a/n: so i made some changes, the original character that was Sandi is now Wendy. to make it more relevant and i thought why not. sorry if it confuses anyone. some progression into the main plot is made, sorry if there's less Lily adventures in this one though. but without further ado, please enjoy :)

An early staff meeting was called in today. 6am sharp, as Robert's mass text message had instructed. The entire morning staff had filtered into the back tearoom with stifled yawns and sandy eyes.

Irene was no different.

Arriving on time to a 6am meeting meant having to get up even earlier to get Lily somewhat decent for Seulgi’s before she could even think about herself. However hard she tried though, Lily woke like a boulder and moved like a snail due to being woken before the sun even rose.

Seulgi, the dear she was, had quietly opened her apartment door, still in her own pyjamas, to welcome a standing, but snoozing, Lily. With a dark apartment lit up by an array of glow in the dark stars plastered all over her walls and ceiling, Seulgi had transformed her apartment interior to that of the night sky people yearned to lie under whilst they camped. It was a planetarium’s dream. Lily woke up just a smidge by the sight, Irene too if she were to admit it. Just how much she wished she could have joined the both of them as they slid under the fort Seulgi had made from her sheets, blankets and pillows, sitting right there in the living room, beckoning Irene to snuggle up in it too.

But with lead for legs, Irene had journeyed her way to work to be greeted by her not so chirpy boss. Robert Park stood a head or so taller than her, a stump of a man if someone were to ask her. He grew a coarse looking moustache, a possible attempt to look mature and manly. It just made him look unkempt. He was as hot headed as a well heated stovetop, so much so that the workers liked to point out his balding crown when he turned his back on them.

He screamed more than he talked. Ordered over reasoning. And by far, loved to push blame than accept responsibility. That was Robert Park down to a t.

And as described, there he stood, in front of everyone, hands on the table, yelling in their faces, until his own turned red, about their downfalls and weaknesses as staff. No one listened though, too sleepy and by now, just beaten down enough to know to never listen to Robert because, well, it's Robert.

A groan from just beside her breaks the screaming Irene's zoned out, announcing Wendy's late arrival. The woman never follows instructions. Give her a set time and she’ll take it as a suggestion. Always expect a half an hour late arrival from Wendy.

“Robert seems to be in a good mood today.”

Irene makes a noise at the back of as a reply.

“Who's tall legs over in the corner?”

Wendy nods to the far corner at the front. And correct to her words, stands a woman with eyes that scream disinterest, or by what those eyes are taking in, distaste for a certain Robert Park. Clad in a pressed black suit, sans the blazer, she looked out of place in their little tearoom. Strange, Irene didn't notice her at all.

“Don't know.”

Wendy hums a sound of approval. “I would climb her like an emergency ladder.”

Irene shoots her a questioning stare, “An emergency ladder?”

“Would climb her in an utter frenzy. What? Can't a woman appreciate another woman?”

Irene's witty remark is left forgotten when Robert's voice cracks as he squeals their names.

“Seungwan! Irene! Would you two like to share with the room?”

Irene has to pinch Wendy's thigh to stop the woman from an outburst. In front of the entire morning crew and given an invitation? It'd be classic Wendy to take the opportunity being waved in her face. However, Irene is sleepy and wants this meeting adjourned, so not today.

“That's what I thought.”

Robert turns to the woman in the corner, which makes everyone turn their attention over to her too. Only when Irene follows, she finds the woman staring blatantly at her.

“Right. Onto the next topic. So, like many of you have heard, Madison is being transferred to the store in Middleton, which leaves her position open. We,” his eyes glance back over to the corner, “will be reviewing and critiquing your work to find a suitable replacement.”

Madison is the morning shift floor manager. She covers the 6am to 4pm shift. It's an earlier start but perfect for when Lily finally starts school, and it also means Irene will have more time at home. Not to mention a pay rise.

That open manager position was looking rather tempting right now.

“I would like to introduce to you an executive from the company. She will be looking into our store to evaluate how we're running for the next few weeks and to also give her professional input on things: such as our new upcoming manager.

This is Joy Park.”

