Dara sat leaning on the bed’s headboard as she stared at the TV, not understanding what she was watching. Or why she had turned up the TV in the first place. She just feels so down she can’t get her body and her mind to function properly. She flipped the channel looking for something to take her mind off things for a while when the door opened and Bom peeked in.

“You still awake?” Bom asked.

Dara rolled her eyes. “Duh.” She smiled a little as Bom walked in the room. She is currently at the mercy of Bom and Seung Hyun’s hospitality. She could’ve stayed at a hotel but she really can’t bear to be alone right now.

Bom sat down on the bed and stretched her hand out to Dara, a cellphone in her hand.

“What’s this?” Dara asked looking at Bom.

“You could borrow my phone for a while. I’ve got about three of them anyway.”

“You think I can’t afford to buy a new one?” Dara jokingly said taking the cellphone from her hand.

“You get seizures when you don’t have a phone in your hand twenty four seven,” Bom responded. “Just trying to save you.”

Dara sighed. “Well, I guess I would have to buy a new phone tomorrow.” Then she remembered her  phone that was shattered on the accident and she muttered an expletive.

“What?” Bom asked worriedly.

Dara looked like she was ready to cry. “My phone,” she said heartbreakingly. “All of the pictures I have stolen from Donghae are in there.”

Bo’s expression turned wry. Dara continued, “Even the picture I took from him when he was by the pool… that was favorite… ahhh crap.”

Bom took a throw pillow and swat her with it.

“Aw!” Dara said.

“You are such a loser!” Bom said. “Why don’t you just tell him instead of lurking somewhere and stealing a shot of him like a demented paparazzi?”

“I would if I can!” Dara said. “But it just…”

“You do know you’re making things complicated, don’t you?” Bom said. “You’re making this like a TV drama or something when it’s just so easy for you to be with him.”

If only it were that easy as Bom had said. “You don’t understand.” She let out a deep sigh. “Because if it were, I would be with him in a flash. My life is a mess right now and… and maybe I need to do this for myself too. If… these… wrongs are already righted and… if by some miracle I had managed to get his life in order too then….” Her voice trailed off.

“You know, it would be easier to get his life in order if you would tell him too. So he could help.”

Dara chuckled in spite of herself.  “Now that’s an idea.”

“There are a lot of things I could think of which doesn’t include you leaving him,” Bom pressed on. “And,  what if, when you’re too busy trying to right the wrongs in your life, he found some other girl. Have you thought about that?”

Dara bit her lip. She did but didn’t dwell on it. “I did. Like, a fleeting second.”

“So what’re you gonna do then? Wallow in regret about being so stupid? He can’t love you forever if he thinks you already abandoned him. Pretty soon you’re going to watch him be happy with someone else.”

Dara scowled at Bom. “Just in case you haven’t noticed, you’re actually not helping. I don’t want to think about that yet.”

“Well think about it now,” Bom countered.

“No!” Dara refused. She shook her head like shaking off the vision of Donghae with a faceless girl.

“Dara, I know you have messed up your life and the one good thing in it, was Donghae. But you’re messing it up all the more. I just… I don’t want to see you in that… ghost state again.”

Dara’s expression softened at Bom’s reference to her bottled-anger-depressed disposition when she first found out about her parents. “I won’t,” Dara reassured her. “Because I know what I have to do. What I need to do. I need the people to leave Donghae. I just need them to disassociate his name to mine and… I need people to believe he is not using anybody to further his own ends. I need Hits to return back to where it has been. But as long as he is connected to me, it won’t happen. People believes the worst in me and I can’t blame them. Slave driver, ruthless, perfectionist. Inhuman. Cold Hearted. I heard them all and they were right. But I need them to blame me and me alone. And… if someday… Donghae is willing to take me back… then that’s good but… if not… then…” She lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “Life will still go on. Maybe… he wasn’t really meant for me and i… wasn’t meant for him. Maybe… he would find someone else who could… heal all the wounds I have inflicted on him.” She frowned not liking what was saying. “But that would be after I have managed to get my life in order and get Hits to be on top again. Because if it’s soon, then he didn’t really love me, right? He is not allowed to have a lovelife for at least…. ten— No. Twenty. Twenty years. Because if he did, then…then… I’m gonna sue him.”

Bom rolled her eyes upward. “Oh my god, why did I have a lunatic for a friend?”

