Yeosang watches from across the street as Anna stumbles forward on the pavement, almost planting her face on the ground before righting herself up and muttering to herself that she does not need any more cuts for today. He shakes his head as she stumbles again after 10 metres, this time taking the fall more violently as she stops it with her hands, scratching them in the process. She fusses over her bleeding hands, and the people walking only part to avoid from running into her, ignoring her state.

She studies her hand as if taking her time to think about what to do with it. Then - as Yeosang stands at the crosswalk waiting for the light to turn green - she takes out a box of plasters and peel one off, putting it over her left palm. She takes another one, this time for the right. When she's done, she tries to stand up but gets startled when a man towers over her, looking down at her with disapproval etched on his face.

"I told you to stop being clumsy," Yeosang utters as he glances at the opened box of plasters shoved in her unzipped bag. It's the box he had given her, and it looks like a few has been used. "You like to make people worry."

"Baby-" she exclaims, surprised to find Yeosang near her on a Saturday morning, but quickly corrects herself as she frowns. "Yeosang, being clumsy is not something that I can change easily." She stands up, refusing help from him. "You're talking as if I can tell myself 'hey stop being clumsy' and miraculously I stop falling, getting multiple cuts and bruises. Plus I never asked for anyone to worry about me." She says it all in one breath, already picking up her bag and trying to walk the other way, moulding into the crowd around them.

"Anna-" he calls out, faltered by her response. He took it too far when he went to take the dress from her, and that was one week ago. Anna has never been this distant from him, and he realizes how bitter it is to get a taste of his own medicine. Serves you right for treating her that way.

He gives chase, weaving in and out of the crowd as he keeps on the lookout for her, him calling her name proving to be futile - either she cannot hear or she doesn't want to hear. She dives into an alley, making him a tad bit panicked as he can't locate her before finding her crouching beside a dumpster, feeding stray cats with the feed she always brings along. He lets out a low chuckle when she doesn't notice him approaching, too absorbed with the stray cats that have started to crowd around her.

She's talking to the cats, asking them to be patient as she pours more in the container. The cats rub their faces against her legs, meowing until she's laughing and her hands try to give them equal love. She falls down on the wet floor again, pushed by the horde of cats swarming, but she keeps laughing. Only when she sees that Yeosang has found her that she abruptly stops, immediately standing up and slightly scaring the cats.

"Are you stalking me?" Anna scowls before crouching again and pouring all cat food that she has left. She throws away the empty packet, dusts her hands and turns around to leave. "I'm busy, so I'd kindly like it if you stop following me and go away."

"Thank you," he suddenly says, seemingly an attempt to stop her from walking away. The chomp of the cats digging in the food fill in the silence between them, alternating with a gurgling sound as they fight over it. "I didn't have the opportunity to say it to you when you gave us the dress. Han Byul said thank you too."

"You're welcome," then after a thought, she adds, "to Han Byul. Not to you, you never said thank you even once before this. Why are you suddenly doing things that you never do?"

"It looks like I'm about to die," he passes a comment, to which she stops in her tracks and turns around.

She marches towards him, adorning an expression that depicts rage before pummelling her fists on his chest and shouting, "Stop making jokes like this, you always do and you think it's funny! You say that without batting an eye and you think that people aren't worried sick for you!"

Yeosang holds on to her wrists to stop her, and she shakes angrily in her grip as she breathes out. "I'm not joking, Anna."

She looks at him with her mouth pursed and face distorted, before she wriggles herself out of his grip and shoves him. "It's not funny."

"And I told you I'm not joking!" he replies when she skitters away from him, hugging her bag close to her chest. The cats follow their argument with their eyes before trailing her, begging for more food. When she doesn't stop walking, he continues, "I came here because I wanted to say thank you and sorry. Thank you for always providing us with your work and sorry because I always push you away."