❀❀

Placed in the refill team today, Irene is cosied up in the fluoro yellow safety jacket, in the dairy back storage room, replenishing the yoghurt aisle. Lucky for her, or a wrong move on the person doing their rosters, today she's been teamed up with Wendy to do the job.

Wendy who hasn't stopped running since this morning's meeting.

“I heard through the grapevine that Robert and Joy are actually twins. Strange, I know. Joy totally got all the looks in the deal, probably up all that potential in the womb. While Robert got, well, whatever Robert's got going on for him. Early stage balding?”

Wendy cackles and Irene can only shake her head. “Just because both their last names are Park doesn't automatically make them related.”

“I heard, that Andrew heard, that Mina had eavesdropped in on Robert's office. There was a lot of mum and dad being thrown around to make that connection. You think old Robert got the short end of the stick and given full reigns of this store while big boss Joy got an executive position? I totally think so. Robert couldn't run a metre let alone a store. Oh, and looping back on that note, you should totally be running for that manager position. You basically run this store. You're always here. You’re one of the senior members. And you're trained in every department.”

It's very easy when your friend is talking you up, but Irene doesn't want to overstep her role in the store's hierarchy. But Wendy catches her look of humbleness before she could spill her arguments.

“I'm not saying this because you're my friend. You trained me, Irene. Hell, I think you trained seventy percent of the entire store. If Robert wasn't a Park, I'd say you'd be store manager.”

Irene lets the thought sink in. Maybe she does deserve the position.

Now to make Joy and Robert Park think so too.

❀❀

With a head full of thoughts, Irene uses Seulgi's spare key to open her neighbour's apartment door to, surprisingly enough, a normal living space. No toys were taken and thrown about, no couch overturned, not even one army man lay about the floor.

Suspicious.

The suspicion didn't last long, however, because with ears akin to that of an elephant, Lily must have heard her arrival and can already be heard stampeding towards her. With a mop of her trademark messy hair, Lily throttles into her with a high squeal of “mummy!” On her heels is Seulgi with flailing arms and a black folder in hand.

“She bet me!”

Lily giggles at Seulgi's remark of her defeat, accepting her victory too, even though Irene knew well enough Seulgi always let her win these little races they have.

“Did my Little Lillian win again?” Irene hoists Lily up with a coo, to which Lily could only splutter out another bout of giggles before hiding her face in her mother's neck. Irene gives Seulgi a smile of gratitude that's becoming so frequent it's a smile that feels reserved just for the woman.

“What's with the folder?”

“Oh!” Seulgi lifts the referred to folder like she had forgotten its existence. “We decided to do a massive coupon collecting today.” Seulgi shifts a bit in her spot, and Irene knew something was up.

“Oh, really now,” Irene drawls.

“Yeah!” Seulgi replies a little too readily.

When Lily moves in her hold, she sees the way Seulgi darts her eyes from Irene to the toddler. And her suspicion was correct. Something was off. And from the way Seulgi was fidgeting she knew she wasn't going to like it one bit.

“Okay. Irene. Look. I can explain.”

And that she will, because something cracks in the depths of Irene's chest when she sees the yellow bandaid sitting smugly on Lily's cheek, the frowning teddy bear cartoon not making her feel any better.

“Seulgi,” the name slithers from between her clenched teeth. “What in God's name is the meaning of this?”

“Okay, well, you know the playground at the park around the corner. Lily was playing in the sandpit, and I was watching her. I swear, like a hawk! And there was another kid. Some snotty boy. Lily, the angel, was willing to share her tools, but he was being a bully. So, I stepped in! But he had shoved her by the time I ran there. And I broke it up as soon as I could! I really did. Right then and there. But it seems the coarse sand had given her a little scrape on her cheek. It's not that bad, really. Didn't really bleed either. A little broken skin. Oh, and I,” under Irene's scrutinising glare, Seulgi fumbled for her pockets to retrieve a folded-up piece of paper. “I talked to his mum and got her number just in case you wanted to talk it out. She did the whole spiel of boys will be boys, and he did it because he has a crush on her. But I put my foot down, and I don't think she enjoyed that, and I'm scared of her now. But, I'm,” Seulgi looks around her apartment to try and break the tension. “I'm sorry Lillian got hurt under my watch,” she ends her long blubbering explanation with a mumble.

