"Wait, I'm still confused."

"Why was she screaming again?"

"Isn't that Julie and Shun?!"

"What are you three talking about?" The office assistants jumped and turned as Alice approached them silently. "What are you watching that involves Julie and Shun?"

Rafe and Jack glanced at Gunz, who reluctantly took out his slightly cracked smartphone. "This video has been circulating since last night, but—"

The redhead snatched the phone out of Gunz's hands and pressed REPLAY. "Somebody recorded me leaving the hospital yesterday!" She then read the video description and comments. "Why is this tabloid saying that I'm trying to break up Hydron and Katie?! How do people even come up this?!" Later, Julie entered the office while looking at her phone, and Alice returned Gunz's phone before running over. "Julie, did you know that some tabloid—"

"Uploaded a video of us picking you up from the hospital? Runo just told me. Ignore these people, Alice. I bet Dylan gave the tabloids this false information. Anyway, you're going on air soon."

Too bad you had earphones on when I told Shun about me and Hydron. Alice brushed her hair out of her face and nodded. "Thanks for reminding me. I'll get ready."

With Alice in the recording room, Julie approached the male office trio and asked sternly, "Which one of you told Alice about the video?"

Rafe and Jack pointed at Gunz, who threw his hands up in defense. "I found it only because it was on my suggested feed!"

"Lots of bizarre things have occurred at the studio since you arrived."

"You can't blame me for everything!"

After Alice's program ended, Julie pulled her hair and waited anxiously in front of the recording room. "What's taking Alice's so long? I gave her one of my papers by accident."

Rafe put his face against the glass pane. "The microphone table is empty, so she must be in the adjacent hallway—"

"ALICE GEHABICH, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

Katie made an unexpected appearance at the double doors and rushed over. Julie also ran forward and held her hands out. "You're the girl from the hospital. Haven't you made enough of a mess already?!"

"Not until I talk to—"

Alice opened the recording room door and gently pushed down Julie's defensive hands while facing the intern pharmacist. "Follow me." She led the way to the break room and asked, "How can I help you?"

"Get the away from Hydron. He's mine."

The redhead blinked in confusion. "You must be mistaken. Hydron and I are just friends from college. Even if there's nothing between us, I don't recall him saying that he was dating you or anyone."

"Of course he didn't tell you that he was dating anyone. Makes it more convenient to get you to accept him before dumping me."

"I'm sorry, but I really don't understand the purpose of your visit. Since you entered on your own, I'm kindly asking you to exit on your own."

Instead, Katie grabbed the radio host's arm tightly before the latter could leave. "Even the tabloids are in my favor. You think that your new reputation as the 'third party' will make you and your show any more favorable?"

"What did you just call me?!" Alice's eyes widened with outrage and forcefully pried the hand off, making the visitor fall back onto the coffee counter. "Take back what you said or—"

"Katie! I knew you'd be here!" The redhead snapped out of her rage and turned to see Hydron rushing over to help Katie up. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Alice shoved me after—"

"Katie came uninvited." Alice left the break room and saw everyone staring at her, including Runo who was absent all morning. "How does Hydron know that Katie's here?"

The bluenette raised her hand. "I just got to work now after some issues at home. I saw Hydron downstairs and brought him up here because he wanted to see you. I had no idea that Katie came here on her own. Maybe he knew and wanted to stop her?"

"Well, the timing was absolutely perfect." Alice grabbed her phone and wallet before leaving. "I'm not coming back until they're gone."

The three guys returned to work, while Julie whispered to Runo, "If only you were here to hear what Alice and Katie talked about."

"Tell me later when Hydron and Katie are gone. I regret bringing him up here."

Alice left the office and locked herself in a single-stall restroom. She leaned over the sink and stared into the mirror. Why am I so upset? People are making stories out of nothing, and Katie takes advantage of this to have things her way. Why do I even care? While washing her teary face, her phone vibrated with an incoming call from Shun. "What do you want?"

"Julie wasn't kidding."

Alice shut off the water. "Did she tell you everything?"

"She just said that Katie came uninvited, and that Hydron had to clean up the mess. Based on your tone of voice, it sounds like you didn't win."

"How hard is it to explain that I'm innocent?"

"Depends. I just watched the video, but the angle, audio, and resolution are so bad. Looks like it came from a smartphone rather than a DSRL camera. Also, the uploader edited the video to focused on you three. You can barely see Julie and me."

"That's not helping me, Shun. I wasn't expecting to see Hydron again. Nor do I want to because he reminds me of Taylor and everyone else. But just when I'm starting to overcome my fears, Katie comes along and puts me in a difficult situation. Why can't I just get along with people?"

"No matter how much guilt you feel about the past or present, none of this is your fault at all."

Alice stared into the mirror again while listening to Shun's last sentence and burst into tears again. "I'm sorry. I can't do this." She hung up and placed her whole face in the sink with the water running even faster. I wish things would just go my way for once...

-x-x-x-x-x-

"You're avoiding me."

