It felt like some sick joke being pulled by the universe on her when the sudden heavy downpour hit the windshield of her black Mercedez. She glances on the time flashed on her phone’s screen – they’ve been at this for an hour already and the black dress she had to wear has been giving her this odd itch the entire day.

Through the eyes of an outsider, Sana looked way too blank – way too unaffected for someone who was sending the casket of her loved one to their final resting place.

It wasn’t that she didn’t feel anything about it; on the contrary, it has been slowly eating her up from the inside, unbeknownst to the weeping friends and family that marched right behind them. That was the thing – it was all too much, and all too painful for her to process at once.

So she thinks of something else.

She thinks of how she’s going to eventually get her feet soiled under the rain, and how she should have worn that closed toe Prada shoes instead of the open-toed one.

She thinks of ditching whatever happens afterwards (she really wants to avoid the looks of pity and the repeated ‘sorry for your loss’ spiel).

The car comes to a slow halt. Her mother’s secretary, Miss Kang, tells her to stay in the car until the casket was set at the gravesite – tells her she’s sorry for her loss. Sana rolls her eyes at this and waves the woman off.

She keeps her eyes trained towards the other side of the windshield as she sees a group of suited men, rushing to open their umbrellas before carefully taking out the wooden casket from the back of the hearse.

Eventually she had to get out into the terrible rain, offer her respects and say her final goodbyes as the casket is slowly lowered underneath six feet of earth.

She scoffs. Everything looks like something taken out of a drama – the pouring rain, friends and family clad in black with their umbrellas in hand, sounds of weeping and sniffling and the priest standing a few feet away from the casket, reciting whatever prayer he thinks will let its occupant’s soul be at peace.

She looks ahead, and finds Mr. and Mrs. Hirai holding each other. The family patriarch’s eyes were bloodshot, no doubt from sleepless nights and excessive crying, while his wife didn’t look any better even with her large sunglasses covering nearly half of her face.

She looks everywhere, at anyone – anything except the goddamned casket.

Because looking at it makes it all real.

And its right there, just a few steps away; mocking her, as if saying this will all follow her in her dreams and haunt her every waking minute for the rest of her miserable life.

Sana feels her breath getting heavier as it all sinks in. Despite the open air, she feels invisible walls closing in on her. She averts her gaze to her feet, now soaked with rain and tiny specks of mud.

It’s ironic how the universe chose today of all days to rain.

She didn’t really want to get her hair ruined or perhaps she didn’t actually care, but she really couldn’t stand being here anymore.

So she turns and walks away, not caring about the whispers and murmurs of those left behind. She needed more air, needed more space, away from all of that.

She marches away and heads for the car, the rain seeping into her soft curls and her black dress.

Her eyes felt hot and her head throbbed with a dull ache. She stops on her tracks when she feels a warm hand suddenly wrap itself on her wrist.

She turns to look at its owner, ready to scold them off for even touching her but she doesn’t.

She couldn’t.

Not when she’s met by warm, brown eyes that radiated something that is not pity; only gentle concern. Sana looks deeply into them, her insides filling with a volatile mix of feelings.

“It’s okay, Sana… It’s okay to be sad about your dad.” Momo tells her, knows there was really nothing else she can say to ease the heaviness that her best friend refuses to acknowledge.

But she understood that it was all too much; even her own father, broke down as soon as the news of his old friend’s death reached them.

Sana doesn’t respond and only drops her gaze on Momo’s hold on her.

Suddenly, she gets engulfed in a warm embrace and she shamelessly buries herself on the other’s chest and finally lets herself be consumed by it – lets the grief and pain sink in.

And for the first time in days, she allows all of it to be real.

---

Tzuyu sighs as she sets the food tray on the nearby table. This is the third time that Sana has refused to eat anything, barely even taking a sip of water. She almost never left the room, much less the side of the bed; her eyes trained on its occupant.

She doesn’t register the door of the room opening, and the quiet shuffling of feet heading towards her.

“You need to eat something, Sana, look at you.” Sana blinks out of her stupor and turns her gaze to the person that stood beside her.

“Hey… why did you get out of bed? You should be resting, Momo.” She says, the hoarseness of her voice giving away her fatigue. Her best friend sighs, pulling a nearby chair and taking a seat beside the heiress.

