AN; Thanks for the subs, upvotes and comments ^^ It warms my heart! Here's chapter 3, enjoy <3

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Krystal had left for work before either Victoria or Onew had woken up. Or so she thought anyway, it wasn’t like she actually checked up on them. Just because she had offered her second bedroom to them, hardly made her responsible. She had given Victoria clear instructions on when she should go to work and what she should do. Along with that she had had several emergency phone-calls with her employees, telling them to find her friend a job and help her out with it. Everyone seemed confused by the sudden new employee, but nobody had dared to say anything.

During the day she hadn’t heard anything from anyone on the fifth floor, so she trusted everything had gone smoothly. At five o’clock, she heard the familiar sound of most employees leaving. She had given Victoria her second key card to the suite so she didn’t have to rush home herself, however, and stayed for two more hours before she called it a day. It wasn’t out of the ordinary. There were enough days where she stayed in the office even longer.

Never, in the weeks she had been staying in the hotel, had she ever had the smell of warm food greet her when she opened the door. Sure enough, she was greeted by Victoria’s back. She was stirring through a pot and even though Krystal didn’t know what she was making, it made her stomach come to life. Her eyes moved to the right. Onew was just sitting on one of her chairs, staring at his mother.

“Uh… Hi.”

Krystal felt uncomfortable by the entire display. Was this how normal families worked? She wouldn’t know. She had always had a maid cook for her when she was younger and now she would usually just settle for noodles or take-away food. It had been… too long since she had an actual home-cooked meal.

“oh, hi! You’re home.” Victoria turned her head, a broad smile on her face, but kept stirring through the food.

“What are you doing?” Krystal knew what Victoria was doing, of course. But it was so unexpected that she had some trouble understanding.

“I don’t really have a way to thank you for what you did for me. For everything. So I figured this was the least I could do. I do hope you like kimchi stew.”

Krystal just nodded, too dumbstruck to say anything.

“It will take a while longer. I didn’t know when you were coming home.”

Home. It was literally the first time she had come ‘home’ and the place actually felt home-y. Ironic, when it was also the first time ‘strangers’ were in it.

Her eye fell upon Onew again, who was looking at her with big eyes once again. She had so little personal belongings to begin with, she doubted she could find anything at all for Onew to be entertained by. She extended a hand nonetheless, opening and closing it a few times in an inviting manner. Onew seemed to take the bait and slid off the chair to walk towards her.

“Do you like to watch cartoons?” At least she had cable tv. She had often put it on herself to have any sort of background noise, but she rarely actively watched anything.

“I don’t know.” He just kept looking at her and Krystal was beyond the point of being surprised anymore. Instead she just picked the boy up and put him in the couch. She reached for the remote, switching channels until she found some sort of anime. She placed herself next to Onew in the couch, pleased to find him immediately absorbed into the show.

Krystal might have turned it on for Onew, but she was actually surprised at how much she was enjoying this herself. It seemed like a long time since she had been able to enjoy something so small, so much. She hadn’t released the tension that had been in her shoulders for God knows how long, but it finally seemed to be leaving her little by little now.

She was almost sad when Victoria called for the both of them, telling them diner was ready. Almost.

-

Krystal had invited the two of them over for their own good, yet right now she felt as if she had done it for herself. Even though she might not have actively realised it, her subconscious must have had some idea of what she was missing. She didn’t even care that it was only temporarily, she was actually happy. She felt as if she belonged somewhere, for however short it might last.

“What are you thinking about?”

Onew had quickly finished his food, obviously used to his mother’s food and not as awed by it anymore as Krystal had been. He had Immediately settled himself in the couch again and had taken full control of the remote now. It was as if he wanted to watch everything all at once, switching the channel every ten minutes or so. Krystal and Victoria were still seated at the table and Victoria was watching her with questioning big eyes. It wasn’t hard to see where Onew got his from and Krystal had to smile at the similarity.

