Taemin POV

-- The day before --

If I were to get one Won for every cat hair I picked up by hand, I would have exactly as much money as the man offered me on the phone. I would have no more worries. I could go to my dream school and finally do what I was born to do.

But that's not how life works. A cat hair is not worth a Won, well unless I sell it on the premise (which in this case is true) that it is Jiwoo's daughter's cat hair.

So far, only I know about this offer. I haven't told anyone, not yet. And I only plan to tell one person about it. I just don't know when the timing would be right.

Jiwoo is lying by her pool, sunbathing, as she usually does. I've already done my task for today. I had to write a card to all her fellow co-stars who are turning thirty this year, saying: "My condolences for the beginning of your expiration process."

"Jiwoo, excuse me, but can I talk to you for a minute?" I ask as quietly as I can. I know she absolutely cannot stand noise when she is sunbathing. It could scare the sun away, and we don't want to frighten the dear sun.

"Is Mercury in retrograde right now?" she asks, but in a normal tone of voice, without facing me.

"Um...I don't know." I whisper anyway with narrowed eyes, hoping the answer was okay.

"Hey, Aeg! Is Mercury in retrograde right now?" I look around puzzled. Perplexed, my eyes ask why she gets to chase the sun away and the others don't.

Anyway, I now know Broad's real name. I'll just take that as progress. But now I'm even more interested in Broader's.

"Not right now." Broad...I mean Aeg shouts back. Maybe talking louder around her has to be earned.

"Then we can talk. Fire away." She says to me and is suddenly good spirits personified.

"Well...Jiwoo, would it be possible for us to talk alone." My face pardons itself into a grimace of uncertainty. She looks around. Broad and Broader are standing at the large glass doors leading to her villa. The gardener is t the bushes with nail clippers. Her stylists are ready for action, waiting for them to touch up her make-up or hair.

"I love mysteries." She says with a saucy smile and jumps up from the deck chair.

"Let me enter first." She says as we stand outside her office door.

"Come in in exactly 47 seconds." She orders me.

She closes the door behind her and I start counting.

1, I know I'm doing the right thing.

2, But Jiwoo is so crazy she might as well quit me for even talking to someone from the magazine, even if I didn't tell him anything.

3, How many seconds have passed?

4, Will she terminate me if it takes me 48 seconds to enter?

I take a deep breath and exhale as I turn the doorknob.

As I enter her office, I don't see her immediately. But then her office chair slowly spins around from the huge window view to face me. She is wearing a white fur coat that Broader would easily fit into and laughs demonically. Her hair is styled severely back. She is still wearing her narrow black sunglasses. Kkoong is in her arms and she her white-grey fur. With her red lips, she smiles an indefinable grin at me.

"Please sit down." Her words are slow and take their time. I feel as if I have entered the lion's den.

I wouldn't be surprised if she has a button under her table that triggers a hole below me and a river full of hungry crocodiles awaits me below.

Only slowly do I sit down. I check that the chair is anchored to the floor. I breathe a sigh of relief.

"So Taemin. What's so important you want to talk about." I have to swallow at her words. I'm glad she's wearing her sunglasses. Her eyes sparkle through me even through them. Her voice sounds mysterious, as if she suspects something.

"Well...so...it's like this..." Only now do I notice how pointed her fingernails are filed. With the red nail polish over them, blood would not be immediately visible on them.

"Go ahead and tell me. Tell me what happened." Her words sound caring, but her whole demeanour exhibits aggressiveness.

Slowly, seductively, she lets the words slip from her tongue. Kkoong is snarling comfortably on her lap.

I wonder how James Bond can stay cool in these situations.

"Nothing happened per se but..." I stare at her fingers. She lifts one finger at a time, very slowly, and lets them slide in a fan over Kkong's soft fur.