“Yeah, yeah, I know~!” Lucca laughed as she waved her boss down. “I’m going to lunch, I’ll be back.”

She waved her hand as she pushed open the door. Walking out, she covered her eyes from the suddenly bright sunlight that came down. As she headed down the small set of steps to get to get to the car, she fished around her pocket to get the keys. Successfully finding them, Lucca went to the driver’s side, only to stop when she noticed someone familiar in the reflective window of the car.

Tilting her head slightly, Lucca turned to find HaKyeon and Hyuk waving excitedly at her, making her eyes widen in surprise. Putting her hand in the air, she waved for them to join her. She didn’t have to tell them more than once though, both of them bolting over and practically tackling her.

Wrapping her arms around them, Lucca laughed, grinning at them. “Aw, Hyukkie, look at you~! You’re growing up too fast!” She exclaimed, brushing her hand over his hair lovingly.

“Wow, Noona~! You’re so pretty now!” Hyuk grinned at her, letting her go out of his hug.

HaKyeon laughed slightly, patting Hyuk’s back gently. “I told you, didn’t I?”

“What brings you guys here anyways?” Lucca asked, looking back at the building she had just left. “So coincidentally at my lunch time?”

“We wanted to surprise you~!”

“And trust me, you have.” Lucca laughed, squeezing Hyuk’s shoulder lightly.

“And take you to lunch.” HaKyeon nodded. “We were talking about it last night, and we wanted to do something to catch up.” He explained with a smile.

Smiling broadly at this, Lucca nodded. “Okay. Where do you want to go?”

This brought an even broader smile from both of the boys. “It’s a surprise, come on!”

The three were sitting around a small table, laughing together about some joke that they had passed between themselves. It was a small cafe that was located by where they used to all live, one that they always went to when they were little kids. Hakyeon laughed before he took a bite from his rice bowl.

“So how did you guys end up living with all those people?” Lucca asked curiously, tilting her head.

HaKyeon stared at her for a moment, but then laughed and rubbed that back of his head. “Well, that’s quite a long story, you see.”

“Longer than the half an hour we have left of my lunch break?”

“I’m afraid so.” HaKyeon said, taking a drink. “All in all, some are childhood friends, and some needed some… help.”

Lucca knitted her eyebrows. “What kind of help?”

“Financial help, family issues… stuff like that.” He shrugged.

“Needed a place to stay in promises they were going to get a job, but never did, and now they’ve been freeloading off of us for three years.” Hyuk chimed in, making HaKyeon gasp.

“Yah! He has not been freeloading!” HaKyeon shrieked, neckchopping the younger. “Don’t speak in such ways of your Ravi Hyung!” He soon took notice of all the people staring at him, and then settled down and turned back to Lucca. “I don’t really feel like it’s my place to talk about the financial welfare of my roommates though.”

Nodding slightly, Lucca looked down to her food for a moment, taking a bite. She looked up at Hakyeon and smiled. “I understand that much. So where do you work at?”

“Hyung runs a daycare.” Hyuk answered, stealing some meat off of HaKyeon’s plate.

“Wow.” Lucca nodded as she looked from Hyuk to HaKyeon. “You guys must have a really child oriented house then.” She said with a small laugh before taking another bite from her food.

“Kind of.” HaKyeon laughed after swatting Hyuk with his chopsticks. “I only have about eight clients, and it’s not a very high paying job, but it’s alright.”

“Alright for you, maybe.” Hyuk complained. “Not alright for me and HongBin when we’re trying to study.”

“And that’s why I went out and bought you a lock for your door.” HaKyeon replied.

Lucca laughed. “Not a kid person, Hyukkie?”

“It’s not that,” He replied, “It’s just kind of irritating when you’re trying to read your biology book and little kids come running in and start jumping on your backs.” He laughed. “But I guess it’s not all bad. Ken Hyung brings home some of his students for private piano lessons every week, and they’re not half bad.”

“Oh, he-” Lucca cut off her question when she felt her phone going off in her pocket. Pulling it out, she finished her question. “Plays piano…?” She looked at the phone curiously for a moment, but then held her hand up. “One sec.” Sliding her finger across the screen, she held the phone up to her ear. “Yobeoseyo?”

“Where are you?”

“No hello, I see how it is. What do you want?” Lucca asked, poking at her food for a moment and picking it up before eating it.

“Why aren’t you at work?”

“Well, because, it’s my lunch hour, why would I be?” She asked, glancing up at the two who were now staring at her.

“Where are you?”

