“Hey.”

Hyunyoung didn’t have to look up to recognize that voice. She knew exactly who it was since she was so used to his voice already. “Hey, Jongie.”

“What are you doing here, all alone, hmm, miss damsel in distress?” Sungjong asked, sitting down on the stool next to her. “You should’ve called me. It’s a good thing I decided to come and get some ice cream; the weather’s pretty hot despite winter approaching.”

“Oh, well . . .”

“So, what were you doing here?”

“Um . . .” She hesitated. Should she tell him that Sungyeol needed help with his lines, which was why she was here? But Sungyeol had looked embarrassed when he asked her for help. “Someone needed help with their lines so I offered to help but I guess it’s a no-show or the person is late,” she told him instead.

Sungjong frowned, not liking the sound of it. “Are you serious? That’s irresponsible. I’ll keep you company, if you want, until the person shows up?”

Hyunyoung checked her watch. She’s been waiting for Sungyeol for over an hour and a half. She shook her head. “Nah, there’s no point in waiting anymore,” she replied.

“You sure?”

“Yeap.”

“I still want ice cream.”

She rolled her eyes at the childish Sungjong pouting. “Then get it, dummy,” she replied, nudging him slightly. But deep inside, she was worried. Where was Sungyeol and why wasn’t he there?

After everyone managed to put Benji back into his cageand finally they were allowed to rest, they cleaned themselves up and sat on the bench, relaxing after a hard day of work. Sungyeol glanced around the took notice of a German shepherd dog he hadn’t seen earlier.

As he watched, the German shepherd looked sad, avoiding eye contact with people and wasn’t jumping in the cage to be let out and play with like all the other dogs. In fact, Sungyeol thought it was having depression.

“What’s wrong with that dog?” he asked Jihyun, turning toward her.

Jihyun turned to see where he was looking at. “Oh, Pepsi?”

He almost blanched. “Pepsi?”

She nodded, smiling softly. “She likes drinking Pepsi,” she explained, shrugging lightly. “I’m not sure if it’s okay for her to be drinking it but nothing had happened to her whenever she does.”

Sungyeol was still trying to grasp around Pepsi’s name. He watched as she ignored some of the employers who tried to get her to come out to play. “Why does she look so sad?” he wanted to know. “What happened to her?”

“She’s been abused by her previous owner before they decided to abandon her,” Jihyun told him sadly. “She has trust issues with some of us. Like she would never be willing to come over to us. All she allows us to do to her is to feed her and wash her but she wouldn’t want to play with us. In fact, sometimes she’d snap and try to bite us. And we all think she can still be useful to put her down. We think she deserves a second chance.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate.” Sungyeol frowned. “It must have gone through a lot to be like the way it is now. It’s just sickening how careless some humans can be.”

“I know.” Jihyun checked her watch for the time. “Wow, is that the time? I didn’t think we’d be here this late. I think it was because of Benji.”

Sungyeol looked up to the wall clock and saw that it was currently four-thirty in the afternoon. “Wow, we’ve been here the whole day,” he mused.

“Yeah, I think we can go home now. Everything has been done today, so we can get going.” Jihyun glanced over to him with a smile. “Let’s go get some ice cream?”

He beamed. “Sure!”

“Loser pays!” Jihyun ran off.

Sungyeol could only gasp after her. “I . . . wow, that girl really is something.” But he was smiling before he took off after her. “Yah! That’s cheating! Get back here!”

“Never!”

Later in the night, Jihyun went to check up on Hyunyoung and found her sister asleep in bed. She smiled sotly. This was the first time she’s seen her little sister sleeping so early. She walked over and tucked her in, smiling affectionately down at her.

“Mmm . . . how was the animal shelter?” Hyunyoung mumbled sleepily, stirred by her sister’s movements. She snuggled under the blanket comfortably.

“Mm, it was a good day, actually. I had a lot of fun.” Jihyun recalled the day’s events and chuckled softly to herself. “Sungyeol came with me. He was very entertaining.”

Hyunyoung blinked and opened an eye. “Sungyeol sunbae went with you?”

“Deh.” She nodded.

“It’s a good thing you had him for company, I guess.”

“Yeah . . . what did you do the whole day? Wait, don’t tell me. You stayed home and edited pictures and drew some sketches.” She ruffled her little sister’s hair playfully.

“Eonnie.” Hyunyoung giggled and hid under the blanket. She shook her head before peeping up from under the covers. “I went out for ice cream with Sungjongie.”

“At least you got some fresh air.”

“Yeah.”

“Anyway, sleep well, dongsaeng.”

“Good night, eonnie. . . .”

Next door, Sungyeol thought he’d try to get some homework done before he hit the shack and went to his study table. But he froze when he saw the script in the middle of the table, with a sticky note pasted on it.

Practice with Hyunyoung, 2:30PM @ ice cream parlor

“Oh . . .” His heart sank, realizing he had completely forgotten about it and had blew her off. He glanced out of the window. Hyunyoung’s room was directly opposite of his. The lights were off. He frowned, recalling that she never used to sleep so early and it was only nine in the night.

“Is she really asleep now?” he mumbled, taking out his phone but