Soeun blinked.

The puppy tilted its head at her curiously before letting out a sharp, excited bark. Its tail wagged happily, as though proud that it had caught the young woman’s attention. The piece of lace that the puppy had bitten into was torn off from the dress completely and was now held hostage between its strong jaws. The puppy then stretched itself up on Soeun’s thigh and started pawing at it imploringly, asking for her to pick it up.

Soeun blinked again. Her wide brown eyes alternated between looking at the animal and at Jimin’s destroyed gown while fought to form words that could perfectly describe her feelings about the situation. Her pink lips opened and closed several times silently as the puppy continued pawing at her woolen leggings clad legs.

“Oh my god,” She finally whispered when the thick fog in her mind cleared and the severity of the crisis registered in her head. The puppy stopped moving and tilted its head at her soft words.

“Yah! Dubu! Andwae!”

Soeun looked up at the loud, stern call and watched as a young man ran up to them, looking extremely flustered with his loosening scarf fluttering behind him wildly. Passersby shot him looks of annoyance at his rough pushing, to which he apologized politely and bowed as best as he could while running. The puppy let itself down from Soeun’s thigh and barked once more, this time at the newcomer as its tail wagged even more at his appearance.

The man stopped before her and quickly pulled the puppy (which Soeun now knew to be called Dubu) up into his arms and bowed to her in apology immediately. He was panting from his run and Soeun could see a glistening sheen of sweat coating the sides of his face. His dyed brown hair was tussled messily, but Soeun thought it suited him well.

“Mianhamnida!” The man said, bowing repeatedly before looking up at Soeun. He stopped halfway through his second apology and stared at her in silent surprise as his lips open and closed like how Soeun’s had done earlier. “Uhm, I am… s-sorry. The dog. You okay?”

His stuttering English was tinged with a rich Korean accent, something that Soeun thought he realized as he blushed slightly after speaking. He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly and looked to be thinking hard to say something else until he gave up with a rough sigh and settled for staring at her inquisitively instead.

Soeun nodded her head. “I'm alright.”

“Oh.” The stranger let out a small chuckle. “You speak Korean?”

Soeun nodded her head again. Even though she was feeling flustered and troubled by the situation, she couldn’t help but appreciate the way the stranger’s small eyes slid close cutely when he smiled.

“Ah. Uhm, I’m sorry about her.” He said, referring to the white furred puppy that was now looking between the two of them with curious beady eyes. His lips pulled back into a small smile. “She ran away while I wasn’t paying attention.”

Soeun smiled back weakly in reply, not knowing what to say as her mind was still reeling from the fact that the puppy had torn a large chunk of lace from Jimin’s dress. Despite the fact that the bride-to-be wanted it to be shortened and the bottom was going to be trimmed off anyways, it still pains the young woman physically to see her design being shredded by the over enthusiasm of an innocent animal.

“Hyung! Gyu hyung!”

Both Soeun and the stranger looked towards the commotion and the shouts that were nearing them to see two young men running towards them with two puppies in tow. Both animals were held tightly in their arms and were jostled about rather harshly with every step the men took.

“Dubu! Did you catch her? Did you?” came the hurried question from the one with strikingly thick lips as they stopped in front of the stranger. He was bent over his legs, breathing hard, while his friend was cooing to the black and tan furred puppy softly and patting it with quiet apologies.

“You did! Great! Wah, I haven’t ran so fast in so – uh, who are you?”

“Yah! That’s rude!” The stranger slapped his dongsaeng on the back of his head. “She was attacked by Dubu just now.”

“Omo!” He exclaimed and eyed her nervously. “You okay?”

Soeun laughed and nodded, repeating her answer to him in fluent Korean and watching as his uncertain expression slipped away into one of amazement.

“Whoa, daebak.” He muttered. His other friend, whose wide doe eyes reminded Soeun vaguely of an owl, nodded in agreement. He turned towards the stranger holding onto Dubu and opened his mouth to say something, when his eyes trailed down towards the puppy’s mouth.

“Hyung, what’s that in Dubu’s mouth?”

“What?”

The owl-boy let the dog in his arms down and held onto Dubu’s jaws tightly. With a quiet command, he ordered for the dog to open its mouth, and took the spit-sodden piece of fabric out from between its sharp teeth.

“It’s… lace.”

“Uhm, that’s mine.” Soeun spoke up quietly. She cringed visibly at the state of the fabric and sighed, cursing her bad luck. “Your puppy sort of bit it off my dress,”

The men turned their attention towards the partially exposed dress that was still held in Soeun’s arms protectively and widened their eyes at the horrible state of it. Almost immediately, apologies were thrown at her as the three started bowing repeatedly, obviously feeling guilty that their pet had caused destruction to her belonging.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Soeun said, nervously eyeing the passersby that were starting to stare at them and the noise they were making. However, her words were drowned out by their non-stop wails. “Hey. Really. It’s – HEY!”

