Young Sun thinks about Cherry the whole week. The idea of her poor baby being hurt because of Mr Stache never leaves her mind. It should not have happened, in an apartment like hers. Is not everything clean and tidy? She takes a lazy look through the window, her cheek laid against her palm as a piece of meat sizzles in a pan. Cars and lights everywhere. Noises and movements. People going home after work of leaving for the evening. And here she is, waiting for her food to be ready, alone with her babies.

They are like a family to her. The children she will never have because she is too busy with her job and she has no time to lose with men. Young Sun has always considered herself an independent woman, so she feels no urge to be loved or have someone in her life, to speak her words. Her relatives have heard her repeating this refrain for the last five years, looking at her talking about her cats as thought they are her brothers and sisters.

Turning the piece of meat, she sighs once more and straightens up, her mind drifting from a thought to the other. The face of Minseok crosses her mind. Nothing to worry about, thinks the accountant, the man is all smiles and politeness, how could someone not think about him? Then comes the memories of her discussion with Hyejin. She always thinks she knows how men work. Young Sun did not want to believe her. Still, she was right with Eric. She was right about every man that has entered her life and left right away. But, into Solar’s eyes, it does not mean she is always right. She may be wrong, once in a while.

A soft touch around her ankle, she looks down to discover King who is curling up his tail around her leg. She grants him a smile.

“Stop being jealous, King.” She says with a giggle as she serves herself a meal and goes to sit at the table, Mop jumping on it to keep her company. “Always on time, Mop.”

She is in the middle of watching a random variety show on TV as someone knocks on the door. Young Sun’s brows knit in surprise as a voice comes from behind the door. “Byul?” Her eyes widen as she tries to get rid of the bowl of popcorn she has been fishing in for minutes without breaking it miserably on the ground.

She arrives at the door without stumbling on a pretending-to-die Light lying on her way and it opens on a smiling Byul, elbow laid against the frame. “Hey there ~” She singsongs, wearing her ever-present smile and a smell that Young Sun would describe as that of solvent. “How ya doin’?” She enters without waiting, looking at Light with a soft giggle as she goes and takes some popcorns.

Solar eyes her from the door, not knowing why her friend has come so suddenly to her place. “What brings you here?” She asks, puzzled and confused. “Are you not busy finishing one of your… work?”

Her brows knit as she tries to find a better word, and her friend soon replies “masterpiece! Actually, I finished one last night. But that’s not why I came.” The painter gives her friend one of her lopsided smile as she turns to her and crosses her arms and squints her eyes. “I’ve been told that you kind of like Xiumin?”

Moonbyul is smarter than her looks might tell, but there is no way she could know about something like this. Who has told her something so silly? Solar’s eyebrows furrow even more as she thinks about it,but denying something she knows for long has become sort of a national sport for the accountant and she does not see the truth that is right in front of her eyes.

“I don’t like him. He’s one of my colleagues.” She says firmly, hoping to convince her best friend, but the latter retorts too more quickly than she would have thought.

“Oh please, I know he’s more than that to you. He’s charming and assertive, as Eric and the others before him were, and you like them that way.” She says matter-of-factly before rolling her eyes and sinking in the sofa. “You always fall for them.”

“Did you plan our meeting?” asks the accountant suspiciously.

“Well, I may have thought it would be a good idea that you finally find someone that’s good for you?”

“I told you I didn’t want to be in a relationship. I don’t need it.”

“Everybody needs it.”

Everybody? Solar doubts it. She is nothing close to a needy old lady, and she is only twenty-seven! There is nothing to be worried about. As soft sigh escapes her lips and she goes to the sofa to sit near her best friends, staring at the television because she has no intention to answer her assertion. What if she needs it for real? She wants to prove her friends wrong, but there is always a moment when she realizes she misses something. Because the cats do not talk. Because the cats cannot wrap their arms around her and tell her they love her.

In the end, maybe this is the reason why she allows men so easily into her life, without even noticing it.

Without even wanting it.

A/N : okay I'm sorry I took ages to update this story... I have no excuse except the muse I could not find because I was too busy. I hope some of you still read this, though ♥