“Right? Right?! It’s not only me! I told you he’s mental!”

“Oh, never heard that words since my last holiday to visit my aunt in Southampton.”

“Dude, really,” she detached herself from the couch she’s been sitting on the past hour because apparently Donut – his favorite nephew’s nickname – is tailing his mother to the supermarket since they ran out of cinnamon, “Your family really is everywhere. Seoul, Hongkong, UK, even in radius ten meter from me.”

“Stop right there, leave my family alone!”

If you thought he is cute, Lee Taeyeon, this time he’s off the chart.

“Maybe your sister complex can be upgraded to family complex.”

“That is one of the worst joke I’ve ever heard.”

“At least I tried.”

“Not hard enough apparently.”

“Never knew you’re obsessed over doing something. Oh, no, scratch that. You’re very obsessed.”

“Whoa. Did you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

“Whoa. Leave my family alone.”

“Classic payback. Respect. Speaking about family, are you already at your sister’s?”

“What are you? Prosecutor?”

“No, b—“

“Oh, good Lord! Suho’s right! It’s so fun teasing you!” she moved to the pantry to take some chocolate milk from the fridge, Junghee’s eyes sparks seeing the apparent flush on her sister’s in law, “Yeah, I’m here. My favorite sister’s in law is cooking for me.”

“My sister in law cannot cook. Well, she cooks, but not as good as my sister.”

“This is why your friend cannot stop pick pointing on your over-protective behavior towards your sister.”

“That’s not true. I’m basically over-protective to all my siblings, which means including my brother who is eight years older than me.”

“See? Family complex.”

“Okay, fine, tease me as you want. I will hang up.”

“Sure, I’m not the one who made the call.”

Minho laughed on the other line because the ways she sounds projecting the exact expression she would have if she’s right before his eyes. It’s been a long time he’s able to laugh this free, as if there’s not even tiny problem by the corner dare to ruin his bubble.

“Anyway, I have a brunch to attend.”

“Now who’s the fancy one?”

“It was Kibum’s agenda! I’m supposed to sleep until at least lunch time every Sunday, but since this devil descendant had an event yesterday, instead of cancelling, he decided to ruin my free time.”

“Still, not even have brunch on Saturday over here.”

“You are literally the worst. If only people at the office see how mean you are.”

“I’m not mean!”

“Well, it’s safe to say that they’re drooling on you over nothing. You’re just ball of evil wrapped in a cotton candy blanket.”

“First. I love cotton candy so it’s okay. Second, blanket of cotton candy? Seriously? What are you? Early diabetic teenager who’s fanatic over unicorn and its entire family tree or a five months pregnant woman who cannot wait to hold her baby?”

“For the convenience of both ends, this conversation is being recorded,” Minho’s imitation on credit card costumer service cracked her on the spot, “See? Very mean.”

“Still less evil than a man who recorded the conversation just to blackmail someone in the future.”

“You really are something, Lee Taeyeon.”

“I am. How long do you know me?”

“Thirty seven days, nineteen hours and approximately 23 minutes.”

“Whoa. Not creepy at all, Dude.”

What came out is totally pole apart with what’s screaming inside her chest. She knows it might be just him being himself who is this very detail person but she cannot ignore the warmth feeling enveloping her guts just like that.

“Better be creepy than mean. I’m calling just to check on you, who knows last night after I dropped you continue to have a drink somewhere instead of sleeping and still not sober yet while playing with your nephew. It’s not safe for a kid, you know.”

“Seriously. Do I have a face of a drunken-head?”

“You don’t. But again, you don’t look that mean.”

“Whatever. I’d rather be mean than having a sister complex condition.”

“Not good, not fair. Okay, I do need to hang up now, I’m about to drive.”

“M’Kay,” she plays with her nephew Toy’s Story mug, if she could stretch the time, she would, “Send my regards to them. Drive carefully, please.”

“I will! And send my regards to your family as well.”

“Sure, sure.”

“See you tomorrow, Tae!”

And just like that her ten minutes in heaven is finished. She looks at her phone forlornly, didn’t catch the look Junghee has been giving her since the phone call started. Until the later placed the rattan basket full of garlic bread.

“That’s new.”

She flinched on her seat and dropped the phone to the table immediately.

“And I’m not talking about your phone case.”

