“Sure” Wendy agreed as Amber started to calm down.

Luna was feeding Hwa-Young some grapes in the kitchen while the couple argued, she sighed and ran her fingers through the toddler’s long brown hair. When she dated Amber, neither of them ever talked about marriage nor children, yet there she was, fully engaged with keeping the little girl. Deep down she knew that Amber is capable of being a good parent to her, but she was coping with her messiah complex by brutally wanting Hwa-Young to stay with them no matter what.

“Don’t worry, honey. They’re good people” Luna sighed, loud enough for the little girl to hear.

“Appa is cool” The toddler said, munching the grapes and looking up to Luna who completely melted.

“Oh, no sweetie, Amber’s not-“

“Are the grapes yummy, Hwa-Young?” The tomboy came in the kitchen, interrupting Luna.

“Yeah” Hwa-Young cheerfully said as she fed the short-haired girl some.

“How about you guys stay for lunch?” Soojung asked.

“Yeah, that’ll be great” Luna happily said, smiling warmly.

“Sounds great, today’s my day off so I guess I can use some company” Wendy agreed.

Krystal notified Amber that the girls were staying for lunch, so she asked her to cook something. Luna volunteered to help the tomboy and Wendy and Soojung took Hwa-Young to the shopping mall to buy her some clothes.

“I see you’re all happy again” The shorter girl teased.

“Shut up” Amber adverted, she grabbed some steak out of the freezer and opened the package to let it warm up before she shove it in the oven.

“She called you appa…” Luna said, washing the carrots in the sink.

“Really?” The tomboy asked, surprised.

“You confuse her with those looks” The shorter said, moving now to the counter to cut the vegetables.

“I don’t really mind. As long as she’s not calling me or something” Amber didn’t care that Hwa-Young was seeing her as a fatherly figure, through her life she experienced several occasions where she was called a ‘young man’ or a ‘boy’ but she couldn’t care less. She knew who she was and how she wanted to express herself, so the mean comments and misunderstandings never affected her.

“Don’t take it as a compliment, you need to understand she’s not your child” Her ex-girlfriend said as she finished cutting the carrots and went for the potatoes.

“Did you happen to stay just to lecture me?” Amber asked, irritated.

“Someone’s got to do it” She nonchalantly said, washing now the potatoes. “I know what you’re doing and you need to stop being so apprehensive with Hwa-Young. You scared the out of the poor baby when you started arguing with Wendy… is that how you’re going to handle things if you become her parent?” Luna confronted the tomboy.

“I can’t help it, Sunyoung”

“Stop playing the ‘need to save anyone’ role. She doesn’t need you” She said as she grabbed Amber by her shoulders, turning her to face her. “Look at me Amber, if you don’t stop being this apprehensive with your girls, they’re going to leave you. I don’t think you’ve realized it yet… but this type of behavior is a time bomb for you and Krystal, if you don’t giver her the time and freedom she needs, it is more than likely that she’s going to dump you”

Wendy and Krystal walked down the toddler’s section, Soojung holding Hwa-Young’s hand as they looked for some clothes.

“I know Amber can be a handful sometimes, but is something specifically bothering you about this situation?” Wendy asked.

“I don’t want to be like my parents” The ice-looking girl said, inspecting a long-sleeve shirt.

“You’re not going to” The psychologist assured while helping Soojung look for clothes. “I wanted to talk to you about something” She paused.

“About what?” Krystal asked, turning to look at Wendy.

“I can have a colleague write a discharge letter for you” She said. “It would be completely legal and you will be free to walk around Seoul with no worries”

“Can you really do that for me?” Soojung asked with bright eyes.

“Of course. You just need to tell me when you’re ready, I don’t want to put you in any kind of trouble with your dad” She said, picking a cute ‘I’m a princess’ little shirt, handing it to the younger.

“We’re fine now, he left me the house and told me to lay low” Krystal said, satisfied with the amount of clothes they had.

“Excellent, I can have the papers by tomorrow then” Wendy cheered.

“Thank you so much, Wendy” Soojung said, hugging the psychologist.

