Yunho watches cautiously over Hongjoong's head, looking as if he's trying to hide from something as he stands behind the leader, but ends up looking like an overgrown giant tree about to reach the sky. When Hongjoong moves to the left, he follows, when the leader steps to the right, he fixes his position so he'll be standing behind him.

"Are you really trying to hide behind Hongjoong? Because if you are, he's possibly the worst person you could choose," Yeosang passes by them, going over to the kitchen whilst drying his hair. He looks like he's ready to go to bed with his silk pajamas, face red and wet after showering. "Hey Byul, Hwayoung. What are both of you doing?"

"Byul-ie is reading a book to me!" Hwayoung announces in a giggly tone.

"That's nice-" Yeosang backtracks as he catches the book title and what's actually spread out in front of the two girls, unbelieving in what he's seeing and forgetting his initial intention of going to the kitchen. "Is that a human anatomy textbook or am I dreaming? Byul are you really reading out a university textbook to a 6-year-old? No wonder Yunho is trying to hide behind Hongjoong; he's scared of the power you hold over Hwayoung."

She looks slightly guilty at the mention of her reading out a textbook to the 6-year-old, but she's quick to defend herself. "Hwayoung wanted to know what I took in university and when I told her I took biomedical science she asked me what kind of things I learnt there. Somehow... I ended up talking about anatomy and somehow Seonghwa has a human anatomy textbook lying around in his bedroom. At least it has a lot of pictures," she grimaces.

"We have a bone called a femur in our leg!" the kid gushes, looking proud that she remembered what Byul had pointed out. "An adult human has a total of 206 bones in their bodies."

Byul smiles and pats her head, with Hwayoung continuing to flip through the pages and concentrating on trying to pronounce out the different names of muscles in the body. Yeosang leans over from the back of the sofa, trying to get a look at the scientific names but all he gets is a headache.

"How on earth did you manage to remember all these weird ass names? Ooh, but that one sounds interesting. Gluteus maximus. I had no idea a muscle in the butt is the largest and strongest muscle in our whole body. Really puts everything into perspective."

Wooyoung comes down to the floor next, followed closely by San, where both of them are wearing matching hoodies and track pants, looking more like the neighbourhood couple. Wooyoung has his hair untied, and San - after much pestering from Mingi for fear of being recognized by his red-streaked black hair - has dyed his hair to blonde with the help of Wooyoung. They are all about to gather at the headquarters at 9 p.m. to have a meeting, to report the missions they collectively carried out today.

Wooyoung and San saunter over to the kitchen, the former calling out orders to the rest. "What would you guys like to have during the meeting?" They pitch in their orders one by one, but as Yeosang is too engrossed in the book together with Byul and Hwayoung, he didn't answer.

Wooyoung goes over to him, kicks his butt and Yeosang shouts out in pain, dramatically rolling against the back of the sofa and claiming, "You just freaking kicked my gluteus maximus!"

"Your wha-" San starts, his hands preparing the mocha Hongjoong asked for. "What kind of creature is that? Why can't you just say your butt like a normal human being?"

"It's one of the muscles in your butt," Hongjoong adds, his brain already registering the scientific names of the muscles and bones they have. "Apparently the largest and strongest muscle."

"Oh," he replies without interest before turning back to the rest of the orders.

"Byul, would you like anything to drink? What about Hwayoung?" Wooyoung asks, taking a peek at the textbook that's making everyone lose their minds. The owner is nowhere in sight, probably still showering to get rid of the dirt and blood he had gotten on his hands.

The two girls shake their heads and Wooyoung creases his forehead, musing, "Both of you look kind of similar you could pass of as mother and daughter."

"I love that!" Hwayoung jumps up and down, causing her dad to further crouch behind the leader, slapping a hand against his forehead.

"Wooyoung, stop feeding ideas into her head!" Yunho hisses angrily, but still seeking refuge behind Hongjoong.

"Is that Seonghwa's book?" San tries to change the topic as he sets down all the drinks they ordered on the counter, approaching the group at the living room.

Byul nods, holding the book in one hand as she turns it around. "I don't get why he would have this; is he interested in medical science or something?"

San clamps a hand over Hwayoung's ears to prevent the kid from hearing the explanation and nudges Yeosang to allow him to clarify. The hacker complies.

"It's less of him being interested in the field, but he bought the book because he wanted to understand more about the human body." When Byul looks like she's not getting what they're hinting at, he continues, "Seonghwa wanted to know which part of the body could be the most fatal when shot."

"Oh," she deadpans. "Of course that would be what he would do."

