Sipping her cappucino slowly, she waited at her usual table and watched her fellow patrons pass by. They had arranged to meet here as a kind of middle ground between their respective apartments and she checked her watch for what felt like the fiftieth time in as many minutes. The door opened and she smiled as she saw her, long hair tucked under a baseball cap as she grinned and waved. She made her way over and greeted her waiting friend before ordering an iced americano from the approaching waitress, sitting down as the waitress left to prepare her order. They had been friends for a while and she had gotten used to her friend's handsome face and boyish charm, she had even become immune to her cheesiness to a certain degree but any small touch still sent prickles over her skin and she caught her eyes lingering on her lips sometimes. It had to stop, unless she was willing to risk both of their careers and possible embarrassment from a rejection. Chatting came easily between the two of them and they spent a few hours reminiscing about their early days as trainees and ending on an agreement to meet up again very soon. When she stood up to leave, her friend rose in synchronisation with her movement and they giggled at themselves for a second before embracing and parting ways. The walk home was long but she didn't mind, it had been raining whilst they were safely ensconced in the cafe so the smell of damp concrete filterd up to her as she made her way through heavy footfall. Men and women alike rushed past as though another shower was imminent and the rain was made of acid, some with umbrellas up and some holding bags ready to raise above their exposed heads in the potential downpour. 

Next morning came, it was uneventful. The morning after showed the usual lack of interest, these days were melting into one long monotonous day and she sighed through them all as she did the same things every day. Weeks after the last cafe date and she was lounging on her couch when she noticed a dull thud, the post had arrived and a thicker than usual envelope had come in it. Thumbing open the paper, she slipped the sturdy card open and read aloud: 'You are formally invited to the vow renewal of Mrs Moon Byulyi and Mrs Moon Yongsun, disclosed on a seperate card are the details of the event. We ask that you use complete discretion and do not divulge any of this to anyone other than the brides, thank you. Hope to see you soon X.'. On the one hand she was grateful for the invite and she loved her so much that she would go, but this would be torture too, having to keep her jealousy at bay for a few hours as she grinned and bore it. Almost ripping up the card, she tossed it onto the nearby counter top and resumed her lazing, suddenly thinking of the perfect way to enjoy herself at the renewal, she jumped up and sprinted to her bedroom, walking into the wardrobe with purpose. Rifling through her outfits, she stopped at the dress section, moving each garment bag carefully and ping them one by one just a little to see what was inside. She was almost at the end when she stopped, her hands working the zip slowly all the way down to reveal her most extravagant gown, for a few seconds she stared at it in awe, then she zipped the bag back up and smirked as she went back to the couch and passed the rest of the day watching Youtube videos of mukbangs. 

When she woke on the day of the renewal, her mood was considerably better than she thought she would be, pouring the milk on her cereal with a grin on her face. She hummed all morning as she got ready, she wasn't planning on wearing her gown until she got there, so she placed it in her car and made her way to the venue, taking care to remember her invitation. As she stepped inside the building, her jealousy tried to rear it's ugly head but she calmed herself as she asked where the ladies room was and changed in one of the vacant cubicles. The building had a storage area and so she paid a small fee to lock her casual clothes away until the ceremony was over. She had arrived too early and decided to take a walk around the building, looking at all the fancy artwork as she climbed numerous staircases and felt her heels sink a little into the soft carpet along wide hallways. After a while, other guests had started to arrive and she made her way to the main area of the building, the room that the ceremony was due to be held in was a grand one and she marvelled at it's beauty as she took her seat. The room when it was full had gone from pleasant to stuffy and her dress' tightness was proving a problem for breathing, she fanned herself with her hand for a while but had to step outside quietly just before the vows were exchanged. Standing outside the front entrance, she closed her eyes and felt the light breeze play across her face as she thought of what she was missing inside. After a while, she sighed and decided it would be rude to miss the rest of the ceremony, even if she hated that she wasn't the bride. Making her way back inside, the previously closed doors to the main room were now open and everyone was on their feet mingling and dancing awkwardly. She slipped into the room and tracked down a drink for herself. After a few hours and a false congratulations to the happy couple, she found herself all out of social niceties and bade her friends goodnight before making her way home. 