Lucca blinked slowly as she picked up her drink. “Um… At lunch?”

“What?! But… But… I was going to bring you something since you forgot your lunch….”

“Aw, mianhae~ you shouldn’t have done that!”

“Who is it?” HaKyeon asked quietly.

“It’s Raelyn.” Lucca laughed slightly.

“What about me?” The woman asked, realizing that Lucca wasn’t alone. “Did you go out to eat without me?!”

Laughing at the reaction, Lucca had to set her drink down. “Well, yes, but HaKyeon and Hyukkie came and-”

“Wait, you not only went out without me, so now I’m here with these chicharrones that stained my clothes on my way here, but you went out with them too?! Are you trying to replace me?”

“You brought chicharrones?” Lucca pouted. “And no, I’m just going out to eat with two of my old friends, there’s nothing wrong with that.” She laughed slightly when Raelyn fell silent. “But I’ll call you back, araseo? We were trying to catch up a little.”

“Fine…. Wait, what are you doing here?” Raelyn paused, obviously waiting for a response from whoever was on the other side.

“Who?” Lucca raised her eyebrow.

“Ugh, no, she’s- No! Hey, I’ll call you later.” Raelyn stated, and before Lucca could say anything else, she hung up.

Blinking at the now dial tone sounding phone, Lucca slid her finger across it. “Yeah, call you later….” She muttered, raising her eyebrow. “So…” Returning her attention to the two boys, she smiled. “What were we talking about?”

“Yah! Ya-YAH!” Ken yelled, doing his best to shield himself from Raelyn’s hits. “Stop it!”

“Not until you tell me what the hell you’re doing here.” She shouted, clubbing him in the head with her purse.

“OW! What the hell do you have in there? Bricks?”

“My laptop, thank you. Although I really should be more careful; I don’t need your block-head cracking the screen or something.” She replied with a huff. She bowed slightly to a customer walking into the vet building with a smile before turning back to Ken with a toss of her hair. “So what are you doing here?”

Ken straightened himself out and cleared his throat. “I came to take Lucca out to lunch.”

“Yah! I told you to stay away from my sister!” Raelyn shouted, hitting him in the head with her purse again.

“Godammit, stop hitting me with that thing!” He hissed, swatting her bag away. “I swear, if I get a concussion I’m suing you for everything you’ve got.”

Raelyn huffed and threw her purse back over her shoulder. “Fine, I won’t hit you with it anymore.” She placed her hand on her hip. “So how’d you even figure out where she works? I don’t ever recall her giving you the address, or her work hours, for that matter.”

He straightened himself out again, making sure he was a good few feet away from Raelyn so she couldn’t go back on her word and strike him again. “I overheard Hyuk talking to her last night and I just so happened to have a pen and paper nearby.” He pulled out a small folded paper from inside the pocket of his blazer and held it up for her to see.

“YAAAHH!!!!” Raelyn shrieked, chucking the lunch box she held at him. “Stalker!”

Ken caught the box right before it hit him in the face. “Hey! You said you weren’t going to hit me anymore.”

“I said I wasn’t going to hit you with my purse, and I never said anything about throwing.” She stopped herself and took in a deep breath to calm herself down. “Either way, you’re wasting your time. She’s not here right now.”

He gave her a look of confusion. “What? Where is she?”

“Apparently, your roommates took her out to lunch.” She replied. “HaKyung and FanGuk or something?”

“HaKyeon and SangHyuk.” Ken corrected her. He sighed and shook his head. “Damn those two, ing me.”

“YAH!” Ken flinched as Raelyn raised her purse at him - she stopped herself, however, and took a deep breath to calm herself. “Whatever. She’ll be back in about ten minutes. However, her boss doesn’t like it when guys come in and hit on her during office hours, so it’d be best if you just went home.”

As she turned and began walking off, Ken cursed beneath his breath. I work tomorrow too, so I can’t come by then… maybe I’ll come back this weekend. I’ll have to go in and get her schedule…. He took a step towards the building, but then stopped himself as he realized that he was still holding the lunch box that Raelyn had thrown at him. It was a bright pink kawaii cupcake with sequined sprinkles covering the white frosting on top. He stared down at the cupcake’s face that smiled cutely back up at him.

What the hell…? He asked. After a moment, he shook his head and looked over at Raelyn.

“Hey!” He said with a whistle. She turned to look back at him and he held it up for her to see. “You forgot something.”

She stared at it for a moment, but then stormed over and snatched it up. “Thanks.”

He watched as she made her way back down the path. She reached into her purse and began rummaging through her purse; she finally pulled out a handful of change and stopped to count through it.

