“Who the are you?”

“I—“

“Are you a robber? You’re too pretty to be one. Wow, you’re also  very well-endowed.”

Jessica covered herself with the blanket that Taeyeon lent her last night.

“Yoona, you can’t just say that. Sorry about Sunny and Yoona. I’m Tiffany. You are?”

She stared at the girl who was smiling widely then at the girl who had the exact opposite expression. “I’m Jessica.”

“Are you a friend of Taengoo’s?”

“That’s impossible. Taengoo has never said anything about a friend before,” Sunny said, glaring suspiciously at Jessica.

Before Jessica could explain everything, Taeyeon beat her to it.

The tallest among the seven girls spoke as she dug inside her bag of chips. “Wah shwee, shwaeng—“

“What did we tell you about swallowing your food first and then speaking?”

Soo swallowed the food inside and stuck her tongue out at Sunny. “I was just saying that I get why Taengoo let her stay. She probably just remembers how she was three years ago when she first came here.”

“Why? Is her step mom out to kill her, too?”

“I don’t think that’s the case, Sunny-unnie.” The tall yet shy girl was staring at her feet as she spoke. “She’s Jung Jessica.”

Yoona gasped. “She is. She really is.”

“You’re the person who wasted our time!”

Hyoyeon who was now pumped up on caffeine intervened by pulling Sunny by her shirt before the small girl could tackle Jessica to the ground.

“Technically, it was her dad who wasted our time, Sunny.”

“But she ran away from her own wedding which made us lose the client!”

“It was a wedding that I didn’t agree on,” Jessica retorted. “My father, he only wanted that wedding to happen because of his own selfish reasons.”

“That’s so sad.”

Jessica frowned at Tiffany who still had a smile of her face. Is she being sarcastic?

“Does the guy look like ?”

She would’ve laughed at that blunt statement if it weren’t for those innocent eyes looking at her saying that the inquiry was a serious one.

Yuri, on the other hand, laughed at the silly girl’s question. “She’s too blunt for her own good. She’s like a child with a million questions and she has no filter so forgive her.”

The girl sat next to Jessica and put a hand over her forehead.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m just checking if you’re feeling well. Are you feeling well?”

“I-I’m okay.”

“You look a little flushed though.”

Yuri cupped Jessica’s cheeks and continued staring at her, their faces only a few inches away from each other.

“I think she’s just blushing because you’re invading her personal space,” Seohyun, the timid girl stated.

“Either that or she finds Yuri-unnie hot.”

She blushed even more at Yoona’s statement.

“You should probably introduce yourselves to Jessica first. I think she’s getting a bit confused now.”

“Mwai n—“

“Swallow the goddamn food in your mouth first, Soo!”

Sooyoung gulped and wiped her cheese-stained fingers on her pants before offering her hand for a hand shake and introducing herself. “My name’s Choi Sooyoung but you can call me Soo. I’m in charge of making sure that our business runs smoothly. We own the very famous chain of jewelry stores in this country, Soshi Gems. More famously known as Soshi-G.”

Jessica creased her eyebrows at the odd name. “Sausage?”

Sunny rolled her eyes while Tiffany’s smile only grew bigger, as if that was even possible.

“Sausage, good one, Jessica.”

“That’s making me hungry.”

“You’re always hungry!” Sunny scoffed and side-eyed Jessica. “I’m Sunny. You can call me Sunny or you could do the easier thing which is to not talk to me at all.”

“Okay,” Jessica mumbled. She as genuinely scared at the smaller girl.

“I’m Tiffany.”

“Oof!” Jessica awkwardly hugged the bubbly girl back.

“You’re suffocating her,” Hyoyeon said as threw her coffee cup in the trash bin. “I’m Hyoyeon. You can call me Hyo if you’re too lazy to say ‘Yeon.’ I know I am.”

“My name’s Yuri. If you’re feeling sick, tell it to me right away.”

“I’m Yoona but please call me Yoongie. Taengoo-unnie gave me that nickname.” The young girl tugged on Taeyeon’s arm like a little child longing for attention and Jessica couldn’t help but find it adorable.

“My name’s Seohyun…”’

They all waited for Seohyun to say something more but after a few seconds, they figured she was done talking.

Interesting bunch of girls.

