Olivia was scavenging for any scraps she could sell at the market when she suddenly hears someone coughing. “Haima, can you go check ahead?” she asks her daemon, who nods and bounds forward. She fidgets in her spot, slowly becoming more uncomfortable by the increasing distance between her and Haima.

“Haima, where are you?” she calls out worryingly, after having waited for five minutes. She hears footsteps and immediately is running to where Haima had gone off to. “Haima?! Haima, where are yo-oh!” She bumps into the wolf, who was growling. “What is it? Guards?”

“A girl and her daemon bird. I just scared them off.” Haima replies, returning back to her calm state.

“You scared me, I thought someone got you.” Olivia says.

“I'd rip them to shreds if they put so much as a finger on me.”

A cough interrupts their conversation. The two turn to its owner, seeing a pair of legs sticking out from behind piles of trash. Steadily walking over, Olivia sees a girl, around her own age, barely conscious while breathing heavily with sweat beads sliding down her face and neck.

“She's ill.” Haima says, putting her paw on the sick girl’s hand. “It's bad.”

Crouching down, Olivia moves the hair from stuck to the girl’s face. She looks like she was in a lot of pain. And she looks pretty. But more importantly, in pain.

“We need to take her back. Gowon bought medicine the other day, right?”

“Olivia, we can't bring back strangers. Jinsoul said-”

“She needs our help. I don't care what Jinsoul said, I'll deal with her later. But for now, we need to get this girl back home.” Olivia sees a little white paw sticking from underneath the girl’s jacket. Lifting it, she sees a rabbit. “This must be her daemon. Haima, can you carry them?”

“A wolf carrying a rabbit. Definitely not strange at all.” Leaning down, Haima hoists the rabbit by their neck with her teeth, careful not to hurt them. Olivia puts the girl onto her back in a piggyback position.

“Alright, let's go.”

“You know she's going to be furious when she finds out, right?”

Gowon is in the sleeping room, with Heejin lying down on the mattress. She fumbles with the pills, putting two onto the tray. “Get a glass of water, will you?” Olivia grabs a cup and fills it, then handing it over. She leaves the two alone and walks back into the living room.

“I swear Olivia, you're way too soft and kind. First you bring in Yves and now this girl.” Chuu is swinging her legs back and forth, sitting on the edge of a box. “We barely have enough food to feed us six, now you bring in another?”

Olivia stares at Chuu angrily, “And I'm just supposed to leave her out there alone? What were we, before we got together? Just like her, so have some sympathy.”

“I'm not saying what you did was wrong, but we aren't exactly in a state where we can offer help to others when we can barely help ourselves.”

Gowon walks back out, with an empty tray in her hand, “She should get better soon. I'm no expert or anything, but I think all she needs now is warmth, food and water. There's no way she would be able to leave and survive another week.”

“So she's staying?” Chuu asks.

“I'll talk to Jinsoul. I can reason with her. Meanwhile, you and Livia go prepare dinner.” Gowon leaves, the other two being left alone with an awkward air.

“...rock-paper-scissors, loser makes all of dinner.” Chuu proposes.

“You're on.”

“Think Chuu would like this?” Yves holds up a music box, gently turning the knob so that it plays.

“You already bought her strawberries though,” Jinsoul replies, skimming through a book, “I think that's enough gifts for your precious little Chuubie.”

Uninterested in helping with shopping, Choerry was busy playing hopscotch with the local kids. She easily beats everyone every match, having played countless times with Gowon and Olivia back home. “...and I win again!” she yells, taking the final leap, throwing her hands in the air in triumph.

“No fair, you always win!” one of the younger kids cry.

“If you want to beat me, you need to practice more. 40 hours a day is sufficient.”

“But there's only 24 hou-”

“Choerry, we're leaving!” Jinsoul cries, her and Yves waiting for the younger girl.

“Coming! I'll see you guys next time!” Choerry skips on over, clinging onto Yves’ arm as the three began to walk home. “Ooh, strawberries!” she says, seeing the little basket swinging from Yves’ hand.

