Apology Project

The lights turned on as the soft acoustic music slowly gets louder. Bea and Cj are asleep on the couch while Sheen's parents stayed outside to buy things and groceries.

Sheen smiles while looking at the two who's in deep sleep from their tiredness.

"Well… Where did I put my ring?" Sheen asks herself as she went upstairs to her room.

She was all quiet thinking about her actions and her relationship with Clark while they are traveling from the Sunflower Park and she's decided that she won't let misunderstandings ruin her first and expected the last relationship.

She opened the door and went inside her room and checked her desk but her ring's nowhere to be found. "Where did I put it again?" She asks and turns around while looking at possible places she put her ring.

"I know I put it somewhere. Gosh, where?" She thought and bends to check under her bed.

"Tch," she clicked her tongue and stared at the bathroom and stands up to check in it.

"Where?" She whispers while exhaling, she already checked around her room and bathroom, closet and everywhere else.

It's already late and the sun's asleep.

She heard Bea and Cj talking outside and decided to go down.

But a familiar voice made her heartbeat go crazy, she froze in the stairs and looks at Clark in shock.

She immediately hides her left hand behind her as she feels her nervousness come alive.

'He can't see my hand,' she thought as she looks at Clark.

Bea saw Sheen's reaction and looks at Clark who came to fetch Cj since it's already late.

"Well, we just visited the Sunflower Garden and we just came home an hour ago. Aunt and Uncle are still outside," Bea said to take Clark's attention away from Sheen.

'He's messed up,' Bea thought as Clark nods and hold Cj's hands.

"Thank you for taking care of Cj. We'll be off then," Clark said in a faint voice with a straight face.

Cj looks at his Dad with a frown and looks at Sheen who's looking away as she gets down the stairs and immediately went inside the kitchen.

Clark didn't even look at Sheen as she passes by them, he just turns away and walks towards the door with Cj.

"Mom!" Cj screamed and ran towards the kitchen, pulling his hands away from Clark.

"Cj!" Clark called and turns around.

Bea watches Cj run to Sheen, "Maybe he'll just say goodbye."

Clark looks at Bea and sighed.

"Mommy, please don't be angry at Dad. I don't like it when you two are fighting." Cj begged as he clings at Sheen's shirt.

Sheen stared at him sadly, she doesn't know what to tell Cj. She wants to fix their conflict, but not now, not without her ring.

"Mommy, please…." Cj frowns and pulls Sheen's shirt.

"Okay… I'll try and talk to him but not now," Sheen bends her knees and touches Cj's red cheeks.

"Whyyyy?" Cj nags while stomping his feet.

"Because I lost my ring," Sheen answered awkwardly. She knows Cj won't stop unless she tells the real reason.

Cj's eyes went wide, "I saw it earlier in the center table outside," he said and looks at the living room.

Sheen's eyes went wide, her heart started pounding, her face turns hot and she suddenly ran outside, but the moment she steps in the living room, she saw Clark staring at the center table with a bitter and broken look.

He saw the ring on top of the coffee table, Bea's looking through the DVD collection and she must not have seen the ring.

Clark felt that someone's looking at him while staring at the ring placed inside the Cactus pot that is placed on top of the center table.

He turned around and saw Sheen's shocked expression, she's somehow looking afraid and ashamed but Clark didn't want to hear or look at her, "Cj, let's go." He said and turned around.

Cj saw his Dad's irritated face and ran towards him, "Mommy lost it, she just lost it," Cj said, he does not fully understand what's happening but he just wants to help them to get together.

"You won't lose it if you didn't take it off," Clark said in a loud voice, making sure that Sheen will hear him.

Bea looks at them, confused, 'What the hell is happening again?' she thought with her brows raised.

Sheen just stands frozen, not knowing what to do or say.

She feels like a kid who's caught doing something wrong.

"Miss Sheen," Clark's cold strict voice made her heart stop beating.

Her whole body felt chills, she just stared at the floor.

Clark held Cj's hand tightly while looking at the door, "I have sent you files that you need to check. Be sure to look at it later. I need you early in the morning as well, forget about preparing breakfast. I can handle that, just be sure to be early tomorrow."

Bea looks at Sheen terrified, since the two got engaged, Clark never calls her "miss" anymore.

But now, he's so formal that it scares her, knowing that this conflict between them is getting serious.

Cj tries to pull his hands away from Clark but they started walking towards the door.

Sheen looks away from them, covered her mouth as she starts crying.

She never felt so afraid, she never felt this kind of pain, and she never realized she can even feel this type of intensity of emotions.

She just heard the door closes and let her knees go weak.

Bea called her name, "Sheen," as she falls on her feet.

Sheen stared at her hands that are trembling and went to cover her face as her sobs get heavier.

Her heart feels so tight that it makes her breathe harder, heavier and emptier.

She already understood things about herself and Clark, she knows both of them had done something wrong to hurt each other.

She knows she has to talk to him, she has to apologize, and she has to make sure that he knows that she will never hurt him again.

But now, he saw that she already removed the ring, a symbol that she already gave up.

A simple excuse won't suffice, Clark knows that she never removes the ring unless she'll do something that can destroy such precious thing and he knows that there wasn't a time when she left it for a long time, never in a cactus pot.

Sheen screamed painfully and pulled her hair, 'How stupid can you get? How can you put the ring on a pot? Outside. Somewhere everyone sees?' she thought as she pulls her hair harder.

Bea ran to her, "Sheen, stop that," she said as she pulls Sheen's hands away from her hair.

The door sounded, it's Sheen's parents, Bea looks at the door and Sheen suddenly stands up and ran to her room.

Bea's left alone, with a worried look on her face, standing up to greet her Aunt and Uncle who are carrying grocery bags on their hands with a smile on their faces.

