“Umji, time to wake—“ Yongsun suddenly halted when she saw Umji staring blankly at the wall. Yongsun tilted her head in curiosity as to why be the kid up early which was unusual. “What are you doing?”

“I couldn’t sleep last night because of Byul-ma~.” Umji whines. Yongsun scoffed at their daughter’s response. Yongsun faced back towards the door and called out for Moonbyul, but there was no response. “Byul-ma is not here.” Umji mumbled.

Yongsun turned facing Umji again, startled after knowing Moonbyul went out. “Where is she?” Yongsun asked.

“Byul-ma went out a while ago.” Umji said after jumping out from her bed. Shooting Yongsun a teasing look and stretching her arms out, Umji headed straight out the room. “I’m too tired. I don’t think I can go to school today, Yong-ma.”

Moonbyul was trudging her steps on the way to work. Heavy, restless, frustrated, her emotions still seem to be pretty much mixed up in her head. She was so tired thinking about Yongsun’s meeting with the mystery guy that she seems pretty much out of it lately. She felt her phone buzzing on her jacket pocket, Yongsun was calling. She fished out her phone from her pocket and swiped to the left, dropping the call. Staring at Yongsun’s contact ID for a few minutes, she then decided to change her contact name from ’Yeba Yongdonggie~ <3’ to just simply ‘Wife Kim Yongsun’. No affection, as if she was just some random person that she met the other day.

“Good morn—“ Wheein met two women staring blankly at some point far away from them. Moonbyul simply rose her hand up as a greeting to Wheein. Hyejin, on the other hand, has her eyes swelling due to crying for God knows how long already.

“What happened to the two of you?” Wheein cried out in worry. Junghwa approached the two ladies who seems out of their sanity. “Are you alright? What happened?” Junghwa asked as she carefully approached the two of them.

Hyeji glared at her, eyes flaring up in anger. “Why are you asking? Do you think something happened? Do you want something to happen?!” Hyejin startled Junghwa away with her sudden uproar. “N—no, I was just asking to be nice—“ Junghwa said.

“SINCE WHEN WERE YOU NICE?!” Hyejin jumped out from her seat. Junghwa was already scared at Hyejin and ran back to her seat.

Janghyun entered the office and greeted everyone. He stopped his tracks when he also met with the still blank Moonbyul and crying Hyejin. “Are you sick?” Janghyun asked when he saw Moonbyul seemingly tired. “What could you do if he was sick?” Hyejin snapped again, “Are you going to use your fancy data to introduce him to a doctor? If not, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!” Janghyun scurried to get to his seat and away from the barking Hyejin.

“MOONBYUL-UNNIE…” Hyejin’s cries were filling the office. Everyone looked at her weirdly. “She like a dog that barks when a stranger comes near her.” Wheein flatly stated and shook her head. Krystal entered the office wanting to talk to Moonbyul. “Moon-PD, can you come to my office for a bit.” At the same time Moonbyul rose up, Hyejin stood up as well, raising her hand. “I’ll come with you instead, Director Jung.”

“What?” Krystal looked at Hyejin weirdly.

“I will talk with the Director instead of Moonbyul-unnie.” Hyejin answered.

“What are you on to?” Krystal replied back. Hyejin was still whimpering. Just as Hyejin was about to open , Moonbyul rolled the papers on her desk and beat up Hyejin with it. “It’s nothing, I’ll go.” Moonbyul replied back to Krystal, not paying any mind to Hyejin crying out in pain.

“Moon Byulyi, is there something wrong with you these days?” Krystal asked as she took another puff from her cigarette. “You are zoning out a lot these days.” Moonbyul plainly shook her head at Krystal. It’s true that she has been zoning out a lot for the past few days, but she can’t bear to tell Krystal what was worrying her. One person is enough to know her problem and that for now is Hyejin.

“By the way, how’s the proposal going?” Kyrstal asked again another question. “It has been going well. We are preparing to shoot the first episode tomorrow.” Moonbyul replied with a flat tone. Krystal noticed it. She thought she has put such a huge burden on Moonbyul’s shoulders that she could only let out a sigh in sympathy. “Just bear with me, Byul. If this goes well, things would go easier on us. I might even support you in anything that you want to do, whether it’s a movie or a TV program.”

Moonbyul on nodded at Krystal’s words. “Yeah, I’ll finish the proposal sometime today.”

Moonbyul sensed a somber mood at the conference room once she entered. Everyone was sighing and looking rather uninterested to continue the meeting that was going on. “What’s wrong with you guys?” she asked the team as she sat on her chair.

“Because of Ahn-PD, we can't start our meeting.” Junghwa replied.

“Why? What did Ahn-PD do?” Moonbyul asked inquisitively. Wheein only turned to Moonbyul and let out a sigh once she heard Hyejin coughing from the outside. Hyejin then came in, wiping the tears and snot on her face. She has been crying uncontrollably so much that they couldn’t continue the meeting. She sat back down in her spot and blurted out a quick apology to the team.

