A/N:

So yea, the response from the last chapter was... basically yall had very strong reactions to it. The story was always going to go this way and i planned it from the beginning to have everyone be sketchy post-accident because there were a lot of things left unsaid about what happened before that. What I'm saying is that there's a lot of things that we don't know about their relationship and even with the 3 part chapter 0, not everything is gonna be clear (yet). But as I said to one of my readers, I'm going to try to do right by each character as best as I can.

So, I won't update until like the third week of November because that's when my exams end. But i thought it'd be too long of a wait if I didn't update now, so here ya go. I'm sorry if its a bit of a cliffy, it's not that bad but... you'll see.

Please enjoy :))

Chaeyeon knew from when she was 13 that her life was set in stone. Most teenagers would have been relieved to know everything that the future has in store for them. At least that’s what most of her friends in school told her. But deep down, Chaeyeon felt like she missed a big part of her teenage life; the part that's confused and full of worry, but also waiting for the next adventure and was in the process of self-discovery.

Chaeyeon never had that.

She and her younger sister Chaeryeong had the same dream once, but Chaeyeon had given up hers fairly quickly. 

Not because she wanted to, but because her parents, her dad specifically, had talked about the legacy of their company and how it was up to one of them to continue said legacy. It was like a fairytale––the hero’s journey to success, the way her dad told it. How her grandparents started out with nothing but managed to build a fortune, all in the hopes to provide for their family generations later. And her grandparents were obsessed with the idea of a family legacy, so was her dad. 

It was ironic that they spent so little time with theirs.

Her mother was every bit the perfect housewife and mother. Her family didn’t believe in having nannies. They were only there to help clean and cook. Everything else was solely the job of Chaeyeon’s mother. She was warm, loving, supportive. But she also had 3 children to take care of, and her attention was more occupied on their youngest.

In her naivety, Chaeyeon thought if her mother wasn’t available, then appealing to the company’s legacy would earn her more time and attention from her father. She wasn’t completely wrong. But it wasn’t the kind of attention she wanted either.

Her dad brought her to social functions and company dinners where she could interact with all the other “rich kids”. And while her little sisters got to take dance and singing lessons after school, Chaeyeon had come home to private tutors for math and a couple of different languages. 

By the time she decided that maybe this wasn’t the path she wanted to take, her little sisters already made up their mind on what they wanted to be––Chaeryeong an idol, and well on her way to be one. For Chaemin, a doctor. Chaeyeon didn’t want to ruin their dreams for them. She was the eldest, she couldn’t be selfish. That was how Chaeyeon lived her life, selflessly.

Her mother wanted her to stay in Korea for university, Chaeyeon obliged. Her father wanted her to go to business school, she obliged.

It was only after she met Eunbi that Chaeyeon learnt to be selfish. In the best way possible. 

After all, if it weren’t for Eunbi, Chaeyeon wouldn’t have anything to be selfish about. It was why she drove all the way to her parent’s house so late in the night to beg her dad to push back his retirement.

“Chaeyeon, I’m not getting any younger...”

“I know, Dad, but I’m not ready. I just started a family. I don’t want to be like––” Chaeyeon stops herself. She started fidgeting in her seat across from her dad who looked slightly guilty. “You were a good dad, but I wished you spent more time with us. I don’t want that for Wonyoung. She’s only 5, I don't want to miss her milestones already. I don’t want to be absent.”

They worked out a compromise––a promotion. 

++

In the deal Chaeyeon made with her dad, she was originally given 7 years. 7 years to sort out her obligations to her family, especially with raising a daughter, and to get used to a new work-life balance.

Chaeyeon was supposed to have two more years. But then her dad fainted at work and everyone was in a panic. 

Despite not feeling that she was ready to take on her father’s position, Chaeyeon’s mom and the whole board of directors and stockholders had pressured Chaeyeon to step up. It almost feels like she became the CEO overnight. Temporarily, that is. But even when her dad made the speediest recovery, Chaeyeon continued to be acting CEO. She knows the board was still wary of Chaeyeon, maybe because of her age, maybe because of her gender, but either way, they couldn’t sway the former CEO to take back his position. After just three months, Chaeyeon was formally acknowledged as IZ-N group’s CEO.

It went well the first few months.

Chaeyeon became busier, of course, but still not busy enough to make a dent in her marriage the way it would down the line. It wasn’t until she made a mistake at work that all hell broke loose.

On her first big project, Chaeyeon messed up badly. The details doesn’t matter––in essence, they managed to avoid a lawsuit altogether, but also didn’t manage to profit from it. From then on, her stakeholders wouldn’t stop breathing down her neck. Chaeyeon even had a probationary monthly assessment that would last for the next two years.

“Monthly assessment? I’m the CEO…”

“It may be your family’s company, but we can vote you out if you make a mess again. And just so you know... we can’t be sure your father will be reinstated if we do oust you.”

Chaeyeon doesn’t want to mess this up for her family, her dad especially. So she works until she bleeds day after day, until she forgets what it's like to stop working. She didn't realize how she became just another piece in the game, repeating a history that she wished to avoid.

++

For Chaeyeon's first two years of being CEO, Eunbi was understanding.

When Chaeyeon missed dates, cancelled on them and rarely kept her promise of making it up to her, Eunbi never really got angry. She was disappointed and annoyed, but she was always understanding beyond belief. The only time Chaeyeon really ed up was during her second year of being CEO and she stopped prioritizing Wonyoung.

They fought a lot from then on. More than ever before.

“Get off your phone, Chaeyeon,” her wife had snapped from across the dining table. It was probably the first time either of them spoke to each other for the entire duration of dinner.

“I can’t, honey,” she presses on the endearment. “The company needs me to finalize something ASAP and I’m already taking more time than agreed by coming home for dinner.”

“Then why come home at all?” Eunbi hisses scathingly, taking everyone by surprise.

Wonyoung had been the first one to react, murmuring something under her breath about something along the lines of not wanting to deal with any of this and leaving to have dinner in her room. When their daughter’s door closes loudly behind the teenager, the two women snapped back into reality from their stare off. 

Chaeyeon finally puts down her phone, “What are you even saying? You’re the one who asked me to be here for dinner––”

“––No!!” Eunbi snaps. “I asked you to be present for dinner, because you haven’t had dinner at home for a week!! I asked you to be present to make it up to your daughter who you’ve been neglecting.”

From that day onwards, Chaeyeon puts her phone on silent throughout dinner that she has at home. But with her absence every other time during her family’s life, Chaeyeon doesn’t know what type of conversation they should be having. She’s missed out on too much. Chaeyeon resorts to safer subjects like asking about Wonyoung’s school and Eunbi’s work.

After the regularly timed dinner, Chaeyeon would excuse herself again to go back to the office, or if she was too tired, she’d work from home. Unfortunately her work wasn’t usually finished by the time Eunbi goes to bed, and Chaeyeon would have to move her paperwork to the dining table and work from there so Eunbi can sleep with the lights off. 

Even with this one problem (partially) solved, there were still other fights. That is, until it became repetitive and the loud arguments died down altogether.

And then came the petty fights. Chaeyeon participated in the stupid arguments at first but then stopped altogether. She wasn’t stupid––Chaeyeon knew why Eunbi was mad at her. And future Chaeyeon will one day look back at their relationship and berate herself for being so stubborn and prideful. But not yet. 

Chaeyeon stopped entertaining Eunbi’s little jabs. Perhaps she was too tired to say anything back, or maybe just too guilty to fight back.

++

It was odd when Eunbi stopped fighting Chaeyeon altogether. Maybe, like Chaeyeon, her wife also got tired. But Chaeyeon was more concerned about that fact than