‘Your Mocha Frappe?’ The female Barista waves at Janet. ‘Hello? You there?’

‘Yes? Yes! That’s my drink.’ Janet snaps out of her own little world about the drawing, ‘Thank you!’

‘You’re new here, right?’ The female barista prompts ‘I’m Crystal; wanna join us for a little girly chat?’

‘Sure’ Janet doesn’t reject her offer, since she knows no one here, she needed answers. Janet picks up her Mocha Frappe and joins the group of girls at the round glass table beside the coffee machine. The girls slide their chairs to make an opening for Janet to join them while Crystal shifts a chair over for Janet to sit.

‘Welcome to Secret Garden! This is the ladies corner where we spill the beans about dirty trick, gossips, and darkest secrets. We talk about anything; in fact we talk about everything.’ Crystal introduced, ‘If you may excuse me, I’ve to get a few orders sorted out before I can join you ladies. Have fun!’

Janet adjusted her uncomfortably, smiling awkwardly. She doesn’t know how to start a conversation, especially with this much questions in her head, she taps on her tall glass waiting for someone to initiate a chat.

‘Is that tall boy there yours?’ One of the girls asked, ‘By the way, my name’s Cher. That extremely handsome looking man drinking Iced Americano’, she pointed at the guy in white shirt and sharp facial features. ‘He’s mine. He’s called Chanchan.’ Cher reaches her right hand out for a friendly handshake; Janet quickly reached out, almost knocking her Mocha Frappe off.

Thank god someone talked.

‘Yeah, he’s mine. He’s called Junhong.’

‘That’s just so plain.’ Another girl scoffed ‘You guys haven’t done anything intimate yet?’ the other two girls at the table giggled. ‘I’m Roffy. That guy over there, in denim shirt, brown vans and shades, he’s mine. I named him ‘Bang’.’ Roffy seems intimidating; she speaks her mind & just like her man, she’s cool and full of swag.

‘Hi, I’m Yssa. The purple haired boy there; He’s my Moon.’ She was soft spoken, and quiet compared to the other two.

‘So, let’s share something with one another to know each other better. So Janet, why did you choose Junhong?’ Cher takes a sip of her coffee, waiting for Janet’s reply. ‘Well, I wanted a live in maid and there was a promotion going on, so I bought him out of impulse.’ Janet quickly took a big gulp of her Mocha Frappe, embarrassed by her own honesty.

‘You have uniform ?’ Roffy joked, trying to lighten up the atmosphere, causing Janet’s face to flushed red. ‘No No No No No…’ Janet tries to clears up any misunderstanding, making the girls laugh.

‘I got ‘Bang’ as a toy. I figured out I probably wouldn’t find a man that would try all positions in the Karmasutra with me and as a woman I had desires that needed to be satisfied, positions to be experimented and in the end, Bang was the one made for me, he’s the one.’ Roffy said without shame, ‘Honesty’s the best policy, my dear. I’m glad that you’re honest with your answer.’

‘I was lazy to go to the Gym to lose weight, so I got Moon to be my personal trainer.’ Yssa said.

‘I was heartbroken and lonely after since my ex boyfriend Woohyun left me for another woman, I was left to live all alone in the apartment we used to live in, but I found out about Chanchan on the website. So Chanchan is actually my emotional substitute but eventually, I’ve grown to love him more & more. So I hope Chanchan and I will live happily ever after.’ Cher shares her reasons too.

‘So… Do you guys have intimate relationships with your men?’ Janet asks carefully, afraid to offend any of the girls. ‘I mean… is it possible to have an intimate relationship? She sips her drink quickly again, hoping someone would answer her question.

‘Of course! Did you not read the slogan of TS Electronics? 'The World's No.1 Selling Human Robots that does anything you can think about, you name it, you’ve got it' Cher said exaggeratingly; trying to sound like a commercial ad announcer. ‘We make sweet love all the time, okay?’

