Irene was walking down the corridor.

She had felt suffocated after curling up alone in her room all day long and decided that she needed to go out for a walk before her brain exploded.

She was strolling aimlessly, hoping to find anyone -- or anything -- to distract her from the numbing silence that was starting to gnaw on her sanity, but frowning when she found nothing but empty corridors.

It was 3.10 PM and most of the patients were napping in their rooms.

The interns had probably gone home. Seulgi would still be around for a night shift -- Irene really hated her unfailing memory sometimes -- but she decided to ignore that fact because she couldn’t run off to the girl and pester her again no matter what.

Not after what she had declared last time.

So she continued to hang her head low and walked quietly until she heard a loud yell blare from the end of the corridor.

It startled her.

The corner was secluded and Irene wondered if she heard wrong. She felt like she knew one of the yelling voices though.

Curiosity winning over, she scooted closer to hide behind a wall and peek, only to be proven right when she saw Seulgi being pinned against a wall by an unknown guy.

A guy who was hovering way too closely to Seulgi for Irene’s taste. Her insides burned furiously at the sight.

Who is this guy and why is he pushing up to Seulgi like that?

“You . I shouldn’t have listened to you when you begged me to spare that girl all those years ago, you ungrateful dyke.”

Irene wasn’t even given more time to be mad at him for being so rude before he threw himself against Seulgi and kissed her right smack on the lips.

Kissed Seulgi right smack on her lips.

Seulgi.

Her Seulgi.

Red erupted before her eyes and before she could hear Seulgi's scream for help, she had already grabbed whatever she could find nearby and charged forward with darkened mind. Vision blurred with fury, the thing in her grip slammed hard against the guy’s head and Irene found she didn’t care that blood splattered on her face.

She wanted him dead.

She wanted him dead and torn apart for daring to touch Seulgi.

Her Seulgi.

The sound of body crashing to the floor woke her up from her frenzy and she staggered backwards with hazy gaze, mind cloudy and heart racing.

When she looked up, she saw Seulgi stare at her with widened eyes and when she looked down, she saw blood pool around the guy’s head and in her hand.

Her own hand.

It happened again, was her last thought before shrinking into fear as the strong smell of copper wrapped around her again like a long-forgotten, old friend.

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

“Krystal! Krystal! Please, listen to me, I need to explain-“

“I can’t, Seulgi!” The head doctor shouted, whipping her head around in frustration as she watched medics rush out the bed from the pyschiatric ward.

“I need to go to the Emergency Room and handle all this mess! The police and family are coming and they are blaming us for letting a patient attack-”

“It wasn’t her fault!” Seulgi yelled, breath shaky and face still pale from the whole ordeal. Her eyes darted worriedly to Irene who was being held up by two male nurses like some harmful psychopath.

“Please, please let her go. Can’t you see her shaking so bad?”

“I can’t, Seulgi!” Krystal exclaimed, helpless. “The higher-ups have ordered me to put her in a cell before anything is finalized and I have no choice!”

“A cell?” Seulgi’s eyes widened and Krystal felt hands tug at her sleeve. “K-krystal, please. You can’t possibly throw her into a cell right now, she is not okay. She needs someone to be with her. P-please let me be with-“

Krystal shook her head sadly and peeled Seulgi’s hands off of her wrist. “I can’t, Seulgi. I’m sorry. It’s the order. And you have to come with me to meet the police and family because you are the only witness.”

Krystal threw one worried look at Irene and with heavy heart decided to nod at the nurses to take her away into one of the cells.

The cells made for harmful patients where they had to be locked behind quiet, cold bars alone until said otherwise.

Seulgi whipped her head around just in time to see Irene's eyes widen at her in fear. She tried to mouth something through shaky breaths but the nurses dragged her away.

She looked terrified.

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

“He has minor brain injury due to contact with sharp object but the bleeding is mostly superficial. The CT-Scan doesn’t show anything that can be life-threatening.”

Taeyeon, one of the surgeons who worked for Emergency Department whom Seulgi hadn’t seen for a while, revealed to everybody’s relief and Seulgi found herself breathing out the same relief.

No. She wasn’t happy for the jerk’s well being. She was just happy that he was alive because it meant Irene wouldn’t undergo too much punishment.

Her fleeting hope died premature however, because the jerk’s parents turned out to be just as much as jerk as their son.

“How can a visitor get attacked inside a hospital ward with dozens of nurses and doctors? Is there no one doing their jobs?!”

Krystal bowed her head in apology but Seulgi threw a scathing glare at the old couple.

She knew them, having met them before when John nagged her to come to his house back in high school.

And judging from the distasteful look on their faces, Seulgi believed that they still remembered her too as the poor girl who hurt their golden boy’s heart.

“That’s why you should have kept him inside your house and told him not to look for me in the hospital.” Seulgi deadpanned. “Nobody was asking him to come.”

“You-!”

The middle aged woman stepped forward angrily and Krystal pulled Seulgi behind her. “I’m sorry, mam. Please forgive my intern. She is still in daze.”