Taeyeon can only smile shyly, she picked one of the bread to dodge the conversation.

“Does Sookie know?”

“Please don’t tell her she would make a fuss.”

“What will I get if I don’t tell her?”

“You know I am penniless, right?”

“So tell me, Young Lady. From the beginning. Without missing detail.”

“Why should I?”

“Honey, you have less than fifteen minutes until my wife returned and sense the awkward atmosphere. She maybe has pregnancy brain clouded her mind but her nose is still as amazing as the German Shepherd she treated last week.”

***

Yesterday.

Taeyeon walked aimlessly after her class finished. It’s Saturday and surprisingly she got off work earlier. What a treat actually, but not her. At least at the moment.

She rechecked her mailbox, rereading the whole feedback she received by her supervisor. The length itself it’s not that friendly. By the next three days, she needs to produce one presentation and at least 15 pages of her thesis progress, all with the summarized chart and diagram from her research. It’s not that hard actually, she got every single data required, and visual graphic is her forte, if she could focus on three hours, she would manage to finish at least 70% of the submission.

However, she is a helpless artist inside, when the mood is not coming then everything is not happening. Plus, more stuffs occupied her mind at the moment. The bill of the apartment is out of hands, and one of her class where she teaches is canceled because apparently not enough students applied on it. The owner actually offering her some private class she can handle if she wants. Thing is, mostly that’s on weekdays, where the free time would be 7 PM onwards.

The condition at the office is not helping at all. No, no, it’s not like she has lots of stuff to do. She barely has anything to distract her mind. The proposal Minho explained to her previously seemed like fake hope, there’s no follow up after that and she spent her days by the office just doing some graphic stuffs a second year undergraduate student would be able to finish it. Nothing she can blame when she has no time to touch her thesis.

Usually, during hard times like this, Krystal would already waiting by the nearest coffee shop and later on, they’ll go out together trying every single street food they could find along the way.

However, the winter wind slapped her face stronger than it supposed to be, without washed away her loneliness. Life in London was colder than this. But the friends around her kept the flame inside her enlighten. Family is so close now, yet so far.

“Lee Taeyeon?”

As cliché as it could be, Taeyeon’s heart slipped and sunk to the bottom of her stomach recognizing how familiar that voice is.

“What are you doing here?”

“Wandering around and resenting my life so far?”

She wanted to be less brutal, but and brain forgot to plug to each other this morning, making her words taste bitter than she expected.

“Wow. So I’m not the only one.”

She followed his tall limbs walked closer and sat by her side. Both are in complete silent, enjoying people passing by and the busy street of Seoul over the 7017 Skygarden. The horizon seems unbothered by the buzz rummaging through the afternoon.

“Nice camera.”

Taeyeon tried to shed away the awkwardness start wrapping the atmosphere. Minho’s looking straight to the camera in his hand, which actually brought the smile back on his face.

“Is it, isn’t it? Birthday present.”

“What a thoughtful gift.”

“Not thoughtful enough.”

“You sure have a very high standard.”

“Well, I just thought this could be birthday present only, not like parting gift to console me.”

“Oh, boy. Didn’t expect that, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, bet your head is gloomy enough before I just blurted out my pathetic luck.”

“Appreciate that. Life indeed .”

“What is life without drama, really? A boring series desperately needed to be cut from your cable subscription.”

Taeyeon lifted her head to meet Minho’s grin, he looks more at ease compared to two minutes prior. The depth of his eyes drew her into some weirdly comforting ether, for a moment, she forgot the amount of money she needs to collect by the end of the month to pay the landlord before they throw her belongings to the street.

“But seriously, stop resenting your life and tell me why did you waste your Saturday like this?”

“Excuse you? I just got off my other work and I wanted to chill a bit here. You really have a habit accusing people.”

Minho tried so hard not to reply the rage with his own, “Why would you work on weekends?”

“Because I didn’t born into some rich family like yours or Jinki or any of your friends so I gotta work my even during weekends before someone cut the electricity of my apartment.”

“Seems like you have some habit as well.”

Taeyeon looks so distressed, flustered and eaten by her own anger, “I’m sorry, okay?! It’s just, ergh!!”

She stomped the ground, blasting her hidden five years old attitude, and stormed away from Minho’s side. She cursed her luck