If Seulgi could shrink any further from her stare, she would evaporate into thin air. So, with a sigh, because she knows Seulgi would never intentionally hurt Lily or let the toddler out of her sight, she directs her gaze to her daughter. “Is that right, Lily?”

With a big nod, Lily replies, “Bryan is a big bully and I don't like him. His mummy is mean too and wouldn't stop grabbing Seulgi. She made Seulgi uncomfortable!”

“Grabbing?” She questions Seulgi.

“Oh, yeah. She grabbed my arm here and there.” Seulgi shrugs the action off.

“You okay?”

“I'm fine.” Seulgi assures.

“How about you, baby?” she gives Lily a squeeze in her arms.

“Didn't hurt one bit, mummy.” Lily gives her a toothy grin.

“That's my big girl,” she cuddles the toddler. “And it's fine, Seulgi.” She directs her attention to the woman now playing with the folder with dejected eyes. “It was out of your control, and you stepped in as soon as you could. And Lily said it herself, doesn't hurt one bit.” Irene felt better when Seulgi looked less guilt ridden. “So, about that coupon folder?”

“Oh, right! We went through my stack of catalogues, and even categorised our stash!”

Seulgi spends the next ten minutes flipping through the folder that is labelled and filled with cut out coupons. With how much she sees in those plastic pockets, she could only guess how long it took not to only cut them out but to also put them in designated pockets. Seeing how alarmed Seulgi was before, Irene assumes they did something so tamed this afternoon due to what had happened at the park. Seulgi must’ve wanted to make absolute sure Lily would not get hurt again.

Assuring Seulgi that everything was okay again, that they’re okay, Irene leaves with a folder full of discounts and a dozed off Lily.

Once she had woken Lily to brush her teeth then put her back to sleep again, Irene finally got to unwind and get ready for bed herself. Before turning her bedside lamp off, she unfolds the piece of paper Seulgi had handed to her.

053 - xxx - xxxx call me ;)

Folding the paper back up with a quiet chuckle, Irene turns off the lamp and settles into bed. Seulgi must be rusty if she thinks that that woman didn't enjoy their time together at the park.

❀❀

“And there we go, all peeled,” Irene drops her hand from hovering over Lily’s. It doesn’t seem like a big step but teaching Lily the basics of peeling a banana has her feeling so achieved, it’s almost embarrassing to feel such pride in her daughter for such a simple task.

Fingers still fiddling with the flopping peels, Lily beams up at her. They’ve been at this every morning before they leave the apartment, and today’s the first time Irene didn’t have to fully assist, instead, she had hovered over her hand as guidance. Seeing the ecstatic smile on Lily’s face has Irene returning it tenfold.

Failing against her urge to kiss them chubby cheeks filled with banana, Irene is rewarded a muffled giggle from the toddler. “Ready for your playdate, baby?”

With hurried nods, Irene isn’t given much of a chance to fix the little backpack straps on Lily’s shoulders before she’s being tugged towards the front door. Their destination of just across their apartment is halted when Irene opens the door to see the back of someone standing outside Seulgi’s apartment. Alarmed when the door is abused by a banging fist, Irene tugs Lily to stand behind her. Just in case.

“I know you’re in there!” The unknown woman lifts her hand, pressing a phone against her ear. And just as she did, Seulgi’s iconic Batman theme song ringtone leaks out from behind the door. Even Irene can’t help her hiding neighbour at this point. “I can hear you!” The woman screams once more when shuffling could be heard before the ringtone is abruptly cut off.

To Irene’s horror, Lily runs out from behind her and towards Seulgi’s door, pulling her along. If their presence weren’t known, it was now, especially when Irene accidentally knocks into the woman and Lily starts knocking on the door too.

“Sorry,” she whispers when the woman turns to look at her.

“Seulgi,” Lily tries as she knocks on the door.

