Eunmi's POV

"A scone for the lady and a white mocha latte for the gentlemen. Enjoy your stay here." I said. The couple I was serving said their thanks and went back to their lovey-dovey moment before I disturbed them. It was currently around 8:30pm. Just 2 and a half more hours til' my shift ended. 

I sighed as I made my way to the kitchen, leaning on the wall I took the ridiculous bunny ears off my head and took a few moments to get my breath back. Today was 'supposedly' an animal theme. Once in a while in Maid Cafe, we have these random days where we add themes to our uniforms, be it animals, gamers, colour, and whatnot. Weird stuff.

And today just had to be one of those random days. No wonder Mrs. Yang told me not to come in today, knowing I did not like stuff like that. I should have listened to her and stayed home. 'But it's better than being with them.' I thought optimisticly. "At least I didn't get scold for being here when I wasn't supposed to be." 

"Eunmi!" I looked up and caught the water bottle that was thrown my way. "Nice catch." the chef praised me. My gaze was turned towards him. In Maid Cafe there was only 7 people working under Mrs. Yang. There were 5 other girls and only 1 guy, the chef. I studied him as he went back to making the pastries, if I was your average teenage girl, I would have screamed out in glee that a cute guy was talking to me. Yes, I found him quite attractive and my taste. But with the robot me, I simply 'did not care'. 

His name was Henry Lau. Like me, he had also came from an English country, his sister and him were from Canada, so we both knew how to speak English well. He had light brown hair that went on the orange side and black eyes. He was two years older than me, Jay's age. Opening the water bottle, I took a few sips. Mrs. Yang was at her daughter's house, something to do with tending her needs because her husband had a bad back. The second in command manager, incase Mrs. Yang was away, was Amy Lau, Henry's twin sister. 

"HURRY HURRY!" Amy, wearing car ears, a tail, and cat paw gloves, strictly told Henry as she entered the kitchen. But when she saw me, her mood turned bright. A whole 180 degrees. "EUNMI YOU'RE SO CUTE!" She then proceeded to glomp me and crush me into a hug. I just stood there motionless as always. "You say that every time you see me." I replied. "But it's so true ! Right Henry? Isn't Eunmi adorable?" she directed her attention to Henry.

Sensing her stare he looked up, he then looked at me and walked over to where I was. Pushing the mismatched strands of hair out of my face and fixing my bangs, he placed the bunny ears back on my head, stepped back, and grinned at his masterpiece. "You're the cutest girl I ever laid eyes on." 

I stared at him. While on the inside I was screaming with delight. "Get out," was my reply. But the response backfired as I felt my face burning up. I was flushing a deep shade of red. He grinned even more at my reaction. "Haha, Eunmi's embarrassed by your compliment Henry!" Amy pointed out. Her next sentence sent my embarrassing situation into a frenzy. "I think she has a little crush on you!" 

Somebody, take me away. 

Laughing, Henry ruffled my hair and went back to the cupcakes he was making. Amy wiggled her eyebrows at me. I flicked her forehead. "You'll get wrinkles old hag." Saying this to elders in Korea would have labled me as unpolite and a bad egg. But since all three of us were born and raised with different ways to formally talk with other people, we decided to speak in English whenever it was just us three and speak informally like we were back in our hometown. 

"HEY, I'm just 2 years older than you brat!" she playfully socked my arm. The tips of my mouth started turning upwards. I told Minhee I did not have friends, but in actual truth, these two were my friends. In a co-worker kind of way. We only hang out during working hours, other than that, we don't hang out outside of work. Just the way I want it to be. When I graduate, I'm moving back to Seattle and I won't see them again. 

Amy stopped bugging me and went on to bug Henry. I watched as the two siblings bickered at each other. They did not look alike at all. Henry was the cute, strong-headed, and kind brother. Amy was the beautiful, wiser and intelligent sister. Amy had red, fiery hair and light, natural grey-ish eyes. Total opposite of Henry's appearance. 

Their attention turned back towards me when they heard me coughing. Composing myself, I acted like nothing was wrong. Seeing their stares I said, "I'm fine." Flashing them an ok sign with my hands. But then the coughs came back. What great timing. Amy hurriedly came over to my side and rubbed my back, thinking that would somehow help. It didn't. 