“I’m serious,” Dara said. “And please. Don’t tell me you haven’t made some things complicated between you and Seung Hyun before you married him.”

Bom opened to speak then closed it again thinking.

“With your vain pride, I’m sure Seung Hyun have drawn blood before he got things settled down between you two.”

Bom grinned. “Yeah, I think he did.”

“Now, who’s lunatic between us?” Dara muttered.

“I gotta go to the bathroom,” Bom said standing up putting her hand at her side, making a face. “Ugh, I think my stomach is getting heavier and heavier each day.”

“I told you watermelons are supposed to be eaten in pieces, not whole.”

Bom stuck her tongue out at her before walking over to the bathroom. Dara was smiling as she looked at her borrowed phone. She remembered when she had borrowed Donghae’s phone in Jeju and she took a picture of herself with it. Did he delete it? It has not even been a day yet and she miss him already.

She pressed the phone on and slid her finger to get it on homescreen. Maybe she could call him and just ask him if he’s okay or… No, she can’t do that. She doesn’t even think Donghae would talk to her at all. And besides, she knew Donghae never answer unknown numbers.

Wait a minute. Donghae never answer unknown numbers. That means she can call him and just listen to his voice in his voicemail. She knew she’s turning into a total stalker but she thinks, at least, hearing his voice would make her miss him less.

She pressed the call button and dialled his number she knew by heart before she changed her mind. Heart hammering, she pressed the phone to her ear. It rang and rang and just as it was about to be sent to voicemail, Donghae answered, “Hello?”

Dara was so startled she pressed the end button immediately. Why is he answering? He’s not supposed to answer! She placed her hand on her heart which is still thudding like crazy. Then the phone screen lit up signaling a call coming and Dara recognized Donghae’s number right away.

“Oh ,” Dara muttered. What to do, what to do. How did he knew it was her? How did he knew this number? She almost ran to the bathroom and flung the door open. Bom was sitting in the toilet.

“Woah!” Bom exclaimed startled at her sudden appearance.

Dara held the phone to Bom. “Tell him it’s a wrong number!” She said almost in a panic.

“What?”

“It’s Donghae. I don’t know why he’s calling. I called him but he’s not supposed to answer but he did and I hung up. But now he’s calling back. Tell him you dialled the wrong number.”

“Huh?” Bom looked confused but took the phone anyway as Dara is already waving it on her face.

“Tell him you dialled the wrong number,” Dara repeated.

Bom was frowning at her when she answered the phone in a high pitched voice. “Hello?... Ah sorry…. I dialled the wrong number. I was trying to look for… Dongho. Sorry.” She hung up.

“What’d he say? How did he knew your number? Did he knew it was me?” Dara asked in succession.

Bom gave the phone back to Dara and looked at her wryly. “You called him and you’re asking how did he knew my number? Caller ID, idiot! He just asked who I was and why I was calling him. What the hell was that?”

“I only wanted to hear his voice because you know… for as long as I knew him, he doesn’t answer unknown numbers so… You know, don’t ever leave me alone because i get all this crazy stuff in my head and— ” Then she realized Bom is sitting on the toilet. “What are you doing?”

“What’s it look like?”

“Eww!” Dara said and backed away. “You’re so gross.”

“You walked in on me!” Bom’s voice echoed inside the bathroom as Dara closed the door.

Dara was driving on her way to SP the next morning. She had already stopped by and bought herself a new phone because, what Bom said is true. She can’t live without a phone in her hand. She already called her lawyer and was informed he was in a holiday vacation with his family in Hawaii. Dara tried to squelch the relief she felt after hearing that. She doesn’t want to admit it but she really wanted to prolong that part of her plan. Even though that part is the most essential. She also tried to call her mom even though she doesn’t know what to say. She was sent to voicemail and she left a short message.

“Mom, it’s me…. Dara. I just…um… I got into an accident and… i… uh… please call me back. Please let dad know I wanted to… talk to him too. I don’t know how to contact him. Uh… thanks.”

She received shocked stares as she walked inside SP. The receptionist stuttering her greeting when she walked by. The chatter became a quiet whisper as she passed through the hall, the people suddenly have somewhere to go other than riding with her on the elevator. She pressed the button on the floor where her office is and sighed exasperatingly when the elevator door closed. Was she really that scary? She thought for a moment. Yeah, she was. N