She halts, spins on her heels and utters, "Where are you going? What is it, what is it that's making you say all of this-"

"I'm going back to Wonderland," he says simply as he takes the opportunity to come close to her, carefully arranging his steps as if he's afraid she's going to dash once he approaches. "To finish things once and for all."

"And what, make me worried again? Do you know how every... single... time..." she says every word with every step she takes to come near him, "all of you go on your missions, I get worried. But you always say, it's nothing to worry, it's nothing but I should worry for myself. How do I live with that, Kang Yeosang!"

"Don't-"

"-worry about you?" she stares, hard. "Right, I'm sorry for worrying about you and the boys. I'll stop worrying about you, and you don't have to worry about me. I don't even know why you're looking for me today; you want me to sew some shirts or jackets so that you'll be well on your way to Wonderland? If you're just going to make me angry with this, then just leave. I'd rather not see you."

He takes off his jacket before stopping her, pulling her softly before she's able to resist and tying the jacket around her waist. "You fell and your back is dirty; you don't want people to look at you all weird. You can keep it, the jacket." He looks at her once before sighing heavily, then throwing a look past her shoulder before saying, "This time I'm not joking, and I came to find you because I just thought I'd like to say goodbye properly. San, Seonghwa, Hongjoong and Han Byul too, even though you've never met her. We're leaving before tomorrow night, and I hope that you can cheer us on from where you are." He titters, "The rest might be annoying you though; there's still Wooyoung, Mingi, Jongho, Yunho and even his daughter."

"Yeosang..."

"It's nice knowing you. You might be the clumsiest person I've ever known but you're as pure as snow." He smiles, "Don't ever change, because you're doing great. Even though no one visits your shop besides me," he tugs at the jacket around her waist, "I hope that it'll change after this. Your work deserves to be recognized. If we meet again, I'll consider being one of your models," he tries to joke as he's reminded of how they first met. "But please don't go sneaking up on people and asking whether they'd like to be models for your designs."

Her pupils tremble when he mentions this, before she scoffs and lifts up her chin. "I won't. Go." Before I stop you. "I told you I'm busy." Her voice cracks as she looks up at the sky, lifting up her head so that he won't see the tears accumulating in her eyes. "Go, I don't want to tell you that again."

"Take care of yourself, and remember to eat when it's time. I can't tell you to stop being clumsy, but always watch where you're going. Remember to stock up on your plasters and always have the other boys on speed-dial in case you need someone to help. And- never stop crafting." She doesn't answer, and he points a finger to one of the pockets of his jacket. "There are two more box of plasters inside the pocket; don't use it up before I even start my journey to Wonderland."

He pats her head and brushes his thumb over the plaster on her cheek as a farewell gesture. Without delay, he walks past her and out of the alley.

Anna stays glued to the spot, her head down as the flooded tears are released, and the cats crowd around her legs as if they know she's sad. She crouches, and the cats nuzzle against her, comforting her.

"I don't have any more food for you," she manages as a cat jumps into her lap and settles there. She doesn't make any noise as she cries, like she's only letting them pour without any emotions.

It's funny how they first met because of a cat and now, their final goodbye is witnessed by the stray cats.

---

1 year ago

Anna stares wide-eyed at the state of her shop; the textiles are unrolled everywhere on the floor, shelves are knocked over and her sewing equipment are spread around like they're fallen leaves during autumn. She freezes in fear as the men wreak havoc in her shop, demanding for her to reveal where her sad excuse of a brother is. She only shakes her head, crying as she says that she doesn't know. They push her to the floor as she screams, and she receives slaps from one of them as they demand her to say where her brother is again, or she'll be on the receiving end more if they can't find him.

"I don't know where he is!" she cries out, begging for them to let her go. "I cut all contact with him 2 years ago, I don't even know he borrowed money from you. Please-" One of them chokes her as she struggles to breathe, "-leave me alone."

"Tell your brother that we'll keep looking for him even if it's until the end of the earth. He can't keep hiding, because we'll come and visit your shop every now and then as long as we don't find him." He breathes onto her face, his stale breath making her gag and her eyes to sting. "Or you'll be ours to deal with."

