RUNNING away. That’s probably the best thing that Bae Joohyun could do. If she was to write a resume, running away would be the first one in the list of her ‘expertise’. In their clan, her relatives knew her as the perfect young Ahn as she exhibited exceptional distinct qualities of their clan for such a young age.

There was even a discussion about presenting her in the public even though she wasn’t a child of the current clan head. Her mother liked the idea, but Joohyun, being just a little kid who wanted to spend more time with her father, asked her uncle in secret to have her hidden from the society. That was actually the first time that she tried running away from her fate.

Joohyun was a daddy’s girl. She loved hanging out with her father. She loved singing with her father while the said guy played either the guitar or piano for her. They had a very strong bond despite not being able to meet regularly because of all the cram school Joohyun was attending.

She was only fifteen years old when her father left her. Cancer took her father away from her. Joohyun was broken but what hurt her even more was the fact that her mother was almost absent during the time her father needed the woman the most. Hyunmi chose to do her obligations as an Ahn rather than to attend to her husband. Joohyun was even forced to continue with her hellish studying program despite knowing that Joowon was slowly slipping away.

Joohyun could still remember how much she argued with her mother, how much she showed her anger to their clan’s ideals and mindset. She started rebelling by picking up the instruments that her father used to play. She ultimately gave up her candidacy into becoming the future clan head and devoted more of her time in making music.

She was already in her junior year in high school when she met Kim Yejun, an aspiring idol, who transferred to their school from Daegu. Since her father was also from Daegu, Joohyun had this strange connection with Yejun and that connection developed into feelings. They started dating, Yejun actually decided to stop pursuing his dream to be an idol and just make music with the band he established with Joohyun and their friends.

The two even decided to go to the same university as their love for each other continued to guide them. Despite all of the endless banters due to Joohyun’s jealous nature, they still made it through… Until that day Yejun delivered the news.

Yejun’s former agency contacted the guy after seeing the videos their band uploads in their SNS platforms. Since it was his original dream to be in a bigger stage, he thought it wouldn’t do any harm if he accepted the offer. He wouldn’t be in a sing and dance group anyway, he would be in a band.

But he was so focused on reaching his dream again that he got short-sighted. The members of his band were so heartbroken that he would be giving up what they’ve been doing together ever since highschool. They were already making a name for themselves. Little by little, at the very least there was progress.

Joohyun was so hurt by Yejun’s decision as he hid everything from her for months. It was that one fateful day when Joohyun decided to confront Yejun–-the day he signed the contract without Joohyun’s knowledge at all.

“Do you really have to do this, Oppa?” Joohyun asked as she followed Yejun by the parking lot. “You told me before that you’d rather be beside me than to chase after the spotlight, didn’t you? You even said that making music with me is—”

“Joohyun-ah, please…” The guy stopped in his tracks and turned to Joohyun, his voice sounding so tired. “Please… let’s just get to the car first. I’ll explain everything to you.”

“Oppa…” Joohyun helplessly called, feeling so betrayed. “Am I really that toxic for you? Why did you have to hide everything from me? Do you really think that I won’t be able to understand? Am I really choking—”

“YES, JOOHYUN! You do!”

Joohyun was silenced, Yejun never shouted at her even once. Even Yejun himself was surprised with what he did. He brushed his face with his palm before looking around, just in case there were employees at the parking lot at that time.

“Look, Joohyun…” He sighed as he brushed his hair back with his fingers. “I’m sorry. Please let’s just talk about this somewhere else, please?”

Still shocked that she got shouted at, Joohyun just agreed to ride Yejun’s car. Yejun let out a troubled sigh after seeing the look at Joohyun’s face. He took this chance to quietly take off from the underground parking lot.

“I’m really sorry, Joohyun.” Yejun started when they finally got out of that long spiral. “I also thought that my dream to be a big star has already grown out of me but…”

Yejun bit his lower lip, taking glances of the girl whose eyes were already welling up with tears. “I’m sorry, love… It was just hard to say no to it when the opportunity knocked on my door. You know that things like this are hard to come by in this industry.”

Joohyun felt so restless. “W-What’s going to happen to us then?”

“Love…” Yejun called. “I am not going to break up with you, Joohyun. We’ll still be together but we can’t be public just like how we used to—”

“But why?” Joohyun’s tears started falling. “Why is there a need to hide me?”

“Joohyun please… You know how this industry works—”

“So are you going to flirt with your fans, make them believe that they have a chance with you, tell them that you love them while we meet in the shadows like I am some sort of a criminal?”

Yejun felt his head ache. He felt bad knowing that it could’ve been better if he told Joohyun about this ahead of time to somehow prepare her. He could’ve asked for Joohyun’s cousin, Hyejoon’s help in talking with her. He was just so afraid that Joohyun wouldn't understand and made him quit. It was just too hard to make Joohyun feel assured.

“Joohyun-ah… This is work… It’s not flirting with fans, it’s just showing thanks for their support—”

“Oppa.” Joohyun wiped her tears away but they just kept on falling. “People from your agency came to talk to me. They asked me to break up with you and stay away from you.”

“What?” Yejun suddenly stepped into the break, earning them angry honks from the cars behind them. “That will never happen! They already told me—”

“Are you telling me that I am lying!?” Joohyun shouted back, she was telling the truth. People from the agency really came to Joohyun and asked her to break up with Yejun and make it look like she was doing it on her own accord. “They even want me to delete all my SNS posts related to you!”

