On the first day, Hyejin locked herself up in her room and went through old albums and mementos she had kept locked away in her closet. None of them triggered a flashback, but she was still left with a dull throbbing in her head.

In the evening, Eunbi came to pick her up for a last-minute schedule. It was the perfect distraction – she threw herself into her work and returned home late at night, completely exhausted and only thinking of sleep.

After sleeping in and waking up in the afternoon of the next day, Hyejin put herself through a hellish simulation – she tried imagining a post break-up situation where she was left alone and Byulyi was dating a new girl; the lack of texts and calls from Byulyi helped fuel that imagination. It lasted for about five minutes before she felt like breaking an imaginary girl's face and started daydreaming about public dates with Byulyi instead, a goofy smile plastered on her face. By the time she snapped out of it, the sun was already setting and still no flashbacks.

At dawn, on the third day, Hyejin realized that she needed help; she needed Wheein.

As soon as she got to work, she made a bee-line for the graphics department and headed towards Wheein’s desk.

“Wheein-ah, are you free today?” she asked sweetly, sitting on the empty chair beside Wheein.

Wheein looked up from her computer. “Hmm...” she pursed her lips and Hyejin had to fight back from cooing, “…I guess I’m free. Yongsun-unnie is busy this week, so...”

Hyejin rolled her eyes. “It’s always Yong-unnie with you,” she grumbled. “Do you need her permission to hang out with me now?”

“No, I don’t,” Wheein calmly replied. She stared at Hyejin for a while before adding, “You know…you weren’t always hostile towards unnie, Hyejin-ah.”

Hyejin scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

Wheein cocked her head to the side. “Why would you call her ‘unnie’ if you really, really don’t like her?”

Hyejin fell silent.

Thinking back, she had been calling Yongsun “unnie” ever since she joined the company. Back then, Yongsun was the famous singer Solar and she was the star of the company. Hyejin was supposed to address Solar formally, but the word “unnie” easily slipped out of ; it was not even “Solar-unnie”, but “Yong-unnie”. She was surprised at her own audacity, but she didn’t have time for troubling (and headache-inducing) thoughts; she wanted to focus on building her career. Plus, Yongsun never hinted that they had met before, so she tucked those thoughts away…until Wheein brought it up.

“You’re saying that I’ve met unnie in the past?” Hyejin said slowly, wincing when her head started throbbing.

“Yes,” Wheein answered in a quiet voice. She had noticed the wince and she was starting to worry; she should choose her next words wisely, but there was no other way to phrase it other than, “I introduced her to you as my girlfriend.”

Hyejin blinked, trying to process the new information.

“At one point,” Wheein hastily continued, “I even thought you were going to steal her away from me because you were spending so much time with her.” She paused and smiled bitterly, recalling a particular memory. “Thanks to you, Hyejin-ah, I learned what jealousy meant for the first time in my life.”

Hyejin held her head with one hand. The throbbing had increased and was starting to become painful. She thought that it was finally time for something to happen, but once again, no flashbacks; just a painful pounding in her head and a suffocating feeling in her chest. She let out a frustrated sigh and clenched her jaw against the pain.

Why is it so hard to trigger one freaking flashback?!

“Hyejinie, are you okay?”

Wheein had rushed over to her, looking concerned. Hyejin forced herself to smile and nodded her head slowly.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled. She cupped Wheein’s face and playfully squeezed her cheeks until her worried frown turned into an adorable pout. “Since you’re free today, Wheein-ah, let’s have lunch together.”

“Okay,” Wheein replied happily, her eyes turning into crescents as her pout transformed into a blinding smile. “You’re buying, right?”

“Yes, puppy,” Hyejin chuckled, “I’m buying.”

Wheein did a little celebratory dance while her cheeks were still being squished by Hyejin’s hands. Hyejin grinned at her best friend’s antics, already forgetting her own pain.

Hyejin scowled, arms and legs crossed as she listened to the producers explaining the concept of the show. She was trying to concentrate, but this meeting was taking too long and she was already thirty minutes late for her lunch date with Wheein.

Feeling restless and not wanting to be rude, her eyes wandered around until they fell on one of her co-stars – he was a senior artist who had expressed his admiration for Hwasa and his wish to collaborate with her one day. Hyejin smiled at him and he shyly smiled back, quickly averting his gaze to hide the blush in his cheeks.

Cute, but sadly, he’s not my type.

Thinking about her “type”, Hyejin sighed and shifted her gaze towards the window.

The producers had chosen a small café that was able to fit all the producers and artists and still leave room for the waiters to move about. Across the street from the café was a new office building and it seemed to be the home base of a new entertainment agency.

As she pondered on the existence of this agency, Hyejin caught sight of two familiar figures – Yongsun and Byulyi. They were coming out of the building, laughing and chatting freely, oblivious to the people around them.

Something about them was rubbing Hyejin the wrong way.

Maybe it was because she missed Byulyi; missed her voice and her laugh; missed her smile and her touches. Or maybe it was the way Byulyi was looking at Yongsun – that soft look in her eyes and that smile on her face like Yongsun was a living, breathing art. It was a ridiculous notion, but then Hyejin remembered Byulyi admitting to having a crush on Yongsun before and her heart stung at the thought.

Suddenly, Byulyi and Yongsun stopped walking. Byulyi took one step too close to Yongsun and Hyejin found herself frowning in dislike.

For some reason, the scene looked familiar to her and she felt her whole body froze up at the feeling of déjà vu. Then, her head started pounding, followed by a nauseous feeling that bubbled up from the pit of her stomach. She swallowed the bitter taste in and tried reasoning with herself.

Yong-unnie has Wheein…she and Byul are just friends…they’re not together…they’re not…they wouldn’t do that to Wheein and me…

Hyejin vaguely remembered that she was actually still at work and no one there knew about her flashbacks; she wished she had said something to Eunbi, so she could whisked her away at a moment’s notice. It’s too late now and Hyejin had to improvise.

She muttered a lame excuse about a stomach ache to the person next to her and laid her head down on the table, pretending to clutch at her stomach just as sepia-coloured scenes took over her consciousness…