She let a little time pass and decided that she should take covert action. It wasn't that she wanted to be a homewrecker but she didn't enjoy her crush loving someone else and being so covertly public about it. It was obvious if you knew what you were looking at and she suspected that she was one of only a handful who did. As it happened, she was searching for a new place to live, when she saw an opportunity. An apartment was available in the same building as the happy couple and she snapped it up at once, insisting to a bewildered realtor that she didn't need a viewing and would pay the full price without haggling. Once payment had gone through, it was like somebody had lit a fire beneath her and she started moving her things into piles of what she wanted to take and what she wanted to donate to charity or throw away completely. She grabbed her keys as soon as she finished and went to find some moving boxes, returning with her arms full after half an hour. Packing quickly, she dropped by the realtor's office to pick up the keys to her new apartment and called a friend to help her take her things there. Sure, she could drive and her car was big enough to take most of her things but she wanted to do it in one trip and for that she needed help, so her friend took the overflow and they unloded in record time. The only formality she had left was to hand in the keys for her old apartment and move her energy suppliers to the new place, once those things were done, she drove back to her apartment and flopped onto her sofa. Not knowing how long she had spent there, she woke several hours later and rubbed her eyes, there were the usual sounds of living in an apartment block in a busy city but there was an even nearer sound of chatter. Getting up quietly, she made her way to the door and peeped out of the spy hole, catching snippets of the conversation she saw her and her, insides squirming at being so close, she held her breath as she heard them discussing her apparently empty apartment and why nobody had bought it. 

Days and days passed and she kept up her silent vigil, not wanting to draw attention to herself, she waited until they left before she went shopping and bought pre-cooked meals, timing her arrival back home for just before they came back, there was a time when she had a block of a couple of days when they had gone away, in which she invited her friend over and they laughed and ate and drank but she had insisted her friend leave as soon as she could, not mentioning her real motive but stating that if fans were lurking in the area, rumours might be spread and she would be mobbed. A couple of times she overheard them laughing and chatting as they arrived home and her anger welled up inside before she reminded herself to breathe, closing her eyes and thinking of what she could do to get past it, for now she would act like a bigger person than she felt. 

The worst part wasn't that she kept herself silent and a secret, but that whilst she did so and planned her next move, she could see and hear their friends having a good time in and out of the apartment, they came and went as they pleased. They were as loud as they liked, they ate and drank when they wanted to and here she was, suffering through her own doing. A long while passed and she planned something, it was farfetched but nobody would be the wiser. She was done skulking around the apartment and so she threw her favourite thin hoody on over her workout clothes and left for the gym. Punching the bag harder than usual, the session was more intense than it had ever been and she relished the chance to take out her anger freely. Once she had finished, she decided to grab a coffee and go for a jog in the park nearby, it wasn't a big park but she needed to warm down before going to living in secrecy. As she entered the park, some 10 minutes later, she stopped in her tracks, her friend's girlfriend had appeared not too far in front and she looked pissed off, was this her lucky day?, had they finally broken up and now she was in with a chance?. Slowly picking up her speed, she made her way to a nearby bench, pretending to stretch, she made sure her hood was up and no part of her face would be visible even to the middle-aged woman already sat on the bench adjacent to this one. As she took her time, she glanced sideways and saw her approcah the woman, the same expression on her face, she sat down and the gist of the conversation was lost in the gap between the benches but the intensity was palpable and so she jogged lightly on the spot all the while it went on, even after she saw the older woman served with official looking papers. As she decided she had loitered for long enough, she had started to slowly jog away and towards the exit when she noticed the two women parting ways and wished she'd stayed. Leaving the park by a different exit, she walked back to the apartment but decided to grab a few beers on the way back and ordered a takeaway pizza, the smell of it hitting her nostrils as it was carried on the new breeze, her stomach rumbled and she seemed to walk extra quickly so that she could eat it as soon as possible. 