Hydron just ended a call in the hospital courtyard before facing the person talking to him. "Katie, what do you mean?"

"You haven't talked to me for the past couple days. Even when I do see you in the building, you're always with a preceptor."

"How is that considered 'avoiding' you? You're an intern pharmacist; I'm a physician assistant student. Our rotations are different, so of course we won't always cross paths throughout the day."

"It's because of Alice, isn't—"

"Katie, stop!" After unintentionally raising his voice, Hydron looked around and saw barely anyone. "Thank goodness it's dark with nobody around. I don't know why you think I 'like' Alice just because she's my college friend or why you think you and I are 'together' when we're just colleagues at the same rotation site. Stop disturbing people, okay? I'm going home."

"Don't you have graveyard shift today?"

"No, I don't. My preceptor had to change shifts today, and I followed along."

"You didn't tell me?"

"Why should I? My rotation, my education, my business. I know your shift ends at midnight, so good night." Without another word, Hydron returned to the hospital building to pack and leave.

Katie later completed the rest of today's rotation shift and waited at the hospital's front entrance. Should I walk home if a taxi doesn't come? Unfortunately, no taxis came by for twenty minutes, and the intern pharmacist resorted to walking.

Along the way home was a short tunnel, designed to support a perpendicular stretch of highway above. Despite being perfectly lit at night, it still had precautions. Katie walked at an average pace in flats as rustling noises resounded from behind. "Is anyone—"

"Excuse us!"

"Coming through!"

Two young men jogged passed her in single file, then disappeared into the darkness. Who created the idea of nighttime exercise anyway? At the end of the tunnel, Katie was about to turn on her phone's flashlight when someone grabbed her arm. "Hey! Let go of—aaahhh! My face! It hurts!"

"You're the third wheel!" screamed the perpetrator though a face mask as the defacing continued.

With the two joggers gone, no one else was around to hear Katie cry in agony.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Shun dialed Dan's number after pressing the UP button at the hospital elevator. "What floor are you on again?"

"Third—currently obtaining a witness statement."

The raven-haired student entered after the doors open and pressed the appropriate buttons inside. "You always forget things at home and tell me too much information."

"But that's what a best friend like you is for!"

On the third floor, Shun immediately saw Dan waiting anxiously once the elevator doors opened. "Here's your folder. Don't you have a better way to organize things?"

"I'll do that once I'm done with the training phase of police academy. Did you know that last night's—well technically, this early morning's—victim is Katie? Her face and hair are just..." While leading the way Katie's room, the brunet pretended to scratch his face repeatedly, and Shun covered his mouth at the thought. "Chan, I brought—"

The police madam quickly whispered to Billy before closing the room door on her way out. "I appreciate Shun for helping his best friend at all times, but you need to get it all together, Dan. Anyway, I knew nothing about the 'third wheel' video until now, since Katie said that the perpetrator who cut her face and hair kept calling her the third wheel. Unfortunately, she didn't have any more details on the guy—aside from a masculine voice."

"Why would someone cut and keep Katie's hair?" Dan asked.

"Some assailants do that as a trophy or keepsake," Shun asked, followed by silent stares from the people around him. "What? I learned this in one of my elective courses."

"But this is case weird," Chan noted. "Katie has nothing to do with the radio station, so why assault her? Also, no one outside of the police knows about Katie's incident except you, Shun."

"I'm just worried about Alice's well-being. I called her after Katie made a scene at the radio station to see if Alice was alright, but she hung up after another nervous breakdown. We haven't talked since, so I hope Runo and Julie are looking over her. But is it possible that this assailant isn't the same person that assaulted Dylan? Everything's so different about—"

Suddenly, Dan received an incoming call. "Hello? Runo? I don't understand what you're saying. Can you stop screaming?" He stepped to the side and covered his other ear. "That's disgusting! I'll let her know. Thanks." Dan finally hung up and shivered. "There's a package at the radio station, and inside was hair."

"Still better than teeth...but that means we've been looking at this all wrong," Shun concluded. "It seemed like the cockroaches, blades, and Dylan's teeth all served as a warning to the radio station, but with Katie's incident and a package with possibly her hair, I think Alice is the perpetrator's real 'target'. He's not threatening the station at all. He just wants to eliminate factors that upset Alice."

"Essentially, he's getting rid of Alice's worries?" Chan asked.

"Sounds like it. The entire city knows what Dylan already did to Alice, and Katie's making a big deal out of nothing between her, Hydron, and Alice. Alice told me personally that she and Hydron are strictly friends."

Billy then exited Katie's room and handed Chan his notepad. "I'm done asking, and the nurses want me out while they take vital signs. What now?"

"Get back in there and collect a sample of Katie's hair into a small evidence bag. Then we'll bring Alice over for questioning."

-x-x-x-x-x-

Alice squeezed her fingers nervously in the interrogation room and drank water. "You really think that one of my fans is doing this?"