“It’s nothing Soojung, we’re friends after all” She replied, hugging her back. They checked out and returned home. Hwa-Young fell asleep as soon as they left the mall and Krystal watched her on the rearview.

“She fell asleep?” Wendy asked Soojung who was too busy contemplating the small human faintly snoring on the back seat.

“Yeah, she must be exhausted, I don’t think she got any good sleep since she lived on the streets” The younger sighed.

“She’s my patient now, so it would be really helpful if you can tell me anything about the situation she was found in” The psychologist said, looking through the car’s window.

“Her mother did steal for food, when we approached them in the alley I noticed that the man they were fighting was a owner of a small convenience store down the street, Amber doesn’t understand Korean very much, so she didn’t know that the woman actually told us to stay away… she knew that she was doing wrong, but at the same time I saw in her eyes how she was struggling to feed her child, she didn’t want us to be involved but I just couldn’t leave Hwa-Young and her mother starve to death” Krystal explained, eyes glued on the road and then on Hwa-Young.

“She had it rough… you know, I’m talking about the cigarette burns” Wendy tried to push a little further.

“I don’t want to engage, Wendy” Soojung coldly said.

“Oh, and she knows it” The older said, turning to look at Krystal. “She tries to figure you out, yet she can’t. Hwa-Young can feel the barrier you’ve put between them and that’s why she doesn’t talk to you” She finished.

“Does she hate me?” The ice-looking girl asked, her voice breaking a little, eyeing the toddler.

“No, of course not. She just felt more connected to Amber because of her playful nature… Are you really adopting her, Soojung?” Wendy asked, raising a brow.

“It’s up to Amber”

“It really isn’t. I think at this point it’s up to you” The psychologist clarified. Because she did therapy with a lot of kids, Wendy knew that the process of grief for Hwa-Young was relatively easier than Soojung’s acceptance of motherhood, she sensed that Krystal wanted to be a good parent figure to little Hwa-Young, but she is scared of messing up and end up being hated by the toddler. Parenting isn’t easy and both Amber and Soojung needed to understand that raising a child is the most complex job in the world but when the job is done, the amount of satisfaction is almost equivalent to the effort they put in.

When they arrived to the mansion, the food was already done and Luna and Amber were waiting for the girls to come back. As soon as they heard the Challenger parking in the garage, Amber walked to the car and helped Soojung with the bags as the younger carried a still sleeping Hwa-Young.

“We should let her sleep” The tomboy said as she accommodated the shopping bags on the living room floor.

“She’s just eaten a sandwich, Am” Krystal said, laying the toddler down on the couch. “We need to wake her up and give her some more food” She added.

“Yeah, good luck with that. She’s going to be mad if you wake her up” Amber scoffed.

“That’s why you are waking her up” Soojung back fired. “Let’s see if she really likes you” She grinned.

“Yeah, well, watch and learn” The older said, cracking her fingers and approaching slowly to the snoring toddler. She looked at Hwa-Young and then back at Krystal who mouthed ‘well go ahead ’, she turned back to the little girl and gulped as she reached her gently. “Hwa-Youngie… let’s wake up sweetie” She said, sitting slowly on the couch. “Let’s eat…”

Upon Amber’s gentle wake up call, Hwa-Young slowly opened her eyes and rubbed them as she tried to reincorporate herself, she looked around and noticed she was already in the house. “Hey little princess” Amber greeted the toddler but she was beyond pissed. Hwa-Young completely ignored the tomboy and lazily dragged herself off of the couch, waddling her way to the kitchen, still half asleep.

“Watch and learn” Soojung mocked, imitating Amber’s voice tone as she laughed.

“Oh she’s still dozy, that’s it” The older tried to convince herself but deep inside she knew Hwa-Young was mad at her for waking her up.

“Tell that to yourself if it makes you feel any better” Krystal snorted.

“You still love me, don’t you?” Amber questioned the toddler as she lifted her in the air.

“I don’t like it!!” Hwa-Young yelled as the tomboy placed her on a chair, making everyone in the room laugh at the short-haired girl.

“Leave her alone, Amber. You’re not cool anymore” Luna said, setting up the plates.

“Yeah, not cool” The little girl said, stuffing with steak.

“Hey don’t turn her against me!”