She then looked at the girl whom she met last night and remembered something that the girls said earlier which led her to a realization.

“You’re Kim Taeyeon? B-bu-but you’re dead. I mean, you’re supposed to be dead. It was all over the news. You went missing and a month after that, they found a body and…that wasn’t really you, was it?”

“Of course, it’s not her, Jessica-unnie. She wouldn’t be standing here with us if that was her.”

She pursed her lips and nodded. The innocent girl made sense.

“But why won’t you go back to Seoul and get what’s rightfully yours? You do know that your step mom has taken over the Kim Industries, right?”

She heard Sunny scoffing once again. “You do know her step mom would still find a way to kill her, right? She knows Taengoo is alive but she also knows Taengoo’s too afraid to come out of her hiding so she finally gave up looking for her so it’s better for her to be here. Although she does get in our nerves sometimes.”

Taeyeon smiled. “I’m fine here. It’s way simpler than having someone hunting me down just to kill me and get my family’s fortunes.”

“So are you going to hide here too, like Taengoo?” Sunny asked, a scowl never leaving her face.

“I actually told her that I’m only looking for a place to stay for the night so…”

“Nwan-shense,” Soo swallowed her food immediately before she could be reprimanded by Sunny again, “Non-sense. You could stay here all you want. We take pride in having our home be a hide-out for women who ran away from home.”

“I don’t want to impose.”

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. It’s not as if I have a say in things. It’s not like they kicked Taengoo out when I disagreed on letting her stay,” Sunny simply answered when she saw Jessica directing her gaze at her. The shortest girl in the room turned her back from the others and crossed her arms across her chest.

“That’s settled then. You could stay here, Jessica.”

---

Jessica still finds it weird that the girls invited her to stay with them. How they put such trust in her and invited her to their home so easily boggles her mind. It wasn’t like she wasn’t trustworthy. It just bothers her that these strange girls could easily trust her.

“They know you’re Jung Jessica. That’s why they didn’t have any second thoughts in letting you stay.”

Jessica shifted her gaze to where Taeyeon was and casted a curious stare on her. She stopped scrubbing the kitchen island that she’s been scrubbing for half an hour now.

“You’re wondering how they were able to trust you so easily, right?”

“Uh, yes. Were they like that when you first came here?”

Taeyeon grinned as she remembered her first day at the seven jewellers’ house.

She just got off the train, still weary yet watchful of the people around her. She bought the ticket to the first train that was bound to Daejeon. She didn’t really have any idea where she wanted to go. All she thought about was that she had to get away from Seoul. Away from her step mom.

It was a few hours before the party when she heard Gyuri’s conversation with a man who was dressed as one of the waiters.

“Once you’ve given her the poisoned drink, leave immediately. Leave the country. Go as far away as possible because I’m not going to cover up for you once they find out that the little brat was poisoned to death.”

“I understand and the payment?”

“I will wire it to you as soon as I’m sure that that girl is with her father again. They make it too easy for me to kill them.”

Taeyeon hastily went up to her room, packed her bags, only brought important things with her and left.

She knew her step mom was evil but it was still hard for her to believe that she actually killed her father. She wondered how she got away with it. By paying people? Threatening them?

She was walking aimlessly until she reached an old and abandoned building. It was in the middle of the afternoon and the rain started pouring so she decided to go inside.

“It’s this building, right?”

“Yes, the gate was unlocked too. That happens every time Yoongie’s the last person to come out.

Being bored, she walked around the spacious building. Spacious was an understatement though. Any other person would be scared to go any farther but the building caught Taeyeon’s curiosity. It resulted into her finding the well-hidden staircase and that still didn’t stop her from wandering around despite the warning signs.

There was a sign that said ‘Beware of Dogs’ and ‘Keep out.’ There was also a sign that said it was a former nuclear power plant but she doubted the messily scribbled warning when she saw what was written below it. ‘You might turn into a mutant if you get exposed to the radioactive substance here so beware and be very afraid! Be very afraid, I tell you!’

She was right not to believe those signs. All she saw when she finally got to the second-floor were furniture that you’d normally see inside a house. It was a complete mess though like a hurricane passed by and being the neat freak that she was, she decided to clean up a bit.

“You did that despite not knowing who owned the house?”