"Oh, what's wrong, Bea?" Her Aunt asks.

She just shakes her head, not wanting them to worry, "Sheen said she'll go to sleep since she has to wake up early."

"I see, do you want to have a dinner part 2?" Her uncle asks and laughs as he passes by Bea and pokes her tummy.

The three of them laughs, but Bea frowns sadly as she looks at the stairs.

"Hey, is this Sheen's ring?" Her Aunt asks as she takes the ring from the cactus pot.

Bea's eyes grew wide, now she understands what's happening.

She almost forgot that Sheen took off the ring.

"You better give it to her, tell her to wear it as soon as she feels better. If someone sees this they'll think that she wants to break off the engagement. Hurry, wake her up," Her aunt said and gestures Bea to take the ring, "This seems to be expensive, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," Bea replied and takes the ring while remembering how people talked about it in the Banquet before.

Bea went upstairs and knocks on Sheen's door, she didn't even wait for her cousin to answer and she just went it.

She saw Sheen on her laptop, typing with her bulged eyes from crying.

The light's turned off and the brightness comes from Sheen's laptop, giving her the spotlight in her darkroom.

"Hey, here's your ring," Bea said and went in and closed the door.

She opened the lights, blinding Sheen, "You know what, you can't tell me that you're blaming Boss again for the way he acted."

"I will not blame him, okay? It was my fault." Sheen said and looks at Bea while rubbing her eyes, trying to adjust from the suddenly lighted room.

"So, what are you writing?" Bea asks as Sheen takes the ring from her.

Sheen stares at the ring and her chest suddenly went cold, she doesn't want to never wear this ring again.

She doesn't want to never have the person who gave it.

The emerald ring complements her ivory skin as she put the ring back on.

"Wow, is this for Boss?" Bea asks with amazed eyes as she reads the poem that Sheen's writing.

"Hey!" Sheen shouted in embarrassment and closed the laptop, she closed the document and pretended that she's just staring at cat photos but as Bea usually is, she got curious and opened the suspicious document.

"Well, well, well..." Bea crossed her arms and stared at Sheen with a teasing smile, "Are you going to send that or read it aloud in front of him?"

"First off," Sheen blushes, "It's a song I've been working for some time, and secondly, it sucks, I won't sing it in front of him. I'm thinking I should do a video and send it to him... But, I don't think this is enough to be an apology."

"What?" Bea screamed, "What are you talking that it's not enough? You know Boss loves everything that you do! He loves your quirky humor, your cooking, your poems, books, clothes, smile, laugh, handwriting.. uh, what else?" Bea looks like she's digging some old information in her brain.

Sheen looks at her weirdly, "How can you say so?"

"Well," Bea went to take a sit on Sheen's bed, "Dan said sometimes Boss just talk about you non-stop when he stops by to have some paper sign in the office when you're not around."

Sheen stared at Bea, astonished, her eyes suddenly brighten and smile forms on her lips, "You know, Bea," Sheen leans on the backrest of the seat, "Last night, I said, I don't really need someone to complete me. I mean, I have worked out to slowly fix myself, with Clark's help, but I don't need him to be with me every day. That is what I thought."

Sheen looks at the picture Mr. Rogers gave her, "I am independent, I said. I can live without anyone. But, having someone who sees the things you don't see in yourself is something I want. Something I need. And that is who Clark is."

"Really? You know how I hate it when you do monologues in real life. But I should say when Clark came in your life, I mean, returned, you returned to the old Sheen. The little girl who laughs without worries and smiles honestly and is confident because she has people who love her." Bea nods and smiles.

"Yeah, maybe I'll try and sing the song in front of him then tomorrow. I'll wake up early and stand in front of his room, and when he opens the door, I'll start singing," Sheen said while smiling as she imagines what she'll look like.

"What? I think no," Bea shakes her head.

"Why?"

"I think he will not be that easily persuaded if you do that early in the morning. What if we play a prank?" Bea smirked then took her phone out.

"What prank?" Sheen asks and stands up to sit beside Bea.

"Let's do this...." Bea started explaining the prank as Sheen just nods and excitedly imagines the scenarios.

"What if he won't like it? What if he gets angrier?" Sheen's anxiety suddenly kicks in.

Bea aggressively held Sheen's shoulders and shakes her, "What? Really? Pranks are made to piss people off at first but they'll end up laughing and if the plan works, you guys will end up kissing and hugging each other."

Sheen suddenly blushes, "What... what are you talking about?" Sheen looks away.

"Eyyy, come on. He's no fun if none of the things I said will happen. He should at least hug you and redeclare your love to each other."

Sheen sighs, "Alright. But if he gets angry, help me."

"Of course, anyways, I got a message from Dan, he said your book's skyrocketing at the moment. You should read some of the reviews."

---

After the meeting earlier, Dan walks to the condo to fetch Bea but he suddenly saw Mr. Rogers driving off from the condominium.

He ran and called his attention, making him stop and park to go and see Dan.

"What half-brothers? That's... I mean, what?" Dan laughs in confusion and rubs his chin.

"Yes, and I hope, you can help me know what Mr. Lee's plan is. And I don't want Miss Sheen and Mr. White's relationship to be ruined. Both of them went through a lot before meeting half-way." Mr. Rogers said and turns around.

"Please, do not tell this to anyone else, Mr. Dan. Just... do what can help the company as well as Mr. White and Miss Sheen," Mr. Rogers added before returning inside the car.

Dan is left in disbelief, but he also felt the urge to spy on Wyn.

He watches the car drive away and stared at the condominium where the people he cares about are in.

"Don't worry. I'll do what it takes to have those precious smile in our wedding," Dan whispered and went on his way.