"Man, Mrs. Yang was right. You should have stayed at home boo." She held a hand against my forehead. "And you're burning up too?! It was fine hours ago!" I just nodded at her comment. "I'm fine." I did not want to get sent home early. "Fool, just go home." Henry told me. " I said I'm fine. " I replied and regained my composure. "See? Fine." I dashed out quickly, not wanting to answer or hear anymore comments about my fever. There were customers to serve.

"Stupid girl. Why is she here when she has a goddamn fever?" Henry naggingly said while ruthlessly icing the cupcakes. "She should be in bed and resting, not overexerting her body."

"That's just the way she is, you know that Henry. It's just not her nature." Amy replied, but agreeing with his sentence. "Besides, I remember her telling me she needed the money. Something about saving up? I don't know. I told her that she could always borrow from me, I wouldn't mind. She's practically like my younger sister."

"And she said..." Henry trailed off, already knowing the obvious answer. "No of course." Amy scoffed.

"She won't accept help even if it's given to her. Always gotta have it her way." Amy deeply thought about Eunmi. "But the funny thing was that her answer was different."  Henry was curious now, "Different how?"

"Okay so this was what she said, like exact words: No. It's fine. It wouldn't be enough either way." Amy mimicked Eunmi's voice by speaking in monotone level and straight face. 

"What the hell is she saving up for that would be not enough?" 

"Beats me. Ah, whatever. Just leave her. She doesn't like us going into her life." Amy heavily sighed while rubbing her temple. The thought of mysterious Eunmi and her life was stressing her. Eunmi knew everything about them yet they didn't know anything about her. She was not the type to open up. 

-

Leaning my head on the top edge of the couch in the employee's room, I mentally tried getting my mind back into proper functioning. Amy was right, the fever was becoming worse. I was breathing rather raggedly and my focus was getting blurry. Was there supposed to be 3 spinning walls? Closing my eyes I willed the oncoming headache to go away. It was the end of my shift and it was time to get ready to go home. I had already changed into my regular clothes. But I was still sitting on the couch feeling worse than I ever felt in my entire seventeen years. 

Deep within my daze I did not noticed Amy come in and started changing. Once done, she noticed me on the couch. "What are you still doing here? Thought you be gone from now?" She asked amusedly.  Not hearing a reply from me she came closer. " Was I speaking in a different language that you didn't hear? Still nothing. "YAH, I SAID-" Amy stopped her yelling when she took a good look at my face and raised a hand on my forehead to feel my temperature. "HENRY, START THE CAR." 

In came Henry, sporting a slightly confused grin, "Man, girls take a long time to change." He stopped walking when he saw Amy by my side. Furrowing his eyebrows he alarmingly asked, "What's wrong with Eunmi?!"

"Just get the car going! We need to go to the hospital!" Concerned he rushed to where she was. "Shouldn't you be doing that? You can't carry her to the car!" Without a beat, Amy quickly stood up and dashed outside to where her red Lamborghini was parked beside the cafe.

Seeing me, Henry's worried-ness deepen. "I knew we should have made you go home the instant you stepped into the cafe when Mrs. Yang clearly told us you were sick and was supposed to be at home resting." Even in my slightly unconscious state, I was annoyed he was nagging me at a time like this.

I murmured a quiet, "I'm fine."

"Fine my , we're going to the hospital." Before he could carry me off the couch, my arm s out from my side and took hold of his arm. "No." I looked him straight in the eyes. "No hospital." 

"What do you mean no?!" He asked outraged. "You're on the end of a high fever. You need the hospital!" I weakly shook my head. "No hospital." I repeated again. I did not want to go. Going to the doctor meant getting checked up. Which meant they'll have more to treat than just my fever. Henry was frustrated. "Now's not the time to be cold- Eunmi got it? You need help." He growled. 

"Please." I whispered. My mind was semi-conscious now. My lids felt heavy, I was breathing rapidly now. "Just take me home." As I said that, everything felt muddled. My brain was telling me ' close your eyes '. So I did. I soon fell unconscious. Or was it sleep? Either way I was knocked out. 

Henry stared at the girl. "Stupid. How can we take you home when we don't know where it is." Sighing, he proceeded to pick me up bridal style. "What took you so long?!" Amy shouted once Henry reached the car and pulled open the door to the backseat. "Her stupidness." He replied, gently putting me down on the seats. I shivered once I felt the cool interior. Seeing this, Henry took off his jacket and placed it on top of me. 