And to Irene’s, and the woman beside her surprise, a slab of the door is slid open where Lily had knocked. When and why Seulgi had installed this for Lily, as it was precisely cut out to be at the toddler’s height, Irene would never know. But nor is she surprised at this point.

“Morning, kiddo,” Seulgi’s face could be seen from behind the hole.

“There’s some scary lady outside your door.” Lily tries to whisper, but then again, the 4-year-old was never good at whispering, so she may as well have said it to the scary lady’s face.

“She’s a gremlin thirsty for silvers, kiddo. Better steer clear of her.”

And to this, the woman huffs and moves behind Lily, which has Irene pulling Lily towards her and out of the way. “I am your manager, Seulgi! It’s my job to get the both of us silvers.” For such a business discussion, it doesn’t help that the woman is on her knees, looking through a cut-out square in Seulgi’s door.

“I told you I’m in the middle of a writer’s block. Anything I come up with now is terrible.”

“And I told you to just write anything.”

“But it’ll be terrible! No one wants to buy a terrible book!”

“Terrible or not, your writing is in demand! Your name will sell them alone!”

“No, they won’t. Bet they won’t even make it pass the editor’s desk, they’re that bad.”

“Don’t worry about the editor’s, leave them to me.”

At that, Seulgi stops her next argument to give her manager a doubtful look. “What do you mean?”

“I’m your manager, Seulgi. Leave the corporate big dogs to me.”

“They’re not going to sell, Yeri.” Uncharacteristic of her, Seulgi whispers one of her biggest fears, sounding more dejected than she’s ever had.

“They will. Trust me. They’ll be flying off the shelves.” Yeri reassures, her tone from before shifting to that of a much softer one.

“And the editors?”

“You sell to the public, and I’ll sell to the editors.” At Seulgi’s not very hopeful stare, Yeri quips, “I can sell on a stick, babe.”

The slab slams shut and Seulgi throws her apartment door open in a hurry. “Yeri, language! Lily’s right there!”

At Seulgi’s outburst, Yeri follows her line of sight to see the toddler standing against Irene’s front with arms wrapped around her as if shielding her from harm.

“My point still stands,” Yeri continues. “I don’t know what you’ve been up to these last few months, seeing as someone won’t answer my phone calls, but people are eager, and my phone won’t stop blowing up with people going through withdrawals. Do what you need to do, this dry spell of yours has got to go.” At the mention of just that, Yeri’s phone vibrates to life in her hand. “A draft by the end of next month, please.” And with that, she accepts the call and leaves before Seulgi could reply. “Yes, Seulgi is still alive!” She throws her hand up in the air with her outburst before entering the elevator.

“She seems pleasant,” Irene breaks the silence Seulgi seems to be trapped in.

“A delight,” Seulgi gives her a tired smile. It’s that look again. The one Irene saw in her apartment those nights back. More than the tiredness under her eyes, there’s a deeper look of complete exhaustion swimming in them that Irene has never seen before. Maybe the unannounced visit by her manager snapped it into her, or the demand of a book by next month, either way, Irene doesn’t like how it looks on Seulgi. But it only lasts for a second before her normal grin is back. “Well, Lillian the chosen one, I think we have an enchanted forest to save.” Seulgi drops to kneel on one leg, hand on knee and bowing.

And when Lily giggles, Irene knows the chance to talk about how Seulgi’s feeling, really feeling, has gone. So, she lets go of Lily’s hand after she’s received her kiss and hug and watches her run to the forest Seulgi had set up.

“No park today?” She catches Seulgi before the woman follows the toddler in her exploration.

“Oh. No. Never.”

Irene has to hold back the laughter tickling at the look of sheer horror taking over her neighbour’s face. Still traumatised it seems.

“I think this will help,” Irene grabs the folded-up paper in her pocket to hand back to Seulgi.

“For what?” A sign of recognition crosses her face at the familiar note she had scrunched up just yesterday evening, but that contorts quickly after she sees what’s written inside it for the first time.

“For that dry spell of yours.”

And this time it’s Irene that giggles, Seulgi remains gobsmacked, and Lily squeals from somewhere in the enchanted forest.