“Eunjung! Where are you going?” Suzy calls out, running after their infuriated boss as she forcefully pushes her way out the back doors.

She ran forward, ignoring everyone else’s reaction to their boss’s sudden change of mood, grabbing the jacket Eunjung had hurriedly put on and turned her around. “Eunjung,” she gasps to see Eunjung’s walls break and her tears now falling from her eyes. “What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Eunjung looks away, “Tell Areum to run the kitchen for me, will you? Tell her Shinyoung’s coming back to work today, guide her around again. I gotta go. I’m sorry, Suz.”

Suzy could only agree, her hands slipping away from Eunjung’s jacket and letting Eunjung walk away from her. There was no point in holding her back from doing what would make her boss feel better and there was nothing she could do to make her feel any better too.

This was the point of giving up.

Eunjung will never look at her the same way.

Eunjung never noticed.

Maybe it was just about time for her to given up on it. Her chest felt like it could break any second sooner if she forces herself to stay. It had felt like a huge hammer had hit her on the head at the thought of it. It hurt enough to finally give up on something that wasn’t even hers in the first place.

-

Hyomin was nowhere in sight but as Eunjung turns to the curb, she sees her best friend’s frustrated figure by her car, in tears, and her phone in gripped tightly in her hands. How ironic, they were two miserable people and she couldn’t even get past her car without having to get away undetected. They were such fools…such sorry fools.

“Hey, can you move over, I need to go somewhere,” Eunjung monotonously says, turning to the driver’s side, startling her crying best friend.

Hyomin quickly wipes her tears with her sleeve then clutching her jacket at the cold piercing wind, asking, “What’s going on? What happened to you?”

It couldn’t have been more obvious to see Eunjung crying and hurrying to get away, but Eunjung paid no heed to her best friend’s concern. Not when they’re both equally miserable. Hyomin didn’t need to see her like this.

“I just…I gotta go get some air,” Eunjung murmurs with a sad smile. “I have to go to my thinking place.” And with that said, Hyomin steps aside, letting her best friend drive away.

It certainly made Hyomin forget about her own sorrows, tucking away her phone and dragging herself back to the shop to get some answers. There was only one person who could probably make Eunjung cry, but when she reached the door, she sees Jiyeon warily looking around, putting on her jacket and unfazed.

“Hey, did you see Eunjung?” Jiyeon asks.

“Yeah she went out,” Hyomin hesitantly answers. “Hey, what—”

“I have to go now, Minnie. If she looks for me can you tell her mom’s visiting and wants to have lunch with me,” Jiyeon says, slowly walking away from her.

“Why don’t you bring Eunjung along to see her mother-in-law,” Hyomin tries, only to have Jiyeon stare at her unblinking, stiff as a board as if holding her breath. Lies, Hyomin thought to herself.

“She’s not around, if she’s here I can take her to see my mom,” Jiyeon answers nevertheless but Hyomin had her eyes on her as Jiyeon slowly backs herself out the alley.

“Yeah, she was here just a minute ago, why don’t you call her and see if she could go with you?” Hyomin persists.

“No, it’s okay. You know how cranky mom is when she’s kept waiting,” Jiyeon insists.

“Jiyeon,” Hyomin tries, “is everything okay? With you?”

“What do you mean? Of course it is,” She says with a shrug, but her eyes couldn’t even look at her straight anymore with Hyomin’s unwavering stare.

Hyomin could tell with her best friend’s rigid figure, her eyes, her hands tucked in her pockets. Jiyeon had been so uneasy, how she came home without a clear explanation, to her sudden nonchalance. She doesn’t even know what her best friend is thinking anymore that it scares her.

“I gotta go,” Jiyeon says, hurrying out the alley until Hyomin could no longer see.

Being curious and confused as she was, she peeks out the alleyway, hiding herself at the corner, hopefully not to be spotted. She sees her best friend walking farther and farther away to the curb when a car pulls over and Jiyeon gets in.