After seeing Hyejin settle down on her place, Wheein continued with the last key point they discussed. “So the husband is going to catch his wife having an affair on the scene and we’re going to---“ Wheein is cut off once again by Hyejin who was starting to bawl out again. Janghyun only sighed out in frustration over Hyejin. “We can’t go on like this.” Moonbyul, on the other hand, already has her face on her hands. Hyejin was getting on her neres already for her overreaction.

“I thought about this a lot, I don’t think this is right.” Hyejin said, still whimpering, “Let’s… Let’s forget about this item.”

“What are you talking about?” Wheein asked, seeming annoyed already, “We are shooting this tomorrow.”

“This is not something a human can do.” Hyejin retorted back.

Moonbyul was having enough of Hyejin that she decided to speak up. “What’s up with you right now?!” Hyejin only whimpered more. Moonbyul finally stood up and dragged the still crying Hyejin by the ear and out of the conference room, heading to the rooftop.

“Yah, Ahn Hyejin!” Moonbyul called out, “What’s up with you?”

Hyejin cried out more and more, screaming and throwing a tantrum like a little kid. “When you were being hesitant during the last meeting, I made fun of you and said you’re an old woman now.” Hyejin said, “I feel bad for making fun of you. My heart aches. I’m a bad hoobae. I’m a bad friend. I’m a bad woman. I’M SORRRYYY! I’m very sorry, unnie.” Hyejin cried out more.

Moonbyul sighed at the sight of an emotionally-wrecked Hyejin on the floor. She pulled her up and patted the younger girl. “Hey, hey, that’s okay. But listen, we have to make our program.” Moonbyul said, trying to appease the still crying girl. Hyejin only shook her head at Moonbyul. “I’m not going to do it, no. I’m not going to.”

Moonbyul grabbed Hyejin by the shoulders for her to face toward’s Moonbyul’s direction. “Hey, Hyejin,” Moonbyul called out, “Let’s keep working on this.” Hyejin once again shook her head at her. Moonbyul placed her palm on Hyejin’s nape, giving her a soft pat. “I’m okay.” she said, hoping to appease the younger girl again, “but lif you keep fussing, I’m going to kill you for real.” Moonbyul then left her after giving her two good, strong slaps to her face.

“Hyejin’s fine.” Moonbyul assured the team, “Let’s leave Hyejin alone to get some fresh air. She has some family issues.” The team nodded in understand with what Moonbyul said. She then tapped her pen near Wheein to get her attention which did manage to snag her attention. “Please be considerate of Hyejin, okay.” Moonbyul pleaded. “Yes, Moon-PD.” Wheein replied.

“Even though our new program is important, we should finish our previous project.” Moonbyul stated.

Wheein looked up when she remembered something related to the topic. “Right, you have to meet Director Park today.” She informed Moonbyul. Moonbyul squinted her eyes at her, seemingly unable to understand what Wheein meant by that. “You said you have to apologize to him in person for cancelling the show.”

Moonbyul clapped her hands after remembering what she was supposed to do. “That’s right. I was going to do that.”

Wheein nooded. “Since today is the pre-meeting day, you should go and explain it to him.” Moonbyul simply uttered a simple okay and gestured them to continue with the meeting. Just then, she received a text message from Detective Hyunkyu informing her that they have received the money and will start fishing Yongsun’s call logs. Moonbyul only sighed after reading the message. She was unsure whether she was doing things right, whether everything was right. Curiosity would only kill the cat, Byul. Just as she was about to place back her phone to her pocket, an unknown caller suddenly called her. Nevertheless, she picked it up, praying it was not some sort of a prank call.

“HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!” Moonbyul was flustered after hearing the greeting. “Byulyi, congratulations on your anniversary.”

“Oh, Yonghee-unnie.” It was Yongsun’s older sister, Yonghee. It has been a long time since Moonbyul talked with her which is why Moonbyul failed to recognize her voice immediately. “Anniversary?” Yes, who would believe that Moonbyul forgot their wedding anniversary? But then she wasn’t in any celebratory mood anyways.

“Aigoo, don’t tell me you’ve…” Yonghee nearly caught on. Moonbyul abruptly cut her off telling her that how she could even forget about it. “It would have been nice if we were there to congratulate you, but sadly we’re still on a vacation outside of the country. Anyways, just pass the message the Yongsun okay? I miss you guys.”

“Alright, unnie thank you. Bye.” Moonbyul sighed as she reclined back to her chair. Eight years. She and Yongsun have been together for eight years. And during their eighth year, why does something like this even happen to them?

Just then Wheein broke her trail of thought. “She was pretty loud eh, unnie?” Wheein chuckled, “So it’s your anniversary, congratulations.” In a perfect timing, Hyejin was standing near the door frame and upon hearing the words “wedding anniversary” being blurted out, she dashed out of the office again sobbing even more.

Moonbyul can only let out an exasperated sigh. In a