“Sister?” Goeun mimicking Chaewon in a confused voice gives her deja vu of when Eunbi first appeared before them and introduced herself as Chaewon’s sister. Although some time has passed, Chaewon recognizes Eunbi instantly. Nothing about her has changed much. Except for the fact that she has no band-aids on her face and is still beautiful.

“No, I mean—” when Chaewon tries to fill Goeun in, over the phone, Eunbi abruptly cuts her off by seizing the collars of her white, long-sleeves dress shirt. Immediately, Chaewon holds her phone out and away from them when she feels Eunbi’s hands becoming bold fists, and the lass begins breathing hot air up her neck.

“Sister? Who’s your sister? Who are you? Do I know you?” Eunbi’s voice is low and dangerous, and she shakes Chaewon shortly as if to force an answer out of her. Chaewon can tell the woman is still upset at her but there’s little she can do.

Hurrying forward and from the side, Sian grabs Eunbi’s arm then in a concerned voice asks, “What’s wrong, Eunbi? Do you know this woman?”

Eunbi doesn’t answer her company and stares up into Chaewon’s eyes.

A second of silence goes by, then a few more before Chaewon puts up an open palm as a sign of surrender and says, “I know I said a load of crap when we first met but I can explain,”

Eunbi scoffs, “Explain? No. I  think you made yourself pretty clear. You were pretty straightforward and clean cut about it. You said you didn’t have a mother named Jisun. You refer to her as a surrogate,” Eunbi pulls and twists Chaewon’s collar, suffocating her a little.

Chaewon taps Eunbi’s hands then exchanges gazes with the nameless woman, “A little help here?”

Despite not knowing Chaewon and failing to understand Eunbi’s actions towards her, Sian quickly inserts herself between them and rips Eunbi’s grip off Chaewon. “Eunbi, stop it. Whatever you have to say, do it with words,”

Alas, Eunbi lets her anger gets the best of her before she releases Chaewon completely. With a good amount of strength and power, she rips Chaewon’s shirt at the shoulder seams, popping the first four buttons off. Chaewon is wide-eye while Sian pulls Eunbi back for their own safety.

“What the hell!” Chaewon shouts, “What are you! A freaking psycho?”

“You’re right! I am a psycho! And it’s all because of you!” Eunbi hollers back.

Sian who is bigger and stronger holds Eunbi back before she directs her words to Chaewon for the first time, “You should leave,”

Annoy, Chaewon rips the rest of the buttons on the shirt off then takes it off and throws it onto the ground. With only a thin, black, spaghetti strap tank top on she seethes at them, “Don’t let me see you again or you’ll regret it,” then with a stomp of her heels, Chaewon walks looking down at her phone. Seeing that she has lost connection with Goeun, Chaewon growls and slides the phone into her pocket, “Seriously,” Chaewon sigh as she combs her hair back with her fingers.

As the duo watch Chaewon stomps away, Sian sees that Eunbi has calm down. Unexpectedly fast too as Eunbi normally holds out and develops lasting resentments. “Are you feeling better?” Sian asks.

Eunbi shakes her head, “If she didn’t care about Jisun, why would she be here?”

Confuse by her rhetorical question, Sian just had to ask, “Did I hear correctly? She called you, sister. Don’t tell me she’s that biological daughter you told me about?”

The shorter expresses a sigh, “Why did I lash out, Sian? I can’t stand how heartless she is but I should have kept a level-headed for my mother. I had something to give her,” Eunbi reveals with regret.

“Like what?”

Eunbi looks downward and studies the torn shirt, “A letter. My mother’s letter,”

Chaewon could care less about the attention she was receiving being in a tank top and in the middle of the night in Spring.

Before she freezes to death, Chaewon finds a convenience store in the neighborhood. At the counter, she asks for ramen and hot coffee and was provided personally by the worker. While Chaewon slurps down her first meal of the day, she stabs her noodles and thought of the humiliation she was faced with earlier. “Ah, seriously. How long has it been? And was it necessary to ruin my shirt? If she ever learns of the truth she’s going to regret it. She thinks I’m the one who should be pitied because I’m motherless? Ha. Just you wait,” she vents her frustration out to no one in particular.

Chaewon chomps down her food then wipe the noodle juice on her lips. She flattens her eyes when an idea hits her, then steadily she sneers into her reflection on the glass window, “I didn’t want to be the bad guy but you asked for it, sister,” 

Sian lived on the second floor of a four storied apartment. Her place isn’t big but it had two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a living room with an open kitchen.

After Sian was done washing up, she goes to Eunbi’s room to tell the lass it’s her turn. However, she stops midway into the room when she sees Eunbi sitting on her bed, her back against the wall and her head hangs over her knees. “Eunbi,” she calls to grab the other’s attention but when she didn’t move, Sian tries again. This time, Eunbi glances up with a blank look on her face. “Oh good. You fell asleep waiting for me to get out of the bathroom. I thought you were crying,”

Eunbi breathes a relaxed sigh, “No, I was just thinking about Joohyun. I miss her a lot,”

Sian exhales sharply as she walks over and sits on the edge of Eunbi’s low bed. Gently she places a hand on Eunbi’s knee and coos, “I’ll give you Tuesday off so you can go see her. And if you want to stay up there for another day or two, just phone me, alright?”