She nods mechanically, too scared to even say anything as he lets her go roughly, spitting near her face before they walk over her, leaving her and her shop in a mess. As soon as they leave, shaking, she goes over to the door and locks it; afraid that they'll come for her again.

She really doesn't know where her older brother is - she has not communicated with him ever since he ran away from home, saying that his life should be much more interesting than theirs back in Sunrise district. She never would have thought that his take on an 'interesting' life is to borrow hundred thousands of chromas from creditors, leaving his family to be responsible for him.

She struggles to keep her steady breathing, wincing in pain as her bruised and bleeding body hurts when she moves. She searches for the first aid kit but her mind's all over the place as she sees the state of her shop, so she decides to leave and go to the pharmacy to get some plasters. Before she steps out, she looks around to make sure that the creditors have left, and she must have sighed a little bit too loudly as she spots no one at the row of isolated shops.

She manages to buy the plasters without getting ambushed again, and decides to stay away from the shop for the time being, not wanting to be the target of her brother's creditors again. At the only recreational park they have in Light district, she takes a seat at the bench, feeling like her life is hitting a dead end multiple times, even as she tries to desperately back up and head in another direction.

She moved to Light district after getting a diploma in fashion design, with high hopes of opening her own shop. She did manage to, but with the amount of money she had scraped without having to borrow from anywhere landed her a unit at an alley which is frequented by rats more than people. It's safe to say that she never had a customer ever since she opened, and the amount of money in her account is depleting faster than she would like.

She's not even good at promoting her own shop, so as the months kept increasing with bills to pay but no income, she is seriously considering to close down her shop and go back to Sunrise district, maybe take up jobs that are not related to her field. That feeling is intensified when the creditors decided to trash her shop in search for her useless brother.

Fashion designing and sewing are her passion, but passion is not enough to keep her living- she needs money and she's not getting any. It doesn't help that she may be the clumsiest person around and she is in need of a constant supply of plasters, which she needs to buy for herself every time.

"Ugh, can't I get at least one loyal customer who would pay 10000 chromas for a dress every month? I need money!" she shouts at the open lake in front of her, which water ripples with the moving winds. "This month will be the last that I'm opening, and if I don't get any income by the end of it, I'll close the shop and adios," she says to no one in particular.

Wooyoung and San are gobbling up hot dogs while they sit on the bench a few metres away from her, surprised by her sudden aimless shout.

"Is she okay?" Wooyoung asks as he takes another bite. "Sounds like she had a rough day."

"I heard something about money," San offers. "Money must have been pretty tight for her."

Beside Wooyoung and San, Yeosang remains unperturbed as he eats the hot dog, his earphones stuck inside his ears and his heart already regretting his decision of coming out to the park, because Wooyoung and San wanted to get the hot dog sold by one of the foodtrucks here. Sure, it's delicious but he finds it unworthy of the amount of social battery he needs to drain to come.

Anna's eyes snap into focus as a cat approaches her, nuzzling against her shin and meowing. Smiling, she reaches into her bag and takes out one small packet of cat food - she always brings them around because she likes to feed stray cats. Cats are probably the only thing that brings her joy in this world besides sewing fabrics, so she doesn't mind spending money on them. She watches as the cat gobbles up the food, meows in satisfaction before dashing away again.

She expects for the cat to run far away, but gets surprised when it climbs up the tree near her, suddenly stuck as it cannot find the courage to go back down again.

"Oh no," she utters as she stands up, lugging her bag with her. "Why did you climb up there, kitty?"

Looking around, she spots three men sitting on a bench near her, but they're too absorbed with their hot dogs so they probably won't notice her climbing the tree to help the cat to get down. Putting her bag on the grass she climbs up, careful not to let anything tug at her clothes as she reaches for the cat. She pulls the cat to her and hugs it, the animal sinking into her embrace after knowing that it is safe in her hands. Just as she's about to go down she slips. It is a low branching tree, but the drop still feels like she's descending through different levels of the sky.