She was leaving, for a whole week she would be gone. The wrong person would be gone and she found herself pouting a little behind her door as she overheard the pair of them saying their loving goodbyes. She watched silently out of her spy hole as she left, a quick embrace between the two and she held her breath as the blonde woman glanced in her direction before going back into her own apartment, the lock clicking in place seconds later. Going back to her own life, she sat with the tv on low volume as she ate a bowl of cereal whilst in her comfiest pyjamas. There was no change in anything for the next week except that when the blonde woman left the apartment, there would be nobody there so she could be a little louder or go out more often, taking the time to be as cautious as ever. The week passed quicker than she anticipated and she soon heard that familiar voice, the one that made her insides squirm with pleasure, her voice. She had heard her key in the lock, heard her enter the apartment and stay oh so quiet. Nothing remarkeable happened that day, except she waited until all was quiet and went to get the newspaper and a coffee, bowing to the pressure her stomach was putting her under with its incessant growling, she bought herself a red bean bun and picked at it as she walked home, the sun was pleasant on her face and it was just passed the time when people were rushing to work or equally rushing their children off to school so the streets were a little emptier than usual and that's just how she liked it. Once she had snuck back into her apartment, she sat and finished her bun, drank her coffee and started the shower. Even she had to admit that she had let her hygiene lapse a little in the past few months and now she really had reached her limit, taking her hair down, she sighed, what was she doing?. Why couldn't she get over her?. She shook the thoughts from her head and undressed, stepping under the warm water and letting it cascade down her body, warming her slowly. The heat collected in both the shower and the bathroom in general was so intense that it felt like a sauna and she walked to her bedroom, grabbing a towel along the way, she dried herself and put on fresh clothes, taking care not to let her wet hair touch her shirt, she wrapped a towel around her head and went back into the living room, sitting down at the coffee table.

Footsteps and chatter frequented the hallway and she had to stop herself from getting up every 2 seconds to be nosey. Setting out the letters, crudely cut fom the newspaper in front of her, she had had the sense to wear gloves from the moment she had bought it to this very moment and she would wear them until the deed was done. There was no way she could let this come back to her in any way, that's why the apartment had been purchased under a pseudonym and the money taken from an ex's account which they had 'closed' together and for which she was getting any mail about sent directly to her still. The noise in the other apartment was grating on her and she had to try her hardest to block it out as she used tweezers to carefully place every glued letter to the A4 to make it look clumsy, if it was too perfect then it would just be odd as a threatening note. What else did she need?, her thoughts drifted along as she waited for the glue to dry. It had been hours since the noise had died down and the repetitive sounds of footsteps from the many visitors had stopped. Deciding that it was time, she pulled on her coat, flipped up the hood, pulled on her boots and grabbed the paper, the words were dim in the darkness but she could still make them out:

'SiNnERs burN in HELL!'

Making sure the elastic band was in her pocket too, she placed the paper with it and grabbed her key, letting herself out quietly and locking the door behind her. The ground outside the apartment building was firm so no need to worry about footprints as the grass would prevent it and her boots hadn't been worn since purchase over 10 years ago. She had kept the gloves on, so that finger prints wouldn't be an issue if the police got involved but she doubted that two women in a relationship in this sometimes backwards thinking country, would want attention brought to them. Careful not to let the elastic band snap loudly, she fastened the paper with it to a brick she had found nearby. She had calculated how many windows up and across the apartment would be but she hadn't needed to as she could see the back of the blonde in the window, she waited a while until the room went dark, all the better not to alert anyone. her throwing arm wasn't the best but she had been to the baseball practice centre a few times over the past week just to test and improve it. Now she took aim, took a deep breath too and threw the weighty brick through the window. Not waiting around to see how her handiwork had gone, she made her way back inside, taking her boots off just inside the lobby as she walked up the stairs to her floor. Almost tip-toeing to her door, she slid the key into the lock, trying to block out the chaotic noise in the opposite apartment as she quietly closed the door behind her and locked it. She had become so adept at skulking silently around her apartment that she didn't worry about anyone hearing her as she slid her clothes off, threw them in the washing machine and started it on it's oddly quiet spin cycle. Walking to the shower, she grabbed her boots and took them with her, stepping into the hot water as though she was on an automatic track, she washed both herself and her boots thoroughly. As she turned the shower off, she dried herself and got into her pyjamas, her boots left drying on the bathroom floor. It took her a while to get to sleep and so she put in her earphones and listened to her music, the sounds from the other apartment drowned out by her own music. 

