She could feel Minho patting her back many times. He her hair, with his chin on the top of her head, trying to calm her down. Even though it was embarrassing, even though she didn’t want him to see her like this, her tears couldn’t stop rolling down her cheeks. All the fears like appeared in front of her, not allowing her to feel any happiness. The questions that always appeared again and again were why it had to be her, why she had to be targeted, why somebody wanted her death, what her fault was to make somebody think it worth her death.

Every time she tried to find the answers, she always got nothing. She got no answers.

No answers.

Would her death answer everything? Would her death answer all the questions?

She must be crazy, why did she think about her own death now? Didn’t she want to stay alive? But, why was she like this?

She silently stared behind Minho’s back, the city view, the street. She wondered how it felt to jump from here. She had thought about it before, yes, she did.

Never thought she would stand here with this thought. She looked down and saw the view from this rooftop. It was break time and she was supposed to have her lunch. But really, she was supposed not to be here.

She was supposed to be in the wedding hall.

Why was she here?

Tears rolled down on her cheeks as she took off her shoes. She tried to stand on the edge of the building, looking down on the street. How was it like if she jumped from here? Would she die straightaway? Would the pain disappear straightaway?

Popped in her mind, her mom’s face, her brother’s, and the last…

Seunghoon’s.

She should’ve been Seunghoon’s wife today, but the reality said no. The universe did not want her with Seunghoon. Seunghoon did not want her to be his wife.

That hurt her the most, that reality.

She wiped away tears from her cheeks. She remember someone held her hand at that time seconds before she almost jumped off the building.

“You are not thinking about jumping, aren’t you?” Minho’s voice made her comeback to reality.  She looked up at Minho in confusion, wondering how he found about that out. Minho smiled slightly and wiped out tears on her cheeks. She knew that he tried to break the ice between them.

She lied. “N-no, I’m not thinking a-about that.”

“So?” he looked at her in the eyes. She gave him no answers. Minho smiled again and kissed her head. She widened her eyes. “Everything’s gonna be alright, trust me. No need to be scared.” He smiled warmly. “Now, tell me, what really happened?”

Yeah, she decided to tell Minho everything, about how the mysterious guy chasing her, trying to stab her with a knife. She also told him about her little brother who didn’t believe her story. Minho heard everything she said carefully. He didn’t say anything until she finished talking. She sighed heavily. Minho patted her shoulder.

“I-I should tell the truth to Jinwoo sunbae or Seungyoon ssi, that I would go home alone and I needed somebody to send me home. But, the situation was not right. I couldn’t ask that from them, you know.” She sighed.

“Sorry, this is my fault.” Minho whispered. “I should keep coming and send you home. I should have left you there. You should have called me.”

She shook her head. “B-but you said you got so many works, how could I ask you to come?”

He looked at her sadly. “Next time make sure you call me, okay?”

Next time… Am I still alive?

She just nodded without saying anything. She hoped all this nightmare ended so she could live her life happily.

Was she destined to have a happy ending, or happy ending was just destined in a movie?

Well, she thought her life has turned into a movie, a thriller one. She smiled bitterly at herself. Taehyun really said she fantasied too much, that she had watched lots of thriller and horror movies. She really hoped she was fantasying. Everything was just a fantasy, a dream that she would wake up in relief, without worries, that she would have her normal life back. Oh, she really missed her normal life. It was always simple. Working from morning until evening, coming to help mom in restaurant, hanging out with her little brother to some book stores, going on dates with Seunghoon... Oh, was dating with Seunghoon mentioned in how her normal life was? Well, it was before he left her. At least she still had that little good memory about him that she still thought of it as part of her normal life.

She wondered if Seunghoon didn’t leave her, would this thing happen to her? If this was really what she was destined to have, would Seunghoon be always by her side like what Minho was doing right now? Sometimes, she hoped Seunghoon was the one who was with her.

“I-I’m sorry, Minho, about our date. I ruined it.” She said apologetically at last.

Minho just smiled at her. “No, you didn’t ruin it.”

She blinked in confusion. “W-what?”

“We will have a rooftop date today, what do you think?”

In some seconds, some people came with bags full of food from her favorite restaurant. She didn’t realize when Minho called the delivery guys, but they really brought a lot of foods. They all put the foods on the only wooden table there before they left as Minho thanked them and gave them the money. She blinked in confusion.

“So, this is what you called rooftop date?” she asked.