A small smile crosses Eunbi’s face as she rests a hand over Sian’s and nods, “Thank you, Sian,”

On the following day, the first person Chaewon talks to, over the phone, is her father.

“You think the office there should be expanded?”

Chaewon hums as she dismisses one of the hiring managers with a flick of her finger. Holding the phone near her chin she explains, “I did some research and the landlord south of us is willing to sell us his land for 50,000 in cash. I slapped an extra 10,000 on top of that if he can collect the tenants’ signatures or evict everyone by the end of next month,”

To her satisfaction she hears her father chuckle, “I’ll approve it. Fax the papers to my office at work and I’ll take a look at it with the company’s legal team,” there’s a moment of silence before he adds, “and well done,”

Chaewon ends the call then from the corner of her eyes, she sees Wonyoung approaching. The young woman is covered up with a long, white fur coat on. She has shades on, indoors, and a purse clutch under her armpit. When she notices Chaewon, the lass flashes her a grand teeth-free smile, “Good morning,” she greets once she’s in front of Chaewon.

Chaewon returns the smile then she reaches over and ruffles the younger’s hair, “Good morning,”

Wonyoung lifts her shoulders up to her chin before asking, “Did you miss me?”

“We met yesterday,” Chaewon points out.

“We were also official yesterday,”

Chaewon raises her brows and with a cheeky smile says, “Oh, I guess I was the only one who didn’t get the memo,”

The taller woman laughs with a snort, “I’m kidding. By the way, can you give me a tour of this place? It’s fascinating,”

Chaewon agrees without any delay. And as she begins to walk a certain direction, Wonyoung hurries to her side and hook arms with her.

Eunbi was cleaning up a table when an older woman rushed into the restaurant, crying and calling for her. Eunbi tries to calm the woman with traces of gray in her hair, and as she catches her breath she reveals the bad news, “What are you doing? How can you be working right now? Everyone is about to be kicked out!”

The lass shakes her head in astonishment, “What do you mean everyone is about to be kicked out?”

“That evil man of a landlord is selling the land and he’s giving us a week to move out, otherwise we’ll be kicked out!”

Eunbi’s jaw drop a little as she grabs onto the old woman’s hands, “Why is he suddenly selling the land? He can’t sell it, those are our homes. It’s the only place my dad knows where to contact us,”

“Exactly that’s why you have to come with me. Everyone is protesting outside right now,”

“Wh-what? Where?”

“Outside that evil man’s office and Soul Group. I heard they’re the buyers,”

Eunbi’s heart begins to race. If it’s Soul Group then it’s no doubt Jisun’s husband and daughter’s business. Soul Group would be Chaewon. Speedily, Eunbi takes off the apron around her waist and grabs the woman by the hand, “Let’s go, grandmother,”

Chaewon was sitting on the surface of her granite desk, when Wonyoung, who has been looking out the window warns her, “What’s going on outside? There’s a group of people gathering by the door,”

“Really?” was all Chaewon say as she flips through files, magazines, and procures. “The font style and color for Hotel 9 are, a bit, ugly,” she critiques though only for her to hear. Moments later, they hear a knock at the door before the door flies wide open.

“COO Kim, there’s a problem at the front entrance,”

Chaewon sets the paper copies down on her desk and looks up to see it was a man no more than three years older than her. He was in a black suit and appears stiff. One of her father’s upbringing, she presumes. “What problem?”

“Ma’am, it appears that the residents in the neighborhood south of us have heard about us purchasing the land so they’re here to protest against it,”

Chaewon raises a brow, “Protest? Haven’t I been more than fair when I set the deadline to the end of next month? Within the laws, that’s more than fair,”

“You’ve been more than fair, ma’am. However, it appears that the landlord had personally demand everyone leave within a week,”

Chaewon scoffs, “So he’s responsible for the problem outside of my doors?”

The man bows at 90 degrees and shows the top of his head for a while before answering, “Yes, ma’am,”  

While Chaewon stands up to pocket her hands, she exhales heavily through her nose. “Chaewon,” Wonyoung says in a low voice as she strides over to Chaewon, but before she can comfort Chaewon, the doors to her office flew wide open.

“Miss, stop, you can’t go in there!” a second male employee shouts.

“Kim Chaewon,” it’s Eunbi and she was coming in fast. Her steps were equally powerful and brisk. At the moment, Chaewon can only stand and watch as Eunbi barges into her office and slap her across the face. Wonyoung gasps while the male who has been bowing grabs Eunbi. In a matter of seconds, four men were onto Eunbi and have her arms arrested. “Let go of me! Kim Chaewon! Are you even human! You never bat an eye when your mother was dying and even after she’s gone, you want to get rid of any traces of her? How cruel can you be! Kim Chaewon!” Eunbi shouts at the top of her lungs. “I said let go!” she tries to break free as the four men carry her out.

Meanwhile, Chaewon pokes the inside of her cheek with her tongue. The cheek Eunbi struck sting and it burns. However, nothing hurts more than her chest—her heart. She can no longer stand being misunderstood. Not by anyone and especially not by Kwon Eunbi.