“I was just thinking that this is pretty cosy. I’ve never really had anyone cook like this for me before. So thanks. It was delicious.” She might as well say the truth. Victoria’s face seemed to brighten at her words. “It’s nothing really. I took a few part-time jobs at restaurants too,” she grinned while pushing her chair back and started collecting the empty plates. Krystal helped her clear the table and before long she was drying the dishes Victoria had just washed. “How was work?”

“It was amazing! Everyone was so helpful and nice… I was shocked honestly. It’s quite a change from what I’m used to.”

Krystal praised her employees internally. It would seem they followed her instructions well.

“They said it was strange for Miss Jung to suddenly hire another employee though.” Or maybe not. Victoria didn’t seem to know it was her at least. “I’m guessing you had something to do with that,” she softly poked Krystal in the ribs with her elbow, “Thanks.”

“I didn’t really do anything. You just fit the job requirements,” Krystal mumbled, all of a sudden wanting to change the topic. Victoria wasn’t done yet apparently though. “Do you know Miss Jung? Apparently she’s the daughter of the CEO.”

“I might have seen her here and there.”

“Oh yeah? What floor do you work on?”

This woman was way too curious. “Eighth usually. But I travel floors a lot depending on what they need me to do.” That was a blatant lie. She worked on twelfth. Victoria just nodded.

“The other employees said she’s beautiful but quite cold and doesn’t have any friends.” Why did these employees of her talk this much anyway! Didn’t they have work to do?! “Oh really.” Krystal was unconsciously gritting her teeth now. “How can I believe them though when she gave me this opportunity. You two are my saviours.”

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After two more days Victoria had been able to pay her bill with an advance Krystal had given her. Or well, miss Jung more precisely.

Even though it had been like this for months, it was weird to come home to an empty suite now. The noodles that had been enough before, were suddenly bland. The animes on tv were not nearly as entertaining without Onew’s commentaries. Even waking up without having to be silent so as not to wake her housemates was suddenly not thrilling enough.

She didn’t see Victoria at work, which had been her plan all along. Yet some days she was tempted to just drop by anyway. Just to see how she was doing.

She had survived a whole week before she ended up standing in front of Victoria’s apartment again. How was it that she had no trouble with being away for three years, yet all of a sudden even a few days were apparently too hard for her already. Was she really this lonely? It had never weighed on her before?

Victoria opened the door when she knocked, a smile on her face as usual.

“Hi again. I came by for… Erhm…” She was sure she had prepared an excuse before, yet it was hard to remember what it was exactly.

Victoria just smiled knowingly, stepping aside to let her in. “You don’t need a reason to drop by, you know.”

Sulli was still inside and she waved enthusiastically when she spotted Krystal. “Hello again!”

Krystal greeted her in return before she suddenly turned around to face Victoria again. “I remember my excu-, reason.” Victoria raised an eyebrow in amusement and a satisfied smirk had settled on her face. “Reason. I remember my reason for stopping by.”

She could feel the blood rush to her face in shame and quickly bend down to reach for her bag and cover her face effectively with a curtain of hair.

She handed the plastic bowl Victoria had used to bring ingredients to her home back to its rightful owner.

“Ah, thank you. I don’t think I would have survived another day without this. Good thing you dropped it off.” She was still grinning and after a while Krystal decided to just give up and join her.

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Krystal liked Sulli. She really did. When the latter had called her in a panic that she would not be able to make it to babysit Onew, however, Krystal felt way happier than she should have. When she left the office, people were looking at her strangely. She had literally never left her office before five pm, so who could blame them. Victoria’s words from several weeks came back to her and she forced a smile on her face. Let’s see who’s cold now.

Onew’s school was about twenty minutes away from the office. He seemed both surprised and confused to see Krystal waiting for him instead of Sulli. “What are you doing here?” was the first thing he asked and Krystal couldn’t help but feel a little insulted. “are you not happy to see me?” The smile Krystal loved reappeared on his face once more. “Of course I am!” He hugged her tightly and Krystal couldn’t believe there was a time she didn’t like hugging.

“Sulli wasn’t able to make it today. We’ve got the whole evening to ourselves. A