"How is she?"

 

 

"A corpse"

 

 

"Hm."

 

 

The doctor heard a sigh on the other end of the line before more words were spoken "Honestly... No idea... I've been tied up with my show all day. Just left not too long ago. I'm heading over to her place now to see how she's holding up, so I'll know soon."

 

 

"Got it, that makes sense."

 

 

"What about you? How's blondie going on your end?"

 

 

"Minjeong?" Ninging lowered her phone slightly, her gaze drifting to her friend who remained motionless on her couch, cocooned in a blanket.

 

 

Her best friend had crashed over for the last 2 days... and by crash she meant the girl really did crash...

 

 

Being a doctor, the woman didn't have the luxury to always be home... but everytime she did... she swears.. It's like the blonde has never left the couch even once... she just layed there underneath the blanket Ningning had given her on the first night, unmoving, unresponsive, as if she were frozen in time. Not a word spoken, not a glance exchanged, not even a flicker of her eyelids.

 

 

Even last night when she returned home, she had to physically place a finger underneath the woman's nose while she was asleep to make sure Minjeong was still at the very least alive...

 

 

She had hoped that during her absence, the blonde would have found it in herself to tend to her basic needs: eating, showering, and sleeping.

 

 

But whilst he bathroom showed signs of use and the showers had been taken, the contents of the fridge remained untouched. No glasses had been disturbed, and her bin held no additional trash...

 

 

Indeed, it was a stark realization for Ningning, particularly during her precious day off from the relentless demands of her schedule. It was then that she was finally able to come to terms with the sheer extent of her friend's heartbreak.

 

 

And boy... was this going to be a challenge... even for a psychologist like herself....

 

 

"Also a corpse. I had to file in sick leave on her behalf.. just so the girl doesn't get fired for disappearing so suddenly."

 

 

"Aish.." Aeri on the other end.. could do nothing but shake her head in defeat as she let out a long deep sigh... "I just don't get how two people who are so alike and both want the same thing can't just.. I don't know.. work all this out together"

 

 

"That's the thing right? They're alike, so they are bound to clash in the same ways." Ningning's voice was low as to not disturb Minjeong from a distance.. or have her hear the conversation at all for that matter as she laid low from the kitchen counter.. "Sometimes, it's easier to navigate through issues when there are different approaches given, than to have everything stay the same."

 

 

The hostess let's out a weary chuckle to that "Tell me about it. It's like they're speaking the same language, but they're in completely different worlds."

 

 

"Exactly. And when you add in all the baggage they're carrying... a fight like this was bound to happen.

 

 

"yes.. but.. "They can't just keep doing this can they.. like.. this isn't normal.. at least for Jimin she- " Aeri paused for a second... images of Jimin drenching herself in sorrow flashed before her eyes "She's not taking it well.. like at all.. you're a psychologist... what do you think"

 

 

 

"People grieve in different ways. Without being in their shoes, we really shouldn't comment.."

 

 

"I know I know- I just... I just don't think I can stand ever seeing her like that at all... maybe there's something we can do Ningning... maybe we can-"

 

 

"Aeri, I understand where you're coming from. But right now, I think our role is more about being there for them rather than trying to fix things for them."

 

 

"yes but- Ning- They need each other."

 

 

"They need to figure this out on their own. Taking some time apart might actually be what they need to see things clearly. They have to face the issues head-on and realize that they're the ones who have to work through them. We can't do it for them."

 

 

"..."

 

 

"You don't agree?"

 

 

"You're the psychologist... not me. So.. how can I not agree"

 

 

"Heh." The doctor's lips curved into a slight smile. "For what it's worth, in my experience, encountering someone as genuinely invested in another person as Minjeong is... well, it's a rarity... same to Jimin as well... from what I hear from you two anyway..."

 

 

"Hey well- I bet I can give Minjeong a run for her money here for you ;) "

 

 

"Not the best time to flirt now Aeri"

 

 

"Well- I'm sorry we couldn't make it to our date... I know our schedule is a bit wild right now..and with these two in the mix, it's even crazier. But once they patch things up, I'm making Jimin cough up for our date."

 

 

Why just Jimin? After they make up and we tell them about us, make Minjeong chip in too. Actually, make her pay more. It's only fair, considering her big rambling mouth usually takes up everyone's ear capacity"

 

 

"It's a plan"

 

 

"It's a date"

 

 

With smiles gracing both ends of the call, the fleeting, light-hearted emotions in their hearts subsided, replaced by the realization that their time together would have to be postponed.

 

 

There were bigger issues to tackle at the moment after all.

 

 

"I'm driving to Jimin's right now" Aeri finally adds, "I'll shoot you a text later, okay?"

 

 

"No worries, I should probably wake Minjeong from her slumber anyway... make sure she's still breathing."

