I can’t sleep. Tossing and turning for hours since Bryant brought us home in a cab, yet I don’t want to get out of bed and disturb Greta. She’s a light sleeper, even if she drunk a lot and would hear me wandering about. She looked exhausted, and I didn’t want to burden her with my problems until morning. One of us should be well-rested, at least. My head’s too messy, and I haven’t told her about kissing Jyeon or where he was going after he left. She doesn’t know about Claire, and Bryant didn’t seem to yet either. I’m guessing Jyeon would have told him after he left us, though.I get it. I do. The reason he feels responsible for this and the fact they reached out to him to accompany her. She tried to kill herself, and she shouldn’t be alone in a hospital after that. He knows it’s because of the other day and the very blunt way he dashed all her hopes, and it didn’t sound like she has anyone else. It all ma

“Answer it.” Greta picks up my phone and holds it out to me, but I hesitate and stare at the flashing screen instead. Leaving it between us as we both sit tensely on the bed, now facing one another. Her eyes dart from it to me, and she sighs heavily. “Take it.”“It’s late. As far as he knows, I’m asleep.” I push it away from me but flinch when she grabs my wrist and forces it into my hand, swiping the answer button as she does so. Strangely strong for such a tiny wench.“Yeah, well, now he knows we’re not.” She winks, sliding away, and motions for me to lift it before jumping out of bed and heading to the door. She switches the overhead light and blinds me with the sudden assault. “Hi, Jyeon…….. Don’t keep her up too late. She’s a monster when she’s tired,” she yells loudly, making sure he would have heard her, before sauntering off with a wiggle and a mischiev

“I deserved it….. I did. It’s karma, and this is exactly what I should get.” He mutters it in a breathy, almost non-existent splice of words, still looking down and his hands, trembling the same way mine are. “It doesn’t make it hurt any less…. or mess me up any less. That you’ve been lying this whole time…. Pretending… Making me hope…. Was this punishment? Revenge? Did it give you a kick to see me falling all over you and trying to rekindle past memories?” Jyeon finally raises his head, his eyes so steeped in sadness and betrayal that it cuts me deeply. His words are slow and etched with bitterness. Questioning me in his mind and coming up with so many reasons I would drag this charade out and pretend not to know. I can see why he would think it was a ploy to hurt him that it was vindictive and mocking. Despite everything he did back then, I never wanted to wound him this way, and it wasn’t a manipul

The harsh ringing, and vibrating assault, penetrates my sleep-addled brain, pulling me out of darkness, and I groan and attempt to reach for the invasive noise. Semi-aware and caught in a warm comfy bubble until it rudely awakened me. I try to roll towards it, but I’m restricted and held tight in an overly hot embrace around my waist and shoulders that brings me back to consciousness with a jolt and the memory that I’m not in bed alone.“Goddammit,” Jyeon murmurs right at my ear, as sleepy as I am and unamused at the same interruption to our slumber. He is rolling over on top of me, so he half flattens my tiny frame with his weight, chuckling at my ‘oofft’ noise and catching the cell phone on the bedside, sliding it to him. He braces himself on one arm just enough to let me breathe and get’s himself an elbow in the ribs for squashing me. Caging me in and hanging over me in a pose that makes me blush.“Hello.” His vo

Jyeon is sitting reading the paperwork at his desk while I pour us both coffee to wake us up. It’s very technical and detailed, and as I have zero mechanical knowledge of vehicles, I left him to decipher it. He knows about cars, especially that one, given how much time he used to spend on it, and I wonder why he never had it repaired and brought back to life after it was recovered.The office feels eerily quiet at this time, and I forgot how much I used to enjoy this silence and serenity before the employees started clocking in at nine am. This was my hour to stroll the nearly empty building, drink coffee, and find my armor for the day in the peace of the company we owned. I forgot what it was like to feel like a queen roaming her kingdom and knowing it belonged all to her. It’s not as weird being back here as it was the first time, and I’m familiarizing myself with Jyeon’s office, even if I don’t dare venture near my old one. That’s a clos