Chapter 6:

Irene slowly nodded at the older woman as she went on about an accident she saw that very morning on the way to the office building Irene worked in. Irene kept her smile as unstrained as possible so she wouldn’t offend the old lady. After all, she was a regular and Irene saw her every month to pick up her welfare check.

“…and so, my grandson had to take a longer route so I wouldn’t be so late to see you dear.”

Irene smiled demurely with a slight bow of her head. “I understand, ma’am.” Irene then slid the envelope over to the aging woman. “If you’ll sign here,” she held out a clipboard with a form. “Then you won’t have to keep your grandson waiting for too long.”

The lady laughed as she signed her name and brought out her seal. Usually such a formality, the use of a seal, was optional but it was also still encouraged regardless of how well Irene and the lady were well acquainted with each other. “My grandson doesn’t mind waiting.” The lady reassured Joohyun unnecessarily. “He always has to wait after his mother and so he shouldn’t mind if we chat a little.”

Irene nodded. “I see.” Her days on her job largely consisted in distributing welfare checks as well as checking up on its recipients to make sure they were legally using their checks on appropriate avenues. She enjoyed her job simply because she could understand the hardship each family or person went through a bit better than others and it did more than warm her soul to know she had a hand in helping them. So it was with a kind heart does Joohyun help the lady up and her to the elevator. She bows deeply as the older woman waves off her formalities just as the elevator door closes.

Today is check day and she is rounding off her day with such a duty but she was already looking forward to dinner. It was a bit disappointing that Irene had to come into work today, a Sunday, but a lot of these people really relied on these checks. This only meant that Joohyun got a bit of a bonus on such days when she came in on the weekend for work which was perfectly fine with her.

After returning to her desk, she went through the listing of those she usually expects on days such as these and pushed a button to flash the number of the next available customer. The tired looking woman that sat across Joohyun was also a regular and Joohyun knew that the woman would need to return back to her job and got right to signing out the check to the woman so she wouldn’t take up too much of her time. With a grateful smile, the woman left and Joohyun helped the next person until she had completed her full day’s task and list.

When she was done and the last customer was in the elevator, Irene leaned back in her chair to take a breather before she started packing up. It was already well into the evening and she needed to go back to her apartment and assess the damage the two troublemakers had dealt in her absence.

Chapter 7:

Wendy happily zipped up her guitar case. She was feeling much better right now and she and Seulgi were meant to leave in a short while but she was feeling so invigorated right now. She wanted to go for a happy stroll but knowing her roommate, she was most likely in a similar mood because otherwise it was a dangerous time if sunny Seulgi was not in a good mood.

When she set her guitar in its proper place by her desk, she looked up and saw Seulgi leaning against her doorframe. “Ready?”

Wendy nodded. “Let’s go.” She only needed to snatch up her jacket on her way out, knowing her wallet was in its pocket. Her phone should also be in the other pocket and Wendy was so sure of it that she did not think to check until much later until it was too late.

“I’ve got it,” she reassured Seulgi as they moved up in line at the café they were getting a pick me up drink. It was a rather warm day today and the thought to wear her jacket had not crossed her mind and so she dug into the jacket’s pockets strewn across her arms clutched to her stomach.

Seulgi had only nodded as she eyed the interior of the store and thought nothing of Wendy’s offering to buy the drinks. That is, until Wendy’s frantic searching brought her attention back to her friend.

It took less than five seconds for her roommate’s dilemma to become obvious. Seulgi blinked. “Really Seungkwan?”

“Wait,” Wendy held up a finger. “I know it’s in here.” The calm tone in her voice was sounding very forced.

Seulgi was already digging in her bag for her own wallet. “I’ll look for my wallet too.”

It was only at the front of the queue to order did the two realize they needed to go back to their dorm to get both of their wallets.

Chapter 8:

Yeri laughed at the picture of Joy again. She didn’t know what it was about the other girl but she could be the one to aggravate Yerim the most but also be the one Yerim felt she could share whatever thought that crossed her mind to and be understood.

Joy, on the other side of the table, moodily took a bite of the patbingsoo they were sharing. “I didn’t know the dog had just finished its business in the grass but you should have seen it Yeri. Its eyes were actually a golden color.”

Yeri took a deep breath in to compose herself to at least respond. “And? Hopefully you didn’t freak out both the dog and its owner when you smelled so bad.”

Joy gave her a fresh glare. “No, but I really wanted to take a picture of its eyes.”

That sobered Yeri up a bit. “You didn’t, right?”

Joy changed her glare to one of disbelief. “You don’t trust me?”

Yeri shrugged nonchalantly. “You are the crazy dog woman, not me.”

Under the table, Yeri felt Joy’s foot threateningly close to her flawless white sneakers. Yeri gasped, “You wouldn’t,” just as she felt the slightest of pressures on top of her shoe. “Sooyoung!”

Not too far from their table, a guy in all black looked over his shoulder at the commotion before resuming his scrolling on his phone. He scoffed, “Girls.”

He brought up his messenger app to see the updates on his phone in the group chat.

‘Yeontan has been found!’

‘Where was he?’

‘Is he okay?’

‘He was by the playground. Some kid probably snatched him and took him there.’

‘Is Taehyung done crying?’

‘Nope.’

‘YES!’

‘…hey…’

Yoongi scoffed before closing the app