Hongjoong lies down on the mattress with his head hung on the edge, his view of the world around him upside down. He's not looking at the surrounding of the room he's sharing with Mingi, but at the screen of his phone which is currently open to a famous artist's social media page, where the artist currently has 99 posts, made up of work in progress and finished products posts. He's been a fan of the soyesul page ever since he first stumbled upon it on his explore page, and he has been keeping up to date with the artist. The artist never revealed herself or her face, only saying that she's a woman who paints in her free time. Having gained more than 10 thousand followers, more and more start to wonder on how the person behind the paintings look like, to whom the strokes of colours belong to.

He wonders whether she'll upload anything special in conjunction with her 100th post, and he can't wait to give all his support for the artist manning the page. After scrolling to her newest post, he exits the app and splays out his hands, letting his arms spread on the floor as he hears the front door being opened hastily. Even from the sounds of the steps he knows who has just returned home, and he lifts up his head to see the giant standing under the doorframe, a goofy smile on his face.

"You won't believe what I got, Kim Hongjoong!" Mingi exclaims before he prepares to do something that makes Hongjoong shout out in horror.

"No, don't even think about- AHHHHH!"

Mingi runs at him at full speed, going over to the mattress Hongjoong is on, that's located on the opposite side from where the door is. While he runs the short length he spreads out his arms and the older has nowhere to run with only a few seconds to react as the mattress is backed into the wall. Then he jumps onto the mattress, tangling the older in a suffocating hug and he shakes the latter, claiming that he just got extra money from working overtime at the postage sorting centre.

"You wak gil-ee-eng meh," Hongjoong manages through the space he has to say something.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Mingi asks in concern while his arms are still wrapped around Hongjoong's tiny figure.

Hongjoong frees his hand before slapping Mingi's forehead and butt, exclaiming, "I said, YOU'RE KILLING ME."

"Oh, come on a hug once in a while is not that bad. We need," Mingi breathes in, "human touch to stay alive."

"Well if you don't hug me in your sleep every day then maybe I can consider that but you're hugging me every single chance you could," the older says but they remain in that position, with the older's head on Mingi's arm.

The front door opens again, this time with Danbi shouting to their whole small house on what they're getting for lunch as she's currently tired, angry and hungry after returning from her shift working as a waitress at the 24-hour restaurant. When she arrives at the door of their shared bedroom, she looks no more surprised to see both her housemates cuddling as she leans against the doorframe.

"Oh wow," she starts. "When's the wedding? And I sure do hope I'm part of the VIP list because that's the least you can give me after I have completed my calling of becoming the third wheel to your relationship." She doesn't wait for any invitation for her to come into the room because they're used to it; she merely sighs before sitting on the floor. Then with her back towards the two on the mattress, she leans back and plops her head on Mingi's chest.

Hongjoong looks at the stuff that she brought home, and realizes that she's not wearing her waitress uniform. Having been able to guess what happened, he asks anyway, "You returned home without your uniform, and you said you're tired, angry and hungry. Your shift doesn't end until 1 but here you are at 12, crashing into our room and becoming a self-certified third wheel."

"She was definitely fired," Mingi utters as he looks at the ceiling with Danbi's head still pressed against his chest.

"Do you want a prize for that?" she deadpans. She puts her hands over her chest, muttering, "Isn't it funny how you always get bonuses from your bosses while I always get fired?"

"What is it this time?" Hongjoong asks, angling his body to the left so he can see the other two, using his left hand to prop himself up. "What did you do, whom did you beat up?"

She grimaces; that just shows how she's been fired because of the same reason repeatedly before for her two housemates to know what went on with her. She lifts up her head before twisting her body so now that she's lying on her stomach and her chin on Mingi's chest instead. Then sheepishly she says, "There was this guy who kept harassing me and making inappropriate remarks when I was working, almost touched me too. Even when I told him I was uncomfortable he didn't listen so I asked to meet him in the back alley."

"And?" Hongjoong blinks.

"I beat him up and gave him a black eye and broken teeth. He immediately reported me, my side wasn't heard and now I lost one of my jobs."

Mingi and Hongjoong stay silent for a few moment before both of them slowly clap with one of their hands to their stomachs.

"You did a great job, I'm proud of you," Hongjoong pretends to wipe off a fake tear. "If I was there that man wouldn't see the day of light ever again. He didn't know whom he was messing with; Danbi can make a grown man kneel and ask for forgiveness."

"Right?" Her eyes light up before she bounces her chin up and down on Mingi's chest. "So now I have returned from being fired, tired because of having to deal with scumbags like that on an almost daily basis, angry because it's only the perpetrator who's always being protected and hungry because I haven't had lunch."

"Do you want me to cook-" Mingi starts but the other two immediately reply with a strong disagreement. "Oh, okay then. What's for lunch then?"