Minho turned around and stared at her. “Why? You don’t like it?” he asked back. “It’s so simple though, I couldn’t make it as romantic as candle light dinner, I know. But you’ve got a cool rooftop here and I thought it’s okay to have dinner here.” He blinked as he noticed something. “You don’t like it?”

She didn’t know what to say. “I like it, really. But…”

“I know I can’t take you to place you wanted to go, but I thought it was safer here. You don’t need to go anywhere, I will bring everything for you.” He smiled. But his smile was gone slowly as he saw her giving no reaction. “You…you don’t like it?”

She looked at Minho. This guy really knew and understood her very well. Yeah, he always did. He really understood her fears. And, he always protected her.

“Thank you, I really like it. You brought me my favorite food.” She tried to joke around. She sat on the chair, he did the same.

He smiled in relief. “Of course. Actually, I know where you want to go on our date today.”

“Where?” she teased.

“To this restaurant, and music store?” he laughed. “You want to order Nell’s new album right?”

“Heol, how did you know?” she couldn’t help but smile.

“Just because.” Minho smiled widely. “Come on, let’s eat!”

It was a surprise that she could sleep very well. She woke up in the morning with calm feeling. She looked at herself in the mirror, moving her head to the left and right. It was also a relief that her neck didn’t hurt again. To this point, she felt it was okay not to check-up again. She didn’t think it was a good idea to come to hospital again when she already felt better. Well, she shouldn’t go to hospital for now, but if her mom found out about her not going to do check-up, she would get scolded. Starting a new day with no worries, or the correct words were forgetting her worries, she smiled at her reflection in the mirror. She left her room after glancing at her drawer, at her turned-off phone.

In the kitchen, the atmosphere was more cheerful. She could hear some songs played and someone singing to the songs. Nam Taehyun was cooking while singing. She always could recognize Nell’s songs, and why was Nam Taehyun listening to Nell’s songs? She knew her little brother barely listened to bands she liked. Her brother was singing to a song she was always familiar with as she reached the kitchen.

I know it’s little strange

But it will be never be the same

It’s like been locked up in cage

It will never be the same

Nothing’s lost but I feel shamed

And there ain’t no one here to blame

Well, do you even know my name?

I was right there when you came

That familiar song welcomed her at the time she stepped into the kitchen. Her brother was singing the song while cooking breakfast. She furrowed eyebrows in confusion. She didn’t know Taehyun liked to listen to Nell’s song.

“Do you find any beautiful stranger lately, little brother?” that was what she asked to Taehyun. Taehyun stopped singing, turning around to see her and smirked. He kept cooking. She got no clue that the thing she could think about was her brother was really dating someone, like what Hanbyul and other people in the forum have expected. To her surprise, Taehyun just answered,

“No, not really.” He answered. “You woke up already?” he smiled widely and it was weird. He never looked this happy in the morning, since he always slept late and it always annoyed him on how he had to cook breakfast in the morning.

“It’s weird to see you singing happily like that, little brother.” She said and pulled out a chair.

Taehyun giggled. “Do I look that happy?”

“Yeah. Something must come up. You never cook breakfast happily like that, you always grumble.” She stated. And you suddenly listen to Nell’s songs, it’s weird.

“You’re right, noona. Something has come up.” He replied cheerfully. He looked at her, smiling mysteriously. She was waiting what he would say next. “You know, the first episode had many viewers! That’s why I’m so happy.” He told her and giggled.

“Ah. Congratulations, little brother!” She clapped and secretly thankful, then she asked, “Does it have something to do with Nell? Why do you suddenly listen to their songs?”

Taehyun, who used to be annoyed easily, just replied her question simply, “I got some recommendation from my readers. They commented and posted some songs which could also be good theme song of the first episode, and I got this great music.” He started to sing again.

She sighed. “I’ve always recommended you their songs, and now you listen to their songs because other people tell you to?” she shook her head. “Unbelievable.”

“Really, I don’t remember you recommending me any songs,” he was still busy cooking, “but I know all the time you always listen to a song.”

She blinked. “What song?” what was he talking about?

“Ah, mom called me this morning and asked about you. Mom said she couldn’t contact you.” He suddenly changed the topic.

“Mom…called you?” she asked. Her voice changed.

“Oh yeah, and it has something to do with you who always forget to bring your phone.” He looked mad now. “Seriously, what happened with your phone, noona? Is it broken again?”

“N-no, but…” she didn’t know how to explain her brother about her worries, about the culprit and the threatening texts and calls. Taehyun raised brows to see her action, and then he stopped music player from his phone, before pressing some buttons.

