"For with each dawn, she found new hope that someday her dreams of happiness would come true."

The liberal atmosphere that surrounded her was almost suffocating.

Almost.

Except it wasn’t.  It never really was.  Overtime she had learned to suppress the tugging ache at her heart that kept reminding her of who she was supposed to be, who she needed to be.  A big, fat, painful reminder that she had to be the local heir of one of the most prestigious and venerable man every one had dreamt of becoming.  Unfortunately, she was the only heir of that unbelievably attractive young man every woman had been craving for.

In the hospital bed, as she shifts comfortably from left to right, she could not have been happier.  She was finally free from her father's dark and lonesome cage.  She was now given a choice, a will, freedom.  Things that were never given to her as she was growing up.  At long last, she was here now.  She had finally reached that most desired for moment in her life where no one could actually tell her what to do, and who to be.  As she was too worked up and pumped about the idea of being an independent woman, free from her father's watchful and fearful gaze, she did not notice that she was already stirring up the man beside.  Low grunts here and there, but the blonde was as numb as a tree being chopped down by the bluntest and rustiest chain saw there was.  She did not stop from twisting and swerving, no, not until the man by her bedside jolts up into a sitting position startling her.

Realizing what she had just done, she scratches her unbruised cheek, "G-Good morning," she shyly greets.  And she had just dropped a bomb on the raven haired man.  The tone of being a shy woman was something BamBam found weakening, especially when Lisa did it.  He absolutely had no idea why, but he felt warm and giddy inside, suddenly he wasn't the sulking man anymore.  He even forgot what made him so angry in the first place.  His pissed expression had turned from that of 'I'm going to throw you out the window if you don't stop', to that of 'Don't do it ever again if you don't want me to throw you out the window'.

Heaving a deep sigh knowing he could never resist his best friend, he greets her as well, but less excited than the blonde, "Good morning," he mumbled whilst straightening out the creases from his baby blue silk pyjamas.

Lisa lets out a relieved smile.  She was completely grateful that she had BamBam sticking by her side no matter what she did.  "Did you get a good rest?" she asks meekly.

BamBam shoots her a glare before cynically answering, "How could I sleep with all the ruckus you're causing?  You weren't even awake that time, and yet your body was going everywhere, your kicks were also improving.  God!  It was hell all over again." he says, taking it out on the poor girl. 

Lisa couldn't help but laugh as BamBam was chatting animatedly.  His face had expressions that only he could muster, and Lisa found it even funnier when he accidentally bites his tongue from speaking too much.

"Ah!" he exclaims a little too loudly.  Lisa chuckles out heartily at the man's temperament, with tears threatening to fall from the corner of her eyes.  "Don't laugh at me!" he pouts and crosses his arms over his chest as he could only look at Lisa who was figuratively dying of laughing too hard, even clutching her stomach from all the worked up sensations BamBam was subjecting her to.  Instead of heeding to his warning, Lisa only howls louder in even bigger giggles leaving BamBam with no choice.  Too engrossed at pouring her heart out, she did not notice that BamBam no longer had his arms crossed, instead one finger was now carefully making its way known to the purple hue Lisa had on her cheek. 

Slowly, and even slower, he pokes said cheek and he gets a satisfying reaction avenging his hurt ego.

"Ow!" Lisa winces in pain.  She tries to ease the pain with rubbing but that turned out to hurt even worse, "Why did you do that?" she slaps her best friend's hand away trying hard not to feel the painful sting that was building up on her cheek and she just pouts like a pet puppy deprived of her favourite chew toy.

"Serves you right!" BamBam nods in victory, "Anyway how did you even get that?  That couldn't possibly be because of Bobby, right?  Because I honestly remember sending you off to your mansion looking perfectly normal and unharmed, but now…" he hesitates a while before continuing as he gestures on her slightly bulging cheek smeared with ointment, "With that big purple bruise building in your cheek and that deep cut on your lip, I don't think I saw clearly last night.  Was it miscalculated?  If it was I'll totally break that rotting Bobby's neck!"

