You take your final step up the stairs, finally reaching the floor of the guys’ apartment. As you slowly approach their place, trailing behind Tiffany, you can’t help but glance over to the door which once leads to the inside of Baekhyun’s apartment.

“Hey,” Tiffany throws her arm gently over your shoulder, looking at your worryingly. “You okay?”

You look over to her, fake a smile and nod. “Let’s go in, the boys must be starving,” you say, taking in a deep breath before sliding the master key in and turning the doorknob.

“Hyemi!” you hear a bunch of guys shouting out your name as soon as the door swings open and you step in. This time, you really smile. How can you not when all of them seem so happy to see you again. Luhan and Suho remain at the couch when the others run up to you.

“We’re hungry!” Kyungsoo pouts.

“I tried to cook,” Kris admits. Which kind of surprise you.

“Kris tried to kill us!” Kai cries and Sehun nods as he stands closely behind Kai, his chin resting on Kai’s shoulder as support.

Chanyeol steps forward. “I saved everyone!” Kris rolls his eyes when all three younger ones nod in agreement to Chanyeol’s statement. “I took the deadly weapon out of his hand!”

“We can’t reach it!” Sehun complains. “But Chanyeol can!”

You just continue smiling as everyone takes turn to say something, not wanting to interrupt. Kris clears his throat, you know clearly that he can’t stand the kids and all their nonsense anymore. Though, you must admit, you find them hard to resist. You just wish you could keep them with you forever. Fine, so they are quite old for their age to still fight and complain like small children but you think it’s not wrong. What’s really against the law is them being too adorable.

“It’s a spatula?” Kris says, turning from them to you. “I was holding a spatula.”

You gently, and dramatically, slap your hands onto your cheeks. “No, not the spatula!” you exclaim and the three kids, along with Chanyeol, laugh along.

Kris grunts and you link your arm with his. “Come on, big baby,” you chuckle, pulling him towards the kitchen. “Show me which spatula you were planning to use to slaughter them.”

After spending almost half an hour in the kitchen, you and Kris walk out with lunch of the day. In fact, you guys didn’t even have to walk all the way to dining table, the others just run up to you two and take everything away. You and Kris both look at each other, letting a small laugh after that. Kris then walks over to his seat and join the guys for lunch while you take a quick stroll to the living room, Tiffany isn’t anywhere in sight.

You proceed to the front door, swinging it open and stick your head out, scanning the empty hallway. Where can she be? You ask yourself and shut the door behind you after you step back into the apartment. You quickly walk passes the dining table and head towards the guys’ room, wanting to clean their room but knowing Suho will still insist that you don’t. You plan to start off with Kris and Chanyeol’s, which is at the very end, but your footsteps come to a halt when you notice a shadow in the first room.

You silently push the door open and you see Tiffany going through a photo album at Luhan’s table. Luhan is the only one with a study table in here. The room isn’t small, they could fit another study table or two, it’s just that Luhan is the only one who bothers to study after class. He’s the only one who bothers to bring his books back instead of keeping them in the college locker. You step in and close the door quietly, not wanting the guys to know the two of you are in here. “Tiffany!” you whisper. “Yah, what are you doing?”

She turns around holding the photo album up, smiling. “Isn’t he adorable?”

You take a few steps closer and squint at the page she’s showing you. “Who is that?” you ask, staring at four different pictures of the same little boy.

“Sehun!” she announces, holding the photo album back to her lap, flipping a page over. “How can you not recognize him?”

You eye her weirdly and take a seat on Luhan and Sehun’s bed. “How can you recognize him?”

She shrugs, flipping another page over. “Isn’t it kind of obvious? His cheeks are always pink.”

“Luhan’s cheeks are also pink most of the time.”

“The little boy’s hair is dark brown. Luhan’s blonde.”

“Luhan dyed his hair blonde,” you say and grab the photo album over and Tiffany glares at you. “What are you doing in their room?” you question and hold the photo album up. “Most importantly, why are you going through Sehun’s picture?”

Just before you get to know of Tiffany’s reply, someone swings the door open and steps in. The both of you look up and see Kai standing at the door, yawning. You quickly shove the photo album back to Tiffany and gesture her to keep it back but she shakes her head, pouting. You look over to Kai who still has his eyes shut. He must be sleepy again, you think to yourself. Standing up, you quickly grab the album away from Tiffany and simply shove it back into the empty slot of the shelf. Pulling onto her wrist, you pull her towards the door and push her out of the room.

“Sorry,” you whisper against Kai’s ear and he nods, rubbing his right eye. “Go sleep,” you say and he slowly walks to his bed.

That evening, you find yourself wandering in the neighborhood. You’re not anywhere near the park. Instead, you’re standing right in front of the shop you once call your second home. 10 years back to be exact.

You raise your head up, staring at the signboard, the paint of the words is fainted to the point that no one can actually make up the name of the shop. But you can. You step closer and brush your hand down the slight pink wall. It used to be brighter, more welcoming and less dusty. You quickly wipe the dusty window and peek in, you try to recall how it used to look like despite how messed up it looks right now.

You asked Tiffany about this abandoned area. She didn’t comment much about it but just told you that there weren’t many interested buyers or developers. Everyone focused their investment in the big city, no one would care that much about this rather hidden neighborhood.

Now, you remember why mum decided to get a small shop here to open her very own bakery. She chose this shop because it’s situated quite far from where she needed to get away, your stepmother, but near enough for you to drop by to visit all the time. Owning a bakery was a lifetime dream of hers. Before that, she put the dream aside just to lend a hand to her husband. Her ex-husband.

Without hesitation, you push the handle of the old door down and push the door in. The pungent smell rushes in your nose and the dusty surrounding burns your eyes. This place has been abandoned for so long, you’re not surprised even if the pungent smell comes from the decaying bodies of rats. It isn’t a good place to be in but you continue stepping into the shop anyways.

You look to your right, remembering how you used to help your mum to arrange the tarts on the racks that were once positioned there. Then you look to your left, the playhouse used to be here and you would be playing tea party with the daughters of your mums’ customers. You chuckle, recalling the little boy who you have forced to join in and play along almost every evening when his mum dropped by to have a chat with your mum. He was the odd one out in the group of little girls playing dress ups but he tagged along anyways because you won’t sto