“Now go, call mom.” He gave his phone to her. He showed their mom’s number. She was thinking hard what to say to their mom, ending up staring at Taehyun’s phone. Taehyun looked annoyed. “What are you waiting for? Come on.” He shook his phone in his hand.

She took his phone and made her way outside the kitchen. She took a deep breath before she pressed their mom’s number.

“Mom, it’s me.” she said after she heard mom’s voice in the other line.

“Oh, my daughter!” Mom sounded very happy. “Finally I got to hear your voice. What’s wrong with your phone?”

Mom did worry about me. She sighed. “It think it’s broken, mom.” She lied.

“You should fix it, then. You know how many times I called you yesterday? Your friends must be troubled too.”

She let out a very long sigh. “I know, mom.”

Her mom sounded notice something. “Are you okay, daughter? Do you have problems at work?”

She shook her head, even though her mom couldn’t see it. She replied bitterly and almost swallowed her own tears.

“N-no, mom, everything’s fine.”

The next morning, she didn’t wake Taehyun up early since it was not his turn to cook breakfast and she wouldn’t ask him to accompany her to her office. She would have Kim Jinhwan doing it. It was a bit weird though to have him being around her suddenly, since she didn’t know him too much, but it was all to protect her. She heard he didn’t sleep last night, watching over her house inside a car parked near her house. Police really does stuff like that, don’t they?

She had cooked the breakfast, leaving a note on the fridge’s door, saying that she would go to work first and her brother should eat the breakfast and wash the plates later. She took her bag on the sofa. She took her phone inside the bag, staring at it for some moment, and put it back again. Well, today was not the day to turn on her phone.

Kim Jinhwan was waiting for her in front of the fence. He smiled instantly to see her going out from the house.

“Good morning, noona.” He greeted.

“Morning.” She greeted back. “I’m sorry to keep you going with me like this.” She said after seeing Kim Jinhwan’s face. He was all sleepy and tired, but he still managed to smile. “My friend should do this today, but—“

“Your friend? That Song Minho guy yesterday?” Jinhwan interrupted, recalling the moment that Minho came to her office to pick her up yesterday. Jinhwan was also there, but just followed them from behind until they reached her house. “I don’t think he’s just a friend of yours.” He giggled.

She raised an eyebrow. “You…what did they tell you?” Well, that ‘they’ she referred to was Jinwoo or Hanbin or Hanbyul. They must have been gossiping all the time when she came to the rooftop with Minho.

Jinhwan laughed. “They didn’t tell me anything, actually. But I could feel it, noona.” He joked around. “Actually, I did some investigations about you, and people who are close to you. And Song Minho is your ex-boyfriend. You dated him on the first year of college and then broke up for some reasons. And then—“

“Wait, wait. Should you investigate him as well?” she asked him.

“Of course, noona, that’s my job.” Jinhwan replied firmly. “I should find every piece of this case. If I know everyone who is close to you, I get the chance to know who probably puts pranks on you. Everyone has a story, everyone has a motive. Everyone can be a witness, and tell everything they know. I will get the clues from them.”

“Did you ask about this case to Minho as well?” she asked again as they left the house.

“I did. I asked about people he knew who maybe had grudge towards noona, but he said no one ever did it. I asked him if he saw any suspicious people every time he went on dates with noona, he also said he didn’t see any.”

She sighed. “The only one who probably saw the culprit is Kang Seungyoon.”

“Oh, in the first case? But he didn’t see anyone, you heard him.” Jinhwan added.

“You’re right.”

“But, hey, he’s your partner, right, noona? I heard he’s always got roles together with you.”

She wasn’t surprised if Jinhwan knew about this. He really did investigating. “Yeah, we always work together, but he’s not my partner. Well, we’re not close enough to be called partners.” She didn’t know why she should explain this.

“Aw, why didn’t you want to call him partner? I heard you two always got casted as lovers, aren’t you close to him?”

“Jinhwan ssi, listen, I and Kang Seungyoon don’t work like those in the dramas, we’re not close, okay?” she didn’t know that police was this fussy and liked to gossip.

“Easy, easy. Geez.” Jinhwan snorted. “But, if he’s always with you, he maybe sees any suspicious people around you.”

She looked at him in disbelief. “I don’t think so. He hates to give a damn to people.”

“The quiet ones always sees everything in secret. All you need is asking him.”

“Asking him?” she didn’t believe what she had heard.

“Maybe he knows something, but he just doesn’t tell you.” Jinhwan said as they reached the bus stop. “It will be great if you ask him to help, noona.”

