No one would, in their right mind, would think this is any sort of coincidence any longer. Nayeon called the maintenance staff manager and asked if there was anyone on the window washing duty today. He looked and saw that no one was supposed to be working on external window washing. When asked why, Nayeon told him that Seulgi nearly got creamed from a falling bucket.

  This got a gasp of horror. Nayeon told him where the bucket was. She had used a handkerchief to move it off to the side. She didn’t want to mess any prints up if someone decided to check the bucket out. She also moved it to the side just to be careful. She didn’t want anyone to kick the bucket due to her negligence.

  They all trooped to their respective cars. It took about five minutes to cmor aboard and alight off to the restaurant. On the way to the cars, Nayeon was tasked to take the slighter woman to the ER on the way to the hospital, then join them at Wendy’s room, once they were able to. But, that was for ter.

  Seulgi left a voicemail for Detective Kim as to what just happened with the bucket and where to find it. She also mentioned that there was nobody on the list for window washing that day.

  The restaurant staff was a bit nervous when they approached the pce. They were a bit…off. More focused. The staff and owner had seen all kinds of people and groups, some more fun, some more dangerous, some just outright strange. So, the owner had his thumb on his cell phone to dial one of his police friends to just ‘happen’ to have lunch at his pce that day.

  They all were more vigint than normal when entering the restaurant. They were not sure why, as whoever dropped the bucket would have to have precognition to know where they were going. Still, it’s good to be careful.

  They trooped over to the reserved table. There was no pecking order, per se, so everyone just grabbed a seat. All of the chairs were the same as you would find in a hotel convention anywhere else in the world. They were also the same color as the carpet, so it was oddly pleasant as well. The only person who was forced into a seat was Seulgi as she was rge and in charge, she had to take the seat at the ‘head’ of the table. She was both literally and metaphorically pushed into that seat.

  This was a buffet-style restaurant, and the industrial carpet was a pleasant light gray, with creamy colored walls. They had a tasteful mix of both track lighting and mini-chandlers over the tables. Nayeon took Yeji along and built a pte for her before heading back for a pte of her own. While everyone scattered to get what they wanted, Min-Jeong offered to stay behind to watch everyone’s bag, purse, whatever, until someone could get back so she could go get her own pte.

  The restaurant was fairly rge and very well-lit, and everything avaible looked good and smelled better. Under normal circumstances, this would not be a hurry and choke everything down to move on sort of pce, today was just special so no one wanted to dawdle.

  Nayeon sat Yeji down. The older woman noted that it was good – if that was a word that could be used – that it was her left hand that was hurt, so she could feed herself. Once Yeji was settled, Nayeon and Min-Jeong went off to get their own lunches, they hurried as time was short. There was still a lot to do today and not much time to do it.

  Once everyone was sat back down, drinks in pce, and looking expectantly at Seulgi, she managed to surprise everyone again. In front of everyone, she got an impish smile and leaned over to grab her clutch. She smiled at everyone again, and said to their surprise, “In order to use this,” holding up a company credit card, “I have to say ‘work’ and now this is a working lunch. So, dig in.”

  No one in this particur group was overtly shy, so they followed orders and dug in. They still had a sembnce of decorum while wallowing in their respective ptes – they were in public, after all. Yeji and Seulgi got done about the same time, so she wandered off, filling another pte for Yeji. Seulgi may have fallen off the track, but Yeji was still a very active person, so she needed the extra calories to keep herself fired. Still, even knowing this, it did not stop Seulgi from teasing her, well-naturedly, of course. Once sat again, the only thing that showed that Yeji was not in her normal state was that she was even more pale than normal. She also hissed in pain when she bumped her hand.

  Seulgi filled another pte as well, then she sat down and proceeded to wolf down more calories of her own. It was a buffet, so everyone got at least two ptes worth. If it was a normal day, a few of them might have gone back for thirds if not fourths.

  Still, everybody got their money’s worth. Everybody made sure to ask someone else a question just after they stuffed a rge bite. Nayeon nearly needed the Heimlich Maneuver after one such inquiry. From Seulgi of all people.

  Once everybody had had enough to eat, they started gathering all of their belongings. This happened sooner than the restaurant staff expected. They were not going to argue to keep them longer, either. Seulgi made sure to nod to the staff and owner as they left. Normally, they have better manners, but today was special.

  They got into their means of conveyance and trooped over to the hospital. While the main group went to the visitor’s parking, Nayeon and Yeji broke off and went to the emergency room. It was understood that they would join ter.

  The rest parked and made it to the hospital entrance with no issues. Except for Seulgi. She tripped over nothing again, but that’s just Seulgi being Seulgi, not enemy action.

  They got into the entrance with no further problems. They got into the elevator and made it to the fourth floor without the elevator breaking down. They waved at the nurses at the charge desk and moved on to Wendy’s room.

  They knocked on the door and entered the room to see Wendy sitting up and smiling at them. While there was still a ghastly amount of bruises and bandages, it was still a wonderful smile.