“Umji yah, go get everyone else, what are they doing?”

Sowon and Nayeon prepared the food as Umji ran across the bridges to the bedroom where the other nukos were rolling around playing.

“Everyone we have a guest. Her name is Nayeon unnie and she brought us food.”

“Food?”

“Mm, we need to go eat.”

Holding hands, SinB and Yerin led the way as Umji pushed Eunha from behind and Yuju trailing along.

Once everyone was situated at the table, the nukos sat together in a row in front f their color-coded bowls, staring at the eel dish that Nayeon bought.

“Omo, is this all of them? They’re so cute!”

Yerin sat the farthest away from Nayeon nearly pressed against Sowon’s arm on the table.

“Mm, a total of five, I couldn’t imagine taking care of eight.”

“Haha, when you come over you’ll see!”

“Eh?”

“Ah, let me invite you and all your nukos over to my house for a nuko party!”

Sowon stared, this girl was getting way to comfortable way too quickly.

“Eh?”

“It’ll be this weekend!”

“But Sowon unnie has work on the weekends.”

Nayeon squealed and patted Eunha’s hair lightly. Eunha slightly pouting at Nayeon not reacting to what she said.

“It’s okay, I own that store.”

“EH?!”

Sowon held her hand over , that was probably really, loud.

“Didn’t you know? I’m your boss.”

Sowon shook her head unable to believe that this girl was her boss at work and her class leader at school.

Yerin quietly ate her food as they continued with the details until Nayeon turned to the nukos again.

“What are all of your names?”

Umji started it off at the end of the row closest to Nayeon.

“As earlier I am Umji.”

“Eunha.”

“Yuju.”

“SinB.”

“…”

Sowon looked down at the nuko holding her hand.

“Yerin? What’s wrong?”

Nayeon watched carefully as Sowon held Yerin gently in her hands, letting her have a hiding position before she peeked out behind Sowon’s fingers.

“I-I’m Yerin.”

Putting a very supportive face, Nayeon smiled.

“Hi, I’m Nayeonnie. Did I scare you? I’m sorry.”

Yerin shook her head and hid back behind Sowon’s hands which were kind of making a wall.

“She’s just people shy.”

Sowon pulled Nayeon’s attention away from Yerin by asking about her nukos.

“So, you said you have eight nukos? How big is your house?”

“Haha, you’ll see. I don’t like to flaunt it, so I won’t say anything. But, yea I have eight nukos that live with me.”

Umji, who had finished her food, raised her hand.

“Um, how did you get all eight? I mean I was given to Sowon unnie, we found Yerin unnie and then Sowon unnie rescued SinB and then bought Yuju and Eunha unnie.”

“Ah, first let me show you guys a picture.”

Nayeon turned her phone to them and let them see.

It was a photo of the eight nukos sleeping, all in a row on a mattress. They noticed that two of them were blond, just like Yerin.

“They have shiny blond hair like Yerin unnie.”

“Mm, the thing is there’s a story for them and one more. One time my family was in Japan and like now, nukos aren’t allowed to fly out of Korea. But they can fly in depending on the country.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Mom! I miss Chaeyoungie and Jeongyeonnie!”

“Honey, they’re at home.”

“I know but I miss them so much! Why is our country so slow in approving the checks to let them out of country?!”

“Yah, you can’t badmouth our government.”

“But mom!”

The then twelve-year-old Nayeon kicked her feet out in her seat and slouched.

“Here, why don’t we go and see what we can buy to bring back for them.”

Holding both her daughter’s hands, Nayeon’s mom had led them into the Japanese nuko store.

They stared at the little thingamabobs on the walls and poked at the fluffy toys as they walked around.

Nayeon, who had spotted the wall of glass doors where they kept nukos in, wandered over to a blond nuko.

“Hi.”

It had stared at her like she had two heads until Nayeon remembered how to say hello in japanese.

“Ah, konnichiwa!”

The little nuko got up from her seat against the wall and stood closer, putting her little hands on the glass, staring at Nayeon.

“Konnichiwa.”

Charmed, Nayeon ran to her mom and dragged her over.

“Mom! Look at her! Isn’t she cute?”

Her mom stared for a second before understanding what Nayeon was silently implying.

“I’m not buying another nuko.”

“But mom! We can bring nukos back from Japan!”

Leaving her mom to think, she found her sister who was also staring at another blond nuko.

“Hey.”

“Doesn’t she look chic?”

“Hm? Looks energetic if that’s what you mean. Come see the one mom’s looking at I think she’s cute.”

After her sister had stepped away, Nayeon scooted closer to the blond that captured her sister’s attention. At that moment, the radio in the store crackled to life and the cashier person gave a cheer as a song played and he walked over to the little blond that Nayeon as looking at.

The store owner spoke with broken English as he took the little blond out and put her on the counter.

“She dance good.”

Bouncing along to the rhythm at first, Nayeon watched that once the beat dropped, the nuko had moves.

“Oh my god. MOM! I NEED HER!”

=============================

And tomorrow should also be continuing Nayeon's story telling of the J trio then back to Sowon near the end. Then more fluff, of course ;)