11

"Baby..."

"Hmm?"

"Look at unnie..."

"What's wrong?"

"Ever since she broke up with Jun Hyung, she looks different," says Sweet.

Hera stretches her neck and takes a look at Karin. The lady is staring at her laptop's screen, unmoved. She looks like she's doing some work, but she's daydreaming.

"I dare not to ask..." Hera gushes. Sweet frowns and pouts her lips. She's concerned about Karin, but dare not ask her as well.

"What if we cheer her up?" asks Sweet.

"How?"

"I don't know. Maybe take her to an amusement park or go shopping?" Sweet gives Hera suggestions.

"Honey, she's 36. She's not a teen. The much we can do is, give her room to think and get better. Breaking up is not a light thing. It's all about inner feelings," says Hera.

Karin indeed needs some support from her friends, but at this stage, they prefer to let her calm down a bit. Right now, any words are irrelevant to her. The more they console her, the more she becomes gloomy.

A ring at the door indicates a customer. Sweet quickly rushes to the counter. Her face turns sour when she sees the person who is standing at the other side of the counter.

"Morning, Sweet..."

"Your Highness... Good morning..."

Khittan smiles as he looks around.

"Your order, sire?"

"Pumpkin latte, half ice and Iced Americano, double shot," he recites the order. Sweet grabs those cups and quickly makes the order. When she turns around, Khittan is nowhere to be found.

She takes the cups and looks around. When she sees Khittan is talking to Karin, she looks horrified.

"Your High... Sir... Your order is ready!" Sweet tries her best not to slip anything from her mouth. Khittan takes the cups from Sweet.

"Let me go and pay first," says Khittan to Karin. She nods in tiny.

***

"Your Highness, if you keep coming back here, she will end up recalling everything!" Sweet gushes at Khittan.

"I think it's time for her to remember what happened..."

"No! We agree to keep this from her! You're the one who discarded her! Now you want her back, for what?" Sweet hisses at Khittan.

"I can feel she's unhappy with her life..."

"She can still be unhappy if she's with you!"

Silence.

"Your Highness, no matter how bitter the feeling is, please don't make things worse. She's in pain, but I believe she can recover even without you," Sweet's words shred his heart. He looks at Karin, his eyes teary.

"Fine. I won't come back again... But please... Take care of her for me," Khittan pleads.

"It's not your job to worry about her. Besides, she has me and Hera. We know what to do," Sweet says, full of strictness in her tone.

Khittan slowly picks up his order and is ready to leave the cafe, but he stops midway when he sees Jun enter the cafe hastily.

***

"Jagi, we can talk about this. I still love you!"

"We had this talk last night. Plus, I think it might be easier to just forget about us after this..." Karin shows him the laptop's screen.

JUN & SOOHA DATING RUMOR: THE AGENCY CONFIRMED THE DATING NEWS.

"I can explain..."

"I don't know how to stay next to you anymore. Is it me who is the third party of the relationship, or her?" asks Karin.

Half an hour ago, she was scrolling on the internet when she stumbled on what happened to be an article about Jun and Soo Ha's dating rumor. When she read the article, she had a clear picture of the relationship between her and Jun.

"Jagi, it's just for a promotion..."

"Business couple, that's what you guys doing now?" Karin asks.

"Yes! It's just temporary,"

"How can you say that? Are you telling me, you play with someone's heart in the name of promotion? Business? Work?" Karin slowly stands from her chair. "This is not you, Jun Seo. You never done something like this before. You respect your career. And now..." Karin stares deep into his eyes.

"Are you sure it's just for work? Or... Did you like that girl? I bet, spending your night at the studio together with her must've changed your perception of love," tears slowly rolling down from Karin's eyes.

Jun halts. He fidgets before letting his head down.

"But I still love you, jagi..."

"Did you? Please don't lie to me, Jun..."

"I'm here to fight my love for you. And yet, you push me away! You've changed! You seem happy that our relationship ended. Is it me, or you're the one who has someone else in mind?" asks Jun.

"At least, I still remember to present for an important date. Where were you last night?" Karin softly pokes her finger at Jun's chest.

