“Where is she? Is she with you?”

She was taken aback from Sunny’s sudden and very much invasive approach, rendering her speechless from a greeting she was about to say.

Stepping away from the distressed woman, Eunjung turns toward the other woman on the couch, looking towards her in sympathy.

It was then she noticed how the house seemed to have turned upside down. The new television Hyomin was bragging about was currently on the floor and shards of glass strewn across the floor. She figured it must have been one of those unique jars Hyomin collects from her trips abroad. The vase was among the hazardous glass by the broken shelves and the throw pillows served their name as they lay on the floor. The living room looked like chaos.

It looked like a perfect crime scene without the blood.

Other than that, the kitchen and everything else seemed to be in perfect shape. Given that it was all she could see from the front door, where she stood and where Sunny’s currently begging for her to speak.

But what else could she have said? Even with Hyomin’s assistant standing by the couch, where a stack of folders, most probably Hyomin’s, were placed, she didn’t know what to make out of the situation.

She hoped Victoria could give her a clue as to why her best friend-in-law looked like she was about to drown them with a dam of tears.

Eunjung had not expected this on her visit at all, not when she came out of good intentions to come for Hyomin first to apologize once more. She expected to have the door shut on her face, the box of pastries she brought would be thrown or Hyomin telling her to get out.

A crying Sunny hadn’t been in her list of possible scenarios. A destroyed living room wasn’t even part of the set in mind. She didn’t even think that the first thing anyone from the household would ask her was, ‘Where is she?’

“What?” Eunjung croaks out, still in shock to see Sunny before her with bloodshot eyes, trembling and gripping on her arm as if to plead.

“Is Hyomin with you?” Sunny asks in between her sobs. Eunjung could feel her friend tremble from the grip she had on her arm, and she was quick enough to turn the tables on Sunny before pushing her through the door and towards the couch careful enough to watch their steps.

“Sun, I don’t know what’s going on,” Eunjung impatiently says, guiding the crying woman towards the seat where Victoria immediately assists her.

“Oh God,” Sunny mumbles palming her face with her hands. “What do I do?!”

Victoria turns to Eunjung with worry, pulling her by the arm to the side to whisper, “I came here to send Hyomin the pictures she asked me to print days ago…and I didn’t think Sunny would be trashing the living room. Thank God I came on time or she might have hurt herself.”

“What happened?” Eunjung asks.

“I don’t know. Hyomin’s gone,” Victoria desperately says, looking around.

“I kicked her out,” Sunny suddenly cries out from the couch. “I sent her away.”

“What?! Why?” Eunjung asks in a hurry, her strides long and quick towards her friend who had looked up to her with tear stained eyes.

“I just couldn’t…I couldn’t do this anymore. I wanted a divorce! I wanted her out of my life. But…it’s not true. I need her, Eunjung…I love her. Please get her back,” Sunny begs in tears, reaching out for Eunjung’s hands.

“I was so t-tired. I…I wanted her with me. She kept go-going places! With Tiffany! That ing ! I know she wants Hyomin back. I just know it!”

Victoria scoffs beside Eunjung, her eyes turning hard on her boss’s wife. Eunjung could see Victoria turning rigid and before she could stop her, she says, “You’re a fool.”

“What?” Sunny looks towards her wife’s assistant incredulously, accusing at the woman. “Who do you think—”

“I’m your wife’s assistant, that’s who I am. Sure, I spent more time with her than you, even more time than her with Tiffany. And I think you’re too much of a fool, too caught up with Tiffany’s presence, not even knowing what your wife has been doing and is going to sacrifice just to make you happy!”

“Vic, stop it, you’re not helping!” Eunjung chastises the woman, pushing her away from the distressed wife. But Victoria pushes on, glaring at Sunny.

“No, someone needs to stop her delusions! Tiffany isn’t even chasing Hyomin. If you should know, Hyomin asked her to come along those months for the sake of giving her some jobs from Hyomin’s clients from Europe, trading all that for jobs nearby, where she doesn’t have to cross oceans to leave you! The farthest she could go will be around the country and cross-country without having too much time difference just as long as she can come home to you and stop your unnecessary doubts! What more do you want from someone who is already sacrificing a big part of her dream just to be with you?”

“Vic, stop,” Eunjung firmly says. 

“Hyomin is a good friend of mine, Eunjung. She’s also like a best friend to me as she is to you and you care as much for her, but Sunny would make her miserable if she doesn’t get her together,” Victoria hisses.

“It’s not our part to meddle,” Eunjung says with a glare. “We don’t have the right to interfere! Sure, you’re helping Hyomin out but reprimanding Sunny isn’t the way to go about this. You have your reasons, I understand. But please, just stop it.”

“Vicky’s right—she’s right,” Sunny croaks, startling Eunjung. But before Eunjung could protest, Sunny cried even harder than she did before. “But please, I just want her back.”

“Well you should have thought about that before you kicked her out,” Victoria sarcastically says.

“Vic you’re really not helping the situation,” Eunjung says. “Why don’t you call Hyomin for a change? Look for her!”

