Hi everyone! i would like to thank you so much for getting this story featured a few days ago. im so happy T_T

Thank you so much! i wrote this in like, 3 days, because im so flattered by everyone's kind comments ;-; eventhough i can't reply one by one, please know that they all mean so much to me! thanks ;-;

*PS: does anyone remember why Krystal is involved with evil mistress in the first place? cue*

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“It couldn’t be.”

Irene froze, hands and skin as cold as ice as the words hit her.

“You couldn’t be real.”

Wendy looked like she wanted to believe anything but what she saw, that she was standing in the cold lobby with anyone but her monstrous, murderer stepsister.

She looked horrified.

“H-how could you be here? How are you here?”

Irene attempted to open but felt as if her windpipe had been crushed by an iron grip. No words escaped her while oxygen seemed to leave her all at once.

She felt so breathless she might as well pass out.

“W-wendy.” Her voice came out sounding like she was dying, and it might have not reached Wendy’s ears if it wasn’t for the fact that they were the only two people in the empty, quiet lobby.

Wendy was apalled.

“You couldn’t be here... M-mom said you were out of Seoul --“

“Wendy please,” Irene cut her off with fear, throwing her gaze over her shoulder dreadfully in worry that Seulgi might walk out.

“Please, please just -- ” Her words died helplessly in , and she turned to look at the younger girl again with much apprehension.

“Please go before Seulgi wakes up... Please. Please go...”

Wendy stared at her older sister she hadn’t met for years, and it took her a second before Irene’s near-delirious words made sense in her brain and seized her out of her trance.

Something much more surprising gripped her even before she recovered.

“You -- you know Seulgi?”

Irene looked bloodless at this point and she was so pale she might as well be a corpse.

“Wendy, please. You have to go now.” She stepped forward shakily with an arm out, but Wendy scurried away from her as if she might get harmed if Irene so much as laid a hand on her.

Totally in reflex she jerked backwards, eyes wide in alarm as if the blood-soaked memory from years ago was still red and vivid. “Don’t touch me!”

Irene’s trembling hand stopped mid-way, and for a moment she felt pained.

Pained that the girl who was once 12 and looked up to her from elbow height with so much admiration now looked at her with fear of a murderous monster.

She never thought it would hurt to see people from her past looking at her like how she expected them to, but Lord, did it hurt so much.

“Stay away from me.”

Wendy’s words jagged her back to her tormented mind even if it wasn’t harsh and only fearful.

“How do you know Seulgi? Does she -- does she know you too?”

The younger girl looked so distraught and stricken, and Irene herself didn’t have the power to hold this situation longer.

She felt sick. She just wanted to escape.

“I will tell you...” She forced the last bit of her voice out weakly, eyes trained on the level of Wendy’s hands to avoid looking directly into her eyes.

That was when she noticed Seulgi’s phone in the other girl’s fist.

Of course Seulgi had been with her before she came here.

Her heart sommersaulted and punched against her chest wall painfully.

Too much.

Too much happening at once.

Her head felt like it wanted to explode from the sheer voices slithering around her ears dangerously, waiting to pounce on her sanity on any fragile second.

“I will tell you when you come back tomorrow.” She finished abruptly, not even knowing what she was saying anymore. She just wanted to run inside.

“Come back tomorrow during work hours.” She raised her eyes to meet her little sister’s, steeling her voice and trying to at least appear a little hard because that was all she could do to not break down in front of her younger sister.

“Make sure it’s during work hours so...” she paused, swallowing thickly, “so Seulgi won’t suddenly walk in while we are talking.”

Wendy looked very reluctant to take her vague explanation, but Irene pleaded her.

“Please, Wendy.” She begged. “I will tell you everything you want to know. I just -- I need you to go now, please...”

They locked gaze, and after a moment of unspoken tension and unsaid resistance, Wendy finally her heels and decided to give the older girl the night.

Irene’s head dropped low, and so did her entire world.

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“Oh, .”

Seulgi jumped off the bed, surprising even herself with the sudden speed and making her head dizzy.

She shoved a hand into her jeans’ pocket to fish out her phone and look at the time, but realized that the digital device was nowhere on her body.

“Looking for something?”

Seulgi whooped on her feet and turned around, seeing Irene sit quietly on the visitor’s chair beside the bed with an unreadable expression.

“Jesus, Irene. You scared me! Why are you sitting there? I thought you were beside -- never mind. What time is it now? Mrs.Lee is so going to report me to Krystal if I exceed the visiting time --“

“It’s okay.” Irene mumbled, a small smile her lips but visibly clouded by the heavy, troubled expression. “I pleaded her to spare us for once. Told her I didn’t have the heart to wake you up because you were too tired.”

“Wow.” Seulgi rose a brow, looking at her girlfriend with disbelief. “And she listened to that? What kind of bribe did you promise her with?”

“A week of me taking my medicine properly and not giving her headache.”

Seulgi broke with a tiny smile and pulled the older girl up from her chair slowly.

“You should always do that even without her letting me stay here late, okay?” She gazed into Irene’s eyes, the fond smile that was always reserved for her crept in naturally. “Promise me you will take your medicine on time and, you will not sit in this room all day long alone but walk outside and talk to people.”

Irene nodded, but her strained smile didn’t reach her eyes and she was looking at the level of Seulgi’s collar instead of her eyes.