Billy nodded. "Think about it. You hate cockroaches, so the they kill some and send them to you as proof that the cockroaches won't harm you anymore. You broke your paper knife blade, so they sent you replacements. Dylan and Katie both somewhat bullied you, so they assault them and sends you more proof—in the form of teeth and hair."

"But still...I didn't ask for this. I didn't know my increasing popularity would come with such consequences."

"Alice, it's not your fault," Chan reassured. "We've seen similar cases before, and international news also features obsessed fans. Have there been any zealous people lately?"

"Zealous? As in hyper and enthusiastic or what?"

"Anything that you can give me, from online to coworkers or even strangers on the street."

"I know that netizens can be very savage online, but no one actually threatened to do something in real life. As for my coworkers, they all started before I came here, but Gunz is a recent addition. He said he's one of my biggest fans, but that's about it. I also don't go out much outside of work. Sorry that I can't provide more."

"No worries. That's all we had to ask." The police madam opened the door for Alice. "Watch your every step, okay?"

"I will. Thanks, Chan." The redhead smiled before leaving the police station. I don't care if this person sends me proof of all these 'good' deeds. I just want to be normal again. Alice stopped walking after her phone rang. "Anubias, how can I—"

"Be in my office no later than fifteen minutes."

"I'm on it!" Alice then sprinted through all subsequent streets quickly but safely. Once at the building director's office, she saw Anubias sitting with Shun and Dan. "What's the occasion? And why are you two here?"

"We'll explain later." The raven-haired student handed Alice a stack of papers. "This script is for you when you go on air later."

The redhead's lips parted as she flipped the pages in awe. "Anubias, are we allowed to change today's program last minute like this?"

"Just say that there's a slight change in schedule and read this before taking a break. Act natural. We'll be at the studio later."

Alice squeezed her middle finger and nodded. "I got this."

The radio host left first, and the other trio arrived at the studio around the same time as other office staff returned from lunch. "You think this will work, Shun?" Dan whispered. "Chan's open to all ideas at this point, but I'm not sure how reading poetry will help."

"One, it's not poetry. Two, don't we all want to see how the perpetrator will react when Alice actually 'reaches out' for once?"

"You're lucky that Chan approved of this last minute. She's coming later...I think."

With the sound system ready, Alice wore her headphones and adjusted the microphone. "Welcome back to another episode of 'AOA: Alice On-Air'! Today, I want to start off with a short relaxation activity. For the best experience, please close your eyes, but only if it's safe and convenient to do so. Everyone ready?"

She looked out the windows and saw everyone waving at her and giving her OK signs. Here goes nothing...

"This world has many tales about love. If I were to turn every love story into a star, then they would all shine more luminously than the Milky Way that we all know. And if I were to rank each star by their brightness, the most sparkling would be love at first sight with its intensely passionate fire. Next would be long-lasting love with its eternally warm radiance.

"However, there's a type of comet that flies through outer space without regard for its surroundings. It can't help but want to be with that one star that it's drawn to. That's what I call unrequited love. If that comet continues to wreak havoc like this—unintentional or not—then it will eventually disintegrate into dust and become a faded memory of the past. Not only that, but other stars—including the one that brought the comet out of its comfort zone—might also become collateral damage.

"Human emotions are no different. There's a fine line between friendship and love, just like how every star in the Milky Way has its own trajectory that doesn't allow for deviation. Otherwise, you'll hurt yourself and those around you. What's the result? Everybody suffers. Whether you choose to hang on or let go, think about all the consequences of your actions. What's best for one person might not be the best for another."

Alice cued for music and shut off all on-air equipment before going on break. "Wasn't that an interesting new segment?"

Julie's jaw completely dropped. "What...was that?! I've written some crazily detailed scripts before, but nothing like that! That was...a masterpiece!"

"Thanks, Julie! You can thank—" Alice's phone beeped multiple times in a row. "Someone from a different channel is asking if I can trade time slots with them. Anubias, can we talk about this in your office?"

Before the Australian could reply, the radio host and building director already left. Suddenly, Runo grabbed Julie's wrist and dragged her outside. "Runo, where are we going?"

"Checking on some suspicious activity."

"Alice and Anubias are suspicious?!"

In the outside hallway, the bluenette held a finger to her lips. "Anubias's phone vibrated many times too, so I think the schedule conflict is real. However, we're following him instead." Runo led the way to the stair doors. "Gunz left just moments ago, and he just went here. There he is..."

After dialing a number, the tall blond assistant waited until someone answered. "Hey, I just wanted to update you with recent events. Alice just went on air and said some weird prose. Sounds like it's directed at the obsessed fanatic that's been sending her packages."

The silver-haired assistant gasped. "How does he know about the obsessed fan? You and I barely know—"

"Julie, we need to go. His call ended." The girls exited the stairwell and rushed into the women's restroom. "I never liked Gunz to begin with, but that was super weird. Who was he talking to?"

"What if he works for the obsessed fan and released the audio clip online? I'm pretty sure Rafe and Jack didn't do it. And why did Alice suddenly change today's program?"

"Looks like we have more investigating to do..."