 

 

As the two women exchanged farewells and the call ended, setting the phone aside, Ningning couldn't resist stealing one more glance at her motionless best friend...

 

 

"Oh.. how I miss your usual big rambling mouth.. this isn't you at all" She muttered to herself, before slowly approaching the blonde figure.

 

 

"Minjeong..." Her voice was soft.. as she placed gentle hand on Minjeong's shoulder, hoping to convey her support through the simple gesture. The girl was actually  awake... to Ningning's surprise... though she didn't move an inch from her voice or contact...

 

 

In fact there was no response at all... Minjeong remained still as a rock... her eyes fixed on some distant point beyond the walls of the room.. to nothing in paritcular at all... it was as if she were lost in a world of her own... unreachable to those around her..... leaving any noise... unanswered and unheard. So with no other choice, the doctor tried again, her voice wavering slightly as she struggled to find the right words to break through Minjeong's walls.

 

 

 

"Minjeong, please..." The doctor struggled to maintain control over her voice, preventing it from breaking along with her heartstrings, as she gazed at the shell of her once loud mouth... but radiant best friend. "Have you eaten, or drank anything... or just... anything at all?"

 

 

But still, there was no reaction from her friend, no sign that her words had even registered. She just continued to lay there...with  no emotion... no movement..

 

 

As if she was dead to the world. 

 

 

With a heavy heart, Ningning withdrew her hand, her attempts at reaching Minjeong met with silence once again. She lingered for a moment, her soft eyes remaining on her friend's still figure before finally rising to her feet and stepping away. "Look, I'll whip something up for you, okay?" And with that she left Minjeong alone to her own thoughts.

 

 

 

 

 

⋇⊶⊰💔⊱⊷⋇

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Jimin?" Aeri called out cautiously, rapping her knuckles against the grand front door of her actress friend's mansion. Hearing no response, she tried knocking once gain... but soon felt a twinge of foolishness for continuing. "She lives in a mansion... how the hell is she going to hear these knocks?" Without giving it much thought, her hand curled around the polished doorknob, and with a swift turn, the door swung open.

 

 

"I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, the woman never locks anything" She mumbled to herself before finally making her way inside...

 

 

But the moment she did...

 

 

Her senses were immediately assaulted by a barrage of shock.

 

 

 

The scene was in front of her was in absolute disarray... absolute chaos, and she didn't use the term lightly. It was as if a tornado had torn through every inch of the space. Books littered the floor, spilled from the prestigious A-lister bookshelf. Papers and scripts, presumably belonging to Jimin, scattered all over the place....

 

 

Items that use to lay neatly on the coffee table now layed aimlessly on the ground.

 

 

But that wasn't all... on top of the sight... A pungent odor of alcohol hung thick in the air...

 

 

The strong kind...

 

 

 

Moving forward cautiously with her gaze sweeping the chaotic scene, Aeri was convinced she had pinpointed the culprit cause....

 

 

Amongst the wreckage, a broken soju bottle lay on the floor, accompanied by a handful of empty ones, some standing, others lying on their side. And not far from the scene...

 

 

"Jimin! Oh my god-" Aeri's voice hitched with panic as she rushed to the actress's side. "Jimin!"

 

 

The actress lay on the ground, completely limp and oblivious to the world around her. Her clothing, typically impeccably arranged, now hung off her frame... crumpled and disheveled. Strands of her hair, usually styled with care, fell across her face in a tangled mess, obscuring her features.... followed by a few tear tracks staining her cheeks from those dark circled covered eyes....

 

 

And of course....there were empty bottles of soju littering the floor around her... 

 

 

Not much needed to be said then...

 

 

The sight was enough to tell the story.

 

 

 

Gently cradling the woman's head in her lap, Aeri attempted to wake her with a gentle shake on the shoulder. It was only when she received a faint murmur and the flutter of an eyelid cracking open that Aeri could finally release a long-held breath of relief.

 

 

"Aeri...?" Jimin's voice was coarse.. and she was obviously in a state of confusion... her body was cold to the touch... and by the smell emitted from the woman alone, it didn't take a genius to find out how intoxicated the woman must be.... let alone the alarming empty bottles of Soju lying around her. She just hoped while Jimin was obviously in a state of drunkness.. that a thief hadn't come in and took advantage of the situation.

 

 

"Jimin.. are you alright what happened here... did you get robbed or-" Her words trailed off as she watched  her reach for one of the empty bottles on the ground... before placing the opening to her lip.

 

 

"Ah- why is it empty" Her words were slightly slurred... only further affirming Aeri's suspicions that the woman must've been drinking all day.. and by the sheer numbers of the bottles alone...

 

 

Probably all night too.... and it's barely just reached the afternoon..