She screams, bracing her body to get hurt again, but her scream immediately stops when she lands not on the ground, but in someone's arms instead. With the cat snuggled in her arms, she opens her eyes only to see the most beautiful man she has ever seen in her life; piercing eyes accentuated by the birth mark near his left pair and perfectly-shaped eyebrows. The man looks unreal that she's thinking that maybe she did die from the fall, and her soul is now about to be guided by the man with the deep brown eyes and dark hair.

"What the frick just happened?" someone with a loud voice says, approaching them. The man with the loud voice has purple long hair, with piercings that cover almost every area of his ears. "Kang Yeosang you ran so fast I thought you were the Flash!"

She now knows that the man holding her is named Kang Yeosang, who puts her down without saying anything. He looks at the cat then to her, and as if thinking that it's not worth the energy to open his mouth, he walks away. He doesn't ask whether she's fine or not, merely looking at her with disapproval before shaking his head.

"Kang Yeosang!" Wooyoung calls out, but he ignores him.

"Are you okay?" San asks to her, and void of words, she only nods her head.

She's transfixed by the way the man called Yeosang moves, as if he's gliding on water, his foot barely touching the ground before he puts down another one. Flowers seem to dance around him as he walks through the field, hands shoved inside the pockets of his hoodie.

The cat jumps out of her grasp and without thinking she runs towards him, reaching out to grab his hoodie. She hears a gasp full of surprise from his two friends who tended to them as she basically tears the stitches at the shoulder of his hoodie, causing him to look back at her.

"Did you just-" He inspects his hoodie and looks at her in disbelief. "You-" he is unable to finish his sentences, the shock of one of his favourite hoodies being torn by a stranger too strong.

"I'm- I'm sorry- I didn't mean to-" she panics, trying to pat her hands on the tear, as if it would magically sew itself back again.

Yeosang brushes her hands aside with a slight amount of disdain, completely regretting his decision to step out of the house. From far, he sees Wooyoung and San coming over to them, but before they're able to come close he leaves her, already muttering about needing to find another hoodie he's comfortable in.

"Wait a minute-" She tries to catch up with him, hands flailing as she tries to balance herself and not end up eating mud. "I just wanted to say thank you for catching me when I fell."

He keeps walking, and she keeps chasing him.

"I can- I can sew the sleeve back for you- I'm a seamstress!"

This manages to make him stop, turn around before narrowing his eyes to her. "Really?" His expression softens as he sees her bruised face and patches of plasters all over her arms, but he quickly changes to his previous expression as he utters, "You're going to make me pay for it, aren't you?"

She becomes offended that her mouth parts slightly as she crosses her arms and frowns. "Even though I need money I still have my conscience; I ripped the sleeve and I'll sew it back on for free."

"No thanks, you don't look like someone who can sew neatly. Even your hair..." he trails off before deciding, "Never mind."

She scoffs. "Excuse me? I'm trying to help you sew it back on but you had to come for my hair."

He shrugs before turning away from her again, and in a split second of annoyance, she pulls his sleeve roughly at the same spot, causing it to completely tear away from the main part of the hoodie.

"Try fixing that, you jerk," she utters in satisfaction.

"You're really-"

"Woah, calm down," San interposes himself between the two, who looks like cats about to be engaged in a fight. "Yeosang, just accept her offer. She's being nice to you and you don't have to be so rude about it." He turns to her and smiles his dimpled smile before asking, "Is your shop anywhere around here? If you don't mind we can come and pay a visit. You can help to sew the sleeve back on, if you're not busy."

"Of course!" she smiles back, glad that there is at least one nice person from the group.

"I hope you can forgive my friend, he's a little bit shy and hard to socialize. Plus, we're only getting back into society so we're still trying to adjust to our new lives here," the man with the purple hair whispers to her. "I'm Wooyoung by the way. The guy with the dimples is San, and the guy you just tore his sleeves off is Yeosang."

