Joohyun retreats to her room after some work that she had to complete. She just realises that now that she's has nothing to do today. There are no special orders, no events that her restaurant had to cater to and she's getting bored now.

She could always watch videos or scroll through Instagram but she feels like staying away from the screen right now. It's five in the evening and loud music and laughing noises could be heard from Yeri's room, where all her friends are.

She suddenly remembers the incident with Joy earlier and gets up from her comfortable bed to talk to the girl. She doesn't want to interrupt thier fun but she really has nothing else to do, she's not even sleepy. Even Seulgi is busy talking to someone on the phone.

She gently knocks on the door. She didn't realise when the kids went inside, they were just outside in the living room a few minutes before.

The door opens and it's Joy who greets her with her charming smile. The other kids stop what they're doing and look at her for a while. All her friends

"Can we talk?" She quietly mummers. "I'm sorry to interrupt but-"

Joy just strides out and closes the door behind them. She moves to the living room and Joohyun follows sheepishly. Joy settles down comfortably on the couch.

"What's up?" Joy looks very excited, she's clearly enjoying today and Joohyun feels guilty for pulling her out like that, so she doesn't waste any time.

"What happened to you earlier?" Joy now looks confused, so she adds. "When you just came, in the morning. You just rushed out like you'd made a big mistake."

Joy's face goes blank for a second. And she seems to be thinking something.

"N-no it was nothing!" She gets excited again, but this one looks fake.

It wasn't nothing. I know you stopped before saying Mom.

Something had happened for sure. At that time Joohyun felt kind of sad and she feels so stupid for that now.

It was just a joke, anyways.

She doesn't even know why she's making a deal about this. So she decides to change the topic, because clearly Joy doesn't want to talk about it.

"We couldn't meet last week, but I've been meaning to ask." She looks at the other girl and her voice is soft. "Did you talk to your mother?"

Joy stiffens.

But she regains the smile and excitement again quickly. Joohyun could tell she is forcing it.

"She umm- we t-talked but...but she didn't umm say anything about...."

She gulps and looks away.

"......him."

This is weird. Why isn't she bothered about it then?

"Oh? Didn't you ask?"

Joy doesn't look at her while speaking. "I...d-don't care...anymore. I've realised my mom is all I need, I don't need to know about anyone else who isn't in our lives right now."

"Your mother, did she look hurt? That's why you didn't ask?"

Joohyun doesn't understand. The girl wanted to know about her father so badly before. Now she isn't interested at all?

Joy doesn't answer and gets up abruptly. She looks back and glances at Joohyun. "I'm..just- not interested in my...dad...anymore. Cause...."

She just trails out. Joohyun is bemused now. Joy is very awkward today, she barely looks at her. And she isn't interested? Nobody would believe this was the girl who wanted to search the whole city for her dad.

Joy clears her throught which brings Joohyun back from her haze. "I'm...going to go back now, if that's okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, no of course. I'm so sorry to-"

"It's okay."

Joy hastily walks away but Joohyun calls her before she can go out of earshot.

"Joy?" The said girl looks back, but she looks like she is in a hurry and just wants to get out of this conversation. And if that's the case Joohyun won't bother her anymore. "I'm just...glad you sorted it out."

"I am too."

She runs off after saying that leaving Joohyun disappointed. The reason? She doesn't know it either. Maybe it is because Joy sounded so stern but Joohyun understands, why would she want to waste her time with her friends to talk to an adult (who is much less cooler) about deep topics like that.

I'm an idiot.

What she doesn't know is as soon as Joy reached Yeri's room, she let out the breath she was holding for so long and leaned her forehead on the door.

I'm sorry, but I couldn't keep on lying to you.

I'm so sorry, Joohyun.

--

Seulgi gets dressed quickly. She just puts on a decent pair of jeans and a white top.  She looks at her hair in the mirror, and it's an absolute mess. She just shrugs and puts on a cap. She doesn't have any time to comb them (she's just lazy).

She gets out of her room and doesn't spot Joohyun anywhere, she warily looks around in case she's somewhere around. She doesn't want to hide like this but she can't tell Joohyun that she's going to meet Wendy. She can't speak about Wendy to Joohyun. Not when she remembers how Joohyun got years ago, just by looking at her name.

Seulgi opened the door to her apartment.

No, her and Joohyun unnie's.

She had been living there for about four months then and for the first two months she wouldn't even come out of her room. She barely ate, all because of that stupid .

Seulgi was angry, she was frustrated. She never even got to know why they broke up. It all happened so fast. And it has become something that will only stay between the two of them. And it should. But Seulgi could never imagine them being apart, and she can't help but be curious as to what in the world happened that broke them apart. But she could never imagine asking Joohyun unnie, that woman was still very hurt and Seulgi had to walk on eggshells around her until she got better.

"Joohyun unnie, I'm back." She excitedly announced. She wondered what her unnie would have made for dinner tonight. She's an amazing cook and Seulgi felt very excited to come back to scrumptious food. It wasn't like she always asked