Seulgi gave Krystal a disagreeing look but the head doctor bowed again. “We have talked this over with the police and admitted that it was our negligence. We are truly sorry and we are ready to cover all of the medical fee-“

“I don’t care about the fee!” The woman hissed. “I want the girl who did this to my son to get her punishment!”

Krystal in a deep breath and managed her voice. “But she is a mentally ill person, mam. The police has dropped the case because the law says-“

“So she is going to get away from all of this?!”

Krystal shut her eyes. Patience was growing thin on her. “We will detain her in our cell for the meantime and watch her closely for any future harm she can possibly commit. Until then, I’m sorry to say there’s no other punishment that can be done to her.”

Seulgi watched the old couple scowl harder but their arguments faded into insignificant background as she breathed in relief.

Irene would be fine and it was all she needed to know.

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

“You can go home.” Krystal flopped on her chair exhaustedly.

The sun had rolled down to dusk by the time everything was settled and the psychiatrist felt a little more than tired after negotiating with the stubborn couple.

“It is my night shift today.” Seulgi informed, not moving an inch from her spot. Her eyes were glued on the sitting brunette. “Now can you please release Irene from the cell? Everything has been cleared.”

Krystal put her hand down from her temple and stared at her in disbelief. “When did you start caring so much about her, Seulgi?”

Seulgi gaped, her surprise a blatant clue for the psychiatrist to probe further. “Did I miss something? Or maybe, how about you just tell me about this whole incident.” She made a gesture with her hand.

“Who was the guy and why did Irene attack him when he was speaking to you?”

“He was not speaking to me.” Seulgi gritted her teeth. “He was my old acquaintance and we were in the middle of an...argument when Irene saw us and helped me.”

Krystal’s brow quirked. “You mean you were in the middle of a fight with this guy and Irene just jumped in slamming a vase down his head to defend you?”

“No.” Seulgi exasperated, having no idea how to explain it to Krystal without spilling the embarrassing details. “It was not just an argument. He...he did something overboard and I was having a really hard time until Irene came along. I didn’t know what would happen to me if she didn’t jump in to help.”

The creases on Krystal’s forehead grew deeper and she rested her chin on top of her joined hands as she thought hard.

“So you mean...Irene attacked this guy like this because he was harming you, right?”

“Yeah.” Seulgi nodded, staring down. “I’m sure she wouldn’t have acted so rash if it wasn’t urgent. She was probably just freaking out like me. I saw her shaking...”

Krystal leaned back on her chair and frowned harder.

It was only after a long period of silence that she could speak again with something that surprised Seulgi. “Are you guys close?”

Seulgi lifted her wide eyes.

“You and Irene. Are you guys close?”

The weight in Krystal’s stare told Seulgi that she already knew something was going on between them. It gave her a tight lump in .

“Y-yeah. We are quite close, I guess.”

The brunette shook her head.

“I don’t believe that, Seulgi. I have known Irene for years since she first came here. She is not the type to act agressively like this if it isn’t for someone she really, really loves.”

Krystal's gaze pierced her right through the eyes. “And judging from how you are as equally worried about her as how she was worried enough about you to break a man’s skull, I suppose ‘quite close’ is an understatement.”

Seulgi was nailed quiet on her spot and her excuses died premature in .

Krystal’s words tore straight through her facade and left her  with no excuses.

The psychiatrist leaned forward. “So, will you mind stopping this beat-around-the-bush act with me and just tell me what is really going on between the two of you? I can care less about the fact that you are both girls.”

Seulgi couldn’t say anything and just hung her head low.

“I...I care about her. I like her a lot, but we haven’t really talked about it before. It has been a rough week for us...”

Krystal sighed at the admission and rubbed her temple again.

“Seulgi, I’ve been a doctor for long and I’ve seen some of my colleagues get involved with their patients beyond the professional level but...”

She paused, looking at Seulgi with a troubled look. “I don’t recommend you getting involved with this one. Irene, she is...difficult.”

Seulgi gave her a confused look and Krystal exhaled.

“Irene is not someone you can risk messing up with. She is very volatile when it comes to feelings. When she likes something, she likes it too much, clings to it too much, and feels too much about it in general. And when the high is high, the low is low...”

Krystal looked at her again with something akin to worry.

“Even without her psychosis, she is borderline. Both go even more extreme when she’s hurt or sad, so please,”  She said -- pleaded -- “Unless you are really sure that you will never let her down, please don’t start anything with her. Because I don’t know how she will cope with it if you ever pick her up and then let her fall one day.”

Their gazes locked and the psychiatrist sighed. “Please don’t do anything rash if you are not sure about your feelings for her. She is not your usual happy-go-lucky dates. You need to understand this.”

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

Joohyun was running towards her old home.

Her old, forgotten home in Daegu where they once lived happily together.

The small building had worn out a lot since she last saw it. The once white and pristine walls had faded into dull grey.

The paint was peeling off, and the garden was filled with dead plants and wild, tall grasses.

Joohyun wondered if her mom was too busy to take care of the land after she settled back into it