a/n: Double [short] updates today, so if you haven't read Ch 27... it's there, too.

Jong Kook is absently drumming his fingers on the steering wheel when Charity shoulders open the door of the coffee shop a full ten minutes later. Drink carriers hang from two fingers on each hand with another clutched to her chest. His eyes widen and he quickly leans across the passenger seat to push her door open for her.

“Ah, thank you,” she says and leans into the car with arms extended.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said everyone, huh?,” he replies, disengaging the carriers from her fingers one at a time. Charity swings her backpack off of her back and settles into the seat and together they work on nestling the carriers around her feet on the floor of the car, packed together so that they won’t move during the rest of the drive.

Charity grins. “You don’t drink coffee, so I guess you don’t know this, but the pre-shoot coffee run is no joke, Kim Jong Kook-ssi.”

“Are you always the one who does it?”

“Mmhm.” She nods, ping her backpack. “Most everyone else comes with their managers, and their schedules are tight. I’m not with Ji Hyo all the time and I’m usually free. Well, more free than everyone else, anyway.” She pulls a bottled health and energy drink from her bag. “Here you go,” she says, handing it to Jong Kook. “I figured your breakfast probably isn’t sitting so well, having to eat with the she- from hell in your face.”

Jong Kook takes the drink, surprised. “Why… why are you acting so nice?,” he blurts suddenly, then immediately regrets it.

Charity just grins at him. “Acting? Kim Jong Kook-ssi, I am nice.” She slaps the dashboard. “Let’s go! Got people waiting for coffee!”

He shakes his head, unsure what to make of Charity’s sudden turn around, but accepts the drink nonetheless. “Thank you,” he says sincerely, and she nods. He sets the drink in the cupholder and starts the car, pulling into traffic when he sees an opening. The GPS lets him know that traffic will add another few minutes onto the journey, and he settles in for the wait.

“Is it because Zoe’s here?,” he asks suddenly.

“What?” Charity looks up from scrolling through her phone.

“Your good mood. Is it because Zoe’s here?”

“Oh.” She thinks a moment. “I’m happy she’s here, yes.”

“It wasn’t your choice that she stay in the US, was it?”

Charity sighs. “No. Not at all. The three of us were supposed to be here together.” She shrugs. “Things change.”

Jong Kook watches her from the corner of his eye. She’s looking out the window at the stopped traffic, but doesn’t seem perturbed by his questions at all.

“How long is she going to be here?”

“Just a week.”

“And your mother in law will be here the whole time as well?”

“Yes,” Charity hisses, now a little visibly annoyed. “That was also not part of the plan. I was going to fly to the US and pick her up, then fly back with her as well.”

Jong Kook’s eyebrows shoot up at the idea of four round trip international tickets and he wonders again how much Ji Hyo pays.

“But a couple different schedules changed, including that meeting, which I couldn’t miss because like you probably overheard the other day, I’m trying to get established in order to stay here permanently. Too many moving pieces, and we agreed that Miranda would fly her out and fly back two days later, and I’d bring Zoe back to the US. When you came in yesterday, we’d just finished discussing the fact that she de