‘You mean you don’t know?’ Yssa asked out of curiousity. Janet shakes her head. ‘You feel like a e if you do it with Junhong?’ Janet nods. ‘Silly girl, they have no age labels. I used to think like you but damn, Moon just has to ruin me when we were doing Yoga and Pilates sessions and I throw those thoughts away. You just have to follow your heart. They were built for all purposes.’

‘They are built with the ‘D’’ Roffy said, placing her hands together at the table leaning forward to whisper into Janet’s ears ‘You’ll be surprised at the size of the D they have hidden under those cutesy bunny boxers.’ Roffy was all smiles when her eyes moved to check out her man at the back. Janet couldn’t help but blush from all these open conversations with the girls, not denying the fact that there were times, she wanted more from Junhong, more than kisses. She hasn’t had any intimate skinship for years after since Sunggyu, there was no more intimacy with anyone, not even with herself.

‘Hey~ Hold up ladies! I was eavesdropping and I just want to say this. There’s always a fine line between Love & Lust. Nothing’s impossible; we were created by God to love. Just like Adam & Eve, Lust is a forbidden fruit, the Apple and Temptation is the serpent. Learn to love; make love not lust, okay?’ Crystal smiles and turns on the steam to make more coffees.

‘Once you have a taste of the forbidden fruit, there’s no turning back.’ Roffy warns ‘Remember, Honesty is the best policy.’

‘You have to honest with your feelings about your men, for when there’s love, there’s light, there will always be a way.’ Yssa added.

‘Be careful of the serpent’ Cher whispers, ‘He lurks in the dark.’

Janet seems to be confused by this whole twisted Adam & Eve story: ‘You mean Youngjae?’

‘You’ve seen him?’ Crystal pops her head out from the side of the coffee machine. Janet nods.

‘That’s no good.’ Yssa shakes her head.

‘You better watch over Junhong. This is a bad omen.’ Roffy said affirmatively and stern.

‘Youngjae is…’

‘Jagi-yah~’ Chanchan pinches Cher’s cheeks ‘Shall we go home now, hmmm?’ He’s voice full of aegyo, pleading Cher to leave but his eyes speak differently. They were dead set on Janet; his low coarse voice hissed in Janet’s head

‘Leave Cher Out of This.’

Goosebumps were starting to bum.

What’s going on?

Janet doesn’t understand a thing.

One by one the ladies left with their partners, ‘we’ll be here, Monday, Tuesday, Everyday. Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall. Secret Garden never dies.’  Yssa says before leaving together with Moon.

‘We have a Tumblr & Twitter account; you can find us there anytime you need us.’ Roffy scribbles their urls and user ids onto the napkin and hands them over to Janet.

Just when Janet thought that she has had all the answers she needs, her ultimate question that needs to be answered now is ‘What’s going to happen to Junhong?’ Janet’s afraid of losing Junhong; she needs to know what she can do to protect Junhong.

‘Let me tell you something that you already know, Janet’ Bang’s voice was deep and commanding ‘Junhong’s different from us; he has something that we don’t possess. There are rules & regulations in every world; similarly, there are also loopholes in every system. The upper ones are watching him.’ Bang put his arms around Roffy and leaves without turning back.

The entire Secret Garden seems to be empty, it was supposed to be lusciously green, but it’s all dark casted and gloomy. Janet turns around to see Junhong expressionless; leaning against the brick walls towards the alley, waiting for Janet to make her first move.

Janet doesn’t know if she wants to leave Secret Garden.

Didn’t Youngjae say, ‘In Secret Garden, Time is Infinite?’

Can Youngjae’s words be trusted?

Janet just wants time to stop right here, right now. Where she can forever be with Junhong, where Junhong is Human. Where they can live in this alternative universe, runaway from reality.

A very happy belated birthday to Roffy.

Shoutout to Cher, Crystal, Janet, Roffy & Yssa for making my twitter tlist always so full of life, happiness & laughter.

I hope none of you are offended by the way i portrayed you & your biases.

Sorry for my delayed update.

Enjoy :)