A/N: Thanks for patiently waiting, and really, your comments and views are greatly appreciated! Here's another chapter-- it's supposed to end the Sakura's daddy-arc but I ended up splitting it to 2 chapters...so I'll upload the other part soon. I'm so sorry, we're not even halfway there yet. Sakura's backstory is relatively simple, but you'll probably get frustrated about Eunbi's development for the next few chapters till we hit her part. So yeah...this is the kind of timeline we're looking at...it's not going to be angsty--just complicated filled with daily fluff XD.

Eunbi rushed out of the house and ran and ran until she lost her breath. All that time, she was replaying the words she has said just now when she flung accusations about Minju, Sakura and her father right at the poor girl, and it left her confused, anguished and ashamed. 

She had never reacted with such bitterness at anything in her life. It had always been sadness and ineptness that have overwhelmed her emotions in big turning points in her life; speaking of which, should Sakura moving out even count as one? She was just a step-sister who happened to be living under the same roof for a few months. How can she throw such a big fuss and try to control another person’s life like this? But then, as head of the household, was she wrong in voicing her concerns about any potential misstep Sakura could be taking?

She held her heaving chest as she sat down on some random crates that are lying off the roadside in the empty street. This pain in running and breathing chilly winter air right after the Seollal season is really getting her...or is that just because of Sakura? Kkura, the girl she shouldn’t, but have fallen in love with. At first, she thought it was a silly crush that was born out of infatuation on her beauty, and circumstances of sharing such intimate space with someone new.  Then, perhaps it was because of nostalgia, when she reimagined their first encounter in a way that only she knew, and painted it with a lot more intrigue and impact than it warranted. It was just unfathomable, as never in her dreams had she imagined herself dating a girl. She had worked quickly then, following through her plan to set her up with Minju, hoping that these wrong feelings would go away. Indeed, it worked phenomenally, as the two visual forces clicked like magnets immediately. The more she saw the couple enjoying their time around each other, the more she wondered what it would be like if she was Minju instead.

She still remembered the despair she felt when Sakura never came back that night, and that was only on the first night Minju and her met each other. They got along faster than she had with her sister, as she counted all the awkward months they had spent in the same house-- and in the same room nonetheless. She felt silly comparing herself to Minju, but that was exactly what she did in the past month. She couldn’t control her heart from getting jealous, even all the while, her mind would drive her to do the right thing-- little things that are meant to push them further along, such as arranging Minju’s work so that she could have more convenient hours to go on dates with Sakura.

She had been the perfect sister that she should be, yet all the while, she herself knows she has hopelessly fallen in love. She wanted to see her all the time, but when their eyes met, she wished she could run away. She couldn’t control imagining herself in Minju’s shoes, being the one who cooks and bakes for her, who comforts and listens to her, who jokes and whines to her, who then in turn gets pampered, cuddled, and loved by her, who gets to see the sides of Sakura that no one but a lover can. She has even done unspeakable things during those nights that she stared at the empty bed beside her. Her heart has never pounded so furiously for someone before. Seungho was right all along. 

Flashback to the breakup

“Why are you doing this? Haven’t we worked this out together already?”

They were sitting outside an art gallery at the end of a date which Eunbi planned. It was meant to be a send-off date, not a breakup one.

“Together?” Seungho chuckled in defeat. “What was there to work out? You never said anything about it.”

“Well, wasn’t that exactly the point? I didn’t say ‘No’ to New York. Since the beginning, I have always tried to be understanding, whether it be your crazy final project hours, or your choice to give up on a good, stable job. I never said anything unreasonable.”

“That’s precisely why we can’t do this anymore. I am never the one that tug any strings in your heart… you just don’t care about us. You never loved me.”

“This is beyond ridiculous. Oppa… Are you blaming me for being nice? Can’t you see how much you are hurting me?” Indeed, Eunbi could feel tears streaming down her eyes. She was positive that her heart was broken.

“It is not that.” Seungho sighed in exasperation. “You are the perfect girlfriend. But you aren’t a good lover. Everyone thinks you are perfect because you have never been driven crazy by emotion, and I...I can’t picture how it will get better once I get to New York and we’re actually living apart.”

Perfect Girlfriend and Good Lover...what’s the difference? I don’t understand any of this...

“I thought this time, it might be different. Maybe this time, I could finally see you struggle for once because of me? Maybe I can see the side of you… the one where you abandon rationality and show your true self? But I have failed miserably. That side of you that I got a glimpse of was never meant to be for me... but with all this, I still love you, Eunbi.”

“Then don’t…” 

Why was he crying when he was the one who is breaking things off with me?

“But I need to say goodbye. I sincerely hope you will understand one day, because that means-- you are no longer trapped.”

Flashback ends

Now, she realizes that she has indeed never experienced love. There wasn’t anything that she did incorrectly, or that he was difficult or needy. The distance was there all along and that was why the past ones had never worked. He was the only one willing to stick around but she had failed to understand it all these years… until Sakura happened. This excitement, confusion and disgust she feels about herself were what drove her to act like a maniac just now. To watch herself break apart the ideal person she has always wanted to be is baffling and painful, but at the same time, she can’t say she wishes this infatuation to go away.

She still feels trapped, and she isn’t sure what she’s going to do about it.

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The next morning, Eunbi went to work earlier than usual to avoid seeing both Nako and Sakura. After last night, she couldn’t bring herself to face the two sisters, who she knew she has acted disappointingly to.

Walking into the cafe, the chairs are still stacked up on the tables after last night’s cleaning, Chaeyeon greeted her boss in surprise.

“Eunbi-Unnie, why are you up so early today?” Being the barista, she and a part-timer would usually be the only ones to set up and open the shop. Also being her best friend, she could immediately notice something is off about Eunbi today.

“Yo, the dark circles! What happened to the eye mask that you kept swearing on to people about?” Chaeyeon tried to ease up the mood but she has already wrapped her arm round the older girl’s shoulder,