Lisa scoffs at her friend's remark, not letting anything slip by her sharp tongue she reckons, "Tss, I doubt you'd be able to break Bobby's neck, let alone any part of him.  He may be thin, but he is a bit brazen too, and well you're a bit…" she gestures to BamBam's physique.

BamBam looks at her in anticipation.  His brows were creased upwards still looking for the words that would roll out of Lisa's mouth.  "I'm a bit what?" he asks impatiently.

The blonde shrugs as if what she was about to say was the most obvious thing in the world, so with a tone which depicts her actual feelings, "You're all skin and bones, Bam.  So very thin, just look at yourself, do Uncle and Aunty even feed you?"

"What the hell?!" BamBam shouts as he looks at her incredulously, "I'm not that thin, Lisa!  I can totally break Bobby's neck, I'll even break his pretty little face for you." 

Lisa raises a brow with an unamused expression and BamBam could only divert his eyes away from the judging yet willful eyes, "So he really did that to you?  What did he do?  Tell me Lisa, we'll go barging into that creep's house and teach him a lesson.  A well thought out lesson for bastards like him!"

"You better keep your word, Bam." Lisa says rather bitterly as she reminisces the worst and best thing that had happened to her, huffing a sigh as she stares at the white ceiling above.

"I've never backed out from my word Lisa, you know that.  So are you just gonna lay there, or are we going to punch him square in the face already.  My hands are tingling and trembling with anticipation to misshape his tiny figure.  Let's go get you discharged now and we'll have real fun afterwards." BamBam says excitedly, and in a blink of an eye, he already had the thin chenille out from his body, and his feet making their way to his slippers.  But he stops from putting his left slipper as Lisa blurts out something he deemed unbelievable.

"It wasn't Bobby, Bam." she replies with the same amount of pain she uses whenever she was talking about a certain someone and his particular deeds.  He knows the tone all too well, so he turns to face her wanting and waiting to have that confirmation he wanted to believe so badly.  He wanted to prove himself wrong for thinking dark and demeaning thoughts, but as usual and per say he was always wrong.

Lisa smiles rather sadly, pain crumpled up in her face, buried deep into the tiny crinkles poured into the farthest depths of the creases formed thereupon.  "Dad did this to me.  He slapped me so hard last night, or rather, just a few hours ago because I disappointed them again.  Because I wasn't there in time when he was introducing me to the bunch of hypocrites he deemed as friends since he was still blinded even until now.  It hurts so damn much, but it also felt so damn good Bam.  Finally I felt the pain physically and not just emotionally anymore, because  becoming too emotional was draining already.  I guess I kinda needed some sort of alternative as well."

The man looks at her in shock, "What do you mean alternative?!" he shouts at the top of his lungs, honestly he didn't want to believe Lisa's father would do such a thing, but Lisa's eyes told otherwise.  They were broken, even much more than how they once were.  With a tone almost sinister, he shouts at her, louder than he expected, "No matter the means, you don't deserve to get pained especially by your own father!  Why would he do that if he was your father?  Is he really a father?  God!" he wailed out, obviously frustrated because of this new found information.

Silence engulfed both of them afterwards.  No one dared to speak, not a single word.  Both were too fully overwhelmed with what the raven haired man spoke out, startling them both.  Awkward as it may seem, but they later find it very comforting.  BamBam lies close next to Lisa and soon they found themselves laughing at every tiny detail they could find.  It would be an understatement to say that Lisa was having the time of her life.  She never knew lying down in an uncomfortable and screechy hospital bed would feel so relaxing.

Then suddenly the hospital room's door swings open revealing an orange hair, haggard-looking but still beautiful woman in her late-twenties.

Lisa had met the woman a little over a couple of years ago.  When her mother was brought to that hospital, and when she first found out about her damned disease.  Acute myeloid leukemia, which the doctor, as she felt, just used such terms to make the word 'cancer' sound smarter.  But she isn't stupid, it's cancer just the same.  She could not stop crying as she was asked to leave the hospital room.  BamBam's mother assured her that they were going to do everything in their power to heal the woman, and how gullible she actually was to believe them. 

