[Seoul, South Korea]

The beep of her handphone was what woke her.

Ji-Hyo pushed herself up from the couch and hissed when she felt a sharp pain on her neck. Her hand flew up to massage it, internally berating herself for falling asleep in such an uncomfortable position.

Her phone beeped again and she eyed it warily, not wanting to face what she was sure was coming. Nevertheless, she slowly picked it up from the coffee table and unlocked it. Her daughter's smiling face greeted her on her wallpaper and she took a moment to smile at the image. However, her eyes caught a few notifications from articles that mentioned her and her co-star, Lee Dong-Wook, and pointedly ignored them, choosing to focus on the messages and missed calls she received from her manager and staff instead.

As she scrolled through the call log, she picked up on the notable absence of her husband's name. It worried her to no end that he gave up so easily these days. Back then, no matter how trivial the fight, he would call or message her the next day to talk it out between them. It wasn't as if she was looking forward to dealing with their marital issues again but it was better than the silent treatment he was giving her now. She didn't want him to give up. She didn't want their marriage to fail just because they couldn't sort out this huge misunderstanding between them.

She reached the end of the missed calls log and shut off her phone. She never once saw her husband's caller ID and her heart felt even heavier. All she wanted was to curl up in her bed and wait for Jong-Kook’s call. Unfortunately, the stream of messages she skimmed through earlier reminded her that she had a schedule to keep.

She got up from her seat on the couch and sighed before trudging towards the bathroom. She hadn't even changed out of the clothes she wore last night. She was still in the sponsored dress that was used in the photoshoot she did just before she was allowed to clock off.

Most of her make-up had been smeared across the couch and throw pillows that she slept on and all that was left was a mess of faint colors and dried mascara.

"Yaish..." she hissed under her breath as she picked at the dried mascara on her eyelashes. She the faucet and picked up her facial cleanser after trying to break off some of the clumps. She didn't have much to do in the way of cleaning herself up. She wasn't very meticulous about her skin care routine like others in her profession. She supposes it's something she was used to in the two years she spent taking care of a baby.

After cleaning up her face and taking a quick shower, she exited the bathroom and was greeted by the ringing of her handphone. She held back her sigh and moved to pick it up, taking note of the name of the caller.

"Hello?"

"Ji-Hyo? Oh, thank the heavens you finally picked up your phone!" came the elated voice of her manager, Baek Jang-Mi.

"Ne... I'm sorry for making you worry, eonnie. My phone was flooded with notifications about Dong-Wook and I so I put it away," Ji-Hyo told her as she walked towards her closet. She pulled out the outfit that her stylist team had put together the other day in preparation for today's schedule. It was a simple yet elegant white dress that didn't require a lot of effort to put on.

"I'm almost there but if you need a bit more time, I can stop by a coffee shop on the way and buy coffee," her manager suggested.

Ji-Hyo placed her phone in between her cheek and her shoulder as she checked her outfit for any stray creases. "No, there's no need, eonnie. I'm almost done."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

Ji-Hyo heard Jang-Mi talk to who she assumed was the driver before she said, "Arasseo, I'll be there in about ten minutes with Ji-Won for your hair and make-up."

Ji-Hyo said her goodbyes and threw her phone on her bed before she followed it promptly. She just laid there, in her bathrobe and a towel wrapped around her head, staring at the white ceiling of her bedroom.

She let her thoughts drift away to her daughter, Hana, and wondered what she was doing at this moment. She’d been doing this whenever she let her mind wander for these past two years. She’d let herself imagine what she would be doing with her daughter if she was still in LA. If she was with her right now, they would probably be playing somewhere in the park near their house. She remembered taking Hana there when she was a year old and she enjoyed seeing the leaves sway in the wind and the bubbles that drifted towards them that some of the older kids blew.

She wonders if Hana frequents the park these days. From their phone conversations, she never mentioned playing there. Her carefree chatter usually just recalled her visits to her paternal grandparents and the activities she had done in daycare.

Ji-Hyo rolled over and laid on her stomach, picking up her phone as she did so. She opened up her video album and lost herself in the videos she had saved of her daughter. Jong-Kook used to send her so many videos of her but it slowly dwindled like a dying stream.

She still received videos from her in-laws and friends whenever they saw Hana but she missed the frequent updates her husband gave her. His videos made her feel as if she was there witnessing her baby’s growth even though she was half a world away.

The keypad of her door beeping shook her out of her trip to memory lane and she quickly closed the videos and locked her phone. She quickly stood up to greet her manager and staff, knowing that they were pressed for time since she ghosted them for most of the morning.

Baek Jang-mi, ever the delegate, started spouting off tasks for Ji-Won and a young man Ji-Hyo hadn’t seen before. She assumed he might be here to help Ji-Won. She greeted them with a smile, nonetheless.

“Yah! I love you and all that,” Jang-Mi said, placing an iced americano in her hand as soon as she crossed the foyer. She stopped by to get coffee after all. “But please, for the love of all that is holy, pick up your phone!”

She pushed her towards the living room while nagging her about her behavior. Ji-Hyo let herself be lectured because she knew Jang-Mi found it cathartic and she did deserve it. Ji-Won and her assistant trailed behind them, the latter craning his head at every direction as if taking it all in.

Jang-mi seemed to notice it too because she snapped her fingers at the young man and said, “Hey, kid, start setting up!”

Ji-Hyo gently pulled her manager’s arm down and whispered, “Stop that. I get that he’s new but please, tone it down a bit.”

Jang-Mi huffed and rolled her eyes. Everyone who had worked with Song Ji-Hyo had firsthand experience of her kindness and while it was good publicity for her, her manager worried that someone would take advantage of it in the future.

While Ji-Won started blow-drying her hair, Jang-Mi slipped away and went to Ji-Hyo’s bedroom to check on the dress she was going to wear. Ji-Won’s assistant started opening up the make-up cases and setting up the lights and mirrors. Ji-Hyo didn’t miss the curious looks he sent her way every so often and the way his gaze sometimes wandered to the pictures that decorated her apartment.

“Do-Yun-ah…” Ji-Won called out, hands still combing away at Ji-Hyo’s hair. “Can you hand me the hair clips in that bag over there?”

She gestured to a black backpack