Taeyeon stared at the group of people that had gathered in her office and frowned. It's only been 2 days since she had the talk with Sooyoung, Yuri and Hyoyeon after Sooyoung's birthday party. She was still feeling unsure about the whole thing and had been brooding over it since then. But when SooSun, YulSic and Hyoyeon appeared in her office 10mins before lunch, she was totally taken aback.

"Are you going out for lunch?" Sunny asked as she looked at Taeyeon who was still seated at her desk.

"I usually have my lunch in the office. I bought some sandwiches on the way to work this morning." Taeyeon replied as she rearranged some of her stuff on the table. "What's with the sudden group gathering?"

"Let's go out for lunch. My treat." Yuri grinned as Taeyeon squinted her eyes at her.

"Unnie, we've never had lunch together before ever since you moved out from the house. We would only meet after work and it's usually for dinner or late supper." Hyoyeon tried to persuade her elder sister.

"Sandwiches are only meant as snacks. They're not a proper meal." Sooyoung shook her head in disapproval.

"Just get your up and follow us to lunch."

Everyone turned their head slowly towards the owner of the icy voice as Jessica folded her arms and glared at Taeyeon who instantly nodded her head and stood up. As Jessica turned around and walked towards the door, Hyoyeon stood beside Yuri and whispered.

"Yul-unnie, how did you manage the ice princess?"

"By melting her with my charming smile." Yuri answered with a dorky grin while Hyoyeon pretended to puke.

Lunch went by in silence in the VIP room of a restaurant that Yuri had booked earlier. Everyone was busy trying to finished their own meal as soon as possible. After the waiter had cleared their tables and replaced it with some light beverages, silence filled the air again. That was until Jessica couldn't stand it anymore.

"Yul had told me everything about what had happened after we left Soo's apartment that night. I believed Sunny is aware about it too, right?" Jessica looked at Sunny who nodded her head. "So what do you plan to do now, Taeng?"

Taeyeon had a blank expression when Jessica shot her the question. All she did was to just stare into thin air and sighed before shaking her head. "I'm not sure. Honestly, after the talk that we had, a lot of things came to mind. Even though I felt better after talking things out with them, there were thoughts that made me scared of what will..."

"Until when are you going to live with that fear?" Taeyeon's words were cut off by Sunny. "You're not even sure of the results but you continued to hide behind those uncertainties. Let me ask you another question. If you didn't find out the truth about the whole fake photo incident, are you going to just leave Fany like that?"

"I.. I... I guess I'll just continue to be alone, by myself." Taeyeon replied but her answer doesn't sound convincing.

"You're seriously a very selfish person, do you know that?" Jessica couldn't control her anger as she pointed at Taeyeon. "You made the decision all on your own without thinking about Fany. Do you know how sad she was ever since both of you broke up? In front of everyone, she smiled and acted as normal but when she's in the dorm, she was lifeless. Your decision to leave for Japan to complete your studies hurt her so bad but she still waited for you to return."

"I.. I.. thought she left straight after graduation? That's what Yul and Soo told me." Taeyeon was surprised with the new information.

"She knew that Yul and Soo would inform you about that and was hoping that you would return as soon as possible. You even told them that you would fly back immediately but you didn't. She actually stayed for two more weeks after graduation before finally giving up on waiting for your return. She went back with a broken heart, Taeng." Sunny explained further.

"At that time, me and Yul were really frustrated with you. It was obvious that Fany wanted to salvage your relationship. When you didn't return as you had promised, we thought that you were delayed with some matters and would be back soon but you only return a month later." Sooyoung said.

"Fany said that she was disappointed with you for not talking things out with her but she did admit that she was at fault too. If only you had kept your promise to return early, I believe both of you could have resolved the matter." Yuri shook her head with a disappointed look.

"Are you guys done with blaming my Unnie for everything?" Hyoyeon suddenly said as Taeyeon quickly placed her hand on Hyoyeon's shoulders while shaking her head.

"Hyo, no. Please.. andwae." Taeyeon's words put a frown on Hyoyeon's face as everyone else had a confused look.

"I know I've promised you that I'll keep it a secret but I've already blurted out some of your secrets so far and I think adding this won't make any difference." Hyoyeon said as Taeyeon continued to shake her head with a pleading expression. "They already knew about those times when you were lonely in the dorm. They already knew about your confession to me when you were drunk. You don't expect me to keep quiet while they continue to blame you for something that was beyond your control."

"What do you mean, Hyo?" Jessica asked as she glared at Taeyeon who tried to cover Hyoyeon's mouth. "Stop it, Taeng. Enough of your secrets. You can't expect us to help you if you're keeping so many secrets from us."

Taeyeon sighed as she let go of her hand on Hyoyeon's mouth. "In that case, let me be the one to do the explaining, Hyo."

Hyoyeon nodded her head as she suddenly stood up and walked to the door of the VIP room. After locking the door, she showed Taeyeon a thumbs up. All this while, the rest of the girls just continued watching everything that the Kim siblings were doing until Taeyeon stood up.

"I was involved in a car accident on the day that I was supposed to fly back to Korea, 2 days before your graduation." Taeyeon's words shocked the girls but they were more surprised when Taeyeon lifted up her shirt slightly to show a long scar along the front of her left ribcage.