The three men looked up in stunned silence at her sudden yell and were bent in varying degrees of a bow. Soeun sighed and sent them as genuine a smile as she could under the situation she was in.

“It’s alright. I can fix it. You guys can stop apologizing now.”

Thick-lips frowned. “It’s a wedding dress, isn’t it?”

If possible, Small-eyes’ eyes widened even further at his dongsaeng’s words as the apology blurted out of his lips again.

“I'm really sorry! Aish! Of all things!” He muttered the last part, sending the whining puppy a small glare. Dubu squirmed in his arms, obviously wanting to be let down, and let out a small bark of what could be interpreted as annoyance when small-eyes tightened his hold on her.

“It’s not my wedding dress, if that’s what you guys are worried about.” Soeun said lightly. “It’s my client’s and she wanted it to be shortened anyways, so it’s fine. No harm done.” She then chuckled at the puppy that was doing her best to be let down. “I think she wants you to put her down.”

“What? Oh. Uh,” The man chuckled in embarrassment and nodded before placing the anxious puppy on the floor while he held tightly onto the leash. The four of them watched as Dubu immediately moved towards Soeun and started pawing at her legs again, much to their amusement.

Slowly, Soeun bent down to the puppy’s height, allowing it to place its paw on her knees and started patting Dubu on its soft head gently. The puppy let out a small noise of appreciation as it closed its beady eyes and its tail started to wag slowly in enjoyment.

“She’s cute,” Soeun praised, moving on to scratch the puppy behind its pointed ears. “Her name’s Dubu, right?”

The three nodded their heads quietly as they watched the interaction between the puppy and the girl curiously. Soeun stopped scratching the dog and instead stretched out her hand with her palm facing upwards. Dubu studied her hand quietly before putting one of its front paws on her palm, allowing Soeun to shake it gently.

“What the?!” Thick-lips exclaimed just as Small-eyes’ phone rang. He smiled at Soeun before turning away politely to answer the call. “We tried so hard to make her do that but she just refuses to. Aish, betrayer.”

Soeun giggled and pat the puppy on her head one last time before standing back up. “Maybe it’s because I’m a girl? Or perhaps it somehow discovered that I’m a dog-owner.” She looked at the other two puppies that were pacing around their owners languidly, not paying her any mind at all. “Seems like only Dubu’s interested in me.”

“She’s never been like that with a stranger before.” Owl-boy said. “Most of the time, it’s these two that are interested in strangers,”

Thick-lips mumbled something under his breath and sniggered to himself. Both Soeun and Owl-boy turned towards him oddly. “What’s so funny?”

Thick-lips looked up in surprise and blushed red for some reason unknown to his friend and the young woman. Shaking his head, he stuttered out a small ‘nothing’ and bent to play with the fawn coloured puppy that was now nipping playfully at the bottom of his jeans.

Just then, Small-eyes ended his call and turned back around, slipping his phone back into the pocket of his coat.

“We’ve got to go,” He said and bent to pick up Dubu once more, who let out a soft whine but otherwise stayed relatively quiet in his arms. He smiled and bowed at Soeun once more, which both Thick-lips and Owl-boy mimicked and which Soeun returned respectfully.

“We’re really sorry about the trouble Dubu has caused you. Are you sure there isn’t anything we can do to make up for it?”

“You can make me a new dress.” Soeun remarked stonily.

“Uh…”

“Oh, well, I guess…

“Erm, can we buy one instead?”

Soeun giggled at their identical looks of distress and shook her head. “I was just kidding. Really. The dress was going to be altered anyway.”

The three guys could only look at her unsurely.

“I promise. Everything’s fine. The dress will be fine, your puppy’s fine, I’m fine, it’s nearing Christmas. Everything’s great.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I am,” Soeun nodded her head in firm affirmation. “You guys should go now, or you’re going to be late for whatever. Nice talking to you and your lovely puppies. Happy holidays!”

Small-eyes, Thick-lips and Owl-boy returned her greetings enthusiastically, and with a last bow, they turned back in the direction of where they had come from originally.

Soeun tore a piece of paper from the back of her planner and used it to pick up the forgotten piece of lace from the ground. She folded it into the paper carefully and tucked it back into her bag and cast her attention on her phone once more.

Her lips quirked at the words she had typed prior to being pounced on by Dubu and quickly backspaced it before typing in a new update quickly.

“Was mauled by a friendly puppy called Dubu while shopping for Christmas decorations. Met her cute but slightly owners: Small-eyes, Thick-lips and Owl-boy. PS: Found the most adorable cradle for my yet-to-arrive baby nephew @kateyrowan”

So, I might have lied a little when I said the new chapter would be up by yesterday.

Sorry folks, short attention span seems to be a rather serious problem of mine.

As always, sub and comment loves <3