“Dammit….” She cursed. He stared at her for a moment, but then dropped his head and sighed.

“Hey.” He called, making her looked back at him. “You need a ride? I could, you know… give you one.”

The black Prius glided across the lanes just as it pulled up at the intersection. Ken pulled to a stop at the red light; as they waited for the super long city light to change back to green Ken took this time to glance at Raelyn out of the corner of his eye. She sat staring out the window with her arms crossed over her bags, a slight scowl and pout on her face.

Ken tapped his fingers awkwardly on the steering wheel, doing his best to ignore the deafening silence. Now, how did they get to her house again? Was that really an entire week ago? Oh boy, he hoped he didn’t get lost.

“Take a left here, a right at McDonalds, down the overpass, a right at the large, odd looking tree by the hospital, and about half a mile down that road.” She answered his thoughts, catching him off-guard. “Just in case you forgot.”

“I didn’t forget.” Ken lied, flicking on his blinker. Another long silence passed between the two as he drove down the roads, hitting every green light on their way. As they continued down the road though, he was unable to ignore the smell that was burning his nostrils. “What were you even bringing her anyways…?” He asked curiously, his nose scrunching slightly.

“Hmm?” She stared up at him in confusion for a moment, but then the lightbulb went off in her head. “Oh, the food! Nothing really, just some Chicharrones.” She held up the gay little lunch box for him to see. “She forgot her lunch today, so I was going to bring her some.”

Confusion was evident on Ken’s face as he blinked at the road. His head tilted slightly, but he finally looked at Raelyn. “What?”

“Chicharrones.” She repeated. “Chi. Chah. Rohn. Ehss. They’re a hispanic dish made out of pork skin and peppers.”

“Huh.” Ken nodded slightly. “That sounds really good....”

“You’re damn right it does.” She laughed. Soon they pulled up in front of her house, and she gathered her things. “Well, uh, thanks for the ride…. again.”

“Yeah….” Leaning back in the seat slightly, Ken let out a breath before looking at Raelyn again. “Actually, can I try some of that stuff?” He asked suddenly, staring at the pink lunchbox. Raelyn stared at him in confusion for a long moment, making Ken huff. “Come on, it’s not like I asked you out on a date; I just asked for a chi.... a chicha….”

“Chicharron.”

“Yeah, that.”

Raelyn stared at him for another moment, but then laughed and shook her head. “I guess you could have one; I don’t want them going to waste.” She pulled off the white sequined frosting with a riiip of the velcro and reached in, pulling out an oblong object wrapped in tin foil. “Here you are.”

Almost cautiously now, Ken took the tin foil wrapped food. Looking over the foreign object for a moment, he swallowed, knowing that now he had it, he had to eat it. Biting his lip gently, he pulled the tinfoil back, peeking inside. It was just as he was told it was, a tortilla that was stuffed with what had to be the pork and peppers. A green liquid had fallen over the top of the tortilla, and he stared at it for a moment, the sight making him question the alien food now.

He peeled the tinfoil back some more so he didn’t end up eating it as well. Bringing the food to his lips, he took a small nibble, still unsure of the food. He only got a bit of dry tortilla though, and swallowed it quickly. He glanced away from the food towards Raelyn, who he realized was watching him, waiting for some reaction. Mustering up his own courage, Ken finally took a bite out of the food. Chewing for a second, he sat there, taking in the flavor of the food.

“Hey, this is really good!” Ken exclaimed, continuing to try and chew down the pork. He almost went in for another bite when it finally hit him. The sudden explosion of spice in his mouth forced him to throw the driver’s side door open before he spit the food out in his car. Meanwhile, Raelyn’s was dying over in the passenger seat.

“Normally I would be pissed off that you just spit out good food, but that reaction was priceless!” She blurted out through her loud belly laughs. Rather than replying, Ken breathed in and out heavily as he desperately fanned his mouth.

“Water… I need water…!”

With that he rolled out of the car onto the pavement, making sure not to land in his own discarded food before scrambling around the corner and up the lawn to the house. Raelyn knitted her eyebrows and placed her face against the window.

“Hey, you can’t just go running into someone else’s house- HEY!” She quickly hopped out of the car and chased after him. “Alright alright, fine, I’ll get you some milk or something.” After unlocking the door Ken pushed it open and rushed to the kitchen, leaving Raelyn in the dust. She followed him into the room, finding that he had already rummaged through her fridge and was now chugging milk straight out of the carton.