“I already asked him, you know.” She sighed, remembering the stupid decision she made by accusing Kang Seungyoon as the one who has pushed her fall from the stairs. It was really embarrassing. “But, no, he wouldn’t help again.”

“Eyyy, why not?” Jinhwan furrowed eyebrows.

“He just hates me, why he should help me, anyway.”

“If he hates you, then he hates everyone.” Jinhwan shrugged. “At the time I met him, he looked at me irritated, like I’ve done some big mistakes to him. I can call it hatred, but it doesn’t make sense. I just met him that day.”

She chuckled to have Jinhwan said the same words Minho had said before about Kang Seungyoon.

“You know what, that’s Kang Seungyoon, he always gives that ‘hate’ vibe.” She said. Jinhwan laughed.

“Kang Seungyoon said he would take the first bus from his home, right?”

“Yeah, the bus will arrive soon.”

The new advertisement she would record would be not recorded in their own studio, but in other studio. She and Seungyoon should arrive at the studio before 9:00. They didn’t go from their office but they would go together by taking the same bus. In a minute, the bus came. Seungyoon was sitting near the window, she saw him. Jinhwan took the back seat, while the other empty seat was next to Seungyoon. Seungyoon was all quiet and looked annoyed. She didn’t know what he was thinking right now but probably he hated the idea that she was sitting beside him.

Whatever.

She didn’t think of anything as they arrived at the studio and just started to record for the advertisement. The recording went very well and Seungyoon got to record some other line for other related advertisement. The staff told them that there would be more advertisement in the future and they should come here again to record. She was glad to get more jobs related to this advertisement, but somehow her smile was gone as a female staff asked her phone number for their documentation.

Phone number…?

And you knew, she became very uneasy to hear the words phone number. But it was always for job’s things so how could she avoid that? Unless she didn’t want to work again. Geez, she didn’t know how to avoid this kind of thing. It was because she was just going outside her company. If she was just inside the company, Jinwoo would take care all of things. But now, it was different. Well, she knew she shouldn’t lean onto Jinwoo too much. She felt she was like a kid. And maybe she was just too worried.

“Thank you. I’ve sent you a coupon for free coffee in coffee shop at the first floor. Have you checked it?” The staff said, which it made her suddenly insecure. The staff stared at her, like waiting for her check her phone.

“O-oh, wait. I haven’t my phone.” She let out a dry laugh. She took her phone out from her bag, and turned it on. Darn it. She was doing a thing she avoided to do.

Her phone was already on, and some messages came really fast. She laughed nervously to the staff as she saw the message sent by the staff. “Thank you very much.”

Good, it was done. She didn’t think she could do anything with her phone and she planned to turn it off again. Before that, she stared at her message menu and saw how many message were sent to her during the time she turned off her phone. She held her breathe, worrying if she found one message from that culprit. But fortunately, she found nothing. She also found nothing in calls, they were just missed calls from Minho and her mom. She sighed in relief.

But…

Her phone was suddenly ringing.

It was a call.                       

101-4892-764

Darn it.

She got her hands and legs suddenly trembling.

No, no.

NO.

She didn’t know what she should do. But then she managed to leave the room to find Jinhwan who waited her outside. Jinhwan rose from his seat to see her panicked face.

“What’s wrong, noona?”

She showed him her phone with her shaking hand, only seconds after the call was ended.

Jinhwan’s eyes widened. “It’s from him?”

She nodded. “Y-yes.” She answered. “Y-you can c-check the n-number yourself.” She let Jinhwan taking her phone. She was so scared as she got cold sweat. She murmured prayers to God, wishing herself safe.

“Don’t worry, noona. You’ll be safe here.” Jinhwan reassured her, like he could read her mind.

A second later, her phone rang again. Jinhwan let it ringing loudly as he managed to call his friend to track the number. He ended his call, staring at her phone on his other hand. The call was ended too, some seconds after. She just stared at her own phone in worry. Would they get the location soon?

“Noona, they succeeded to track the location.” Jinhwan said after two minutes they were in silence, waiting for information about the tracking. She walked closer to him to see what was sent to his phone. Jinhwan furrowed eyebrows in confusion. “Hey, this is not far from here.”

She blinked her eyes to see clearly what was been written in the text. Then, she frozen. The address was…

“Noona, isn’t it the book publisher located in front of this building?”

Jinhwan walked to the window, to see the big building across the street. She slowly followed behind him.

Yeah, right.

It was really…

The publishing company where Seunghoon worked.

Wait.

Is it….Seunghoon?

No, no way.

At that time, her phone was ringing again.