San releases his hands from Hwayoung's ears, smiling innocently at the kid.

"I think you're becoming more familiar with us, eh?" Wooyoung cocks an eyebrow. "Would you want to be a part of our team? We could use some extra brain in the team. We don't know much about you, but you seem pretty smart."

"Smart," she repeats, "is what I'm not. I don't even get scholarships because I'm not smart enough. I can't even land a job."

"Scholarships don't really determine how smart you are, sometimes it's based on luck and what they're looking for. As for a job, it's not your time yet," Yeosang utters. "Well, at least you found us after your job interview. Even though it wasn't much of a nice first encounter."

Byul's eyes instinctively travel to Yunho's, letting hers meet his. He is doing a bad job in hiding behind the leader as part of his head sticks out from behind Hongjoong, making himself looking clownish. He holds her gaze, before he scoots out from behind the leader and sheepishly scratches his neck.

"It's almost 9, we should head down," Hongjoong brings away the focus from Byul to him.

They start scrambling towards the laundry room to head for their headquarters. Even Seonghwa and Jongho have joined them, waving briefly to the girls as they disappear behind the washing machine. Only Yunho stays back, lingering at the living room with uncertainty, keeping a distance between him and Byul.

"Dad, aren't you joining them?"

"I am, honey, just uh-" he awkwardly ambles to Byul and asks, "Is it fine if you look over Hwayoung while we hold our meeting? And uh, help her to go to sleep when it's 9.30. I don't know how long the meeting will last but I'll get back as fast as I can. I hope it's not too much to ask for."

"It isn't," she replies, feeling a tug at the corner of her mouth. She can't believe that Yunho is actually giving her permission to be alone with his daughter - definitely a major change.

"She can be a bit of a work when she wants to sleep, but she sleeps faster if someone sings to her." He kisses Hwayoung's forehead and the kid wraps her arms around his neck. "I'll come to your room to kiss you good night, okay, honey? I'm sure Byul will take good care of you."

Byul feels solemn at his words and she feels a tear at the corner of her eye but she wipes it off.

In another life, this is what could've been.

Yunho releases himself from Hwayoung's embrace and catches her expression. He mulls, "Are you crying?"

"Why would I cry?" she huffs. "There was just something in my eye and it stung."

"What...ever you say," Yunho replies, already heading to the laundry room. Before he completely disappears, he turns one more time to the two before saying, "It can be really hard to get her to sleep, so you know, just prepare yourself."

She nods, giving assurance so that he won't change his mind and take Hwayoung away from her. She holds his stare for a second before she lowers down her eyes to the book when the child tugs at the sleeve of her t-shirt, asking her about the anatomy of the teeth. She bares her own teeth, pointing them out to Hwayoung, much to her delight.

Yunho watches on, this picture of Byul and Hwayoung, although new, giving him a sense of familiarity. A sense of what should have been. It has been like that since he saw her laughing when she was stuck in the vent, observing both Wooyoung and San being chased around by the rat. Byul's eyes and teeth, both bring him to a state of confusion and he becomes chary, convincing himself that it's only him desperately trying to project the image of her onto Byul.

It can't be her. I was only wishing Byul was because I've been trying to ride out the guilt I had over Hwayoung's mother. It can't be her, because Hwayoung's mother is dead.

Even if she is, besides the eyes and teeth, her face looks different, or is it his own memory betraying him? Can you compeletely forget how someone looks like after 6 years, even when you have spent some years with them?

But it doesn't explain why it feels as though he has seen those eyes and how her bunny teeth that become prominent whenever she laughs tell him that he has laid his eyes upon them before. Not simply once or twice. He's also not as perverse as he would be whenever he sees Hwayoung coming close to a woman when it's with Byul. He could add in the fact that Hwayoung seems too comfortable with her, when his child is a person who acts hostile towards any newcomers, and it takes a whole lot for her to completely warm up to anyone.

"It can't be," Yunho verbalizes.

"What can't be?" Byul looks up from the book, this time turned to the structure of the brain.

"That the muscle in the butt in the largest and strongest muscle," he manages, mentally slapping himself as they come out of his mouth. This earns a giggle from Byul and a roar of laughter from Hwayoung. He winces, aware of how silly he sounded. "I mean, it's only a muscle in your butt."

Butt, butt, butt. That's all he's been hearing tonight, and it seems like that's what he is.

I'm a freaking butt.

"It does seem trivial at first, but it helps to support your body so you can stand upright. It's connected to your spine so you could imagine how important it is," she responds, giving a sincere answer to his query. She's not making fun of him the least bit, but looks excited for being able to explain something that the boys don't know, putting her own knowledge to use. "One of my favourite muscles, if I may say," she says jokingly.