************************

(Flashbacks)

Taeyeon's POV

"Unnie, what time will your flight reach the airport?"

I smiled as I gave my flight details to Hyoyeon who was on the other line. Currently, I was in a cab making my way to the airport.

"Why don't you just inform Appa so that he could fetch you? If I didn't have my classes, I would have fetch you myself."

"Hyo, Appa and Omma don't know that I'm flying back. I want it to be a surprise for them. Don't worry, okay. I know my way home. Unless all of you moved house without telling me." I chuckled as I heard Hyoyeon's laughter through the phone. "I'll hang up now. See you tonight, Hyo."

After keeping my phone away, I looked out of the window and smiled. 'Fany-ah, wait for me. I know I made a lot of mistakes but I'm going to set things right for us. I just hope that you'll forgive me.'

Hyoyeon's POV

I was so excited to come home today that I practically ran into the house after I had parked my car in the garage.

"Unnie!!!"

I shouted through the living room as my dad looked at me as if I was crazy. My mum appeared from the kitchen and frown.

"Why are you calling out for your sister as if she's home? Did you study too hard until you became crazy?" Omma said while Appa laughed out loud.

I scratched my head and looked around. "Unnie's not back?"

"She will only be back next week. I thought I've already informed you before?" Appa looked at me with squinted eyes. "Are you and your sister hiding something from us?"

"Anni." I quickly answered and shook her head. "I'm just testing both of you."

I pretended to laugh out loud before running to my room but not before stopping in front of Unnie's room. Just to confirm that my parents were not lying to me, I opened the door to her room and it was empty. The room was exactly how it was with no signs of Taeyeon around.

"She should have landed by now." I said to myself before walking to my own room.

Looking at my phone, expecting a missed call or a message from Taeyeon, I was disappointed when there was none. I decided to call her but it was directed to her voicemail so I sent her a message instead.

************************

"10mins after I ended the call with Hyo, the cab that I was in collided with an incoming car from the left side where I was seated. The impact broke one of my ribs which ruptured my spleen. Luckily the damage was not so severe. A surgery was needed to remove the rib from its wrongful place" Taeyeon sat down after she had pulled down her shirt as she watched the grief on the other girl's faces.

"I was panicking by myself at home when I didn't get any news from Unnie so I called up the airline and found out that she didn't even board the plane. I was so stressed out since there's no news from her until she called me after she had woken up from the surgery." Hyoyeon added her own side of the story. "I wanted to fly there myself to look after her but she didn't want our parents to know about it so she didn't allow me to visit her. She even made me promised to keep it a secret from everyone."

"The reason as to why I was delayed for a month was because I had to recuperate in the hopsital. The day I was disharged was the day that I flew back to Korea." Taeyeon said as she gave a sad smile. "I knew she would have gone back by then but deep down inside of my heart, I didn't stop hoping. But I guess, it was just too late."

Silence filled the room again as the girls looked at each other before turning to look at Taeyeon and Hyoyeon who had returned back to her seat.

"Taeng, I'm sorry. I.. I didn't know that..." Jessica was stammering with her words as Taeyeon smiled a little at her.

"It's okay. Like you said. You didn't know. Furthermore, you were right. I was being selfish. I kept a lot of secrets from all of you, thinking that it was for the better. It was always only about me. I didn't think about how all of you would have felt, being kept in the dark from all of these. If Yul and Soo had been frustrated with me, I believed Fany would have felt the same way too." Taeyeon sighed for the umptenth time.

"Does it still hurt? That injury?" Yuri asked as she pointed to Taeyeon's ribcage.

"It doesn't hurt anymore. But it was torturous during the time I was recuperating in the hospital. Initially, I wanted to fly back on the day I had woken up from the surgery but the doctor advised me not to do so. He said I needed at least 4-6weeks to recuperate for my ribcage to heal on it's own. I had to rely a lot on the painkillers. At night, it was so painful that I almost wished I had died." Taeyeon chuckled to herself as Sooyoung and Hyoyeon shook their heads. "I guess this is my punishment for hurting Fany with my selfish decisions."

"It's not a punishment, Taeng. Even if Fany was here, she would agree with me. Please don't keep anymore secrets from us. We're your friends, Taeng. Good or bad a situation is, we should always talk things out. You'll never know what kind of help is available." Sooyoung said as Taeyeon bite her lips and nodded her head.

"Soo is right. All of us are guilty too for not being more sensitive to your feelings. We didn't take any actions when things went wrong between you and Fany. If we had shown more support to both of you, this matter won't have dragged so long. For that, please forgive us." Sunny said as Sooyoung, Yuri and Jesisca nodded their heads earnestly.

"I'm sorry too. For the past 2yrs ever since I came back to Korea, I've been shutting myself out from all of you. I thought I deserve all these pain. I thought I'll be better off being alone. But I can't stop thinking about her. Not even a day. Once a while, I will receive emails from Appa Hwang who will ask about me and also keep me updated about Fany. But he himself is staying far away from her so there's not much news that I can actually get from him." Taeyeon explained.

"We need to do an OST." Hyoyeon suddenly said with a poker face, causing a confusion to all her Unnies. "Operation Saving Taeny."