Arisa awoke by the sun’s rays shining against her peached skin.

She moved her hand to her face, trying to shield the sun from her eyes.

She turned over, saw an empty fire pit across from her, and realized she wasn’t in the comforts of her own home.

She was on an unfamiliar crème colored couch, with a brown bearskin blanket over her body.

She lifted her head slowly to see a man’s back hunched over at a dining room table.

“K-Key?” she whispered.

The man slowly turned and faced her with puffy red eyes.

“O-Onew? Is that you?”

The man held a stone cold gaze.

Arisa shivered.

“Onew? Are you okay?”

Arisa lifted herself from the couch and walked to the table. She noticed a gray brief case lied open and papers were scattered across the wooden top. Then she suddenly remembered.

“Onew,” she said quietly, placing her hand on the back of his shoulder in sympathy.

He shook his head and smoothed out the picture he was holding in his hand.

Arisa looked at him with pity.

“Th-this has to be some sort of misunderstanding. There’s no way…this can’t be…this isn’t true,” he shook his head, tears beginning to stream down his round cheeks.

Arisa pouted and rubbed his back.

She had no idea how to comfort him. Finding out his potential girlfriend had something to do with a murder had to have been heartbreaking.

She let him have his moment and proceeded to take a glance at the evidence once more.

“So Miss Jung Eunji is actually Hyerim, huh? Her entire life story is a lie then, correct? Wow she has some major explaining to do.” Arisa shook her head and laughed as she began stacking the papers together. “Um, Onew, are you done with that?”

Onew looked down at the photo he was holding and Arisa frowned as she saw his face fall.

It was a picture of a woman named Hyerim with her supposed-to-be fiancé.

Arisa hadn’t quite understood it herself.

She wasn’t sure what she’d find in the briefcase that Taehwan had told her about, but this surely hadn’t crossed her mind.

A woman she had only encountered once had lied about her upbringing, obtained a job at a law firm, completely abandoned her old life, and changed her identity; but for what?

What was this Hyerim/Eunji character trying to hide?

Trying to offer Onew some hope, she looked to him and grabbed his hands.

“Remember Onew, we don’t know Eunji’s side of the story. Maybe Taehwan is missing something. These are nothing but a series of speculations. Maybe this Eunji girl has a good excuse for everything she’s done. We’ll know once we confront her tonight.”

Onew shook his head.

“No, I think it’s as bad as Taehwan suggests, if not worse. Eunji, Hyerim…whoever, has been lying from the start. She has an agenda. An evil one at that.”

Arisa looked into Onew’s pained eyes and felt he was implying something else, but whatever it was, he didn’t plan to divulge. 

“You are right though, we’re going to confront her at that party. In private.”

Arisa rolled her eyes. He had been insisting since last night that if they were going to confront Eunji, they would do it secretly.

Deep down, beneath his pain and confusion, he still cared to protect her.

“Of course, since I kind of owe you. We’ll pull her outside and talk to her then.”

Onew nodded and handed Arisa the picture.

She grabbed it, eyed it once more, still trying to piece together some sort of motive, then placed it on top of her paper pile. She stuffed it all back into the brief case and plopped down beside Onew.

She could tell by the way he kept turning his face that he was trying to hide something. She shrugged and considered that he was attempting to cover up his sadness.

Arisa had felt the slightest bit regretful last night, when she barged into Onew’s house in the wee hours. He looked perplexed already, not by t