Chapter 1: Responsibility

The Stray Cat
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"Miss Lee, here are the remaining papers to be reviewed and signed."

A small girl wearing a formal office attire handed a thick folder towards a pudding-haired woman who was busy fiddling with her laptop, eyes deeply focused on her work.

"Thanks, Nako."

Taking a break from her work, the woman gave her a sweet smile before stretching her tired body; eyes closed, joints cracking, her black hair with silver ends dancing in every move she made.

The girl laughed at her boss and smiled, "Miss Lee, you should just go home for now. It's already eight in the evening."

"Nako, you should stop calling me Miss Lee. It's making me age faster plus you already clocked out so you're not working anymore. No need for formalities." The woman pouted at her secretary, Yabuki Nako, who was also her friend since high school.

"Fine, Chaeyeon-unnie. You should go home soon."

"I still have to fini—"

"Unnie, just go. If you don't, I'll stay here with you."

"Hey, you're not going to be paid for overtime work already. Just go home. It's been three hours."

"You do realize that you've been camping in this office since a week ago, right? I know you're sad so you're drowning yourself with work and you have your things inside your private room here but going home is another thing. Please rest. I won't leave until you do."

"But don't you have a date with your girlfriend?"

Nako groaned in frustration. "That's why I'm telling you to go home so I can go to her already!"

"What's her name again? Honda..."

The shorter girl hissed. "Hitomi. Honda Hitomi. So hurry up, the clock is ticking. If we break up, I'm going to kill myself and haunt you forever."

"I don't want to be haunted by you, of all people." Chaeyeon chuckled and closed her laptop, immediately stuffing it inside her bag.

"Good. Let's go!"

She laughed at the excited Nako. "What time is your dinner with Hitomi?"

"Thirty minutes from now."

"You're safe then. Well, good luck! Have fun!" Tapping her secretary's shoulder, she proceeded to walk towards the stairs.

"Why are you using the stairs? It's the 20th floor..."

"I want to exercise."

"Just go for a walk outside instead of killing your poor feet with the stairs. You can breathe some fresh air when you walk across the Mapo Bridge on your way, not some stuffy humid air inside the stairway. You can leave your car here, after all."

The taller girl hummed while pondering. "Okay. My home's not that far anyways."

Getting inside the elevator, Chaeyeon remembered the phone she picked up a few days ago that she left inside her bag.

"What are you doing?" Nako shot her a curious look while looking at her who was digging through her bag.

"Looking for a certain phone. I hope it's still al— ah! I got you."

The tall girl clicked the power button of the phone, hoping it's charged properly before it was left behind and she was glad that it really is charged. Though there was only half of it left. She swiped the phone to unlock it, no passcode needed it seems but Chaeyeon was startled when the phone started to vibrate endlessly, receiving calls and messages it missed after being revived again.

"Holy crap. That's a ton of notifications."

Chaeyeon gave a forced laugh, scratching her nape.

The moment the elevator dinged, Nako scurried away and shouted, "Ah, I'll be going now. Take care!" 

She gave her a smile and waved her hands before looking back at the phone while walking out of the building. There were a hundred missed calls as well as messages for the owner but Chaeyeon only smiled sadly.

You are so loved.

All of a sudden, the phone vibrated for the last time, indicating the last message it received from an unknown number which was a few hours prior.

[Come to the Mapo Bridge at 8:00 pm. If not, I will jump down with our baby.]

Chaeyeon froze, feeling extremely alarmed at its content so despite knowing that she isn't the owner of the phone, she sprinted towards the said place as fast as she can, bumping on some people she ended up running at in panic. A few minutes of running, she arrived at the said location, there were little to no people passing by, only the roaring of cars at the side. She placed her hands on her knees, gasping for air as she pushed herself to the limit just to get there as soon as possible.

From afar, she could see a woman with long black hair, holding her stomach with a small bump while her other hand was holding her phone. She decided to carefully approach her after assuming that she was the person who sent the message.

Stopping in front of her, the pregnant girl looked at her, dead eyes wet with tears, her lips chapped, hair so messy. Chaeyeon's heart broke when she saw the expression of the person in front of her. She could tell how breathtakingly beautiful this girl is based on her features alone but right now, her face was screaming her feeling of helplessness.

The two of them stared at each other in silence when Chaeyeon mustered her courage to talk to the girl.

"...are you the one who said

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Morishi
I will be inactive indefinitely. This means I will halt all of my works including my twt AU until I finally find the time and inspiration to go back to writing. Everything just changed after IZ*ONE disbanded. Sorry and thank you.

Comments

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LuvChae #1
Chapter 21: This not update from Aug 13 and now is Nov 3, I want to read but afraid it's won't finish so I just subcribe first
KaidenBach
#2
Chapter 21: Hiii. We understand author-nim. See you next update 💙
sclocksmith #3
Chapter 21: It's okay, author-nim. Take your time
sclocksmith #4
Chapter 20: I need to reread this 😶
robogirl98
1714 streak #5
Chapter 21: that's ok authornim! thank you for informing us and sharing this story with us!! i let forward to the upcoming updates!
Noob1e
#6
Chapter 21: Immma need to reread this because i forgot everything already 😂
xenlicayan #7
Chapter 20: authornim! Thank you for this update! And Yes we'll continue to support the girls no matter what! GO GO GO!
xenlicayan #8
Chapter 6: Too much fluffiness I might die but I'm okay with that 😌
Noob1e
#9
Chapter 20: This update definitely made me happy. Thank you
maomao88 #10
Chapter 20: What will chaeyeon do? Omg, so exciting