“I couldn’t really sleep. Too anxious, I guess.” The brunette mutters, her eyes moving towards the familiar figure, lying unconscious on the bed. She couldn’t help but feel the guilt bubbling in her gut.

“What did the doctors say?” She asks after a few moments of lingering silence.

Sana shifts on her seat and reaches a hand forward, the tips of her finger grazing lightly atop the bandage covering Dahyun’s head. It must have hurt so much, she thinks.

“Doctor Jo says she suffered from a concussion, so it’s taking a bit of time for her to wake up. A few burns and scrapes here and there, but she’s going to be okay.” The girl finally responds, her voice still quiet and low.

Momo couldn’t help but feel like it was her fault. If only she had gotten the stupid seatbelt off, if only she didn’t panic.

Memories of the event rehashed in her mind, with her frantically tugging and pulling on the seatbelt – the lock refusing to unlatch. Her panic rising when she realizes she was the only one left in the car.

She yanks on the seatbelt one last time before she feels overcome by a strong sense of hopelessness and utter surrender. Despite the door beside her opening with such force and the familiar face that appeared after, her brain was already waving its figurative white flag.

“Dahyun…”

“NO. Stop right there.” The captain says with such determination that Momo had always found attractive about her. She lets her eyes stay on Dahyun’s immaculate features, the way her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she takes a hold of the seatbelt.

With a deft hand, Dahyun whips out her pocket knife and quickly cuts through the damned contraption in time for her to scoop the dazed Momo in her arms and run away from this literal death trap. She takes a few strides, just enough before dropping to her knees and enveloping the girl with her own lithe figure as the car behind them explodes in a horrifying mess of burning metal and shattered glass.

Momo could feel the strong force of the explosion even from her position, with the way Dahyun flinched as her grip around her significantly tightened.

The loud ringing in her ears and the heavy smoke that engulfed them made it difficult for Momo to understand the words Dahyun was saying. She tried to focus on her lips, tried making out the words but was cut off by Dahyun’s eyes suddenly rolling to the back of her head and her full weight collapsing on top of her.

Then everything else happened so fast, people running away and towards them – Dahyun being lifted off of her and Sana clutching her so hard as if she was going to disappear into thin air if she didn’t do so.

A small, stray metal chunk of the car apparently hit the captain on her head while she used her own body to protect Momo.

Now, she’s been lying in this hospital bed unconsciously for more than a day now.

“It’s all my fault.” The brunette mumbles, tears starting to form around her eyes, her hands slowly clenching atop her thigh. “I-I did this to her.”

A pair of arms immediately wrap around Momo, pulling her close. Sana lets her right hand soothingly the Momo’s back as she feels warm streaks of tears finally falling from her best friend’s face and down her own shirt.

“This isn’t your fault, Momoring. Its mine and this stupid thing that my father got himself into, and now all of you are getting hurt because of it.” The words weren’t directed to just Momo. Sana’s gaze meets Tzuyu’s who had taken a seat near the door.

The lieutenant had no choice but to reveal hers and Chaeyoung’s identities when the onslaught of questions from the heiress came, as soon as they’ve transported all of them to the hospital. It was inevitable anyway, what with the way Jeongyeon arrived at the hospital and asked her for their captain’s and the situation’s status, not noticing Sana’s watchful eyes just a few feet across them.

With Jeongyeon being the next in command after Dahyun, who was still out of commission, Tzuyu had been assigned to stay at the hospital while the rest of their team attended to another issue that she has yet to inform her captain of.

In all honesty, she felt quite lonely.

Usually, it was Chaeyoung who would always accompany her in guarding duties such as this one. But given their very recent debacle at the game, Jeongyeon herself felt it necessary to separate the two for a while.

Watching as the two girls remained still, occasionally speaking in hushed tones, the lieutenant couldn’t help but backtrack on the events in her mind.

She doesn’t remember a time when she’s felt as disappointed as she did with her best friend before. It was so obvious from the start of the night – the way Chaeyoung was so distracted by a particular cheerleader waving at her from the outskirts of the football field. How, despite her job well done in tracking any virtual traces and information related to their case, she was still too giddy to put any solid thought into anything.

And wearing rose-colored glasses in their line of work has always been a danger for them.

Sure, she wanted nothing more than her best frien