“YAH! We just bought that milk the other day! Get out of it!” She said, whacking him repeatedly on the back with a wrapped chicharron she had taken out of the lunchbox.

“What is that Devil food?!” He shrieked, spitting milk out onto the floor in the process.

“Yah, pabo! See what you did?” Raelyn groaned as she moved over and grabbed the hand towel that hung from the oven handle. “I told you, it’s a hispanic dish. It’s made out of pork skins, jalapenos, and tomatillos - it’s gonna be spicy.”

“Deadly, more like it.” Ken snapped before taking another drink from the milk. “Did you poison that food?!”

“Yes, JaeHwan. I poisoned the food I was bringing my sister because I just so happened to know that you were going to show up.” She narrowed her eyes at him and waved her hands around her head. “Now stop drinking from the carton, or that really will be poisoned.” She hissed, moving over and snatching a glass out of the cabinet.

“Hey, don’t call me JaeHwan.” He warned as he swiped the glass from her and began filling it with milk. “We’re not on comfortable terms yet.”

Raelyn scoffed. “I think we kind of crossed that line when we slept together.”

“SSSH!” Ken hissed, moving over and covering his with forearm. “I thought we agreed we were never going to speak of that agai-OW!

Ken jumped two feet away, setting the jug and glass down to bring his leg up and cradle his just-bitten ankle. He sent a glare down at the floor, where a four-inch Teacup Yorkie sat with it’s teeth bared menacingly up at Ken.

Raelyn gasped. “Ricky! No!” The dog immediately turned to her and began wagging it’s tiny furry tail a the sound of her voice. She bent down and picked it up, bringing the four-inch wonder face-to-face with Ken. A bared its teeth again, making Raelyn its floppy ear. “No! That’s a bad boy; you don’t bite people!”

“Devil food and Devil dog, are you the Devil?” Ken asked, narrowing his eyes on the small dog.

“No, he just doesn’t like it when his owner is being assaulted.” Raelyn said, narrowing her eyes at him. “Don’t worry. Moose is just as protective of Lucca too.”

Ken raised an eyebrow. “Moose?”

She scoffed, but then turned towards the doorway and let out a high-pitched whistle.

Rolling his eyes, expecting another little dog, Ken crossed his arms over his chest. When he heard a loud pounding coming down the stairs, he looked up slowly. A huge black and brown dog came bolting down, jumping the last few steps.

Screeching, Ken scrambled until he was up on the counter. “AHHH, OTEOKAJI, OTEOKAJI!!!” He yelled, backing away as far as he could from the edge of the counter. “WHAT IS THAT?!”

“Moose.” Raelyn answered plainly.

“I can see that!” He lifted his foot off the counter just as the dog began sniffing at it.

“That’s his name.” She laughed. “Don’t worry though, he’s harmless.” She moved over and began scratching the playfully panting bear under the chin. “He’s just a big gentle giant, isn’t he?” She cooed, placing loud kisses on his golf ball sized nose.

Ken stared wide eyed at the dog. “You’re absolutely sure he’s not going to eat me…?”

“Not unless you assault his owner.” Raelyn replied. “No, if you have to worry about anyone, it’s this little guy right here.” She said, holding the little Napoleon pooch up for Ken to see. Ricky gave him a firm glare just before Raelyn pulled him close to her again.

“Well someone’s got a little attitude on him.” Ken said as he hesitantly stepped down from the counter.

“Yeah; he’s the king of the house.”

“Even though Moosie here could eat him as an appetizer.” He jumped as Moose his hand.

Raelyn shrugged. “Yeah. But oh well; they get along well.” She set Ricky down on the ground, where the smaller of the two proceeded to move behind the other and struggle to climb up on top of him and perch on his collar. “See?” She motioned to the door on the far side of the kitchen with her head. “Come on; I’ll show you the others.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Others?” He stared after her for a moment, but then snatched up his milk and followed her.

Going down some steps, Ken followed Raelyn, the two dogs chasing not far behind. He glanced around as they continued walking. The house seemed so much bigger than the apartment he lived in. Opening his mouth, Ken was about to say something when a set of much smaller paws landed on his thigh. Yelping, he jumped away to find an almost completely black cat staring up at him as it stretched. “Where did that come from?” He asked, taking a breath and resting his hand over his heart.

Looking back, Raelyn saw the cat and snickered. “That’s Lucca’s cat, Spooky. She got him from work at some point or another.” She laughed slightly. “That’s where most of our animals came from actually.” By the time they had made it most the way through the hallway, the sounds of more animals could be heard.