“No touchy, they're for Chuu.” the older girl warns.

“Come on, just only one! Chuu can't even eat them all!”

“No.”

“Just a bite? Pretty pretty, like Yves, please?”

“No.”

“I'll let you room with Chuu tonigh-”

“Deal.”

“Gowon, what are you doing here?” Jinsoul asks, seeing the blonde-haired girl slowly walking towards the three of them.

“I, uh, need to talk to you.” Gowon replies. “And please try to stay as calm as possible.”

“Stay...calm? Why would I not be calm?”

“Uh oh.” Choerry whispers under her breath, all while snatching a strawberry from distracted Yves.

“OLIVIA!”

A fuming Jinsoul storms into the room, where Olivia is busy changing the wet cloth on Heejin’s forehead.

“H...hi Jinsoul.” Olivia says timidly, knowing she was in deep trouble.

“This is her? The girl you brought in?” Jinsoul asks, to which Olivia nods. “Honestly, I'm really mad at you right now for disobeying my wishes, but I'm too tired to even bother scolding you. Just...just don't do it again, okay? I'm sure you brought her in, like you did with Yves, with good intentions. But I'm just afraid with increasing numbers, we can't feed and shelter everyone properly.”

“I promise I won't do it again. Ever.”

Yves walks in, “Have you guys seen Ch-”

Out of nowhere, Chuu comes flying towards Yves with open arms, hugging her like a koala and screaming excitedly, “STRAWBERRIES!”

“Ch-Chuu!” Yves squeals, feeling heat build up in her face.

“Something smells burnt.” Choerry says as she walks in, sniffing the air.

“MY FISHES!” Chuu screams, unlatching herself from Yves, who is red like the strawberries, and rushing out.

“Fish? Chuu better not have cooked Beta, or I'll kill her.” Jinsoul says.

“Guess tonight's dinner is going to be strawberries.” Choerry snickers. She spots Heejin, “Another pretty girl! I must say Olivia, you do have a knack for finding pretty girls.”

“Welcome back, Yves.” Olivia says, waving her hand awkwardly. But the other girl is lost in her own thoughts, so she does not react, the younger girl looking a little disappointed and hurt. She stands up, looking at Jinsoul, “I'm...going to help Chuu.”

Olivia leaves the room, Choerry looking back and forth between the disappearing back and Yves. “What a mess.” she mutters to herself.

In the kitchen, Gowon is busy trying to save what Chuu called dinner. Olivia stands next to her, watching silently.

“...was she mad?” Olivia asks.

“Terribly. She was ready to throw that girl out the moment she came back.”

“What did you say then? To make her change her mind?”

“I said if she did that, you would leave.”

“I never sai-”

“I know you didn't, but I had to come up with some excuse, right?” Gowon finishes removing the burnt parts off the fishes and begins to remove the bones. “The last thing she wants is to lose any one of us. She'd much rather have to care for another girl than to lose one.”

“Because we're family to her.”

“Yes, because we're family to her. She already lost her real family, she doesn't want to lose this one. Jinsoul sees herself as the responsible one, as if all of our lives are in her hands. She's scared of not being able to help us.”

Olivia just listens silently, letting Gowon’s words sink in. Of course, she knew Jinsoul cared about all of them. It just never occurred to her how stressed Jinsoul must be.

“You have a kind heart, Olivia. Even if you can barely help yourself, you're willing to help others. Sometimes, the rest of us wonder if you're actually an angel in disguise. Especially when you first brought in Yves, remember when you let her sleep on your mattress, gave her all your clothes and shoes? You literally gave her everything you owned.”

Olivia smiles, remembering back then. Yves tried to have the two share the mattress, but Olivia refused, sleeping on the ground until the others finally were able to get another one. The clothes and shoes, she had made sure Yves got the newer ones.

“I only gave her everything because, well, she's my everything.”