"Hey," the woman, then in her mid-twenties, sits by Lisa who was crying like it would be the last day on earth.  She doesn't greet the then resident nurse, so the nurse just takes the seat beside her, sipping a cup of tea.

"You know crying won't do you any good right now.  Yes, it's a way to somewhat release your problems and hardships, but it won't do anything now, would it?  But cry now, it isn't wrong.  Just don't cry out way too long, you'll get tired eventually." she casually tells the weeping woman.

"You don't know anything about me.  And what do you know about hardship?" Lisa then cruelly and rudely asks still unable to give the nurse her full attention,  but registered what she said just the same.

The nurse scoffs, "Oh believe me blondie, I know tons.  I even witness it every time the doctor delivers a baby." she nods at her own words.

Lisa just continues to cry, she thinks it's useless.  Her eyes are filled with tears and doesn't think it will stop anytime soon, so why bother give the woman a glance when all she'll ever see is a blurred figure?  The older woman eventually takes the silence of the younger as a cue, then politely excuses herself, "Anyway, my break's almost over," the older stands from her seat and gives Lisa a last pair of bitter eyes, as well as one last reminder, "You may be hurting now, but that's part of life.  You'll be burdened, but I'm sure you'll get over it.  There are other people like you, yes.  People who may not have deserved to have their hearts torn apart.  People who simply wanted to live a normal life.  But that's as normal as you get.  With life comes pain, and if you can't endure it then why are you here?  I honestly believe people exist in this world because they can handle what is thrown their way.  So you better it up and get moving since you have better things to do than to just sit and sulk around.  I'm sure you were meant to do better." the nurse turns her back about to leave, and that was the only time Lisa looks over. 

"Ah!" the woman then exclaims half of her body tilting to face the blonde, finally allowing Lisa to have a slight glimpse of the nurse in her white uniform,  "One more thing, people get really ugly when they cry.  The same goes for you.  Better pull it together for yourself and for the one inside that room." the older gestures to the room Lisa's mother was confined in.  The blonde girl doesn't do much, only watching the retreating figure of the nurse.  Out of the all the things the woman had told her, only one thing registers in her mind. 

"Who is she to tell me I'm ugly?"

"Wazzup, wazzup, waaazzuuup!!!" the doctor exclaims sleepily, or rather lazily, stretching her joints and limbs upon entering the room.  She moves closer to BamBam and scoots him over, even straight out demanding, "Make some room for the greasy and most suave Moon Byulyi!"  Lisa, now dangling from the other side, could not do anything to stop her so she leaves her be smothering a giggle.  But the woman, whose name was Byulyi, just goes on with her harassment as she even hugs BamBam as if he were her very own snuggly pillow.

With eyes closed, she feels the plush warmth accompanied with the bony figure BamBam was framing, making her uncomfortable, "Eh?  Why are pillows nowadays bony?  When I was younger, they used to be so fluffy and soft.  They even had that-felt like covering." she mutters softly, unintentionally hitting BamBam's face as she tries to make her so-called pillow comfortable enough for her liking. 

"Noona!" BamBam whines loud enough to startle Byulyi from her dream.  She staggers clumsily out from bed, only to find out that the once empty room she used on her breaks was now completely occupied by not just mere strangers.

"Eh?" she scratches the back of her head, looking at the two friends with half-opened eyes, "When did you guys get here?  Were you shooed away by your parents?  That quick?" she asks so innocently.  She maybe a resident doctor already, but she's still that pure and unblemished hamster that Lisa and BamBam had been accustomed to.

"Unnie," Lisa coos so lovably, "Did you drink?  Or did you just deliver another baby?" she playfully teases.

Byulyi, even with heavy eyelids and dark bags bigger than her eyes, still had the time to show off making her handsome side stand out.  "Tss, delivering a baby is as easy as eating pie.  And God knows how much I love pie.  I can even do it in my sleep, it's pretty much basic." she shrugs the least enthusiastic.  "Pregnant woman lays down and shouts in pain, while I pull the baby out from the mother's sweet entrance.  I cut the cord the baby is connected to and I later place the baby gently in the cloth.  Yup, pretty much basic." she happily nods, sitting at the rear end of the bed.