He cancels his intention of going down to the headquarters, stalking the way towards his daughter and Byul, and lowers his face so that it's inches away from Byul's. For a hot second she thinks he's about to kiss her, but that would be ridiculous - he wouldn't do that with a stranger, in front of his daughter at that.

Even though Jeong Yunho is no stranger to her, she sure would be to him. There's no way he would remember her, and she wants to make it stay that way. The last memory between the two of them feels like a sharp stab to her heart repeatedly, one that she has unsuccessfully washed away after being far from him for years.

Those very pair of eyes were what made her feel safe, but those very pair of eyes were exactly the same ones that had shown to her what betrayal feels like. She ran away from him, from every last bit they spent time together, with the knowledge that all exchanges between them was merely an act, an act to deceive her.

But now here he is living with his daughter, so what is the truth?

He searches her face, her eyes, anything that could give him the veracity that the person in front of him is the person he wishes she is. But he could not find it, the mole she has under her eye or near her chin. It's either it's not there in the first place, or it was gone.

"Wha- what are you doing in front of Hwayoung?" she stutters, sucking in her lips as her heart picks up pace.

"What colour is the sun?" he asks out of the blue, looking serious. "And the star, what colour is it?"

"Huh," she holds his stare, aware that if she were to divert it would definitely mean she's lying, although that's exactly what she's doing. "That's a weird question and I'm not really sure, I'm not really interested in astrophysics. Would they be white, or yellow?"

The sun is blue, and the star is purple, they would sing together whenever they look at the sky. Flowers are dancing with music on the side. It's their favourite lines from a song that held a bond between them, ones they would belt out shamelessly during their secret excursions at the seashore, although they knew they shouldn't be doing it because it would mean disaster if they get caught.

Although everything turned out to be a lie for her, the song maintained a special place in her heart.

Yunho's shoulders droop as he hears her answer before shaking his head; of course he wouldn't get the answer he was dying to hear. It was him being delusional, hoping that for once his daughter wouldn't have to be silently pleading and asking where her mother went. It was what broke him every time, because who would have the heart to tell their child that her mother died as soon as she gave birth?

No, she was murdered.

"Sorry, I must be out of my mind. You just reminded me of someone I met a long time ago." He pulls back, fidgeting with the string of his hoodie. Hwayoung jumps off the sofa and she snuggles into him, as if she could sense the sadness in her father's tone.

"Just a someone?" she asks, not knowing what she would like to hear from him.

"Yeah, no one special," he lies through his teeth, but Byul believes it nonetheless.

"Oh I see," she sounds heavily disappointed that she closes the book with a quick thud, places it on the coffee table and stands up. "You should go to the headquarters, the rest must be waiting for you."

As if on cue, the handheld device beside the television beeps steadily, noting a message coming in from the headquarters. Yunho goes to the device, places his thumb on the screen and swipes to open the message. It's a voice message and he immediately plays it, only to be welcomed by a screeching sound from Wooyoung and the three of them flinch.

"Calling over Silver, calling over Silver, you better get your gluteus maximus here. We're all waiting for you to start the meeting, and our drinks are almost finished. Get over here before Toothless flies by and drags you by himself. Oh, and can you bring seven canned sodas from the fridge? We're all still thirsty."

Yunho laughs mirthlessly at Wooyoung's message to call him over, but Byul stays rigid in her place. Her muscles tense from the name, and as he walks over to the fridge to get the sodas, she asks, "Who's... Silver?"

He swipes up seven sodas and closes the door. "Ah, it's my codename."

"But why?" she finds herself asking.

Stop asking, Han Byul. Stop asking. What more do you want to hear from him when you know that he left you behind?

He opens the fridge again mindlessly, staring at the contents although nothing interests him. The cans feel cold against his skin, the material of his hoodie suddenly too thin to ward off the cold emanating from the fridge. He closes the fridge with a slam louder than he intended and he crouches, calls Hwayoung over to pick her up. The child skitters to him and he leaves Byul without an answer, bringing his daughter to her room.

Byul feels that he's simply leaving her dangling without an answer, but he comes out not long after, closing the door behind him. From inside of the room, she can hear the flowing of water, which could mean Yunho had asked Hwayoung to get ready for bed.

"You want to know why?" his voice is strained. "I picked Silver because I wanted to remember that name everywhere I go. It was the name of a person I loved."

"You loved."

"I love. I never stopped loving her."