“What’s eating you?”

 Jieun looked up from her phone. For a moment there, she forgot that she was in the car with her manager, on her way to her stylist. This momentary loss of awareness was caused by something she happened to see on her instagram feed.

“Nothing..just…stuff.”

Hanteo gave her a low, disappointed grunt and re-oriented his focus on the road as the traffic light turned green.

She knew Hanteo can see that something was up, but he also knew from being with Jieun for years that she’ll tell him when she’s ready. Right now, she’s not. Actually, she’d rather not think about it but the universe seem to be conspiring against her.

A frustrated sigh escaped her as she looked at Hanee’s photo, which appeared on her feed because one of her friends liked it. The photo showed her with a group of friends having dinner, it also had a short video of her walking down the streets of Itaewon, showing no sign of discomfort. This was notable given that her injury happened only four days ago. It infuriated her seeing Hanee so openly lie, and it heightened her suspiscions that Hanee was planning everything and it all weren’t happening by chance.

Yesterday, she almost gave in. She almost sent Jihoon a message, but now, she’s glad she didn’t. Her emotions are still on a high and it wouldn’t do any good to fight, especially since both of them are drained with work commitments as it is.

Locking her phone screen, she looked out the window and sighed.

“Hanteo, I have nothing tomorrow night, right?”

“Yeah, you have the weekend off.”

“Good.”

She was having dinner with her parents, and she’d never been more excited to go home and eat her mom’s cooking. It was a much needed time away from work and if she’s being honest, from all the drama with Jihoon.

When she entered the studio, she was greeted by Seoyoon, who was overly excited to show her the dresses she had prepared. Jieun couldn’t match her energy for the SMAs, but it was nice to be around people who gave her other things to think about.

Sooyeon then led her to the biggest dressing room where three outfits were laid out, all for her to choose from. They were all in shades of blue, as she requested.

“What do you think?” Sooyeon asked.

“Let me try and fit them all before I choose. Then we can talk about accessories and makeup after.”

“Sounds good!” replied Sooyeon, clapping her hands together, excited to dress Jieun as always. She wanted to give Jieun a more mature look this time, just like her last photoshoot. Jieun initially had misgivings, but her vogue spread seemed to go well, so she’s willing to take more risks. Enough with the “little sister” treatment.

“Oh…and by the way, I have another actress coming in for a fitting today..a bit last minute, but I told her I can dress her for the SMAs too.”

“No problem.” Jieun replied, dismissively, as she thought of which dress to try on first. The midnight blue sleeveless dress caught her eye first.

She looked at the full body mirror and saw how the dress perfectly hugged her body.

“It almost looks like I have curves.” Jieun joked to herself.

She took a selfie, and was about to send it to Jihoon out of habit, but caught herself. She scanned the last message he sent two days ago, and a few more before that, all just seen on her end. She felt guilty and it made her miss Jihoon inspite of her many lingering questions about him and Hanee. So she decided to reply.

Oppa, I’m sorry. I just didn’t want talk to you when I’m still fuming. Let’s talk tomorrow.

I’m here at Sooyeon’s trying on clothes for the SMAs. This one is my favorite, what do you think?

She pressed send with her selfie, hoping to make her text message a little light. It actually made her feel better now that she decided to talk to him.

Inspecting her reflection on the mirror closely before trying on the last dress, her phone beeped.

I understand, let’s make time soon. We have a lot to talk about. I’m just handling some issues with Ciipher’s debut and it’s taking a lot of my time these days.

By the way, you look lovely. The dress looks pefect. I miss you!

This is was what made it work between her and Jihoon. They can fight and still miss each other – it’s strange, because she’s never had any relationship like this before. Maybe it’s Jihoon’s maturity balancing them out together, he wouldn’t confront her when she’s in a funk, and she’s able to draw him out of his shell when he’s troubled and keeping things to himself.

She replied with, “I miss you too, oppa.” and put down her phone. Wanting to show Sooyeon how well the dress fits her, she went out of the dressing room. There were lively voices outside, and she thought it’s probably the actress Sooyeon was talking about.

“Sooyeon I want to –“ Her speech was cut midway when the other lady turned to look at her.

Her face immediately felt hot as an immediate reaction to Hanee.

This can’t be a coincidence. Why is she here???

“Jieun, hi!” Hanee greeted her, but she wasn’t able to mask her lack of enthusiasm.

“Uhm..Sooyeon, I just wanted to show you the dress, I really like it.” She said, completely ignoring Hanee.

Sooyeon felt the awkwardness, but she tried to reply with a smile. She agreed that the dress looked just right.

Jieun didn’t want to be in the same building as Hanee. It gets on her nerves so bad that she wrapped up her fitting and told Sooyeon she’ll just call her to talk about the accessories and makeup for the awards night. Sensing the unpleasant atmosphere, Sooyeon didn’t even try to stop her from leaving.

Jieun was on her way out when Hanee called out to her.

“Can we have lunch?”  The tall woman asked her.

Jieun studied Hanee’s face. She looked at Hanee squarely, not even trying to hide her dislike. She can see that the mask has been removed – gone was the sunny, “I’m so nice let’s be friends” demeanor. One of her eyebrows was slightly raised and her eyes challenged Jieun.

“What for, unnie?”

“You know we have a lot to talk about.”

Jieun scoffed at Hanee’s gall. As if she has any say about Jihoon’s love life.  Hanee is nine years older than her but even that is not going to stop her if Hanee steps out of line.

But okay, let’s see what you have to say.

They went to a quiet japanese-italian fusion restaurant. Jieun had no desire to eat whatsoever. She just wanted to get it over with.

 “Unnie, let’s not waste time. What is this about?” She said, putting down her fork which she’s been using to poke at her pasta for the past few minutes.

“Oooh, I didn’t know you were this straightforward.”

She shrugged, her gaze not leaving Hanee’s face. She wanted her to know that she’s not one to be trifled with.

Hanee cleared and continued speaking. “Well..I want to talk about Jihoon oppa. You’re not dating him, right?”

Jieun had a hard time keeping calm, but she was able to respond. “What is it to you?”

Hanee chuckled. “You both are so cagey. Anyway, I just wanted to check in on you. Well, I told Jihoon oppa if he’s playing around with you, he should stop it. You’re too young for him anyway.”

That was the last straw. She can’t let Hanee be like this. Secrets be damned, she’s going to put this woman in her place.

“Unnie, I don’t think you’re in a position to decide who’s good for him. And please. Just stop with all this scheming, I know you faked that injury last time. I don’t know what you’re up to and you can scheme all you want, but Jihoon oppa and I are together. You can’t do anything about that.”

She was huffing after she said that. Her hands wanted to hurt something, but all she could do was crumple the table napkin with her small fist.

Hanee chuckled, looking unfazed.

“Strange because Jihoon oppa wouldn’t say the same. All he told me was that I should be nice to you.”

Jieun didn’t know what to say, it felt like a knife stabbed