Lisa and BamBam laugh altogether, the sweet echoes bouncing off each and every corner of the spacious room.

Byulyi smiles at the two children she dearly loved, "Anyway," she then adds, "You still haven't answered my earlier questions, why are you here?  And who did that to your face, Lisa?" she stands from her seat and goes to check on the blonde.  She worriedly glances at Lisa's cut lip and her cheek still stained but the bulging had died down to a minimum because of the smudged cream applied over it.  Carefully caressing the cheek as she was now fully awake, she waits for an answer from the younger.

Lisa shrugs.  She didn't want to burden Byulyi with nonsense that could easily be solved if she avoided the topic.  And even though she knew Byulyi wasn't one to judge, and she wouldn't look at her with pity, she still felt equally embarrassed and decided she'd rather not talk about it.

"I tripped on something, but due to my quick reflexes I managed to dodge it somehow and save myself from the possibility of a nose job," Lisa lies easily.  She'd get caught, she knows it, but she couldn't just leave Byulyi hanging.  Byulyi, as expected, does not buy it.  She looks at Lisa with an uninterested expression because of her lie, tapping her foot impatiently waiting for the truth to spill out from Lisa's lips.  Lisa rolls her eyes as she sees Byulyi's scrutinizing eyes wandering over her. 

"Yeah, you sure look like you managed to dodge it but then…  Oh!  The floor suddenly caught your cheek and that floor was actually smeared with blueberry jam, thus the purple cheek.  Am I correct?" Byulyi sarcastically jokes.  "Oh, wait.  Maybe you're now part of X-men!" she adds excitedly as if it were the most normal thing to appear out of an ordinary person's mind, even clapping her hands together and jumping all over the place, "You were walking down the street, and then suddenly Charles Xavier appeared in front of you in a black, suspicious van, gave you a pill and asked you to drink it.  You were too willing and too shocked that time, because come on, it's Charles freaking Xavier!  So you grabbed the pill and took it in one gulp, and then your cheek started to turn purple which is the first phase of becoming like mutant-Jennifer Lawrence.  You went unconscious after, so Xavier left you, satisfied that he now had an Asian woman at twenty-two years with full bangs to be part of his mutant army.  Are you X-men, Lisa?  Tell me you are..." she pleads after her non-stop rant, animatedly talking about X-men.  Lisa swears she even somewhat heard the hint of desperation in her voice. 

But seems like now's not the time for games, Lisa raises her hands up above her face, hovering and wailing it over and about wanting to stop Byulyi from anymore nonsense.  "Fine," she resigns in defeat, "You win unnie, and no, I'm not part of X-men!  Where did you even get that idea?" she laughs a little.  Byulyi pouts a little, slumping in defeat.  Maybe, just maybe, the older woman really wanted her fantasy of Lisa becoming a mutant to come true.

"No, I got into a fight with Bobby, and well, I sorta collapsed after that.  He hit my face, and the result is clearly not the best as you can see." she lies to her unnie and  gestures to the purple side of her face, praying that Byulyi would just accept whatever she had just said.  Both women miss the concerned eyes BamBam was shooting Lisa's way.

Byulyi nods, satisfied with the answer.  She's heard of the man named Bobby, and all she heard were nasty things about the man even if she personally does not know him.  But she trusts Lisa and BamBam's judgment.  With nothing better to do, she pokes the cheek as well, applying just as much pressure as BamBam had put a while back, once again making Lisa feel the treacherous pain.  "I was messing with you Barney, the purple dinosaur.  You can't possibly be part of X-men, they're really cool, and you're just a dork like the man beside you."

"Hey!" BamBam suddenly joins the conversation, and well the three of them shared the best time they ever had in a while.  It was rare for them to have this joyous moment since they were all busy with life.

"Let's go have lunch then?" Byulyi was unsure of her statement inquiring more than declaring.  The young ones shrug, "Are you buying?" BamBam queries.

Byulyi shakes her head, already heading outside, "Of course not, you're the man here." she replies coolly.  "Plus your mom freaking owns the place, who do you think earns more cash?" she adds challengingly.

