After the trial against Eunji, Haeun had made it her personal life mission to avoid Baekhyun at all costs. To say she was surprised when he had shown up to her trial against Eunji was an understatement, and she practically ran out of the courthouse before Baekhyun could cause more issues. She definitely wasn't in the mood to risk Wooyoung finding out that she had gotten into an argument with a detective in the middle of the courthouse, and she still considered it an absolute miracle that he hadn’t found out about the spat from the previous trial.

The next few weeks passed by with Haeun and Baekhyun making absolutely zero contact with one another, and honestly, Haeun somewhat preferred it. Every time there was even a minor chance that Baekhyun would be in Haeun's vicinity, she avoided him and the situation like the plague. Chanyeol and Eunji would invite her out to dinner or for drinks, but she would come up with excuses every time. Obviously, they caught on fairly quickly, and Chanyeol pestered her to no end about meeting up with everyone before he left on his family vacation, but she was adamant in not going. It got to a point where Chanyeol and Eunji had enlisted Jeonghan in trying to help, but he quickly gave up knowing that she wasn't going to budge. She couldn’t see Baekhyun — not yet. Instead, she had met up with Chanyeol for coffee one day, and they had talked about just random stuff like their hobbies, school life, and movies. Chanyeol was absolutely obsessed with Kai, and she let him come over the next day just to play with the cat. Kai was on the smaller side, and when he was curled up in Chanyeol’s lap, the size difference was comical. A giant like Chanyeol cooing over a small, tabby cat was something that Haeun didn’t want to forget, and she was definitely recording more than Chanyeol realized she was.

Cackling at the thought of the three minute-long videos and about twenty candid shots of her friend and her cat that she could use as blackmail as she ate her breakfast while sitting at the kitchen counter, she decided to send one to him as a present a couple of hours before he left on a long drive with his family to a resort in Daegu for the next week. 

Here’s a present for you~

She sent him the message along with a particularly unflattering video of Chanyeol cooing over Kai as he tried to get Kai to come closer to him. Haeun was watching from the kitchen, and she absolutely had to record the entire situation as she tried to muffle her laughter. Chanyeol was crouched close to the ground, and Kai was huddled in the corner by the front door. Kai was warily watching the man, and Chanyeol’s hand was outstretched in front of him with cat treats in it. Haeun had idly wondered if she should’ve given Chanyeol some catnip instead just to see how he would react to a high cat. He spent a few minutes on the ground trying to coerce the cat to come closer to him until Haeun took pity on the giant man, and she went over to pick up Kai and plop him right into Chanyeol’s arms. Once Kai had figured out that Chanyeol was safe, it took no time at all for Kai to warm up to the man.

Haeun got a response from Chanyeol almost immediately, and she laughed at the amount of exclamation points he had added to his message.

DELETE THIS NOW!!!!!

Deciding to mess with him, she responded back with a cheery Nope! and another image of Chanyeol and Kai. This time, it was a cute picture where Kai was climbing on top of Chanyeol’s shoulders as he tried to steal Chanyeol’s noodles. Or well, it was cute to Haeun. Chanyeol was too busy trying to prevent Kai from sticking his mouth right into the food and ‘potentially dying from eating human food.’

Can yOU NOT?????

I honestly thought it was not okay for a cat to eat human food.

Snorting, Haeun quickly typed out a response.

It’s not most of the time, but he wasn’t going to DIE.

Chanyeol sent an upside down smiley emoji followed by a message.

Honestly, I don’t know why I bother with you. 

Letting out a fake gasp, she replied, her fingers flying over the keyboard.

Oh please, I became friends with you out of the goodness of my heart. If anything, I don’t know why I bother with you.

Chanyeol’s reply took a bit to come this time around, and she assumed that he was packing or getting his things ready, so Haeun set her phone down on the kitchen counter and got up, cleaning away her empty bowl of rice and soup that she had for breakfast. She set about doing the dishes she had been too lazy to do the night before, and she cursed herself for not doing it then. It was the weekend, and while her ideal weekend was simply relaxing, she knew better and was well aware that she spent the weekend usually doing cleaning around the house, the laundry, and grocery runs.  Not to mention the fact that she was spending all of tomorrow at Jeonghan’s house, and she was still contemplating whether or not she needed to bring her work clothes for Monday morning in the case she ended up staying over. When she was done with the stack of dishes ten pruney fingers and fifteen minutes later, Chanyeol had replied. Leaning against the kitchen counter, she read the message.

I’m only friends with you because of your cat.

Rolling her eyes, she set about to reply, but she paused for a moment mid-sentence, biting her lip as she realized that she had gotten so close to Chanyeol so fast despite him being Baekhyun’s best friend. They had more in common than she had previously thought, and he was incredibly easygoing. They were both a bit crazy, if Haeun was being honest, and that just made them feel like kindred spirits. At first, Haeun was worried that they would have nothing to talk about especially with the entity known as Byun Baekhyun that might come between them like a big chasm that they wouldn’t be able to cross, but somehow a simple conversation about horror movies let them easily jump over the chasm. They barely spoke to one another about Baekhyun, and if they did, it was Chanyeol trying to convince Haeun to get in the same room as him. 

Wow, like I haven’t heard that one before. What if I just used my cat to bring you into my home so I can murder you? 

She also sent a knife emoji to him, and then attached a picture of Kai sleeping for the heck of it.

He responded back with a dead person emoji before sending a one-word message afterwards.

Rude.

Then a moment later, he texted again.

If I end up dying in your house, at least I’ll die with a cat in my lap and I’m okay with that.

Haeun couldn’t help herself, and she snorted before barking a laugh.

What a way to go.

He replied with a grinning emoji, and then he sent her several messages in succession. 

Okay, I gotta go

Yoora might murder me if I don’t finish packng

Also she said she’s excited to meet you

She may or may not think you have 7 cats

I called you a cat lady

Haeun stared at her phone in surprise at the onslaught of messages, and she wasn’t even sure where to begin responding. She heard Kai meowing at her from the ground a second later, and she decided to go with the latest messages, sending three separate messages.

Okay, first of all, I have ONE cat. Second of all, why didn’t you correct her????

Third, why do you always have to do something that causes Yoora to murder you?? Just be normal.

Also go finish your packing. I’ll have to deal with a sulky Baekhyun if you die, and I’m not about that lifestyle

It didn’t hit her that she’d mentioned Baekhyun until she’d already hit send, and it was too late to retract the statement. She slammed her phone down on the counter, and then flinched at how hard she’d actually set the phone down. She immediately picked it up and looked at the back of it, checking for any scratches in the case, but thankfully, there were none. Her phone buzzed in her hand, and she opene