Going over to the passenger side, he opened the door and sat down. "We're not going to the hospital." Henry stated once he got the seatbelt on. "And why aren't we when there's a passed out sick girl in the back of my car?" Amy sneered. Sighing once again Henry explained that Eunmi didn't want to go to the hospital. "Like she really, really didn't want to go."

Amy stared at him as if he had two heads instead of one. "You're actually going to listen to her? The patient?" Henry said nothing. "Hospital it is." Before Amy could pull the car into D mode Henry said, "Amy. We can't take her if she doesn't want to."

"We're taking her damnit, she needs help."

"She can get help somewhere else." Henry calmly replied once the idea hit him. "Yeah, and where would that be?" 

-

3rd Person's POV

"PickupPickupPickupPickup." Jay endlessly repeated on the phone. Only to, once again, get the operator's voice. "The call you have dialed is unavailable."

"GODDAMNIT." He yelled, throwing the useless phone away. 

"You do know that Eunmi doesn't have a phone anymore."  Hoya stated. Right after Eunmi left for work, 10 minutes later 2pm came home arriving with first-aid kits. Jay was walking back and forth along the living room floor wondering just where the hell Eunmi could be. It was almost 12:30am and she wasn't home yet. "WHY DIDN'T YOU GUYS STOP HER? SHE'S NOT IN THE CONDITION TO GO TO WORK." He directed his anger at Infinite. 

"She slipped away before we could grab her." Sunggyu calmly answered. "YOU COULD'VE RAN AFTER HER."

"It seemed like she was fine to me." Dongwoo muttered to himself. "WHAT YOU SAY PUNK?"

"I SAID, MAYBE SHE WANTED TO GET AWAY BEFORE YOU CAME HOME. COULDN'T HANDLE YOUR ANGER ISSUES." Dongwoo yelled at him. 

"ANGER ISSUES? WHAT ANGER ISSUES?" Jay screamed. "AISH, JUST TAKE IT OUTSIDE!" Hoya flared up with annoyance. Dongwoo and Jay were angrily staring at each other. 

"Uh, if you know where Eunmi works. Why don't you just drive over there and see if she's still around the place?" Sungjong chirped up, trying to lift the heavy atmosphere. The rest of 2pm were upstairs, hiding themselves from their leader's anger state, while Infinite were downstairs, the not so lucky ones getting Jay's attention. "Don't you think I would have done that already?" He snapped at Sungjong, causing him to immediately look away from his gaze. 

"And did you?" Woohyun asked him. Jay paused. Quietly under his breath, he muttered out a quick, "I don't know where she works." Dongwoo, who clearly heard what was said smirked. "What did you say? I can't hear you. C'mon, we didn't hear you. What did you say?" He kept badgering Jay when he wouldn't answer. 

"I SAID, I DON'T KNOW WHERE SHE WORKS DAMNIT!" He exploded, this punk was so gonna get it he thought. 

"Thought so." Dongwoo grinned. How Jay wanted to wipe that smile off with his fist. 

Just then, the front door opened. Jay, thinking it was Eunmi jumped out of his position. But to his displeasure it was that Sungyeol brat and Myungsoo's sister. "AISH." Scrunching up his hair, he went into the kitchen to distract himself with food. Sungyeol raised an eyebrow. "What's his problem." 

"Over-protective brother mode." Woohyun answered him from the couch playing with the Xbox. "Oppas! I brought snacks for you guys." Minhee exclaimed trying to lift the tense mood and succeeding unlike Sungjong did. The guys all happily went over to where they the bags were and began fighting over the snacks. 

"YAH SUNGGYU, THOSE CHOCOLATE POCKY ARE MINE." Hoya tried grabbing the box away from Sunggyu's hands. "You snooze, you lose." Sunggyu pushed his hands away. "AHHH, ONION RING CHIPS. YOU KNOW ME." Sungjong hugged Minhee. Smiling, she hugged him back. "Your welcome Sungjoniee." 

"That's enough." Myungsoo grumbled, pulling the two apart. Chuckling, Sungjong obeyed and sat down to eat his food. "Thank god you're not as over-protected as Jay hyung."

"That's what you think." Myungsoo replied with a smirk. Suddenly getting goose bumps from his words, Sungjong scooted closer to where Sunggyu was. Laughing, Sunggyu patter him on the back.

