“T-that was Kang Gary just now?!”

The buff man whispered surprised. I mean Gary looked quite different in the perspective of Kim Jong Kook’s eyes, but still recognizable. He leaned against the brick wall still finding it hard to believe – he was really lucky indeed! Being able to find him in such a short amount of time. He grunted lowly forgetting why he was out of the apartment room again, “Oh yeah!” He acknowledged, smiling deviously.

Remembering what happened earlier…it was the young Ji Hyo’s stray kittens that were cries. He had just escaped ‘hell’ (his room – bathroom more specifically) and needed some fresh air. Once again, he successfully sneaked out like a ninja – not getting caught in the process. That’s when he heard it. Those noises. As curious man he was, he had taken light steps towards the loud cries and noticed that it was coming from the stray kittens placed inside the cardboard box. Jong Kook remembered reading in a book something about kittens (no clue where) tend to get hungry easily: especially strayed ones. As if that wasn’t obvious enough.

Seeing them all either chew of their own tails and each other’s ears made him cringe, but nonetheless felt kind of responsible. I mean if he was shown personally by the girl herself, you know, the big secret. He would feel being part owner for that…or so he has claimed to be.

“Aigoo~ Poor kittens you must be starving! That dense girl hard headed girl really didn’t feed you at all? Aish. Irresponsible! I’ll get some food for you, okay? I’ll be back soon!” He said with a gleeful smile and went on a stroll towards town.

And this is how he came to the point of spying on the Monday Couple.

Well…not yet to-be Monday Couple.

“Let’s see here…so far I’ve met Ji Hyo…Kwangsoo, Jae Suk hyung, Suk Jin hyung, and now off to meet Gary. Who am I missing?” He pondered tapping his chin frustrated. “Ah. Well I can think about that later! Time to go get some cat food!” Like that he ran off towards a nearby convenience store with change in his pocket jangling loudly.

    <…기회 to the 지난 ...>

Whistling freely while caring the grocery bags in his hand; he couldn’t help but to gush at a scene he had seen earlier. Let’s rewind back half an hour ago to see what Jong Kook saw.

Flashback

The man headed towards the convenient store he and young Ji Hyo had gone to not too long ago and went right inside. He began to wander in the fairly empty store with a steady crease forming on his forehead, “Okay let’s see. Cat food…cat food…oh! Here it is!” He grinned checking which one would be suitable for small stray kittens; after thinking he had gotten five cans of cat food to purchase at the counter. Waiting in a queue, there were two children in front of him; one boy holding onto a single gum packet and a younger girl beside him gripping onto his shirt looking quite lost. “That’ll be $1.95,” The man at the cashier said a small smile on his face, “Here you go ahjusshi!” The little boy who was holding the gum packet replied handing the coins in his hand with difficulty over the counter. Jong Kook was about to step in, but seeing the determination on the boy’s face made him think otherwise. He stood quietly waiting for the boy to finish.

“Oh! Good job! I’m sure if you keep drinking milk you’ll grow taller and reach above the counter!”  

The man told the boy who had a small pout on his face, “I do! I drink it every day! Come on let’s go!” The boy said pulling the small girl beside him who smiled delightfully, “Thank you oppa for buying me the gum!” The boy playfully rubbed the girl’s light brown hair and nodded as they left the store. “Ah~ Youngsters are so adorable!” The cashier laughed looking at the next customer in line. “They sure are,” Jong Kook answered the man staring after the two children.

“Five cans of cat food? You must have a lot of cats, oh! And that’ll be $10.85 please!” The built figure got the change in his pocket that was dangling nosily and handing it over to the other. “Thank you! Please have a nice day!” The cashier chirped happily, waving off a hand at Jong Kook who reluctantly waved back, but he was in a rush so he had to hurry. “OPPA! I’M SCARED!” He heard a familiar voice screaming, he turned towards the sound seeing the two kids that were in the convenient store just a minute ago still hanging around the place.

The lost girl (Jong Kook assumed to be) was looking frightfully at the paved road standing above it only three centimeters away from it. I mean a little hop down and she’d be on the road, right? “O-oppa!” The little girl began to wail, tears gathering at the corner of her eyes. The boy sighed, “Here,” He said stretching out a hand for the latter to hold, “Take my hand and jump down, it’s not that high, trust me!” The girl had tightened her grip on the outstretched hand; shaking violently, “B-but oppa- I’m scared! It’s too high!” She whined with another sob choking out. From what Jong Kook could see was the older boy almost wanting to pull his hair out of frustration but kept quiet and smiled encouraging the younger girl, “Trust me Lizzy…it’s not that high. Do you trust oppa or not?” The brown long hair swayed as she looked up at the boy with astonished eyes, “Of course! I always trust Joongki oppa!” The smile on the boy’s face widened, “Then jump!”

With determination expressed on the girl’s face the trembling legs had left the ground for a mere second. A small tap was heard when her eyes were shut tight; feeling the ground beneath her feet once again made her break out into a humongous grin, “Oppa! I did it!” She giggled happily and jumped, wrapping her thin arms around the black-haired boy who blushed immensely.

“Y-yah Lizzy come on! We’re going to be late!” The boy mumbled shyly, withdrawing the girl’s arms around his neck. She chuckled in amusement seeing her oppa looking as red as a tomato. “You’re right, let’s go! Kwangsoo oppa hates it when we come late,” She cried pulling the older, literally dragging him towards the other side of the road.

“All I’m worried about is that Kwangsoo will start nagging at us for being late…”

Lizzy laughed at the boy, “He probably will. Don’t worry Joongki oppa! I’ll beat him up for saying such annoying things!” The boy named Joongki animatedly sweatdropped, “U-uh no need to Lizzy. It’s alright. After all…this is Kwangsoo we are talking about!” He laughed, the girl began to pout and retorted back stubbornly, “But I want to beat him up!” Joongki flicked the girl’s forehead which resulted in a small ‘ouch!’ before pouting deeper. He stuck his tongue, “But oppa doesn’t like it when girls beat up their own friends~” He said playfully, resulting the girl to feel guilty.

“If Joongki oppa says that…then Lizzy won’t do it anymore,” She spoke quietly grabbing onto the latter’s hand tightly. Joongki’s eyes began to soften and patted the girl’s head.

“Good girl. Now…let’s have a race to see who’ll make it to Kwangsoo’s house first!”

The boy already dashed off leaving the small girl dumbfounded, her eyes lit up in acknowledgement, smiling widely she yelled after him, “Wait for me oppa!”

Jong Kook saw both small figurines of the children run off excitedly, a smile forming on his lips.

“Ah~ Youngsters. Still so adorable, even in this time period.” He laughed to himself making his way back to his apartment not forgetting his whole reason for the trip.

Flashback Done  

 <…기회 to the 지난 ...>

Reminiscing on the earlier scenario of the two children made him realize something.

Something he was so stupid not to realize before.

“Here you go little kittens~ I hope you grow to be healthy and strong,” The muscular man spoke setting out the two cans of cat food to the small creatures. They wailed in delight and immediately chowed down on the canned-food, “Honestly. If this girl needed help she should’ve just said so.” He made a small ‘hmph!’ and frowning slightly. “But those kids…”

Jong Kook tapped his one finger on his chin – as if in a thinking position.

Then reality hit him.

His eyes widened, letting out a small audible gasp.