A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who left reviews on the last chapter! I'm so glad you are enjoying the drama. I went on vacation, but now I'm back. Don't know how crazy the holidays will get, but here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy :)

P.S. A lot will happen in the next one. ;) Not to tease you or anything...

"What?" Ga Eul repeated dumbly. The picture of herself faded to black as Woo Bin's screen went into sleep mode.

Bringing his arm down, Woo Bin continued, "Where was this taken? And don't try to lie because I'm not leaving here until I get a straight answer. I don't care if you miss work."

Drawing in a shaky breath, Ga Eul moved out of the doorway so he could step inside.

"Come in, Sunbae," she said quietly.

Closing the door behind him, she guided him to sit down on her sofa. Woo Bin set his phone down on the coffee table, face up, as if the lingering picture might jog her memory.

"Well?" he looked up at her expectantly after she had joined him on the couch, not so much sitting there as leaning on the edge of it, her hands gripping the cushion beneath her as though she might topple over at any moment.

"Ga Eul."

"I...um...where did you get that photo?" she asked.

"Where I got it isn't important. How about you start explaining it?"

Ga Eul nodded, unable to look at him.

"It was the night of Jan Di's engagement party," she began quietly. "Towards the end. Jan Di and Jun Pyo Sunbae were still greeting guests. I was going to say goodbye to them before I left, but then a waiter spilled wine on my dress, and I thought I should probably go to the bathroom and clean it off. It was such a nice dress. I didn't want to ruin it."

"Go on."

"Well...I was just standing in the bathroom by the sink, trying to clean it, when these three girls came in. I didn't feel...comfortable...so I tried to leave, but then one of them grabbed my arm and said...some insulting things to me. It was strange. She already knew about me and Yi Jeong Sunbae. I tried to leave again, but they threw me down, and then two of them held me down while the third girl ripped off my dress and cut it to pieces...And that's it." She finished the last few sentences rapidly, eager to be rid of them. In that moment, she had felt so vulnerable, so exposed, that reliving it for someone else embarrassed her, though she knew she hadn't done anything wrong.

When she finally looked at Woo Bin, he looked like he might punch a hole in the wall behind her.

"Sunbae?"

"Fucking hell, Ga Eul, why didn't you tell one of us?!"

"I was completely naked, Sunbae! Except for my underwear. It's not like I could really go anywhere. Besides with the press and everything—" Ga Eul rubbed her arms. She'd started shaking just thinking about that night.

"How did you get back home?"

"Someone came in and left their coat. I used it to cover myself."

Woo Bin swore again, softer this time but with the same threat of vengeance.

"Yi Jeong wasn't there," he muttered.

"That's right. That was the night he got...held up by his grandfather."

"Did his grandfather send someone—"

"Aniyo." Ga Eul stared hard at a small stain on her pajama pants, a lump growing in her throat. The muscles in her back burned with tension.

"Who then? Do you know who did this?"

She nodded, unsure if she could get the words out.

"Then say it. Who the hell did this to you?!"

"I...I'm sorry, Sunbae."

"Who is it?!"

Ga Eul shifted back on the couch a bit and looked straight into his eyes.

He did deserve to know the truth after all.

She hoped it wouldn't break him.

"Yi...Madeleine."

"Come again?" Hyun Sub asked. He'd taken a slight detour on his way to see Chu Ga Eul. The waiter that had spilled wine on her dress still worked events at the ballroom, and it had been just Hyun Sub's luck to find him working at a conference there this fine morning.

Idiot. If she had been anything but a commoner, he would have already been fired. In fact, Hyun Sub had quite a mind to demand his dismissal now, but it occurred to Hyun Sub that he might put the young man's precarious position to good use for his own purposes.

"Yi Madeleine," the waiter repeated nervously, his eyes lowered to Hyun Sub's shoes. "She called me over to her about halfway through the party and told me she'd pay me...more than I make in a month...if I'd spill wine on one of Geum Jan Di's friends. At first I didn't want anything to do with it, but she insisted no one would care. She said that person...was a nobody...So when everyone was distracted up front, I...um...I made my move."

Hyun Sub frowned. He could easily reason out why Madeleine might attack Ga Eul, but how had she done it? What exactly had happened in that restroom?

"I'm not in the habit of taking bribes, sir," the waiter added quickly. "It's just that my poor mother is sick—"

Hyun Sub waved the remark away.

"That will be all," he commanded. "Although, if you would like to keep your job for your poor sick mother, it would be best for you to forget we have spoken. Understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"And one more thing."

"Sir?"

Hyun Sub kneed the unsuspecting waiter firmly in the groin, smirking satisfactorily when he doubled over on the ground.

It was nearly 7:00 AM when Hyun Sub arrived at Ga Eul's apartment, intent on catching her on her way to work. Parking his car near the front entrance to the complex, he waited for her for a few minutes inside the car until, feeling stifled, and with a strange sense of restless rage, he got out and began pacing in front of the building. Digging a cigarette out of his pocket, he stood off to the side as a sudden barrage of tenants spilled out of the building on their way to work and school. A few kids jostled each other as they ran toward the street, their laughter carrying over the chatter of office workers greeting each other or speaking distractedly into their cellphones. Oh, to be young and free again.

The cigarette wasn't helping him to calm down. It had felt good to make the waiter suffer. Sure, he saw the hypocrisy in his righteous indignation, but he didn't care. Ga Eul reminded him too much of So Ri in her youth –such a vulnerable, delicate flower, spirited but ultimately powerless. He couldn't erase his past mistakes, but perhaps he could atone for them.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait much longer for the object of his soul's salvation to emerge, hot on the heels of Song Woo Bin. The latter's countenance looked like hell itself about to boil over. She grabbed Woo Bin's arm just as he stepped off the sidewalk, and he jerked out of her grasp but turned back toward her, directing the fire in his eyes to the building behind her.

Ducking behind a small tree near the entryway, Hyun Sub watched their brief but heated exchange.

"Sunbae, what are you going to do?"

"Don't worry about it. This is between me and Madeleine."

"Are you going to tell Yi Jeong?"

"Don't you think he deserves to know?!"

"Of course he does. That's not what I meant. I just meant that I...I want to tell him first. Please don't tell him. I hate the fact that I lied to him. I just...I didn't know how to say that with you there. And you...well, you never told him either. Did you, Sunbae? You never told him about you and Madeleine. Why not?"

"I don't know. Maybe I felt like an idiot. Maybe I thought she would get hurt. Well, I was right. She is going to get hurt. Only it's going to be me who does it."

Neither one of them said anything for a minute. A few more people came out of the building and brushed past them.

"Don't worry, Sunbae." Ga Eul broke the silence, her tone one of comfort. I'm sure Yi Jeong will understand."

Woo Bin shook his head.

"I don't know. But whatever happens, don't worry about me. You just make sure you and Yi Jeong stay together, all right? You two will get through this. You've already made it this far."

"Thank you, Sunbae. Be careful, all right?"

"I've got to go. You better go get dressed for work."

Nodding, Ga Eul stepped away from him, and Hyun Sub watched their respective retreats until Woo Bin peeled away in his shiny new yellow Lotus into the busy morning traffic.

For a long moment after Ga Eul went back inside, Hyun Sub stood there, wondering which party to approach first.

Finally deciding on the wounded lover, he got back in his car and dialed Woo Bin's number, long tucked away in phone for emergency purposes. As expected, it went to voicemail, and he left a short message. Perhaps the two of them might exchange favors?

How ironic it was that to save his soul he would have to hurt the only woman he ever loved.

Cruelly and again.