Jun can't answer her. He knew he was wrong at that part.

"But, supposedly you should've understood that I'm occupied with work! Besides, what's with the celebration anyway? It's not like we're married or anything..."

"You're the one who insists. You book a restaurant, even put a reminder on my calendar. You're the excited one, and now you told me this?"

The air seems tense even more.

"I think we should stop seeing each other for a while..."

"Jagi, I won't back off!"

"Jun, please don't make things harder. Forget me..."

"No!" Jun grabs Karin's hand tight. She resists with her might. Things started to get hasty and in a mess.

"I will not break up with you!"

"Jun, you're hurting me..." Jun wants to pull Karin out of the cafe when a hand swats his grip from her wrist.

"You're hurting her..."

The presence of a man in front of them feels like stopping the time. Jun releases Karin from his grip and gazes at the man with a shock on his face. After some time, he smirks and looks at Karin.

"Now I know why you insist on breaking up with me..." he says, as he turns his head towards Khittan. "It's because of him!" he points his finger at Khittan and spits words out of anger.

"He got nothing to do with it," says Karin. Khittan smacks down Jun's hand.

"How can I believe that! You two used to live together before..."

"I think you should stop now, Jun..."

"Why should I? I guess, she should know the truth!" Jun is out of control. His anger consumes his sanity.

"What do you mean?" asks Karin.

Hera and Sweet run out of the kitchen. Hera tries to step in to help, but Sweet stops her.

"There is nothing we can do now..." she tells Hera. The girl frowns. Eventually, she remains beside Sweet.

"Care to tell her, Your Highness?"

"Your Highness??" Karin looks at Khittan. The man glares at her, and then he stares at Jun with a sharp gaze.

"Yes. Let me introduce you to The Royal Highness..." Jun glares at Khittan. "Prince Khit Tan of the Fransco..." he continues.

Karin immediately has a flashback.

The book.

THE ROYAL FAMILY: A HISTORY OF THE GREY HOULSEY OF FRANSCO.

He is a member of The Grey Houlsey.

He is The Crown Prince.

Karin immediately bows to Khittan. Her reaction makes him quickly roses her up.

"Dont. You're a royalty too..." he looks at her with his gloomy eyes.

"You know me?"

Khittan shuts himself. He looks at Hera and Sweet. Those two girls freeze in front of the kitchen.

"Of course, he knows you. He's the reason why you're having an accident," says Jun.

"Stop it, Hyung! Please!" Sweet yells at Jun.

"Why should I? He's the one who caused the accident! He ditched her, and now he wants her back! Just because she lost all the memories of how he hurt her, kept her on house arrest, and restricted her from the outside world!"

"You know nothing, young man!" Khittan grabs Jun's collar, ready to throw a fist on his face.

"So, tell me... What's the truth exactly? Where were you when she was at the hospital? You were never there to help her, at all! And now, you try to seduce her so she can come back to you?!" Jun is not backing off either.

The air begins to tense as these two men start fighting. Hera and Sweet try their best to ease the tension between them.

Karin starts getting dizzy. Her head throbs so badly. The mess right in front of her makes her condition even worse.

"Shut the fuck up all of you!!!" she yells her lungs out. Everyone stops doing what they did just now and focuses on her. She stands there, unfazed and confused.

"Why are you guys behaving like this?! I can't believe all of you are keeping a secret from me! I don't fucking care about you two; Khittan and Jun! But, I'm surprised about Hera and Sweet! How dare you two do this to me!" Karin yells at them.

"Unnie... We never meant to hurt you..." says Sweet.

"We did this for your good... Believe in us..." Hera tries to persuade Karin. But, it seems like it's effortless.

"This... All of this... It's too much! Too much!"

Karin immediately runs out of the cafe. She feels hurt and betrayed as well. Seems like it's hard for her to trust anyone in this world.

Everybody lies to me! Why? Why?

She's back on the ground when she hears a loud honk coming towards her. Her feet are glued to the floor. With her messed up brain, it's hard for her to react fast.

The car is coming faster and faster.

"Karin!"