bleary.

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3 months. It was 3 months. 3 months of good, glorious, precious, happy love (now that she looks back at it, was it even love?). 3 months until things started looking bleary for her. Maybe it just because her eyes have been filled with tears. Maybe it's because she's tired. 

She'd never really been a person who felt she needed to project her life on social media. But although she rarely posted anything, she couldn't deny that she was obsessed with Instagram. And that's how it all started.

She was in LA, vacationing with Sohee and Jiyong (although, she doesn't think it really counts because she was off doing her own thing while Sohee and Jiyong reconciled after not seeing each other for a while), while he was in New York, partying with his Illionaire crew, making music and all of that. It wasn't until she was in her penthouse, laying on her bed and scrolling through Instagram that she noticed it. It was all sorted. At first, she thought nothing of it, but she'd ended up seeing both of their recent activities and when it happened for days, she was undoubtedly suspicious. After confiding in Sohee what she had recently 'discovered', Sohee made it her job to get to the bottom of the problem, and to help get to the bottom of the problem was her boyfriend, the great Kwon Jiyong, master of connections all throughout the industry.

They had went to a fancy Japanese restaurant after he managed to scoop up some information. Yubin had sat down in front of them, and seeing Jiyong interlace his fingers with Sohee, albeit in quite an angry manner, struck something in her. Every since the start of her discovery, she had been silently hoping, praying, wishing it wouldn't be true. It was a newfound love and she was just beginning to think she would finally get over Seunghyun. Jiyong looked her in the eyes and she knew. She knew it wasn't good. She could tell by the way his lips failed to open and no sounds came out of his mouth except a muffled 'sorry'. Seeing herself trembling slightly, she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. Sohee had taken the initiative, seeing as how Jiyong was too wracked with guilt to say anything. And the last of her heartstrings still prayed for it to not be true.

"Stefanie Michova." 

Ah, so that was her name. Great. A beautiful name for a beautiful foreign girl.

"They met through IAB, she's been in a lot of Korean music videos."

So she's pretty popular among directors and idols.

"Including this idiot's music video fo Good Boy." Sohee said, glaring a Jiyong.

Jiyong held his hands up in defense.

"I didn't pick her! The director did!" He said.

"That's still no excuse for the fact that she practically threw herself on you, too. I will kill you myself, Kwon Jiyong, if you go near her again." Threats coming out of Sohee's mouth has now become normal due to the fact that acting had changed her quite a bit.

Jiyong chuckled a bit before wrapping his arm around Sohee and kissing her temples. It made Yubin want to cringe.

"Don't be jealous. I love you more than anything." He whispers, though loud enough for Yubin to hear.

Sohee glares at him once more, "That's what you said to me before you moved on to your Japanese eye-candy. I could leave you here right now."

Jiyong had nothing to say and Sohee took that as her cue to continue giving her information.

"As I was saying, she's been in a ton of Korean music videos and magazine ads. She's a German model who does most of her work here. According to Jiyong and Youngbae, there had been a couple of scenarios where she'd thrown herself at them, posted some suspicious things just to gain fame, whether it's fans or anti-fans."

Jiyong interrupted, "As long as she gets fame from it."

Yubin assumes that they could be wrong but at the same time, Stefanie is so pretty and she knew full well what Zino was like before they started dating and she still went into the relationship knowing that he'll never be able to get rid of his wandering eyes and naughty hands.

She was still trembling by the time she got back to the penthouse. Deciding to sleep at 6pm was surely not a good idea because she had woken up at 3am with a sudden urge to pick out the root of the problem. Without thinking, she dialed Zino's number and called. After a few rings, he picked up, only for her to not hear anything over the static and music of the party he was currently at. She can hear him, not even considering to move to a quiet place to talk, even if it was his girlfriend calling him. She hears Dok2's voice in the back, screaming at him to 'hurry the up' and also hears an english voice, with a slight accent, whispering 'baby', which she heard quite clearly. Yubin assumed that she'd tried to whisper in his ear, only to not have realized he was on the phone. It didn't take Yubin a while to figure out that he was drunk, so taking advantage of the opening, she asked the awaited question.

"Who is she?' Her voice came out raspy and exhausted.

She heard a cough on the other side, and a murmur of 'excuse me?'.

"I said, who is she? That blonde girl?" She wasn't even aware of the fact that she raised her voice.

"Who? Stefanie?" and just then, she heard the voice again, asking who it was on the phone,

She was praying that he would tell the truth, that she was his girlfriend and that the blondie needed to back the off because he was tied already.

Instead, what she heard next made her heart drop to her stomach.

"No one babe, she's just a friend from back in Seoul." 

She wondered how she knew he wasn't referring to Stefanie, but to her.

Apparently, this was the whole truth. She was probably nothing but a conquest.

Immediately after he had uttered those words, she hung up, desperate not to choke on the bile rising in . She had to throw up. Everything was spinning and she needed to throw up. As soon as she reached the bathroom, tears spilled out of her eyes, looking down at her hands, which tightly clutched the fabric of her pajamas. She couldn't breathe. She had to get out of here. The last thing she saw was the blinding white of the ceiling.

The next time she opened her eyes, it was the same white ceiling, only she was looking from her bed. How she'd managed to get up was a wonder, even to her, but she thinks, it's fine.  She continues to stare at the ceiling. She was trying. Trying to hard to think. To understand why this had to happen to her. After all she had been through with the previous relationship, how could this have happened? What did she deserve to receive this punishment.

She closes her eyes, opening them every once in a while, only to find that each time she opens them, she is attacked by bleariness. Maybe it was from her tears. Maybe it was because she was tired.

She was tired. She was so damn tired. 

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