It had been a week and nothing, she had gotten away with her crime, but at the same time her anger and frustration had increased tenfold with the fact that she was still suffering in the knowledge that the two women were still together, possibly happier than ever. More and more it was overwhelmingly tempting to confess to her, to tell them that she had committed the crime that the police had started to investigate. For the first few days she had stayed inside her apartment and stayed quiet to avoid attracting attention but now she really had to leave since she was running low on the basics. As far as she knew, she had accidentally injured one of their friends and for that she was sorry, if she hadn't committed a crime which resulted in the accident, she would have openly expressed her remorse and well wishes for the friend but she couldn't risk exposure and stayed silent. She packed her backpack with the boots and outfit from that night and opened her door with confidence, in the last couple of days she had decided to let her neighbours know that she had recently moved in, taking care to choose a purchase date after the event, and as a result she was now free to relax and be noisy. Looking around, she resolved to unpack everything and officially move herself in, it had worked in her favour to keep everything boxed up until now and she had called a friend to help her. The walk to the charity shop was a short one and she stopped in a small cafe on the way back for a coffee, as she sat down, she saw them, sat at a table nearby, she saw the blonde, her and their two friends laughing and joking until she overheard a snippet of serious conversation and she looked up. She heard the blonde mention the note in a hushed tone and she busied herself with a magazine she had grabbed on her way in, the two friends looked almost ashamed as they admitted they already knew of the note and she hid a smirk behind an article on which blouses to wear this summer. They all sat there discussing it and she only said something to relay their theories as to the culprit, wanting to hear more and stopping herself from moving closer in the process, she was startled as the smallest member of the group almost yelled that she would be the blonde's right-hand woman in solving the case, she was clearly riled up by her friend's injury and the injured party placed a hand on her arm to subdue her. Walking home a few minutes later, a fresh coffee in her hand, she sipped it as she thought about the fact that she was quietly infamous and nobody would be any the wiser.

The lift pinged as the doors opened and she stepped out onto the floor her apartment was on, she heard muffled talking and incoherent radio chatter as she was about to turn the corner, as she did so, she stepped back, two uniformed police officers at her door and her heart dropped to see them. trying to remember everything she did, she concluded that they must be here to make a general inquiry into the crime and so she took a deep breath before rounding the corner and greeting them, they identified themselves and informed her why they would like to speak to her, she looked and appropriate level of concern and asked them inside. As soon as they entered, she knew she had made a mistake, their demeanour had changed and they exchanged a serious glance, yes she had disposed of her clothes, washed herself clean and her nondescript botts were dry and in amongst her shoes in the back of her closet but the officers had seen the one thing she had missed. The newspaper amy as well hae had one word embalzoned on it in bright red writing 'GUILTY', the glue, and her spare paper were out of the way but the newspaper had enough missing letters on the front page alone to look suspicious at best. She grimaced as she looked between the two women, clearly the very thing she had banked on had not happened and they had found a way to discretely inform the police of the note whilst keeping their relationship a secret. She smiled at her downfall and waited, listening as she was read her rights and the handcuffs were placed around her wrists, not fighting her conviction, she went willingly with them and inwardly cursed her own naivety.

"Kang Seulgi, you are being arrested on suspicion of criminal damage resulting in life-threatening injury. You do not have to say anything but anything you do say will be taken in evidence and may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand?"

She nodded and was led out of her apartment, an officer closing and locking her door for her, placing a sign on the door for no persons to enter unless with the police or criminal investigation team. As she was walked to the car, she held her head high and smiled, yes she was guilty but she would do it again in a heartbeat.