Dara feels this incredible relieved when she finds Chaerin is deep in her sleep when she got home. She slowly sneaks out of their bedroom to not wake her up. Harold is right. She needs to stop avoiding Chaerin and starts figuring out how to deal with their problem. About them being stepsisters.

“Maybe it’s finally time for you to finally come out to your mom and tell them the truth.” Harold quoted.

Dara went upstairs and stopped in front of her old studio room. Chaerin and her had cleaned it up and re decorate it the other day but she never really goes in there since she’s stopped painting. At first she didn’t know why she doesn’t really wanna spend much time in that room but now she knows. She’s afraid the memories she had with Park Bom, her ex, will haunt her again. It makes sense, since she thought Bom was her soulmate, and she thought she could spend the rest of her life together with her. She was completely destroyed when they broke up and now she thinks she’s about to repeat the same mistake again, destroying her relationship with Chaerin.

She sits on the floor, in the middle of the room filled with paintings. She realizes Chaerin has been spending time here painting, adding some new works to the collection. She looks out the open window and stays in silence and darkness. She’s a little bit drunk and exhausted after hours of chatting with her teammates tonight. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat again when she was reminded of what’s coming tomorrow morning. She thought she’s already forgotten. She thought she’s already passed that phase but turns out she hasn’t, at least not completely. That longing feeling and small pieces of memories is still stuck in her. As she loosens up her shoulder, she finally gives up and let go of the tears. She’s got even sadder when she remembers how she promised herself not to let go of a single drop of tears thinking of Park Bom.

“Good morning-“ Dara’s assistant greets her as she walks out of the elevator and starts handing her some documents.

“Is the meeting still on?” Dara asks nervously.

Her assistant nods and smiles, “Yes. Everybody is already inside the conference room. Meeting will start in eight minutes.”

“Okay. Good-“ Dara clenches her teeth.

“Um, are you okay, Director Park?” she asks with a concern tone.

Dara turns around and looks at her confusedly, “What? What’s wrong?”

“It’s just—you look a little pale today.”

“Something’s wrong with my makeup?” Dara starts panicking as she starts touching her face with her fingers.

Her assistant just grins, “No. Your makeup is fine. You look gorgeous. You’re just paler than you usually are, seems like you haven’t slept well last night.”

Dara groans and continue walking to the end of the hallway followed by her patient assistant. “I shouldn’t have drink last night.” She whispers to herself.

“Everybody on the list attend the meeting?” Dara asks as they enter her office room.

“Yes everybody.”

Dara takes a deep nervous breath.

“You seem unusually nervous. It’s so unlike you.” The assistant murmurs.

Dara fakes a smile. “It’s just I drank a little bit too much last night. I’ll be fine. I took an aspirin this morning.”

“Well, there’s coffee and donut prepared in the conference room. Have some sweets. It usually helps—“ Dara’s assistant walks closer to the big brown wooden door in front of them, “Have fun.” She opens the door and makes way for Dara to step in.

Dara can feel tension starts building up in the room. There are five people dressed in formal clothing, four men and one woman. She let go of a little sigh as her eyes see that familiar gentle smile, nodding her chin at her lightly. “Good morning.” One of the men greets the art director that just came in to the room with such tension and nervousness.

***

“Knock-knock!”

Chaerin lifts her head up and finds Minho standing next to her desk, grinning.

“Could you be less creepy?” she mutters and then goes back on working on her computer.

“What are you busy about?” Minho pulls the empty chair a step away from Chaerin’s desk and sits on it, observing her work from behind, judging silently.

“It’s the moodboard for the upcoming cereal commercial. I can’t figure out which one is better, stop-motion video or a motion graphic. Both sounds equally cool.”

“They do. Why don’t you just combine them?”

Chaerin shrugs, “I don’t think boss will accept. She asks me to get out of my comfort zone and stop relying on my illustration skill for once.”

Minho frowns, “It doesn’t make sense. You’re incredibly good at it. Why should you stop? Don’t listen to him. Might as well hand the moodboard directly to Sandara. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. She can be quiet flexible too, you know.”

“Sandara? No way. David will be furious if he knew. Sandara is his boss. He’s already senile enough about me being slightly favored by Sandara.”

“Not slightly. She does favor you. You can’t deny that. After all, she’s the one who gets you to this place. Everyone envies you. Even I envy you.”