Friday. The last day of school and the last day of work for the week.

Kai, as usual, wore his polar bear costume and handed out flyers at the mall.

No Chloe, because that idiot called in sick. Kai never thought an idiot could catch a fever. Because, according to what people say, idiots tend to have strong immune systems.

Walking around handing out brochures, he got asked for photos by some little kids and their parents. Kai really did his best. Even though he had only been working here maybe a few days. The people here were quite friendly, Kai even knew quite a few of the shop employees working here.

"Hey Kai. I see you’re alone? Usually you’re with Chloe?"

Someone, a young woman who looked like a college student, came over carrying a can of cola. She tossed it and Kai caught it while he was sitting on his favorite spot, a bench near a clothing store.

Kai took off the mascot head and shifted a little to the side to make room for the young woman to sit.

"Chloe is sick, she told me this morning. Are you on break too, Kayla?" 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The young woman, Kayla. She never told him her age, but she was around 20 because she said she was still in college. She worked at one of the clothing stores in this mall. A pretty girl with Sunkissed skin and straight black hair.

"Yep. Someone’s already at the register and I’ve also finished organized everything in the back storage."

Kayla took the can from Kai because she saw he was having a bit of trouble opening it with the mascot costume’s hands, which weren’t great for opening things.

"So how many flyers left?" Kayla asked as she handed the cola back to Kai.

"Not many, maybe about six. There are so many visitors on the weekend."

"Yeah... it’s summer, after all. Of course a lot of people are spending their time here."

Kai kept sipping his drink. The breeze hitting his sweat-damp hair honestly made the cooling sensation even stronger.

"Don’t you want to go somewhere, Kayla? Isn’t the campus is also on semester break too, right?" Kai asked, turning his head to the side.

"Hmm... yeah, I don’t have any plans except maybe spending time with my boyfriend. How bout you?"

"Me, I’ll probably spend time with my little sister."

"Isn’t that nice, spending time with family, you know, compared to other people."

"I don’t know about that..."

Kai stood up from his seat and walked a few steps to throw the can in the trash, then came back and grabbed the mascot head from the bench to put it back on.

"You’re going again?"

The polar bear mascot nodded and gave Kayla a thumbs up before he left to continue his work.

Sunset was the line that marked the end of his shift. He said goodbye to his boss and left the mall, heading into the city streets where one by one the lights were starting to turn on.

He reached for his phone in his pants pocket to check if there were any incoming messages. And it seemed there was one, from Risa, his sister.

⌈Come home quick⌋

He got that message about 25 minutes ago. He was still working at that time so of course his phone was in his locker. So he didn’t know about that.

Kai started walking pretty fast. It took him about 23 minutes of fast walking to get from the mall to his housing complex. He went inside, and as soon as he closed the door, he noticed two very unfamiliar pairs of shoes.

Friends of Risa? Did that girl even have friends?

They were two pairs of shoes typically worn by girls, so the guests were female. He took off his shoes and called out to Risa that he was home.

Only his little sister had been home since morning because she’d been on break for a few days, and their parents were out of town for something. So for the next few days, it was just the two of them.

"Risa?" Kai kept walking and stopped at the living room, seeing two familiar faces sitting on the sofa like they were just relaxing. "Why are you here?"

"Hmm~ sorry for showing up so suddenly, I hope I’m not bothering you, Kai."

"Uhh... I was just invited by Lily... and since I didn’t have anything to do, I just tagged along."

Yep, the two people Kai saw were Lily and Daisy. Kai put his hand over his face. He sighed because he was honestly a bit tired after work and now there were unexpected guests.

Kai knew that the four of them—Risa, Chloe, Lily, and Daisy—had exchanged numbers when they met a few days ago. But coming over to this house? Didn’t that mean Risa was pretty close with Daisy and Lily?

"Yeah... it’s not really a bother. But next time you want to visit, tell me first, okay? Don’t just tell my little sister."

"Hmm." Lily stood up from the sofa, walked over, and stopped in front of Kai. "I don’t have your number..."

"Hmm? Didn’t I give you my number before?"

"When?"

Come to think of it, I think I only gave my number to Chloe.

Kai’s thoughts scattered when he heard the front door open, followed by Lily and Daisy getting up from the sofa and walking toward the front hall.

Kai’s eyes widened once again, but he tried to keep his face calm as he watched his little sister walk in with a girl wearing a cooling gel patch on her forehead.

"Why didn’t you tell me that my friends were coming over?"

Risa, with her hands full of groceries from the supermarket, had a pretty pouty face. Her eyes stared at her brother.

"I tried contacting you, why didn’t you reply to my message?"

"I was still at work, like I could bring my phone. But forget that..." Kai’s eyes landed on the girl next to his little sister, the girl wearing the cooling patch. "You said you were sick. Why are you here, idiot?"

The girl giggled and coughed, then pointed to the patch on her sweaty forehead. Her face was quite flushed from the fever, even her breath sounded a little labored. "I really am sick. See, I’m hot as grilled chicken."

"Haa... I ran into her at Seven Eleven, and I said that Big Sis Lily and Big Sis Daisy were at my house, and yeah, this idiot invited herself in and followed me."

"Hey, why don’t I get called cough big sis?! Come on, call me beautiful Big Sis Chloe cough!"

Kai covered his face with his hand. He was thinking he might just go straight to sleep after dinner. But now there was another guest, an annoying one at that.

Oh God, let the night pass quickly so they can go home soon.