"Woohyun oppa! I got your favourite too." Minhee went over to where he was by the TV and held out a bag of gummy worms. Glancing at the corner of his eyes he let out a rough 'thanks' and resumed back to his game. It was always like this between them. Not minding his lack of words, she set the bag down beside him. Shooting one last smile at him, she went back to sit  by Sungyeol. Upon seeing her return by his side, his face lit up and he offered her one of the lollipops. 

As soon as Minhee placed the bag of goodies down and left, Woohyun diverted his gaze back onto her. Watching her go back to Sungyeol and smiling her heart-warming smile. His attention somewhere else other than the screen caused him to lose his game. "GAME OVER!" It alerted him on and on. 

Sighing, he tuned back to the TV and exited the game console. Standing up, he started to stretch his limbs. Looking at the clock, it read 1:00am. "Where is that troublesome girl?" He thought. Yawning, he tiredly laid down on Dongwoo who was lying down on the three seated couch. Not minding the heavy load on him, he offered Woohyun some of his chips. Declining his offer, he closed his eyes wondering where Eunmi was.

Just when he was thinking he could get a couple of z's before it was time to go back to Myungsoo's place, the guys started chatting loudly. 

"Minhee, I was wondering since this morning but.. how do you know Eunmi-ssi?" Hoya asked the girl that was sitting between Myungsoo and Sungyeol on the floor. "She's my frie-" Minhee trailed off thinking about what Eunmi said to her yesterday. "Classmate. I'm in the same class as her." She corrected herself. 

"Classmate?" Dongwoo asked. "Mhmm, I go to Seoul High. Remember oppas?" A second later, the guy's brains finally processed the information. "OH YEAH, YOU GO THERE NOW!"

"Silly oppas, you're the ones that wanted me to go there in the first place." Minhee giggled. 

Sunggyu ruffled her hair. "Everything okay with school? Nobody is picking on you right?" 

"Nope! Everything's a-ok Sunggyu-oppa. The people from there are nice like my old classmates from Woolim High." Minhee brightly said. "Good. But if anyone bullies you call me. I'll whoop their for touching our angel." Sunggyu seriously stated. 

"Yeah!" The Infinite gang all agreed ."Aigoooo, violence is not the answer!" Minhee replied with a shake of her head, but was feeling warm on the inside. "We'll show them who they're dealing with. Nobody messes with a member of our group!" Sungjong exclaimed.

Laughing, Minhee leaned her head on Sungyeol's shoulders. "But I'm not part of Infinite."

"But we love you and you love us so we're a family. Family take care of each other." Dongwoo responded. For a guy who's always hot-tempered and a jokester, he had a good heart. 

Myungsoo was quietly watching the sentimental moment between his family. He smiled a tiny smile, thinking about the past. If he hadn't met Sunggyu and the others, he be out in the streets trying to find a job to raise money for Minhee's education. If he didn't have a good life, he wanted her to. Thinking about his dear sister he turned in her direction.

She was playing with Sungyeol's hoodie by tying and retying the strings dangling from his neck. Myungsoo watched as Minhee smiled her sweet loving smile up at Sungyeol who was watching her with a lover's gaze. 

"When will they just go out already. They're so obviously in love." He thought. "They already act like a couple anyway." Chuckling he looked out the window, it was snowing. 

He was not the only one watching the two lovebirds. 

Woohyun was wide awake, his eyes giving a pained expression. 

Minhee, feeling a pair of eyes on her turned her attention to the other guys. Sweeping her eyes around, there was nobody staring at her. "Weird, I thought I felt something." She dismissed the feeling away and went back to playing with the giant next to her. Just as she turned away, Woohyun peeked through one of his closed eyes making sure coast was clear. Letting out a heavy sigh, he got up from laying down on Dongwoo and trudged upstairs to the bathroom. 

On his way to the foot of the stairs, he looked through the kitchen entrance and saw Jay slump on the countertop. Reading his back, he could tell he was worried and tensed. "No duh, Eunmi still hasn't come home yet and she's ill." The smart side of him said. Stifling a yawn,  he climbed the stairs.

Opening the door, he felt less tired. After doing his business and splashing cold water on his face, he was wide awake than ever. Before he went downstairs, something caught his eye. More like someone(s). Over to his left, he found 2pm crowding around the last door opposite of the room next to the left side of the bathroom. Curiosity got the best of him so he went over to them.

