A man's deep voice stopped her before she had gone a dozen steps. "He must be an extremely foolish man to turn his back and run from such beauty."

"No! You can't do this to him!"

Charlotte whirled to face the man who stepped up on the path behind her. He must have been sitting out of her view on the stone bench in the shadow of the dogwood that reached its limbs toward the veranda.

"Forgive me," he said. "It wasn't my intention to startle you."

"Sim Cheong! You can't fucking do this to him!"

In the moonlight it wasn't hard to see the amused smile playing across his lips under his mustache that gave lie to his words. That had been exactly what he'd intended. Charlotte thought as she stared up at him with no pretense of demurely lowering her eyes. He was tall, even taller than Edwin, but while Edwin slouched to try to keep from towering above his companions, this man stood straight, completely at ease with his height. He was quite handsome with thick dark hair brushed back from his forehead and a strong profile. She had no idea who he was. . .

"Why?!. . . This is so fucking unfair! Why would you do this to him, Cheong?! He fucking loves you even with how you're a totally different specie than he is!" Oriana wailed, successfully interrupting Emerald from the novel she was currently reading.

"Oriana, can you please be quiet? It's just a movie," she sighed, placing her glasses over her head as she looked at Ori over the book.

She was currently lying on their red velvet couch with an opened novel on her chest as she tried to focus but as you could see, her efforts were proving to be futile with Oriana's speaker type voice.

"Just a movie? Just a movie?!" she cried in disbelief.

"You just referred to the most amazing Korean series in the history of Korean movies ever acted in the entire fucking universe as 'just a movie'?! You're unbelievable, Mera," she looked indeed hurt as she held a hand to her chest, squeezing tight.

Emerald sighed as she removed her pencil from behind her ear and marked the spot where she had stopped before placing the pencil in and shutting the book.

She ran her hand down her face as she looked from the paused scene that had been playing on the TV to a sniffling Oriana, who was blowing her nose into a tissue, her cheeks wet with tears as she mumbled profanities against the person that had written the play. Her lips, part of her chin and below her nose, completely covered in ice cream. She had actually cried because of a movie.

It was currently a Thursday night and Emerald had had quite a busy day at work with quite a number of clients showing up, both old and new ones. So she had hoped to come home, take a long hot shower, have dinner, take her vitamins and succumb to a world of fantasies for a little while before going to bed, because she also had a packed day ahead of her tomorrow with work and then having to head to the airport.

So imagine her frustration with having to have her plans ruined as always. Every other thing had gone well but as she had settled to dive into one of the new novels she had purchased earlier this month, she had barely completed a chapter when Oriana had decided to grace her with her deafening wails all because of a romance movie.

"What's so special about it anyway?" Ori's head immediately snapped to look at her as the words left her mouth. She was already dreading opening her mouth. She just had to say something, didn't she? She could've just taken the opportunity to retreat into her idyllically tranquil niche. Her most trusted source of solace in times of the grief in her life with the name, Oriana but no, she had to open her big yap.

"Oh I'd be glad to tell you the unique features of this movie. You tell me, what romance movie have you watched where a human fell in love with a mermaid. Despite finding out that she wasn't like him, he still loved and accepted her. Despite the fact that with one look, she could totally wipe his memories, he didn't care and still, he trusted her whole-heartedly.

Despite finding out about the harsh past they had earlier faced in their first life, he still held on and was resolute about having his happily ever after with her. He still focused on spending his eternity with her even when his life was in danger. He could've lost his life, Mera! But he still stood by her!

Now you tell me, does someone as amazing as that deserve to get his memory wiped by the woman he loves? And let's not forget the fact that this man is my fucking boo, Lee Min Ho!" she began wailing again.

Wow! Just wow!

Emerald stared at her friend, dumbfounded. It's settled, Oriana had officially gone crazy.

"I can't believe she would do that to him after all they've been through. He's so stupid, even! Why would he even go after her when I'm perfectly available, single and ready to mingle with him and him alone! I don't know why he can't just look at me for once and reciprocate my one-sided love after all these years. He now had to get his memories wiped by the supposed love of his life!

It's breaking me, Mera. I'm completely shattered," she bawled her eyes out and let me tell you, it wasn't a pretty sight at all, especially with the booger sticking out her nostril.

Emerald couldn't take her eyes off her friend and she was totally convinced, hands down, that her friend had officially gone crazy. She kept looking at her until she calmed down after a few minutes of tears and snots.

"Do you get why it's considered sui generis now?" she peeked at Emerald through her wet eyelashes while dabbing the skin beneath her eyes.

Emerald blinked before she frowned slightly and turned to grab her book. She patted Oriana on her head as she slowly stood.

"I really don't care but there is one thing I'm completely certain about after tonight," she said and watched Ori's curious gaze as one of her eyebrows rose in question.

"That you've gone crazy, Ori and as your friend, my advice to you is that you should see someone. Maybe a therapist? And lucky for you, I'm one," she watched as her friend's jaw dropped and her eyes narrowed into daggers.

"Don't worry about the fee though. You'll get a 30% discount. So what do you say?" she concluded as she tilted her head with a mocking innocent smile on her face.

She grinned and immediately began moving backwards as she saw Ori make a move to follow after her. Her eyes went to the Cheetos wrapper lying idly and innocently beside the tub of ice cream and she glanced at her friend's socked feet; a disaster waiting to happen. She smirked as she looked back at her oblivious friend who was about to fall victim to her own traps. She was about to reap what she had sown.

She kept moving towards her room with a mischievous smile and as Ori fully got up and prepared to run after Emerald, only for her to slip and fall on her ass, her posture completely weird as she landed half sprawled out on the couch and half lying on the floor.

She let out a groan as she threw a glare Emerald's way which only made her let out a chuckle as she walked to her room.

"Good night, Ori. Your first session starts next week!" she shouted as she laughed and opened the door to her room.

"Fuck you, bitch!" Ori shouted in response before she let her door close shut.