Knowing that they were blocking the traffic, Yejun decided to pull over but a bus suddenly ran straight to them while they were changing lanes. Everything happened very fast. Yejun’s car blinker was still on even though the car crashed at the metal dividers in the middle of the road.

Joohyun was still conscious right after the impact even though her head was bleeding. She managed to see Yejun’s final moments. The guy was looking at her, his face filled with blood… She felt his hand weakly reach out to her and before forcing to speak.

Feeling so dizzy and her ears deafened temporarily because of the impact, Joohyun wasn’t able to hear what Yejun said. Her eyes just shut down on their own and the rest was tragedy.

Yejun was no longer there when she woke up. She won’t be able to have a proper closure with him. Yejun’s mother loathed her for what happened. Despite also grieving the loss of her boyfriend, she was even ultimately cursed for something that she never wished to happen.

With all the blame being pointed at her, she blamed the Ahn blood flowing in her veins for the actions that she did. She could still hear Yejun’s shout echoing in her ears. He did confirm that she was toxic, that he couldn’t breathe because of her.

She felt so disgusted, thinking that she became like her mother who didn’t even listen to her father’s wishes, who didn’t even try to understand the situation because of a stupid clan ideal.

Joohyun decided to leave home with the inheritance her father left her. Since she couldn’t pick up music anymore, she thought that running his father’s old cafe would suffice with her lackings. She completely ran away from the Ahn life, turning her back to the comfortable yet pressure-filled life the surname brings.

She learned to live an ordinary life, she learned that she could live without the attention of people. She distanced herself from the most important people in her life in fear that they would also get hurt because of her. She ran away from her name, she ran away from music, she ran away from relationships… She kept everything behind a closed door with hundreds of locks and even covered it behind a brick wall.

She thought that she already managed to run away from everything until Kang Seulgi crashed down her walls while she entered Joohyun’s life riding a war tank.

The said Kang shed light to her life that has completely lost its direction. Seulgi brought warmth and colour to the cramped, small space where she lives. Seulgi made her call her house a home. Seulgi made her feel loved, she made her feel that she’s worthy to be loved.

But… were all of them real?

JOOHYUN woke up from sleep as she felt freezing. She looked around and found herself sitting on the bathroom floor, hugging her knees close to her. Her head felt so heavy, she could feel it throbbing whenever she moved around. She then tried to stand up when her palm touched a piece of paper lying on the floor—it was Seulgi’s letter of confession.

“Right… Seulgi…”

Joohyun weakly turned to her wrist watch to consult time, it was already past 2AM. She was troubled by Seulgi’s confession that she couldn’t bring herself out from the bathroom.

A lot of questions were running in her mind. She couldn’t help but to question everything. All this time she thought she was the one hiding something big but Seulgi knew everything about her. She thought that Seulgi was completely clueless about her grand background yet still fell in love with her but she was actually already aware of it.

Seulgi has been following her since when? How much does she know? How did she manage to get all this information about her?

Joohyun was so conflicted on what to feel. It was just a huge chunk of information thrown at her.

Yejun’s heart is in Seulgi. Yejun…Her ex-boyfriend who died because of her selfishness. If she didn’t fight with him that day he could’ve been still alive up to this day. To all the people who would receive his heart, why Seulgi? Fate is really making fun of her.

Unable to stand up, Joohyun leaned her head to the cold wall, hoping that it would help her mind cool down.

She didn’t know how she would face Seulgi. She felt like crying but she was so shocked to do so. She was so confused that she couldn’t take herself out of the restroom and ultimately faded to sleep like she always does during times of stress.

“Seulgi…” her face crumpled at the sound of that name. She also felt her heart clench. “…She was so broken that she tried killing herself. But…”

Joohyun pushed herself to stand up and faced the door. “…Is she even telling me the truth or she was just—“

Joohyun’s eyes widened in realisation. The door flung open and she rushed out of the bathroom. Her legs and back were sore but she didn’t care about it. The Seulgi she knows would never joke about life just like that. She would never lie about something so sensitive.

Joohyun turned pale when she found no Seulgi in her house. The mess that Seulgi prepared to surprise her earlier was also cleaned up. The pillowcases were changed together with the bedsheet and there was only one blanket left.

“Seulgi…” Joohyun’s breathing grew heavy. She opened Seulgi’s closet and found it empty. “No way…”

She searched for her phone but saw no contacts from Seulgi. She tried calling the other girl but her call wasn’t going through. It seemed like Seulgi had already turned off her phone.

“No way, no way…”

Joohyun grabbed a coat and hurriedly wore her shoes. Her heart broke even more when she saw another note posted by the door.

“I’m really sorry…”

Joohyun’s eyes were a complete picture of worry. All her questions disappeared when Seulgi also disappeared. She rushed out of her room, still trying to reach out to Seulgi through the phone even though it seemed hopeless.

She was so close to tears when she didn’t find Seulgi’s car in front of their building as well. She bit her fingers, terribly panicking. She looked around, squeezing her head on how she would look for Seulgi.

She had no contact details of Seulgi’s friends. There’s no way she could reach out to her family as well.

“No way, Seulgi-ya…” Joohyun stomped her feet in frustration, tears started falling down he