 

 

"Jimin-" The hostess tried to take the bottle away from the wobbling woman's hand "Come on, let's get you to bed- JIMIN!" She had to physically restrain the taller to not crawl towards the remaining bottles around her. "Hey stop-"

 

 

"Give me that"

 

 

 

"No, Jimin, the bottles are empty, okay!" Aeri basically found herself engaged in a tug-of-war with the A-lister over the bottles. "So stop it—"

 

 

"Then I need to grab more." Her low soulless voice was capable of putting shiver down even a stranger's spine... let alone Aeri's...

 

 

Caught off guard and unable to react in time due to her own disbelief though, the hostess observed as Jimin struggled to stand, aiming for the kitchen cabinet. But her trembling legs betrayed her, causing her to collapse back onto the ground.

 

 

"Oh my lord" Once again, Aeri tended to her side... "Look at you..." Her words were pained.. staring at her friend at such a state... "What happened to you.... you're torturing yourself..."

 

 

"It's not torture Aeri... it won't be.. not for long... I just need to grab more.. and it'll get rid of it"

 

 

"Get rid of it...?" Stopping Jimin's hands one more time from reaching out to another empty bottle as if the woman just can't seem to get it through her skull that's she's already infiltrated through all of it's content... Aeri finally infuritated the drunk woman enough for her to break down in a frenzy...

 

 

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, STOP TAKING THAT AWAY FROM ME!" Even Jimin's enraged yells were slurred...

 

 

 

"Are you seriously trying to numb yourself with this stuff, Jimin?" Aeri's voice cut through the air, a blend of anguish and frustration evident in every syllable. Maybe it was the agony of witnessing a close friend's self-destructive behavior, or perhaps it was the culmination of her patience wearing thin, but either way, the intensity of her own raised voice shocked even herself. "I mean, are you being serious with me right now!?"

 

 

"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! You don't get to come in here and tell me what to do or how to live my life!" Jimin's voice echoed in the room. With a forceful push, she broke free from Aeri's grasp, only to crumble to the ground once again. "Get out of my house, Aeri. I don't need anyone," she spat out bitterly. "I don't need anything. No one. I don't need anyone. Leave me alone."

 

 

But that red ball of anger... soon dissolved into an ocean of blue... as tears began cascading down her cheeks uncontrollably.... as if now without her one and only coping mechanism to calm herself... every single memory... every bit of emotion... her feelings... the daggers... the ice.... it all came storming back towards her.... all at once....

 

 

"It hurts... it hurts Aeri" She breaks down into her confession... her voice barely audible amid the sobs... Leaning on her hand for support, Jimin struggled to keep herself upright, her head bowed as tears fell onto the tiled floor below. "Why... why does it hurt so much? Why are the bottles empty, Aeri? Why... can't I stop the pain anymore?"

 

 

"Please... let's just get you cleaned up" Aeri was begging at this point, she just couldn't bear to see Jimin in such a state any longer... the woman had a feeling it was going to be bad... since the night she found the taller in her bathroom... but she had never imagined it could get any worse....

 

 

So much worse...

 

 

"I can't find it, Aeri... I lost it... I LOST IT!" Jimin's cries grew more desperate, echoing through the room as if her entire world had collapsed. "Her hammer... the keyring... I lost it, I can't find it..." Her sobs racked her body.... and Aeri knew she had to act quickly...

 

 

"I'll help you look, Jimin, just please," Aeri pleaded, holding onto Jimin's side once more. "Just drink some water and get some rest. I'll look for it, okay? I will." She began promising.. despite the fact she didn't even know what the A-lister was even spouting about... but it didn't matter... she just needed Jimin to calm down... needed her to stop berating herself when she's alone... and most importantly... she needed to get Jimin away from that liquid poison.

 

 

 

"Please... Jimin.." A tear that Aeri didn't know had formed on the corner of her eye, rolled down her cheek...

 

 

 

 

 

⋇⊶⊰💔⊱⊷⋇

 

 

 

 

 

"We have to do something Ning" Aeri declared urgently from the mansion's porch, having just managed to get Jimin to sleep in her own bed... the woman decided that she couldn't just stop there. With gritted teeth, she made sure to pour every single bottle of alcohol she could find in that house, right down the freaking drain. She didn't care what the consequences were after.. as long as Jimin didn't have access to her stach, that's all that mattered to her. She'd deal with any fallout later, even if it meant sending Jimin a check to replace the lost bottles.

 

 

And on top of that she even took the liberty of restoring everything on the ground right to what she thought were their proper place... unable to bare the sight of destruction that layed before her....

 

 

And after all that was settled... Aeri wasted no time in calling Ningning right away. "We can't just sit by idly, Ning. We have to do some