The same night when Jiyong was lying on his bed, trying to make himself fall asleep, Dara was also in her bed, but crying her eyes out. She turned off airplane mode on her phone just in case someone from work calls her now that her day off was over. 
She felt more alone now that she’s inside her apartment and not surrounded by people. 
The absence of Jiyong made her feel empty. She couldn’t explain why she was disappointed to know that he already had a girlfriend. She thought that she must have overanalyzed the things he did for her when he was just being a good friend.
But acting happy for him when he told her about it was the initial reaction she did because he looked happy that time. She didn’t want to rain on his parade just because she didn’t get who she wanted unlike how he did.
Yet, Jiyong was a friend she’s afraid to lose so she swept that feeling under the rug to make everything okay.

She cried during the remaining time of the night and poured all the sadness out of her that she kept inside and hid the whole day. She put her phone on silent mode and kept it away from her as she cried what seemed to be an endless stream of tears to her pillow, ignoring Donghae’s calls and Gray’s messages.

Her energy drained out by crying so she fell asleep on her wet pillow at around 2 AM already.
She then woke up at 5, leaving her with only 3 hours of sleep.
She fixed her hair, done her makeup and went back to work like the strong and professional woman that she is.

Like nothing happened, she worked hard during the filming, wearing the sweetest smile.
But behind all those external pretense, people could still easily identify the pain she’s holding inside by her eyes. It showed that she cried for a long time.
It was a little bit puffy. She thought she hid it well through her eye makeup but she failed.

So her co-workers suggested to their director that she should only take part in the first half of filming and go home to rest. They were worried because the once bright and bubbly Dara was gone today. It was new to them so it was unsettling to witness and just disregard.
They knew she was a very genuine person so they believed that she was not feeling so right this day.
The director allowed her to go home and just go back for the next filming when she’s feeling a little better.  
Dara was glad to have such a healthy working environment that allows their artists to protect their mental state. It was a gem that she found, she thought.

With her heart full about how she was treated, she checked her phone to finally see Gray’s messages that she didn’t read last night.

There were only 3 messages but very touching and succeeded to make his point across.
“How did your night go? Was it fun? I hope you got home safely.”
“You’re not replying so I’m a bit worried. I’m hoping you’re okay.”
“I’ll be busy in the studio tomorrow but if you want to hang out or you need someone to talk to, I’ll be willingly welcoming you through AOMG’s front door. Good night!”
 
She didn’t feel like meeting anybody at the moment so she decided to just go home and take this time for herself to heal for a while. Again, she ignored his messages.

She needed some time alone.

Her healing lasted for a week. Even though it was still in progress, she bounced back and went to work as usual. She felt a little bit better each day until she finally engrossed herself with her work. Within that week, she hid the pain she felt when she received a voice message from Donghae at some time. He didn’t stop to find ways to contact her, therefore, he left a voice message just to deliver her the message he wanted to tell.
 
His voice was husky and hoarse like he was tired when he spoke. 
The voice message he sent said, "Hello? I understand why you're not answering my calls. I don't know any other way to reach you so I'm just going to leave this here. I don't even know why I called. I know you hate me... I'll never be able to see you again, probably."
He took a long pause like he was trying hard to make his cry inaudible but he could never hide the pain through his shaky voice when he added, "I don't know what's happening to me."

He sounded like he was crying this time when he said, "No, I'm not okay. My mind's raging. I'm a mess. I—I feel like no one's hearing me enough. I know I made a mistake and you can call me bad for that, but no one really asked how I truly am——the heaviness I've been carrying. And I know I hurt people in the process. I repent for that. I thought that I felt better in someone else's arms but I think I just got better at faking it..." He faked a chuckle then continued, "I just... I just hope you'll forgive me. That's all."

He took a deep breath and swallowed before he said, "I hope you're doing fine. I hope you're always okay.” It took a 7 second interval before he spoke his last words, “Goodbye for now.” then ended his recording of the voice message.

It was the type of pain that remained with her until this day. Even if a lot of days had gone by, the memory of his voice was still stuck in her head. The pain still stung but she thought she shouldn’t do anything about it, hence, any idea to call him back was not necessary.
It has been a week so she was able to slightly cope up with everything after that specific night.
She was feeling better now and she planned to go back to how things were used to be. 
 

One late afternoon, she finally had the spirit to talk to Gray. But instead of continuing their conversation through texts, she asked where he was and came to him to talk personally.
She was trying to spend time with him more as a payback for what they lost in a week.

Regardless of Gray’s hectic schedule today, he welcomed her to AOMG building as promised and let her inside his studio. The other boys weren’t around the building so they didn’t know she visited, which benefited Gray for he could have a private time with her without the teasing and all.

Dara entered his studio and was awed by the exclusive vibe in it. She said while looking at the neon sign on the wall, “Gray Ground… It’s really named after you. Ahh~ You’re also a producer. Is there anything you can’t do?”

She stopped talking when she noticed that Gray was just looking at her. She asked, “What’s wrong?”

He replied, “You didn’t contact me for a week. Not that I’m keeping scores but I’m just curious… Is everything okay?”

“Of course.”

“You suddenly stopped talking to me after that night.”

“Ahhh.” ,she replied, avoiding his eyes. She didn’t know how to act well when being confronted. 

“I’m just concerned.”

“Isn’t it too early to talk about this? I just came here.”

“I want to make everything clear first so tell me.”

She slowly walked a bit around, catching the right momentum to share. When she gathered the guts to recall and talk about it again, she placed her phone at the top of the table, sat on the couch and said, “I watched a movie and it affected me so much that I didn’t talk to anyone for a week.”

Gray didn’t reply for seconds and stared at her face. He said, “A movie?” like he couldn’t believe what she just gave him for an answer.

She laughed at herself and said, “Yes. A movie. A sad one...”

He leaned on his seat and said, “Tell me what it is about.”

“Uhmm… There was a girl, who liked a guy whom she dated before. They had it well even if they were over. The guy kept talking to the girl and the girl took it as ‘hey, I still like you’ and no doubt, he made her feel special again but then the girl didn’t know that the guy already had a girlfriend... so she got terribly sad. She also had a guy friend who she found very dear to her. They have something undefined but both of them clearly know it. He was there whenever she needed him but little did she know, he has a girlfriend too. So the girl felt alone by the tragic outcome of her lovelife… It saddened me too so I kind of hibernated for a week.”

Gray didn’t say anything after she shared the supposed plot of the movie she was saying. He couldn’t tell her how bad she was at lying because he easily became conscious of what’s really happening. He did