She blinks as he explains that they're only getting back into society, immediately thinking that they're convicts who were just released from prison. Suddenly, she doesn't feel too safe anymore as she leads them to her shop. As soon as they do arrive at her shop, she scurries all over the place, forgetting that she hasn't tidied up the place as the creditors trashed it about.

The three men look at her from a distance, before San and Wooyoung join her in helping to clean up what they could. Yeosang stays far, taking in every detail of the surrounding of her shop. Taking off his hoodie and putting it on a table, he circles the shop as the others fuss over the mess, which looked like a storm just raged inside.

Her walls are full of drawings and sketches of her ideas, and he can't help but admit that they're really well constructed and thought of. She also pasted some of her resolutions, words of motivations and basically whatever she can to keep her going. Then he goes to the entrance and spots the splashes of red paint across one of the door panels. It's barely noticeable but it's there, and he would have thought it was only a mistake made during the construction of the shop.

But still, he asks, "You borrowed money and they're looking for you?"

She looks up from picking up rolls of threads before shaking her head, "It wasn't me. They were looking for my brother." She goes back to picking them up before she stops again. "How did you know?"

"Your shop's a mess and there's red paint on one of your doors. Looks like illegal creditors to me."

She sighs before nodding solemnly. "That's the only thing I agree with coming out of your mouth. They were looking for my brother but he was gone, I didn't have any contact with him or know where he is."

"Was it the first time they came here?"

After they finish tidying up, she picks up his hoodie and inspects it. She moves over to her sewing machine and powers it up, searching for a suitable needle for the thick material. From her seat she says, "It's the second time, but it's the first they had direct contact with me. The first time was the red paint, the second time they stormed inside this shop and messed up everything."

Yeosang leans over the counter. "Do you have any CCTV recordings of them?"

She twists her body to look at him. "What for?"

"I just wanted to know who they were." He shrugs, as if there's nothing to think about it more. He flips through the stacks of fashion magazines, already devising up a plan as he looks at Wooyoung and San idling by the side.

She shakes her head as she returns her focus on her work, pressing on the pedal as she pushes the hoodie under the moving needle. "I couldn't install any cameras because I didn't have enough money."

He picks up her business card on the table, dust already picking up as nobody ever takes them. "Anna Yoo, diploma in fashion design? Interesting."

"I took fashion designing but never had the luck yet in pushing for my designs." The whirr of the machine continues as she guides the hoodie. She stops pressing on the foot pedal when something comes to her mind, and she looks at the three of them expectantly. "I've been thinking about this since I saw the three of you at the park. I was wondering if you'd like to be the models for my designs." She quickly explains herself in case they decide to cut off her offer before she can say it herself. "I don't have money to pay you as my models but I can sew clothes for you, for free. All I need is some promotion."

"How... can we even help you with that?" Wooyoung asks, amused.

"People these days look at the models first before they look at the clothes. If people like you guys model for me-"

"No," Yeosang cuts her off before she can finish. "Your designs are good enough without the blatant use of someone's face."

"But-"

"Are you done with my hoodie?" He turns to Wooyoung and San, "We need to go back because Jongho just messaged us and said that we're needed as soon as possible."

She leans back, defeated. She knows that the possibility of them accepting her offer is very slim, considering that she only met them today and is already pining for them to become her models. Someone needs to save her and her impulsive actions.

"Right, forget I said that. Anyway, I'm done with your hoodie. I'd say see you again but nobody comes here so I hope that the hoodie is as good as new. I'm really sorry, and... thank you again for saving my stupid self."

Wooyoung and San walk away from the shop while waving at her, but Yeosang looks on straight, putting on the hoodie without any form of gratefulness escaping his lips.

They leave. She doesn't see them for the next few weeks, and the same goes for the creditors. She doesn't know whether it's because they've found her brother, or something came to them first, but she lives her life peacefully without the fear of them ransacking her shop again. It is too peaceful, as she's left alone to eat only instant noodles and daydreaming about the life she could have gotten if she'd push for her designs to be picked up anywhere. She remains a seamstress with no income, seemingly only passing her time by sewing and patching up random designs.