Danbi rolls her eyes upwards, mouth already watering from imagining the lunch they're about to have. "How about we eat out? My heart's pretty bruised from just now and I feel like taking a walk to see the outside world. Being stuck at that stupid smelly restaurant wasn't fun anyway."

With the agreement from the rest Mingi pushes her off, before going to the bathroom to change from his uniform and put on something casual instead. As soon as he's done changing, they set off to a restaurant that sells all kinds of soup, ranging from those full with vegetables and those made up entirely of meat. The restaurant is packed with patrons, so they had no choice but to walk over to the end of the shop to be able find a table for the three of them. All of them knew what they wanted to eat so after a few seconds of entering the restaurant they have already sent the waiter away with their orders.

While they're waiting for their food, Hongjoong can't stop scrolling through soyesul's page, until Mingi peers over to see what he's so engrossed in. When he sees that the older keeps staring at the paintings which seem to bear no significance to him, he can't help but be curious.

"Why are you so interested in that artist? I always see you going through her page, but it seems that she hasn't uploaded anything in a while."

"I don't know," he admits as he puts down his phone, the screen opened to her 99th post. "Her page is like a mystery; you don't even know who she is but it's as if you can pick bits of her life story through the paintings she shared, like pieces being arranged to complete a jigsaw puzzle."

"Really?" Danbi joins in the conversation. When their drinks come first, she sucks it up until there's only half left before she asks again. "Do tell me, what's your takeaway from her posts?"

Hongjoong pauses to think but after a while he shrugs before he smiles. "No idea. I just wanted to sound sophisticated and smart, but I can't fool my housemates."

"Housemate," she corrects him before she tilts her head to gesture towards Mingi. "Your other housemate seems to be fooled."

Hongjoong turns his head to see Mingi, who looks like he's in deep thinking, ready to hear the theories that's about to come out of the older's mouth. "Ah," he sounds heavily disappointed, "I really wanted to hear something controversial or mysterious coming out of your mouth."

"She never did a face reveal or give any hints on who she could be?" She gestures to him to see the page, and he gives his phone to her. She sucks on her drink while her arms are on either side of the glass, her thumb scrolling on the page as she sifts through the posts.

What she sees is only jumbled pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that she cannot put a meaning to yet, or maybe she doesn't have the creative mind to create something out of it. She's always the person to only be focusing on something solid and not abstract, her own self trying to be logical instead of swirling in something that has no concrete explanation. Despite growing up with Hongjoong whom she claims as her brother, who is a highly creative person, none of that had rubbed off on her.

When she sees nothing as a big picture she focuses on the paintings as separate pieces, finding that maybe she can make some meaning out of a single piece. But everything, and she's not even exaggerating, is simply that. Nothing that she can extract. The tree with the yellowing and falling leaves she has drawn? Only as that, nothing significant out of it. Only a tree changing its leaves.

She leaves the post of the tree painting open before presenting it to both Hongjoong and Mingi. "From this painting, what can you make out of it? Mingi you go first."

"The setting is in autumn because the leaves are falling down," Mingi answers, his lips slightly parted as he squints at the picture.

"Right," she says before angling the phone so that Hongjoong sees it fully. "And you, big brother?"

"She's signifying the preparation for a change in her life, like... throwing away her old memories and hoping new ones will come, just like those leaves would grow again during spring." She almost closes the post because she's thinking that he's done but he continues, "But there's a state of dormancy during winter, where there's a period where the leaves don't grow yet. So maybe what she's trying to tell through that painting is that when there's a preparation for a change, you have time to think about how you would go forward." Mingi's eyes start to widen when it seems that Hongjoong still hasn't finished explaining. "In short, change is not something that happens overnight."

"You could've concluded that in one sentence," Mingi grumbles as their orders arrive, the steaming soups in front of them not deterring them from immediately diving in.

Danbi puts down his phone before picking up her utensils, but her eyes don't leave the post. She utters, "See, this is what I mean. You see beyond that; what I think is that she decided to start painting and because she saw a tree with its leaves falling down during autumn outside her window, this was what she came up with." She dips her spoon slightly into the soup, picking up some before blowing on it. She eats it after making sure that it won't burn her tongue. "You made me curious though; now I'm starting to think that she's trying to craft some stories behind her every painting. I hate using my brain too much but maybe this is something worth thinking of."

"But why?" Mingi says through a pout. "Why are we focusing so much on an artist's painting, someone that we don't even know who she is?"

"I don't know," she grins, "because I think Hongjoong has fallen~ in~ love~" she says in a singsong voice. "You've been staring at her page for a long, long time. You must be one of those who are curious on who she is. Why, are you hoping for some gorgeous- ow!"

