartment; He has been living nearly his entire childhood and basically half his current life years as a loyal bestfriend to Sulli.

'Then your genes better get you money to fix my door, Curious George.'

'I'm kidding. I picked the lock.'

Sulli snorts and walks past Key and practically throws her boots, cap, shades and all other identity shielding articles of clothing she had on all in one place.

'You're such a slob,' Key criticized as he pushes Sulli's boots closer to the rack.

'I clean and keep my place presentable. You know that. Just... not today.'

Sulli plops herself on the couch where Key soon sits as well.

Silence.

Sulli shuffles and makes herself comfortable, sinking her entire being completely in the cushions.

Key still had his eyes on Sulli while the latter refused to believe that her bestfriend was actually there.

The staring lasted for a good solid minute.

'Dear heavens, why do I have to endure this?' Sulli finally says, exasperated.

'Do you want me to pester you with guesses 'til I get it right or would you rather tell me what that interesting picture I saw on the internet was all about.'

Sulli cringes ever so slightly, too tired to even move her facial muscles.

'When people are bored, anything on the internet is potentially interesting,' Sulli answers, hoping to make the situation sound casual to her by closing her eyes.

It was Key's turn to snort.

'We both know why that picture is interesting, Jinri.'

As if Key had hit Sulli awake, Sulli finally loses interest in wanting to sleep.

'Maybe things do get screwed up when I'm around her.'

Key leans back into the cushions and stretches an arm over them. Sulli gladly lays her head on her bestfriend's welcoming shoulder.

Silence momentarily settles in the quiet apartment and already, Key knew what he had to do.

He smiles first and he knew Sulli felt it because she looks up at him, eyes wide, weary and expectant.

'Remember when they stitched your head up?'

'Hideous mountain range hiding in my scalp says hi,' Sulli jokes, chuckling lightly now.

'What did you say then?'

Sulli sighs before speaking up, giving Key time to speak the same exact words with her.

'I saved a life.'

Key laughs, almost lined with the bitterness he had always felt in behalf of Sulli since that fateful day.

'You did,' he pauses, making sure that Sulli looked him in the eye, 'and why don't we pretend that you are a shabby guardian angel.'

Sulli's head moves with Key's comforting laugher.

Soon, she laughs with him.

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Unlike Sulli, Krystal was much more cautious last night and refused to be pestered by anyone. She was sure that Sulli had seen her blush and to be completely honest, she didn't really know how and why. The situation was already embarassing enough.

So, she spent the night at Luna's place. She has always had a room there anyway.

But even in the silence—supposedly comforting silence—of her pseudo-room, her conscious was the one that pestered her.

In a dream, her soul was plummetted into her adolescent self, sitting content and inexpectant of any danger that would soon throw the entire school bus into the river below.

She had this same dream before.

The only difference?

Everything was frighteningly vivid.

She doesn't look around the bus. She never really did. She would usually keep her head down because people looked at her, treated her differently.

People looked at Jessica Jung's sister, treated Jessica Jung's sister differently.

People looked at the celebrity's sister, treated the celebrity's sister differently.

And the bus rides were the most torturous of all because people did not only look, they looked closely.

This dream, which she fought to a nearly unrecognizable haze over the years, was clearer.

For that reason did she find it equally frightening to look around. She will remember the faces of those that didn't make it to the surface—

—and the face of that person.

Everything happened like they always did but in nearly crisp imagery.

A biker skidded in front of the bus, forcing the driver to take a sharp turn that eventually took the bus past the bridge railings and into the water.

Windows shattered.

People held their breath.

The bus submerged completely.

The silence underneath the water was more deafening than any blaring traffic she's ever experienced. Then she felt more glass shattering in other places in the bus. More signs of struggle around her and, soon, her own effort to unbuckle her seatbelt. Even the irony of that seatbelt's purpose, she rememberd.

She knew. She was conscious. She was aware that at this point of the dream, that person will come.

Then came the guilt.

Krystal gathered every ounce of her consciousness as quickly as she could, and with one final breath—

—she wakes up.

She blinks and runs cold fingertips over her forehead, her neck, and, as always, that part of her upper back that held the tip of her scar. She almost thought it seared her fingers.

Her head throbbed at her effort to understand what her mind must have found interesting that it pushed itself to project a past so clear in her head that she had to cut the dream on her own.

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The next morning, both Sulli and Krystal, accompanied by their respective (bitter) managers, had been called to the topmost floor, the chief's office itself.

The two pairs soon find themselves waiting in the lobby for a chance to use any of the regular elevators—

—and for the first time in their lives, they all agreed in doing one thing—

—be patient.

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Sulli thought Chief Sunny's office smelled good. It smelled of dry tea, a slight touch of sun and home dust, and—

—Chief Sunny clears .

Immediately, Sulli's thoughts of a relaxing home scents evaporated. The powerful woman in front of them reeked of heavy brains, sanded skulls and... connivance.

Sulli somehow felt she wouldn't like what was to come and wasn't sure how the others were starting to feel. So, she starts darting her eyes to the left slowly.

Krystal seemed to be busy with something on her phone, the same for Luna.

Then she looks right, not as discreetly.

Amber's fingers were uncontrollably drumming on her lap.

'So—do you have anything to explain to me?'

'Um—about that—' Sunny raises a hand and, immediately, Amber is silenced.

