The boy hopped off the bus, running down the street and turning onto the lawn of the house that was his destination. Leaping up the stairs, he lifted his fist to knock on the door, but realized that it was wide open.

Lifting an eyebrow, he carefully stepped inside and looked around. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he let out a shout.

“NOONA!!”

“I’m in the back!”

After trying to decipher where “the back” was, he eventually decided to follow the music that was blaring, Through the kitchen he found another open door, which opened to a hallways with another open door at the end of it. He traveled down it, the sound of music being mixed with various animal noises, as well as the muffled voice of Lucca.

Finally stepping back into the light, he was met with a room filled with different types of animals, all screeching and howling upon his entrance.

“Wow, I’ve never been back here before.” He said, admiring a lizard that was placed by the door. “What is this place?”

Lucca turned around to face him, “Just my home lab .”

“WOAH!” Hyuk screamed, jumping back into the hallway.

“What?”

“Your eyes are huge!”

“What?” Lucca asked, but then she remembered the thick rimmed glasses that covered over half of her face. “Oh, these things? Yeah, they’re my old pair. The ones I had broke at work yesterday while I was bathing one of our client’s dog.” She explained. “I’ll be in to get another pair tomorrow.”

“Okay….”

“But come in, come in, make yourself at home. The dog doesn’t like to share her bed, but I have  a chair over here that I can take the rat off of.” She explained. “Oh, and be careful of the parrot.”

“What pa- OW!” Hyuk smacked his hand to his ear just as a distorted snickering could be heard above him.

“She likes to bite.”

“I can tell. Do you have a bandaid?”

“Yeah. Desk, top drawer.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Hyuk moved over to the desk and grabbed a band aid out of the drawer before turning to Lucca.

“So what have you been up to today?”

“Oh nothing really. This is my first day off in two weeks, so I figured I’d take this time to take care of the animals I have at home.”

Hyuk blinked at her. “Your first day off in two weeks?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Aren’t you tired?”

“Not at all, why?”

“Well I mean-”

He was cut off by the sound of an alarm the echoes through the room three times, making the animals go crazy.

“Oh - lunch time!” Lucca sang, running over to the corner of the room where a large work table was sitting. There were large organizers sitting on top with tiny drawers, and large bags of food sitting underneath the table. “Hyuk, would you be a dear and come help me distribute this food out to the animals? I have to count out their medicine tablets.”

“Uh, sure.”

Hyuk moved over and held out his arms. Lucca picked up a large bag of food from underneath the table and dropped it into his arms, the bag nearly making his knees buckle from the weight.

“You do this everyday?”

“Well, no, not everyday. Some days I have to do surgery.”

“Uh huh….”

“Now just hold that while I go get the bowls for you.”

“Gotcha….”

Hyuk stood in his spot, struggling under the weight of the bag as Lucca gathered up the bowls for the animals.

“Alright, now fill these bowls only halfway, since it’s only lunch time.”

“Araseo.”

Hyuk began filling the bowls with deep concentration as Lucca resumed with the medication. Hyuk watched as she approached the stand over nearly 100 little drawers filled with many different types of medication, taking pellets out of drawers at what seemed like random and placing them all into little cups in front of her.

“Don’t you think you’re overworking yourself?” Hyuk asked.

“Me? No.” She looked back at him, noticing his struggle with the bag. “Now you? Maybe.” She swiped up a couple of the bowls that he had filled and brought them over to the respective animals, dropping the pills in the food bowls.

“You just seem really happy for someone who is treating animals.”

“I love my job, what can I say? That food doesn’t go into those bowls.”

“Oh, sorry….”

“It’s fine. Go pick up that bag over there and fill them with that.”

Turning away so she could distribute some of the food, she was careful as she set the bowl out for the parrot, narrowing her eyes on the bird as she watched to make sure she didn’t get bit. Setting out the food for the other birds that were in the room, she went back to get some of the other bowls from where Hyuk was filling them. “Thank you, by the way.” She smiled at him before turning to deliver the food and medicine to some of the bigger animals around the room.

Coming around to check on the animals and see if they were eating everything, she stopped with a frown when she saw the parrot was eating everything but her medicine. “Eat your medicine too, otherwise we’ll go back to the other one.” Frowning, she crossed her arms, watching the bird for a moment longer before receiving a loud cackle as she ate around the medicine again.

Raising her eyebrow, Lucca stared at the bird almost in disbelief, shaking her head slightly. “You are hateful.” The bird started laughing like a mad scientist before slowly making its way away from the food bowl. “It’s not even that bad!” Lucca pointed to the little pill that was still laying in with a bit of leftover food.

“Go lay down.” The bird called out loudly, making Lucca scoff, rolling her eyes.

“You go lay down, Petrie.”

Hyuk could only stare at Lucca as she argued with the parrot, blinking slightly as he set the bag of food down on the ground. “Are you okay…?”

Lucca looked over at him, her eyebrows raising. “Huh? Oh, I’m fine. This is normal.” She shrugged a little before glancing back at the bird. “She’s an African Grey, they’re supposedly the smartest birds in the world, and have a sense of humor.” Shrugging slightly, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at Hyuk, reaching up and turning his head slightly to see the blood that was trailing down his ear and had gotten into his hair. “Why didn’t you put a bandaid on?”

Looking at Lucca, Hyuk reached up and gently touched his ear, wincing slightly from the pain that was still lingering. When he pulled his fingers away though, he saw the blood and gasped slightly. “I didn’t realize she got me that good…..”

Lucca frowned slightly as she reached out and grabbed a soft towel, reaching up and wiping the blood away and out of his hair. “She could have given you a new piercing if you really wanted.” She joked, laughing slightly as she finished cleaning up the little wound. “Her beak really needs to be filed, I just haven’t gotten around to it, mianhae….” Tossing the towel aside, she took the band-aid from Hyuk and placed it over the wound. “There~!”

Blinking, Hyuk reached up and lightly touched his ear, feeling the bandage in place of the little mark the bird had left. Lucca smiled at him before turning to go back to work, gathering up some more bowls to pass them out. He could feel a light blush covering his face as he realized what just happened, looking away before she could see it. “So, uh, do any of these others need anything else?” He asked, stuttering a little bit and cursing himself for getting so flustered.

“There’s another bag under the table, use it to fill the rest of the rest of the bowls. I’m going to go get the snake’s food really fast.”

Hyuk stared after her as she moved through the doorway and down the hallway. He was worried about her. He thought about calling her back and getting the truth out of her - how she was really doing, with the whole JaeHwan and Raelyn thing. But since she had put so much more effort into avoiding the subject, he decided just to let it go and carried on with what was asked of him.