Cheng Xiao slowly took in the chaos in front of her eyes. She thought she had remembered what her living room looked like, but the sight in front of her was significantly different from the picture in her mind. She was, however, pretty sure this wasn’t what it had originally looked like. She hadn’t even bothered to look around, with how fast she ran towards the place where she knew her aquarium was.

Slowly releasing herself from Eunseo’s embrace after what had seemed like hours, wiping the remains of her tears away, Cheng Xiao started to inspect the room more carefully, walking around and observing each part of the it up close. Eunseo slowly followed behind her with a worried expression. One of the two tall floor lamps on either side of the couch was completely shattered in pieces on the floor. The couch had clearly been moved to an unnatural angle, on the same side of the fallen lamp. A painting of a beautiful coastal landscape was hanging, lopsided. The door of the full glass display cabinet was severely cracked. Beside it, the very tall column of her outrageously expensive sound system had fallen as well – apparently, it had fallen towards the gigantic, also extremely expensive curved flat screen, which seemed to have tumbled to the floor in a chain reaction. Neither seemed visibly damaged at least, but it was hard to tell if they had been damaged internally. Then, she saw it, on the edge of the small glass table which was previously supporting the flat screen. Scattered, red spots. There were actually a lot of them on the floor too.

“T-that’s… where I suppose you… hit your head…” Said Eunseo, very carefully.

That was also the first thing Cheng Xiao thought, naturally. She deeply wished this sight had triggered her memory. She was trying to dig deep, trying to focus on the spot, but nothing. Her mind was racing, but her body was still as a rock. She felt scared, thinking about all of the possibilities why she could have gotten hurt like that. She felt anything but safe and at ease. Her head turned to face Eunseo, but she couldn’t say anything.

“When I arrived, you were lying on the ground, motionless. Right here.” Eunseo pointed at the biggest red spot on the floor. “I tried to talk to you, to wake you up, but you weren’t responding at all. When I lifted your upper body, I noticed the blood, and that’s when I was sure I needed to call 119. They were asking me all these questions, but I was in such panic I couldn’t bring myself to answer them, so I just hang up, took you, and raced to the hospital.”

Cheng Xiao was listening to her without batting an eye, without saying a word.

“I’m so sorry… About your fish, about… this.” Eunseo was staring at her feet. “With all of this happening, and how much I panicked when I walked in and found you like that, I didn’t even remember the state your house was in until now. I’m sorry, I should have told you. I understand this is a lot to take in so suddenly, and that it must be really hard for you…”

Amongst her feelings of shock, fear, and frustration, Eunseo showing she cared so much about her and managing to acknowledge almost exactly how she felt brought out some warmth in Cheng Xiao’s heart. This calm and collected side of her felt completely different from the loud, clumsy girl who burst in her hospital room – even though both sides seemed to know exactly what to do and say to make her feel better, and both of them seemed to care about her unconditionally, to the point of staying in the hospital overnight, even though they were just neighbors. Cheng Xiao didn’t have a single doubt that Eunseo had a huge, loving heart.

She lightly touched Eunseo’s arm and forced a smile, even though her eyes were still obviously dazed.

“Please don’t blame yourself for it… I am very thankful for everything you’ve done for me so far. Starting with saving my life, then spending the night in the hospital for me, driving me back… I’ve already taken so much of your time yet you’re still here, even though I’m the one who’s already so indebted to you. I can’t possibly thank you enough.”

Eunseo’s eyes widened and her cheeks changed color.

“W-what! N-no! I’ve only done what every single civilized person in the world would do. You don’t have to thank me for anything and you’re not taking my time at all. That was the bare minimum I could have done. I did it because I really care about you--- I-I mean, just like anyone would have, of course, like I said!” Eunseo’s eyes shot straight at the ground once again, in less than a second, her hands behind her back.

There she was again. The cute, clumsy, shy girl Cheng Xiao had seen the first time they met. Even in such a tense and dark situation, Eunseo had the skill to be this cute, without even having to try, making the corners of Cheng Xiao’s lips curve up involuntarily. There was something about her way of losing her cool and relaxed posture so suddenly when she was complimented, about her blatantly selfless nature, about the way she carried herself… let’s not forget her beauty – she was stunning. Something about her drew Cheng Xiao in. She couldn’t explain what this was. As far as she remembered (which was, certainly, not very far), she had never felt this way. Much less could she understand how she felt like she could read Eunseo like an open book. She didn’t have any memory of them being particularly close before - what she had remembered came down to mere politeness between neighbors. So what exactly was going on here?

Cheng Xiao shook the thought off, again. There she was, dwelling on how intriguing Eunseo was, when she had just lost her fish, her most valued possession, and just found out her house had been completely ravaged. And when she still had lots of important questions to ask. Somehow, having her thoughts clouded by thoughts of the charming girl seemed incredibly and very weirdly recurrent.

“Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to accuse you or anything, I really just want to know what happened… but… Why were you in my house?” As Cheng Xiao changed the subject, her grin faded back into the somber expression of earlier, as she sunk back into reality.

“Oh. Right. So, you remember I said I was your fishsitter… We were talking the other day and you mentioned you had a business meeting in China you had to attend, but that you were really worried about your aquarium, because it required very specific daily maintenance. You asked me if I would be able to do it, since Mei Qi – your housekeeper – had messed up last time and caused a pH imbalance. I said yes, so you left me a manual with very specific instructions, and your keys. When it was exactly the time to turn off the aquarium light, I came here to shut it down and check up on the water condition, just like you said, but when I arrived…” Eunseo’s straightened her posture and her eyes shifted to the side, as if avoiding Cheng Xiao’s.

Wait… business trip? China? What do I even do for a living? Why was I at home if I was supposed to be away then? I have a housekeeper? Mei Qi? 

Cheng Xiao’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of keys opening a lock. It was actually the lock of that very house. But Eunseo had told her she lived alone. What on earth…

“XIAO!!”

A short, thin woman with luscious straight blonde hair and a very well-kept appearance overall stormed into the house, towards Cheng Xiao, who had been frozen dead in her spot from the moment she heard the lock, just like Eunseo.

The woman stopped right in front of Cheng Xiao all of a sudden and looked around hurriedly. She looked absolutely flabbergasted.

“What the happened here?” 

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A/N: Hey guys, here's another update. I really hope you've been enjoying the story. I'm so sorry for keeping so many secrets (bimil i ya~~~) from you so far hehe :) But it makes me happy that you guys are curious about what's going to be revealed about her life little by little. But now you know how Eunseo ended up finding Cheng Xiao. But what was she doing at home, when she was supposed to be away? :o  Also, who do you think is the woman who just stormed into Xiao's house?

Thank you so much for the continued support guys, I hope I don't disappoint you! ^_^