'I was talking to—' the Chief gestures two fingers at Krystal and Sulli who sat at two different office stools beside each other '—the two of you.'

Krystal looks up.

Sulli gulps.

'Well?'

Sunny's expression was unreadable as she awaited a response from the two.

Suli hated to have to look at Krystal indiscreetly. She was not in the right place to get to her nerves yet.

'The elevator was stuck. I tried to use the emergency switch while Sulli had me use her shoulders to help me reach the switch.'

Sunny didn't as much as nod, unlike the very attentive Tiffany.

'That's it? We're missing a part here,' Tiffany demanded.

'The elevator started suddenly and went down to the ground floor.'

Deafening silence.

'She slipped,' Sulli added, hoping to get away with this soon.

Krystal didn't even look Sulli's way and with a situation seemingly this simple, Tiffany switched her weight from one foot to the other. Then, she tugs at Sunny's shoulder and starts to whisper something to the young chief.

Sulli moves in her chair.

Krystal clears as if it was truly dry.

Amber stops drumming her fingers.

And Luna remains attentive.

About a coupleo of minutes later of nodding and whispering, Tiffany finaly steps back and Sunny puts her hands flat on her desk.

'Okay—' she taps her index finger, an action that distracted all four guests in her office '—why don't I tell you four something interesting.'

Sulli desperately tried to keep one of her eyebrows from shooting up at the mention of the word "interesting". People are using that word a little too often now.

'I think at least an eighth of the population of this nation, which should probably mean half of this city is talking about that awkward phone-taken picture of the two of you—' she pauses to look at them, taking a pencil to twirl in her fingers even '—I don't really want to encourage anything these people are saying—'

Sunny motions for Tiffany without looking her. Tiffany hands her a sheet of paper and she takes it, still without looking at her assistant.

'—do you girls tweet?'

Sulli nods. Krystal mumbles a "not really".

'Hashtag L-O-L. Hashtag interesting. Hashtag shock-of-my-life. Hash—'

Tiffany taps Sunny on the shoulder.

'Um—you don't need to say hashtag. It's—well—an internet thing nowadays.'

Sunny sharply an eyebrow before reading again.

'Hash—' Sunny clears '—I mean, people tag your pictures with these; weird, interesting—for the second time, eww, stupid, publicity stunt, annoying Sulli—'

'—whoa! Whoa! Wait!' Sulli breaks out of her tense stance in a second and practically flails her hands '—why am I the annoying one?'

'Excuse me?' Krystal nearly cringes.

'I mean, you've seen the pictures, haven't you? I clearly look like the victim here!' Sulli exclaims, turning to Krystal now.

'You looked at the pictures?' Krystal smirks, annoying Sulli even more.

'Of course I would! It's my image in the line!'

'Well, I just thought—'

'—ENOUGH!' Sunny slams a fist on her desk, immediately silencing the two. 'Regardless of what half this city is saying there is obviously ONE common conclusion that can be drawn in every single opinion: YOU TWO caught attention. And for that, this company would like to invest in you.'

'We're not screwed?' says Sulli in subtle confusion, relief more evident.

'I'm sorry?' says Krystal.

Luna clears and raises a hand like a good student would to catch her teacher's attention. Amber rolls her eyes.

'Excuse me, Chief Lee,' Luna asks politely and Sunny immediately nods in approval of her inquiry. 'What do you mean by invest?'

'The idea of teaming them up is quite vague. It's as vague as the attention they are getting. So, we would like to make it clear that we will put this, this—' Sunny makes air quotes with two fingers on each hand '—team up under observation — see what happens to it, if it will sustain attention if we gave it a chance.'

Luna tries to hold in a frown.

'In fact—' Sunny grabs a folder handed to her by Tiffany '—this contract came in just this morning. The idea came from this.'

Silence.

'One magazine brand, one by name we could not even think about saying no to, offers a package of a magazine, blog and television featurette for the two of you.'

'Is this what I think it is?' Luna wonders out loud.

'Yes. It is Centro.'

Krystal leans back into her chair and folds her arms, while both Luna and Amber looked at Sunny mouth agape.

Sulli was the only one who seemed a little lost.

Tiffany takes notice of Sulli's silent confusion and decides to expalin.

'Centro is known for its package-media style. It doesn't rely on print only.'

'Were there any conditions stated?' Amber asks.

'Yes and there is that one condition that may just be the reason why we are having a mini-meeting right now.'

Sulli could feel the fat lady called tension creeping into the room.

She gulps for the second time today.

'Centro would like to explore the intimacy of your friendship,' Tiffany says finally, shooting a calculating look from one girl to the other.

Sulli looked like she was told to marry Key.

Krystal sits up straight, brows furrowed and lips curling into a cynical laugh, like nothing in the world was possible anymore.

'But we're not even friends!' she exclaims.

'Yes,' Sulli agrees, nodding. 'We are equally disgusted with each other.'

'Oh wow.' Krystal comments sarcastically at Sulli's statement.

'Simple—' Sunny picks two other pencils from a mug on her desk and holds them up at least half a meter apart. Seeing that both Krystal and Sulli were puzzled by the sudden pencil act, she slowly draws the two pencils together until there wasn't any space between them anymore '—start being not disgusted with each other.'

Then there was the sick, sick and sickening smile on Sunny's face.