Hyomin patiently waits for the car to pass, hiding herself behind the dumpsters, only to see a familiar face behind the wheel. Her eyes widen in surprise, though not so surprised to actually see the woman. She just didn’t think that Eunjung’s doubts had a solid basis but she hoped the assumptions aren’t true. She firmly believes Jiyeon wouldn’t be capable of such things.

“Oh Eunjung,” Hyomin whispers. That was it, her best friend must have known about it.

-

Eunjung starts the car with a vengeance as she watches two people get inside a restaurant. For minutes she had followed and sat through horrible sights of her wife with the other woman.

Her eyes had followed their every move like a hawk. All actions were taken in with judgment and her unwavering hatred that even the little things she hadn’t failed to notice, from the other woman flipping her damned hair to Jiyeon looking at the other; how the other woman had firmly held her wife’s hand, or how she pulls a seat for her, how the other woman eagerly sits beside her and how she kept holding her wife’s hand. None was spared from her sight.

It was unfortunate that their backs were turned from her but then again she wouldn’t have been able to stand the smiles on their faces. She wouldn’t be able to stand if Jiyeon started looking at Lizzy the way she looked at her all those times she sees Jiyeon looking at her.

She wouldn’t be able to stand the thought of Jiyeon embracing or holding anyone else as if that person is the most important person in her life.

She wouldn’t be able to stand the dazed look on Jiyeon’s eyes as a smile graces her face after a passionate kiss with someone else.

Just the thought of it sickens her, made her want to hurl and jump off into an abyss.

Thinking about it is too much for her to bear.

If she had stayed any longer, she feared she might actually see that kind of sight.

She can’t handle that kind of truth.

For the nth time, Eunjung had felt defeated as she drives away, her tears fogging her vision. She can’t stand it.

She really can’t.

It was just too unbearable.

She had never expected to be welcomed by the sight of her wife with someone else. She would have never thought to see the day. But why does it hurt like someone had ing ripped her lungs from her chest, she couldn’t breathe? Why does it hurt like someone had just drove an ice pick through her gut; like a ing bear was biting through her flesh and tearing her to pieces?

Heck, everything else, even being mauled by a bear, stabbed and ripped open felt better than this! Nothing can actually compare to how she’s feeling…nothing at all.

Betrayed, angry, hopeless, hurt. What else could describe a feeling like this?!

What did she do wrong?

Eunjung hits the steering wheel in anger, speeding through the freeway to get her mind off things, completely throwing caution to the wind. Liquor would probably be helpful but it was too late to turn back to the nearest liquor store. But she was close to her destination, the road had become rough and the surroundings had turned green. The concrete jungle getting farther away as she drove, trying to hold back her tears.

Heck, why did holding back her tears even result to such suffering as if she was casted by steaming hot branding iron on .

Too overwhelmed, it was too much.

She couldn’t even begin to think about how all this is even happening in the first place. She’s blaming Lizzy for coming back but why did Jiyeon have to be so weak to fall for that pretentious ? But then again, who wouldn’t when Lizzy actually has something she could call a successful career while she, on the other hand, simply bakes in a small pastry shop.

God, how could her luck be this bad?

And is she that bad she can’t freaking keep a relationship going and now Jiyeon’s going out with someone else behind her back?!

She knew it, she’s not even enough for Jiyeon.

As Eunjung parked and got up the abandoned building, she had thought through her life as she climbed the stairs to her floor despite the freezing weather. She wanted to see some ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. She needed her thoughts to gather…she needed something to make her feel better when her heart was slowly shattering.

But as expected, when she reached the top, the world was gloomy and there weren’t rainbows after the rain.

She’s alone in this abandoned building in this freezing weather, all but wishing to freeze to death than wipe any more of her tears.

-

“What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?” Jiyeon asks the moment their orders were taken, turning to look at her grinning friend who had been busy greeting the owners of the small restaurant.

“Someone applied to be a cook in my restaurant,” Lizzy begins, sipping on the glass of water served earlier. “She’s from your shop.”

Jiyeon perks up in surprise, all her attention now on Lizzy. “What?”