She stays in her shop, looking at nothing as she rests her chin on her palm, but her body immediately straightens up when the bell chimes, indicating that someone new has entered her shop.

She doesn't know whether to be surprised, scared or delighted that Kang Yeosang is finally back, alone, holding up sketches of different outfits in his arms, looking serious as he lays them out.

He doesn't even give a proper greeting as he points to each of them. "How good are you in creating outfits from sketches?"

She has a lot of questions but she immediately answers, "Very. People come to me when they want to replicate sketches during college, and they always say they have a 99.99% similarity."

"Perfect. Can you get them done by tomorrow night, or latest by early morning of the next?"

She studies the sketches before nodding. "Sure, if I don't sleep or eat, I can get them done by tomorrow."

"Then don't sleep," he answers straight, and she looks up to see if he's joking, but he looks serious. "But remember to eat," he adds as an afterthought, but remains with his straight face. "Oh and- don't worry, we'll pay you. 5000 chromas for a piece."

She stares at him, jaw slack. "Did you add in another '0' at the back? Did you hear yourself? Five thousand freaking chromas? Even the most expensive piece I've tried to make wouldn't go past 1000 chromas!"

He chuckles, and she stands with her first impression of him: he is an angel, but with the mouth of a devil. "So you're not accepting this offer?"

She gathers the sketches in a haste, hugging them to her chest. "Who says I'm not accepting them? Gosh, you're so impatient."

With the sealing of the deal, she sends him off to find the materials she needs for the clothes, Yeosang grumbling as he returns to the shop with the said materials and packed food for them. She doesn't know what's gotten into him but he stays in the shop, peering cautiously as she starts her work. Occasionally, he reminds her to eat, almost resulting to feeding her himself when it seems that her hands are too busy working.

By the time night comes, he leaves, but reminds her that he'll be coming back again tomorrow to check up on her progress. It's true that she doesn't sleep at all, because when he comes back again he gets slightly startled by her appearance; dark circles and red eyes.

"You look like a-"

"Ghost? I know I do, baby." She presses her lips together, the word 'baby' slipping out by accident.

For a second Yeosang blushes, and from then on, the nickname sticks. Sometimes he would let it be, and sometimes he would point out that he is indeed not a baby. Not that she listens, because she calls him that more than she calls him by name.

After Yeosang's visit to her; she finally gets loyal customers, and they are Yeosang and his friends. She even keeps their body measurements at the ready, her plans to close down the shop long forgotten. Even one work for them can last her for a month, much more luxurious than she has ever experienced.

At first she never thought of poking her nose into their business, but she becomes increasingly curious when he always comes up with different styles of clothes to be sewn, but she keeps quiet. As long as his requests she can do and the money keeps coming, she lets it slide.

Only one day, when he's hanging out at her shop, waiting for her to finish sewing a jacket, she mindlessly asks, "What do you always need these clothes for? And the amount you pay to me is always so high for just one piece of clothing."

Yeosang shuts the magazine he's holding, tittering, "After one month and only now you're asking? I thought you'd be curious the first time I'd ask you to sew those clothes."

"Well, you're still considered a customer, so I never thought of meddling in your business. But since you're my only customer, maybe I'd like to get to know you and your friends better."

"What if I say that we're couriers who do secret jobs for our clients, and these clothes are for our undercover missions?"

"Stop joking." She lifts up the lever to release the needle from the fabric. "You always make your jokes with a straight face and it's never funny." She gives the completed work to him, who receives it with a shrug.

"I'm not joking."

She stares at his eyes, those brown-coloured eyes that made her mum when she first saw them, and realizes that he's not playing around. It takes her time to be able to wrap around the fact that she's the unofficial seamstress for a group of couriers, but soon she gets used to it.

And it all started because of a cat.