There's this dream Yoona has, recurring on the nights when she forgets to take the pills. She's running frantically in this dream, and she hears a familiar voice calling for her. When she turns back, she realizes it’s her Sehun. She swears she has never seen eyes so dark in her life before. There’s just so much swirling in his dark orbs — longing, ache, pain and probably a hundred other unreadable emotions Yoona can’t possibly list out.

She doesn’t hear the loud ‘save me from this’ that gets lost somewhere in the deepest pit of the water, instead she catches the muted ’I’m leaving you now’ in between his broken smile. As he slips into the bottom of the water, she feels a piercing stab in her heart and the water looks red, bloody, sad and–

Yoona wakes up with a start.

“Miss Im,” a feminine voice speaks up, “are you all right?”

She stares bewilderedly at the stranger, “What? What’s going on?”

“I am Inspector Hwang,” she starts slowly, “you can call me Tiffany, if you would like. I have a piece of news for you and you had passed out earlier after hearing it. Do you not recall anything?”

Yoona parts her lips to answer, but she feels nauseous, and she finds that no words come out of her open mouth. Her fingers get cold – there’s a sense of surreal in this whole ordeal.  

“Oh Sehun’s body was discovered washed up in a river that was headed to the ocean,” she said bluntly, “and the police suspects his death is unnatural.” 

Yoona feels her body go rigid. It feels as if she is, as if someone’s grabbed her and shaken her until her world has crumbled and all she’s left are the remaining crumbs no one else sees. 

No, no. It’s not possible. Sehun wouldn’t ever leave me. This woman is lying. Yes, she’s lying, she’s a liar.   

“You’re lying,” her whisper sounds almost like a plea and her whimpers are loud, louder than she has ever been. She doesn’t realize the hot liquid streaming down her face; doesn't realize she's already crying too. 

She cries at night when she’s alone and lost in a graveyard of memories, moonlight spinning a shroud about her, because when she thinks of Sehun, it's as if he's holding her heart in his hands, refusing to let go. 

She dials his number immediately, “He’s gone. Onew, he’s really gone now, he left me,” her fear is evident in her strained voice. She doesn’t hear the reply from the other line, and for a few moments, there’s nothing but the sound of her own cries piercing the emptiness of the air.

A piece of her dies that day.

Yoona is sitting at a café table, watching people pass by with a cup of coffee in their hand. She doesn't like it exactly, the way people seem to have no cares, as if there are no worries, as if no one is sad, as if broken people do not exist. 

She doesn’t believe in love, she never has and she knows that no matter what, she probably never will. There are cracks in her heart, some tiny and others deeply engraved and embedded, that burns and sting and hurt like nothing ever has.  

She snaps out of her thoughts when a new customer arrives; the bell chimes.

He walks in and greets her with his usual charming smile. “Hey Yoona.” 

She smiles faintly at him and he tells her grimly that he isn't coming back anymore and something along the line of be careful of the inspector and Yoona replies in a low whisper, “I know, Onew, I already know.” 

Tiffany drops by her place a few days later and starts taking her statement, interrogating her with the questions she has already expected. "It's just part of the procedure, Yoona." 

“I didn’t see him for a week, I thought he was away for a business trip, he told me he had a major project he’s working on. If only I had known better,” she explains as her lower lips trembles slightly, “I should have known better, Tiffany, I'm so sorry,” and she loses herself to the tears once more.

It's not surprising that the questioning gaze on the other woman’s features is beginning to soften because Yoona speaks with such emotions through the mouth of a distressed and broken lover. "It's not your fault, Yoona," the older girl gives her a reassuring hug and promises to serve justice for Sehun. 

That’s right. Tiffany completely believes you now.

Yoona forces a superficial smile on her face and gazes deeply into her eyes that are filled with sympathy and hides the smirk behind the unshed tears that never really seem to seap through.

She has always taken pride in her lying capabilities.