“You don’t think I didn’t do that? My calls are going straight to voicemail! That’s why I took the pictures here thinking she’d be with Sunny the whole time,” Victoria sighs.

Eunjung could already feel the growing headache, her attention on Victoria’s obvious frustrations. She couldn’t blame her. After all, it is true Hyomin had spent more time with her than Hyomin did with anyone, except for her and Jiyeon of course. But throughout the years, Victoria had been beside her best friend and worked for her, and that much that she could even say Victoria was like Hyomin’s sister. She doesn’t have the heart to stop her any further because even until now, all Victoria wants was Hyomin’s happiness and satisfaction, may it be in her job, and even in her life because that’s who Victoria is. She’s Hyomin’s personal assistant, that’s what she’s paid to do. 

“Look, Sunny, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that to you. I’ve gone too far, I know. Right now I don’t ing care if she’d fire me after this just to get my point across for her. But I’ve watched Hyomin for years, assisting her and working beside her; I’m always at her beck and call. I’m gonna be frank. You are the reason for the happiest moments in her life, but obviously you too are the reason why she’s already becoming so miserable. I’ve been with her for that long to know the difference. With the last thing you did by making her leave is the last straw when she was a ticking time bomb. So I’ll be honest, right now, who knows where Hyomin is,” Victoria softly says with a frown.

“I know that, alright?! Do you think I’ve been sitting idle here the whole time?! Do you know how much I fret and worry? I’ve been watching the ing door just in case she comes back! She always comes back! But she…sh-she… Oh God! I need her back,” Sunny exclaims in frustration, clutching on her chest as she cries. “I didn’t mean it. I was so caught up thinking about the women she encounters on her trips. And who am I compared to them?! Who the am I compared to freaking Tiffany!”

“Sun,” Eunjung whimpers, sitting beside the tear struck woman, holding her in her arms.

“I know she loves me! I’m just insecure, I admit that! I just want her back, damn it! I’m gonna make it right this time, I just don’t want her to leave,” Sunny cries in desperation. “She can’t leave me…”

“You’re a known fashion magazine editor who Hyomin loves. You’re hardworking, passionate, a go-getter and you love Hyomin as much. You’re practically the boss in your company; a lot of people depend on you. You also have friends who stick by you. Models dress up, photographers take pictures; you hire them and designers want to be in your magazine,” Victoria determinedly says, her tone higher and louder than anyone expected. “So why the hell do you look down on yourself when you’re higher than who you make yourself out to be?”

Sunny looks up towards her wife’s assistant astonished. Nobody ever told her that. She didn’t see herself that. She could never. All her life she worked and worked just to get to the success she had reached. She never let love hinder her and now that she has it she must have gone crazy with paranoia because all she knew was that she was just Sunny. She’s only Sunny. That’s all she is.

Her friends must have told her the same thing but she never really listened, she didn’t spend too much time with them anyway. She was too busy and the only time she ever spared for anyone these days were for Hyomin. Victoria had put it out clearly for her; as much as being confrontational. She couldn’t help but admit it was nice to have someone come forward and practically punch her with the words she needed to hear when a lot of people kiss her on a daily basis.

But who could ever blame her anyway when growing up she saw how her father ed her mother’s best friend in the living room, laundry room, bedroom and a lot more places while her mother turned the other cheek until she gained some guts to fight back. Then it was colossal string of unfortunate events full of lawsuits and custody battles only to find herself being shoved towards boarding school and merely being sent money she needed for college.

Sunny never believed in love. How could she when the kind of love she witnessed had only brought so much pain and suffering, not only on her part but of both her parents.

It was then she realized she could only depend on herself.

That was until Hyomin practically bulldozed her way into her life. The charming photographer crawled into her skin and she was unable to defend herself from it.

She was too weak but apparently strong enough to capture Hyomin’s affection. It was enough for her to make Hyomin cheat on her then-girlfriend Tiffany while she was weak enough to have made the best mistake to have become the other woman.

Hyomin had made the monster out of her and she feared that. She feared that for a long time because until now, even after all the drama she and Tiffany had gone through to fight for Hyomin, even after Hyomin chose her and they all became civil, Hyomin being friends with Tiffany again, she was still a monster.

She had never forgotten that she had become the woman she hated. Her status as a magazine editor and whoever the hell she is during her day job can’t make her forget that.

Not a lot of people knew this love story but she knew enough that Victoria, Eunjung and Jiyeon were the constant spectators. If there was somebody, anybody who could slap her back to her senses she would truly prefer either three of them.

So if Victoria at least held some high regard for her, Sunny can’t help but be grateful because at least someone still trusted her enough to fix herself, when she herself couldn’t trust anyone even herself.

She would still be a monster, but she had to remember who she is from time to time. If anything, these people wanted her to fix herself because it probably meant that she was this close to breaking the best thing that ever happened to her; Hyomin.

Eunjung couldn’t help but sigh as Sunny breaks down even more on her shoulder. “Look, Sun, how about this? How about I personally look for Hyomin myself? I know her. She doesn’t simply disappear.”

“Well she did disappear! I have her passport, so sh-she couldn’t have… And I don’t even have her credit card information so