2pm, lost in their scheming didn't notice Woohyun. So when Woohyun spoke up, "What are you guys doing?" They all childishly jumped in the air and shrieked. "YOU ALMOST GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK!" Junho said while clutching onto his shirt where his heart was located. "HE DID GIVE ME ONE!" Chansung was trying restart his heart. 

"Why are you guys crowding around the door?" Woohyun asked. With his question, 2pm quickly looked at one another, deciding if it was safe or not to tell. But that decision went away when Nichkhun casually said, "Just going to look through Eunmi's room to see if she left anything that tells us where she works at." The rest of the guys just stood there staring at him.

"What? He asked." Nichkhun responded with a puff of his cheeks. Groaning, Taecyeon scolded him. "It was supposed to be a secret. We're on a mission."

"YEAH, KHUN YOU JUST DESTROYED OUR TRUST." Chansung accusingly pointed a finger at him. "TRAITOR." Wooyoung, getting fed up with the yelling yelled out, "STOP. OKAY? JUST CHILL FOR A SEC." He said this in English. But of course with the non-English speaking guys around him, they didn't understand and continued being rowdy. 

Woohyun looked at this with amusement, 2pm was a lot like Infinite than he imagined.

"Shut up." Wooyoung said again, this time in Korean. The guys immediately closed their mouths. He then nodded at Taec to proceed the mission. "Okay, since you know what we're doing we can't let you go back downstairs." He directed this at Woohyun.

Entertained, Woohyun asked, "And why can't I?" With a serious expression Taec explained, "If we let you go downstairs, you'll blab mouth our mission to your friends and then Jay will overhear and he'll whoop our if he find out we're disobeying the rules." 

"What rules?"

"Exactly" 

"Trap him." With a snap of Taecyeon's fingers, Junho and Chansung ran forth to back Woohyun into the corner, which was just where Eunmi's room was. 

"Now you're going to stay silent and let us do our thing, got it?" Not even listening to him, Woohyun lightly shoved Junho to the side and grabbed the doorknob. "You guys role play too seriously." He twisted the knob and whoooosh went the door. The light from the hallway errupted into Eunmi's dark room, showing just a part of how it looked. 

"I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO THAT." Taec whined. "YOU AREN'T SAYING YOUR LINES RIGHT."

"Grow up." Nichkhun playfully rolled his eyes. He entered the room and reached for the light switch. On went the lights. "Alright, search out man." Everybody piled into Eunmi's medium-sized room. Woohyun, somehow a part of the mission now searched near her bed and drawer. 

"OH MY GOD." Junsu screamed. "LOOK AT HER CLOSET. HER CLOTHES ARE HORRIBLE." he began pulling out the 'hideous'  clothes one by one. "I am so taking her shopping next time."

Wooyoung just walked to the bed and laid down, resting his head on Eunmi's pillow. He could smell her scent. Junho and Junsu was lying on the clean floor and randomly started chatting. Forgetting their pursuit. "Her room's so empty! So clean and tidy." Nichkhun admired for he was a neat freak. Taecyeon went over to the two kids on the floor and slapped their heads for not doing their job.

Inside the drawer, all he could see were a bunch of papers. He was about to close it when something captured his interest. Woohyun took out a handkerchief that had the initials J.A on it, but quickly and carefully placed it back thinking it had some sort of sentimental value for it to be kept away. Then his hands brushed against something just as he was thinking of leaving the drawer alone. 

He peered at the thing clutch in his hands.

It was an orange container that currently contained 3 pills. 

'What's this?' Woohyun thought with surprise. "Advil?" Turning it over, he read the label. But Woohyun furrowed his brows at the unfamiliar words. Just when he's about to ask the others about his discovery, a booming voice overtook them.

"You guys are so dead." Jay announced. 

The guys stopped what they were doing. Frozen and stiff. Woohyun closed the drawer and swiftly placed the container up his sleeve. Thank god he was wearing a sweater. 

"Out. Now." 

The guys shamelessly filed out with Woohyun trailing behind. "Told you we should've set someone to look out." Junho hissed at Taecyeon. "YAHYAH." He harshly whispered back. The two then started bickering.

As they were all heading downstairs, Woohyun's mind was elsewhere. Not thinking about the punishment he was going to get from Jay. All he could focus on was those words he didn't understand. He mentally made a note to check the web for it's result. 

It seems like Woohyun's curiousity lead to something much more.