Hongjoong hits Danbi's head with the metal spoon, before he scoffs and wipes the spoon so that he can reuse it. "I didn't fall in love with the artist, I fell in love with the art. They're beautiful."

"Her mysterious persona just makes you more attracted, weren't you?" She chuckles but she doesn't expect any answer from him, because she knows that's not the case; Hongjoong has his own little crush on their building owner. "I wonder what Oh Jinju is doing now~" she says again playfully before she receives another hit from Hongjoong.

Mingi shakes his head, mumbling, "Now I know why she's so violent. She learnt it from her brother."

"Kim Hongjoong!" She tries to shout with an angry undertone but both of them end up bursting in laughter, making heads turn to their tables on why they're the only ones being so loud.

After bowing their heads slightly to apologize they finish their lunch, Mingi offering to pay for all before they dash outside, intending to spend the free time they have when all three are not working today to window shop.

Danbi keeps a lookout on any job vacancies, her eyes lingering longer if there's something that seems to interest her. After being fired from her waitressing job, the notion of her not being treated right in every job she has taken so far presses more and more on her. She's tired of being treated that way because unlike Mingi and Hongjoong, she's the only one who decided that she didn't want to continue studying after graduating high school. The current men in her life; her two housemates met each other in community college.

Mingi was apparently kicked out of his house, and Hongjoong had offered him to stay together at their house with the agreement from Danbi. She never minded; she said it straight to the point about how she would beat up Mingi to a pulp if he ever does something inappropriate to her. That made the scaredy-cat tremble in his shoes until he almost cancelled Hongjoong's invitation of living together, saying that he could probably find some place else to stay at. He ended up appearing at their house anyway, because he said he couldn't afford to be splurging on expensive rent.

Now it's been 3 years since they had lived together, and the three of them always share their income, not one stingy towards the other.

"Maybe I should start looking for a job for a big company instead of landing small," Danbi laments as they pass the row of the vintage market. "Linaria or Hyacinth District maybe?"

"Like where, and do what?" Mingi frowns.

"I don't know, what kind of companies are on the rise today? Maybe I can become a cleaner... secretary... anything. The range I have," she pauses for effect, "is splendid. I can do any job they offer."

"But disrespect you once and they get a black eye," he adds.

"That's right, Mingki," she says their nickname for him before attempting to ruffle his hair but fails because she's way shorter. She jumps anyway, tugging onto some lose strands before landing and almost tumbles, but Mingi catches her and pulls her upright.

"If you're short, act like one," he jeers before receiving a hit to his stomach. "Stop, every time you do that to me you're flattening my abs!"

"If I can't match you with my height I'll overcome you with my strength." She hits his stomach repeatedly, saying that by the time they get home he'll have a pancake for a stomach.

Hongjoong chuckles looking at their banter, knowing that in the height department he doesn't have any advantage over Danbi too, since they're around the same height, let alone Mingi. He watches as Danbi attempts to kick Mingi in the butt, but the latter runs forward while screaming someone is about to get him with his arms in the air. The girl then chases him while laughing, managing to catch up with him as she jumps onto his back, forcefully making him carry her.

He runs to catch up with them, almost running into them because Mingi has halted, both him and Danbi on his back drawn in by the evening news being played on the television displayed through the glass case of an electronics shop. He follows their stares to find what has managed to make them immediately forget about their friendly fight.

Besides the faces of prime minister candidates, the news about the rebellious group called the 'Reflectors' have been dominating the media as of late too. Compared with the campaigns of having the potential prime minister's faces pasted everywhere, news about the rebellious group only gathers what their recent activity has been without being able to put a face or faces to the outlaws. What they can gather is that it is most likely a group, because their crimes up to that scale cannot be only done by a single person.

Danbi jumps off from Mingi's back before nearing the glass, too focused on the screen even without hearing the sound.

They watch as the newscaster reads out, accompanied with a suitable expression, that the activities of the outlaws have been really worrying recently, as they're starting to move to more upscale neighbourhoods, aiming those who are in the top 1% in the state. Most of the protests are coming from those within that income bracket, while the general public has no qualms about the outlaws because they are almost certain they won't be targeted. Theorists are starting to come up with ideas on how they have managed to elude the authorities thus far, with some saying that it may be just pure luck that they haven't been caught. They have also been speculating on who could be their next targets, and almost everyone is theorizing until there is a consensus on this. Most are sure that the public and famous faces now will be the target, but of course especially the most famous one. Bae Wonshik, with his mysterious daughter.

With that they conclude the news about the Reflectors with some words to them to watch out, because the authorities won't be resting until they get their hands on them. The news changes into something else and only then they break away from the spell cast over them by the infamous name.

Danbi says subconsciously, "Just like the artist soyesul, looks like the Reflectors are also a huge jigsaw puzzle that needs to be assembled."