She can hear voices and footsteps around her. Her head is throbbing and her eyelids feel so heavy she cannot open them even if she wanted to. She wants to move her hands but she can’t feel them either.

She’s awake but she can’t seem to move, speak nor open her eyes – and then she remembered what happened in the green house – the plant! Was she, perhaps, poisoned? Is that plant even poisonous?

 “What happened?” Krystal is sure that sounded like Taeyeon who just came in the room, voice laced with worry. “Did she…”

“Stupidly, yes, she did. Did no one warn her about the god damn green house? You know it’s off limits. Why was she there?”

She can hear the rage thru their home owner’s voice tone. She’s not sure if he’s angry because she went to the green house and touched the plant or he’s angry because he’s worried; probably not the latter, they’re not close for any worry to surface.

“I’m sorry Amber, it must’ve slipped my mind. I can’t remember if I have warned her about it though.”

Amber?

Krystal wants to move, to speak, to open her eyes but it feels like she has no control over her body; she starts panicking internally. She’s not used to feeling discouraged despite being born poor and she had to work at such an early age and now she’s been forced to pay for his brother’s stupid wrongdoing, lying there motionless and not knowing exactly what is happening to her is a different kind of hopelessness for Krystal.

“Damn it Taeyeon. Of all the things you can forget, you’ve missed that? That?! You damn well know that’s our lifeline and it’s already hanging by a thread. Have you seen the leaves?”

“You’re more concern of that plant than a human being here who, by the way, have been pricked by its thorn and could either die tomorrow morning or....”

Die? I might die? What?!

“Well, I’m not the one who did not warn her about the green house.”

“Okay, that’s not fair. Do not blame this on me. I am not the one who put us in this god-forsaken situation in the first place. You were the…”

Krystal hears the door opened again and then Yuri’s voice interrupted what seemed to be a budding argument between their homeowner and the senior butler. “Is she okay?”

Their home owner replied, “She’s been poisoned by the god damn plant.”

Poisoned?

“What? No! If her body fails her, she’ll be dead by tomorrow like Shannon, unless…”

Someone already died because of the plant? Oh my god. I can’t die. Someone please help me…! Help!!!!!!

Taeyeon stated, “That’s the only two possibilities, yes.”

Krystal is panicking so much that she had missed what Yuri had said about the other possibility that she might end up in if she manage to survive the poison throughout the night.

Oh my God, I can’t die!!!

Krystal can feel her tears fill through her closed eyelids. She’s still young and she has a brother who is waiting for her to return once her contract with Mr. Liu concluded; she cannot die, she still has a lot of things she wants to do, places to go and dreams to pursue - this cannot be her end.

She then feels something warm brushed against the corner of her eye as if wiping her tears dry after she heard the door opened and closed.

“I’m sorry this happened to you. Taeyeon is right. This is my fault… all my fault. I’m sorry.”

The room falls silent for a moment before sobs fills the room. Krystal realizes that their homeowner is crying. Eunyoung is crying. Despite her situation and compromised position, she still wants to appease their homeowner’s feelings and tell him that it wasn’t really his fault. She was the one who trespassed the green house and she was the one who wanted to touch the flower, though it would’ve been nice to know that it was poisoned, she wouldn’t have touched it in the first place. She put herself in that situation all by herself and the home owner did nothing to harm her.

“I’m so sorry.” The homeowner repeats before Krystal falls into her unconsciousness again.