“Yeah, I really didn’t think about it that much. The mess made my eye twitch.”

“The girls didn’t mind?”

“Oh they did. Sunny went berserk.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“What the hell happened here?”

“We were robbed…by people who have OCD.”

All of them frowned at Hyoyeon’s conclusion.

Sooyoung was the first one to check the rooms and to check their safe. That was when she noticed a small lump on Tiffany’s bed. She approached the bed and carefully removed the blanket out of the way. BY the time she’s done doing so, the rest of the girls have already entered the room and all of them caught sight of the intruder.

Sunny was the first one to voice out her anger. “Hey, wake up! How dare you enter our house without our permission, huh?” asked the girl with the short hair who looked like she was going to murder her any minute now. When she met the girl’s gaze, she immediately looked away and turned her attention to the taller girl.

Taeyeon yawned and stared at the girls towering over her. Sooyoung pushed away Sunny and introduced herself. “Choi Sooyoung.”

She seemed to be tallest among them and she was also holding a bag of chips on one hand and a juice box on the other. The girl next to her was smiling so wide she thought was going to rip in two.

“I’m Tiffany.”

The other three girls who looked a bit like each other were huddled in the doorway. She frowned in confusion and was surprised to see one of them smiling in amusement and coming closer.

“You’re cute. I’m Yoona.”

The other one who was holding a bag filled with a weird green concoction followed suit while the other stayed put.

“I’m Yuri and that’s the youngest, Seohyun,” she said as she pointed at the girl who was now looking at her feet.

Hyoyeon sat beside Yoona and started dozing off, mumbling about coffee and more sugar.

“This is Hyoyeon-unnie,” said Yoona.

Hyoyeon cracked one eye open and said, “That grouchy person is Sunny.”

“So you told them your step mom was out to get you and they let you stay since then?”

Taeyeon nodded. “Sunny didn’t like the idea at first because I kept putting her things away when she leaves it lying around but when I started writing a list of where her things are, our relationship got better.”

“Oh okay but can you explain to me why Soo’s always eating and Sunny’s always pissed off?”

“Soo gets hungry all the time but that’s because she only eats those junk foods that don’t really make her full. That’s why she always carries a snack with her. Sunny’s perpetually angry because of Soo. She once told me Soo’s carefree demeanour pisses her off and stresses her out.”

“What about the others? Hyo seems to be dependent on caffeine and Yuri carrying around all these eastern medicines and vitamins, is it a normal thing?”

“Hyo’s always tired because she has the most tiring job. She’s on quality control and she has to make sure the employees do their best in making the jewelleries that every store puts out. Yuri’s been a health freak ever since she got in high school. I was told that she suffered from getting teased at school as a kid because she always had a runny nose so now she does everything she could just to avoid catching a cold or any sickness for that matter.”

“Seohyun is naturally shy but she’s really sweet. It’s just her personality, I guess, being the youngest and all. Yoongie’s an innocent girl, she’s like Seohyun in a way but Yoongie says whatever comes to her mind. Her innocence makes her blunt. I mean, brutally honest. Really brutal. She thought I was a kid when she first saw me.”

Jessica laughed heartily. “I can’t blame her. You really look like a kid.”

“Well, I’m sorry I’m not well-endowed like you and I have the body of a ten year old girl.”

“Let’s not talk about my chest. What about Tiffany?”

“Tiffany’s just always happy. I don’t know maybe she’s getting high on mushrooms while no one’s looking.”

“I see and you’re a neat freak who loves adopting animals, did I get that right?”

Taeyeon grinned and a dimple appeared. Jessica ended up staring at it.

“The girls are usually out and working so the only ones I could play with are my pets.”

Taeyeon whistled and the two Siberian huskies ran towards her. The three munchkin cats were on top of the counter sashaying towards the both of them and the squirrel climbed up Taeyeon’s shoulder.

“These cute cats are Athos, Porthos and Aramis. This cute squirrel is D’Artagnan. These cute dogs are Buckingham and The Cardinal.”

“The Cardinal? Did you name them after the characters of the movie The Three Musketeers?”

“Yes.”

Before Jessica could even laugh at Taeyeon’s face, their conversation was disrupted by Sooyoung.

“Taeyeon, we saw your step mother.”