Chuckling to himself, Ken nodded as he looked away from the cat that had an almost smug look in it’s eyes as it started cleaning itself. “It’s a-” he stopped when Raelyn opened the door, revealing where all the animal sounds were coming from. “Zoo in here….”

Inside was had to be at least twelve different animals, all of them making even more noise now that people were coming in. There were two bird cages, one that held a huge cockatoo that was clinging to the wall with it’s feet and beak, the other holding two little parakeets that were busying themselves with something. On a table sat a large cage, a fully grown guinea pig crawling around and digging little holes around it’s home. Cages with different types of lizards were laying around, and on a bed, a German Shepherd dog was laying, panting gently but not getting up when they walked in.

“It’s her mini vet’s office I think.” Raelyn explained, smiling gently as she looked around. “The only three we actually own are the two dogs and the cat, but if she could, I think Lucca would take in all of these animals as her pets.” Folding her hands in front of her, Raelyn looked up at Ken. “I don’t know, she brings them home from work all the time so they have 24 hour care.”

Ken blinked as he observed the animals around the room. “She takes care of all of them…?”

“Neh.” Raelyn nodded. “Like that dog over there, her name is Himang. She brought her home two days ago after they did a surgery on her that she needed to be monitored after. The poor dog has barely gotten up, but at least she’s mild mannered.”

“Wow… That’s kind of cool, I know someone who would love coming here.” He said, laughing slightly as he went to the birdcage, looking the cockatoo curiously.

“Really?” Raelyn asked. “Who?”

Ken smiled as he looked at Raelyn. “Leo-Hyung. He absolutely loves animals.”

At the mention of the name she in a breath. “Oh, uh… yes, him.” She opened to say something, but then closed it and nodded. “Mm.” She said, averting her eyes and moving over to the cage of lizards

Glancing at Raelyn as he moved on to the cage with the parakeets, Ken nodded. “Yeah. He’s a little rough around the edges in places, but he always looks out for his friends….” He worked his finger in between two of the bars of the cage, only to have one of the little parakeets bite at it. Pulling away, he let out a breath. “He’s not going to tell anyone.”

“Huh?”

“About… that… night.” Ken poked at the birds again, this time being allowed to pet it’s chest. “He’s not going to say anything about it to anyone.”

Raelyn let out a breath of relief. “Well that’s good.” After a moment she let out a little snicker. “I don’t think he likes me all that much.”

“No no, that’s just his face.” Ken laughed. “It’s pretty scary, huh?”

This made her laugh. “Just a little.”

“Don’t worry.” He said, patting her on the shoulder. “He’ll come around. He’s just got to get used to you.”

She nodded, but after a second she looked up at him. “Yah! Who even said we’ll be hanging around each other more often?”

“Me, when I decided that I’m going to court your sister.”

“Yah!” She grabbed a handful of bird feed and tossed it at him, making him laugh and run back into the house. “Don’t you run away from me, you coward!”

“You’re the one afraid of TaekWoon Hyung, not me.”

“With good reason!”

Half an hour later Raelyn was walking with Ken to his car. As he moved over to the passenger side she handed him the cupcake lunchbox.

“Here.” She said as he took the box. “I made some less-spicy chicharrones if you’d like some. The other ones I gave you were made extra spicy especially for Lucca.” Her eyes widened. “She’s got an iron stomach and taste buds of steel, let me tell ya.”

He laughed and nodded to her. “Well, thank you for that then.”

She stared at him for a moment, but then rolled her eyes and sighed. “Here.” He watched curiously as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of paper.

He took it from her and opened it. “What’s this?”

“Lucca’s January schedule.” Raelyn replied, making Ken look up at her curiously. She crossed her arms and gave him a stern look. “But you didn’t get it from me, and there will be no stalking of my sister.”

He laughed loudly. “As if that wasn’t practically giving me permission.”

“Lunch and dinner dates only!” Raelyn hissed, pointing a finger at him. “And she needs to be home no later than eleven. Not eleven o’ one, not eleven o’ two - eleven.”

He scoffed and placed the paper into his pocket. “Since when did you become her mother?”

She snorted. “Just take your food and leave.” She said, turning around and heading back towards the house. After a moment she stopped. “I want that lunch box back!”

Ken laughed and moved over to the driver’s side. “Maybe I wanted to keep it!”

“Well too bad!” She shrieked. She waited a moment, but then motioned to him. “Oh, and that little bonding time we had out in the kennels? It never happened.”

He shook his head and hopped into his car. “Never happened.”