Juri

I glared at him as he shamelessly spoke again.

"Yeah, the steak there is really good."

"And how do you know that?" my mouth blurted out as my blood boiled.

His eyes widened, and he cleared his throat, "What I meant was I heard that it's really good."

I rolled my eyes but he didn't catch it.

When we reached my apartment, he parked outside the building and turned to me. He then leaned across the console for a kiss, but I smoothly turned my head away, letting his lips brush uselessly against my cheeks. 

This man just couldn't take a hint.

I cleared my throat, "Do you want to come inside?" I asked, and his eyes instantly sparkled with excitement.

"I thought you wanted to wait until we got married," he said while unbuckling his seatbelt with sudden urgency, "I hope Nari isn't home so that we can get some privacy."

My face twisted with disgust.

What a sick pervert. I had been too blinded by love to see the kind of man he truly was. The only reason why I had invited him inside was to watch him interact with Nari and witness just how oblivious I had been all this time. My upper lip curled into a snarl.

"She is home. If you think the only reason I'd ever invite you inside was because of that, then you can go home."

His jaw tightened with irritation as his smile vanished, "Whatever. I'll come some other time."

My brows knitted together. Again, what an absolute pervert. 

However, now that I thought about it, everything began to click. In the past, he would always do whatever it took to meet up with Nari through me. Back then, I never suspected a thing because I honestly believed he just saw her as a sister and wanted us all to spend time together.

He hadn't looked happy when he spoke with Nari on Saturday, either. Was he really planning to break things off with her?

I cast a secretive side-eye and got out of the car. Of course I didn't care if he really intended to end things with her or not. There was no going back after what he did, and just because I wasn't doing anything about it right then, it didn't mean I wouldn't do anything later. Both Juwon and Nari should count their days.

The car revved as he drove away, and my eyes turned to the apartment building as I sighed. What was once a warm place quickly became an environment induced with anxiety.

My carefully curated life was truly falling apart.

When I reached my apartment and carefully pried the door open, it was quiet. Eerily quiet. I instinctively glanced towards Nari's room; the lights were on; but she wasn't cooking dinner like she normally did.

A scoff escaped my lips as I stared at her door. I was now certain that Juwon broke things off. He had abandoned her while she carried his child. Assuming that the pregnancy wasn't just another lie to steal him away.

Suddenly, the door swung open and our eyes locked. She immediately looked away, unable to face me. I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced a smile.

"I thought you were asleep. It's still early, so why are you in your room? Is it because of work?"

Nari and I used to work at the same company, as I mentioned before. However, the real reason I left wasn't just because it was too competitive, but because of something much darker. Right before my promotion, rumors about me started circulating. It escalated to the point where HR let me go just to preserve the company's dignity. Although I was forced out, Nari still worked there.

She didn't answer my question. She just stared at me with a look of resentment that sent chills down my spine. The apartment felt darker and colder than usual. The person who used to be my light had suddenly turned into someone hollow and shallow. Like a void. All I could do was helplessly stare back, my face mirroring her cold expression.

After a few seconds of suffocating silence, she finally spoke up.

"When did you find out?"

I clenched my fists. So she knew. She had always been quite smart; I should've been more careful. But perhaps it was better this way. I hadn't known how to confront either of them without being impulsive anyway.

My eyes glided down to the luggage beside her, and I felt a strange, cold static hum beneath my skin. She was playing the victim, making herself the protagonist of a tragedy she had authored. I wanted to scream at the unfairness of it. In my mind, I had already initiated the "breakup protocol," but she had beaten me to it.

I was the planner, the one who saw things coming, yet I was standing here trembling while she held all the cards. I wasn't just disappointed; I was erased.

She scoffed, "You've always been so oblivious, Juri. Do you even know how long we've been seeing each other behind your back? Weeks? Months? No, years, Juri!" she said while taking a step closer. "Five years!"

My body started trembling again as I tried to compose myself. I wanted to yell at her, to slap her, to throw a fit, but the impulse died before it reached my hands. I was a passenger in my own skin. I just felt... disappointed.

That heavy, soul-deep kind of disappointment that turns your blood to lead. In just a few days, I had lost my best friend and my boyfriend. My life's blueprints were gone, and I was just standing in the debris, unable to even lift a hand to clear the air.

The way she stared at me prompted me to take a step back. How did I not see the pure evil radiating off her for all these years?

"This isn't just about Juwon. Is it?" I asked, my voice dropped to a whisper. As if I were too afraid to make the universe glitch again. I was too afraid to find out how truly cunning Nari was.

She scoffed again, "Look at you acting so holy. You think I've been happy for you all these years? The way you effortlessly did better than everyone else? The way you always got promoted before me? The way you so easily get things your way? Elyvion was my dream company, and you knew it! I applied to that company too, so why did you get the job?!"

My brows twitched as tears flowed down her face. Wasn't I supposed to be the one crying and yelling? Yet, she had become the protagonist of my tragedy.

"This is too much," I whispered. I tried to pull in air, but it hit a wall in my chest. My lungs felt like they had shrunk to the size of an acorn. I was taking sips of air, but they were tiny, jagged gasps that didn't reach deep enough as if my body had forgotten the proper sequence for a full breath.

She rolled her eyes as if I was nuisance, not giving a single care to my breakdown. She simply grabbed her luggage and proceeded to walk past me. Once we were level, she suddenly stopped and turned to look at me with satisfaction plastered on her face.

"So this was all it took to see you make that face? I can only pray that this is the same face I see the next time we meet again." she said.

And with that, she left. I opened my mouth to speak, but the words were dead before they reached my lips.

Nari had done it. She had taken the knife she'd twisted into my back and somehow convinced herself it was my hand on the guard.