“Hey.” Seulgi slipped a hand onto her face, cupping her cheek and tilting her head upward so she could look into her eyes.

“What’s wrong? You look strange.”

“Nothing.” Irene forced a smile, once again lowering her gaze to look anywhere but Seulgi’s eyes. “Just a little sad to send you home. Have you found what you were looking for?”

“Oh.” Seulgi stepped back and scratched her head, patting her own pockets which gave her nothing but emptiness. “I think I lost my phone somewhere.”

Muscles strained against Irene’s neck and she fought hard to keep her voice even. “Do you think it’s somewhere in your new ward? You didn’t go anywhere after your neurology shift, right?”

Seulgi stopped moving at her question and gaped a little before stuttering words that Irene knew was nothing but a lie. “No, I headed here straight after the shift ended.”

Irene nodded. A small, pained smile marred her face as she looked down.

“You should go. It’s very late.”

“I will see you tomorrow.” Seulgi leaned forward, pressing a kiss onto her forehead and pulling away. “I love you, Irene. Sleep tight tonight.”

Irene nodded and let her go, eyes resting on the door for a long time even after Seulgi's shadow left.

“I love you too.” She said quietly, eyes empty but hurt at the same time.

“Why did you have to lie to me?”

---------------------------------------------------

“Come on in.” Wendy heard her mother say, and she pushed the heavy mahogany door open to step into the large study room stiffly.

Her mother was sitting behind the desk, wearing her usual dark shades and listening to her decades-old secretary reading her off some company’s documents.

“Is that you, Wendy dear?”

“Yes, mom. It’s me.”

Her mother raised a hand to her secretary and signaled him to stop the job. The gray-haired man nodded politely and bowed to her even if she couldn’t see it.

He exited the room quietly and offered Wendy a small smile as he passed.

“Where have you been, sweetie? I thought you said you would finish class early today. Have you had dinner?”

Wendy’s jaw clicked unknowingly, fists curled into balls beside her black jeans as she tried to steady her voice for what she was about to say.

“You said she’s kept at a faraway facility outside Seoul.” Her voice shook regardless, turmoiling just like the inside of her heart. “What are you doing lying to me about it? She’s right here in the same city as us.”

At this, her mother’s smile got completely wiped out and she looked like all the years of bad news had suddenly hit her at once.

Her face stiffened and it took her a minute before she could clear and spoke up. “How did you find out?”

Wendy’s mouth slacked open and her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the old woman with disbelief. “So you are really intentionally covering it up from me? Why?”

“Oh why do you think, sweetie?” Her mother cut, finally stopping her before her voice could rise. “What do you think you would do if you knew she was just one hour drive from us? Tell me, wouldn’t you have gone to see her?”

The answer died in Wendy’s throat, because eventhough she admitted to despising all the terrifying memory of her sister from her ruined childhood, there was no denying that somewhere, deep in her heart, she would still want to see her.

To at least know about her for good or bad.

“See?” Her mother concluded, resting back on her chair with a sigh. “You have always been too soft on her, Wendy. What did it get you ten years ago for doing so instead of listening to me?”

Wendy’s lips pressed together and she swallowed hard.

Her mother took off her black shades and looked into her direction with grayish white eyes. Scarred eyes that would never see again.

“Your father is dead, I am blind forever, and you nearly died, Wendy.”

All the power and frustration drained from Wendy’s body, and her fists uncurled weakly. She stood there silent, a whirlwind of thoughts and emotion wracked through her.

Her mother was right.

“I know you loved her, sweetie.” The older woman sighed. “You were an only child, and you had always wanted a sibling. I couldn’t forget the look on your face when I first told you that you would have an older sister. You looked like the happiest nine year old.”

Her mother picked up the dark shades and put it on again to cover the reminder of her sister’s monstrosity from the rest of the world. “But people, sweetie, aren’t always as good as how we picture them in our heads. Sometimes, we will be better off alone.”

Wendy looked down to her heels, the older woman heaving another sigh as she dismissed her. “You should go and rest. I will need your help in the company tomorrow after your classes. It will be a long day. Good night, sweetie.”

Wendy wheeled around wordlessly when her mother stopped her.

“Wait, sweetie, hold on a second. How did you know that she was there? Have you been asking someone to search for her?”

Wendy turned around, staring at her mother with little to no more fight in her. She just wanted to call the night a quit.

“No, mom. I haven’t been looking for her. I just...walked into her today.”

Her mother’s face creased with surprise and also worry. “You...met her?”

“Yes.” Wendy wanted to laugh at the sheer irony, shaking her head. “In the hospital when I was looking for my friend. I guess some things are just bound to happen no matter what people do to keep them away.”

A bitter smile pulled at her lips, and she retreated from the room.

“Good night, mother.”

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“Krystal, can you answer the bloody phone? It’s been ringing for ten minutes now and I’m sort of dueling with our burnt out dinner here!”

Krystal heard her sister yell from the kitchen and rose from her comfortable sofa with much grumble.

“Jesus, Jessica, how hard is it to make kimchi fried rice without burning down every single ingredient?” She stomped towards the phone, gruelling. “And who the hell is calling people at this hour? It should be illegal to bother another household once it's past 9 PM.”

She picked up the phone nevertheless, trying her best to sound like a decent human being. “Hello, Krystal Jung speaking. You’ve reached the Jung sisters’ household.”

The voice at the other end wiped off her attitude completely however, and replaced it with