BamBam also shakes his head, "Noona, I feel like you're just leaching off me." he disappointingly says. 

"Aww, come on now Bam." Byulyi endearingly calls out, "You know that's not true.  You forgot to add Lisa in on this.  So I believe the right sentence is: 'Noona, I feel like you and Lisa are just leaching off me.'" Byulyi remarked, and Lisa snorts out in laughter, standing now as she also head out to follow Byulyi.

"Where are we going unnie?" Lisa shouts in happiness as she follows with the orange hair's plans.

Byulyi comes closer to Lisa and whispers to her ear, "We're going to eat lunch somewhere expensive, BamBam surely knows how to treat ladies.  Why hasn't he had a girlfriend yet?" she asks.

"Maybe because he sees that it would be too hard for him.  I mean we are already at the receiving end of his luxuries.  Maybe he doesn't want to add another woman into his life." Lisa wonders to herself, but saying it out for Byulyi to hear.  But upon taking notice that BamBam was not following close behind, she halts in her tracks to call out to him, "Hey Bam!  Aren't you coming?  We need your master card, it's a matter of life and death!" Lisa shouts out.

With a small groan, BamBam forcefully helps himself get up to slump over to where the two women were waiting for him.  He lets out a pout, resulting to Byulyi going over to give him comfort.  One arm draped over the slightly taller man, "Don't be sad Bam." Byulyi tries to talk him into really buying them an expensive lunch, "What's the use of wealth if you won't buy me and Lisa a decent meal?  Hmm?"

BamBam rolls his eyes, he's heard this speech millions of times already, so before Byulyi could continue he beats her to it, "We'll make it up to you, we promise.  Just feed us already, pretty please?" he mocks Byulyi's consistent words, even adding up the batting of the eyelashes profusely like when Byulyi does it. 

"Fine, I'll go buy you guys a meal." he continues to walk leaving Byulyi with a face of surprise.  Lisa laughs at the sight of the hilarious encounter.  She finds that she had not laughed like that in ages.  It's been a while since she's ever laughed so hard and between intervals of just mere minutes.  She had never seen Byulyi so speechless, she leaves the orange haired woman as she walks with BamBam.

Byulyi on the other hand could not be more happy with what she witnessed, "He did a very good impression of me.  I'm quite proud of that kid.  Maybe I really ought to treat him next time." she follows through, trailing not far behind from the two children.

🍦

On the other part of the city, one brunette and one purple haired woman were not having the best time of their lives due to some mishaps. 

Frustrations building up here and there, stress forming at the crook of every part of their faces, and slight anger and irritation bubbling up in the pits of their stomachs.  The day was so beautiful.  The sun was shining across the city, catching a glimpse of the hard-working people in the cramped up office.  The clouds were set to a minimum, allowing a clear view of the peaceful blue sky.  The soft breeze was seeping through the shut-closed windows having access to the office filled with much paper work and brutal tension.  Indeed, a beautiful day, a beautiful scenery, but these two people could not find the time to enjoy it as the company was having a detrimental crisis.  What's even more worse is when they wouldn't find themselves working together because of a pretty ugly thing called, blaming.

"This is all your fault unnie!  If you would have just listened and followed what I told you, none of this would have happened.  The sneakers would still be in our hands and the CEO and the manager wouldn't have to be this furious with us!" the brunette murmurs just enough for the purple haired woman to hear while both were busy rummaging through papers looking for possible traces for the identification of the intern who had the guts to ruin their lives.

The purple haired woman, Jisoo, the same woman who had once helped a blonde woman a few hours ago, stops dead in her actions, "Excuse me?" she places both her hands on either side of her waist, giving the brunette, Jennie, an incredulous gaze, "Who here went out to get some air just because their oh-so-demanding girlfriend called her?  It's your fault too, how would I know that the intern would do such a horrid thing?"

Jennie also stops from rummaging to properly address her unnie, "It could have been important unnie, Chaeng was starting to feel like I've been neglecting her because of work." Jennie defends from Jisoo's roasting, "And it