Utter defeat. That’s what happened. Absolute and utter defeat. No one knew who the mystery singer was. The crowd didn’t know The stagehands didn’t know. The MC was nowhere to be found. (Because he was in the pub nearby ‘sampling the wares’)

Seulgi did not want to admit defeat and keep searching, but her guardians nixed that idea. With her foot still in pain, and walking around would only further aggravate it, they said nope. After some fairly serious - for them - arguing, she finally admitted defeat and said that she would go home, like the good little boss that she was.

Not entirely defeated, they all did indulge in some of those sinfully tasty food stalls. Pancakes, tteokbokki, donuts, eomuk tang, etc. None of it was any good for any of them, but as they were all young, fit, and active, it was not particularly bad for them either. And that is what made it an indulgence.

Jackson earned himself a lot of hate by offering Seulgi his arm to help her get around. It looked like they were on a date. And then three more beauties behind them further cemented several near death experiences (at least in the minds of certain men) that Jackson would have endured if he could have even been bothered to pay attention to those around him.

The Main Four were chatting like the old friends that they were with Min-Jeong chirping up when she had something to say. What surprised them the most was that, away from work, Min-Jeong was actually quite funny with a sharp, sarcastic wit. They all found that out when Nayeon made a comment about someone’s shirt and Min-Jeong skillfully eviscerated her pride in her sense of style. The observation was sharp and brutal enough that Nayeon had to take comfort in a hug from Yeji. Yeji, as the good friend that she was, managed to not laugh at the stricken and deflated Nayeon.

Everyone started to listen to the running commentary that Min-Jeong had going about the people around them. She thought it was just under her breath, but they could hear her better than she thought that they could. The scathing, satirical wit was both hysterical and utterly, utterly vicious. No one, absolutely no one who looked at her would believe these words would be coming out of her mouth. She looked too pure and innocent to be talking like this!

Needless to say, Seulgi and the crew had a new appreciation for their newest member. The sly and droll wit that no one expected was what ultimately made the collective nod and Min-Jeong was firmly socketed into the group. No one said a thing, but it was still understood.

The truly funniest part was that Min-Jeong still thought that she had the rest fooled.

Jackson was wanting to take the taxi with Seulgi home, to make sure she got back safely. He was declined as they lived in opposite directions. He had called his wife and let her know what was going on. She was alright with his riding heard on the ladies. But, despite her tolerance of Jackson’s white knight tendencies, he had been out quite late enough.

Nayeon and Yeji were turned down as well, with the same reason of them living in opposite directions. The only one that was remotely in the same direction as Seulgi was Min-Jeong. With three sets of eyes boring into the back of her head, she made the quiet, tentative offer to accompany her boss back home. She expected to be turned down as well. All four were surprised when Seulgi acquiesced to the shepherding.

Seulgi, being smart, knew that they would all be worried about her getting home safely. So, with Min-Jeong along with her, they would all relax.

So, everyone went off in their own separate ways while Min-Jeong and Seulgi got in a taxi and started heading towards Seulgi’s apartment. Despite her protests, Jackson handed the driver a ₩10,000 note to make sure she got home safe. Min-Jeong was surprisingly good with making chit chat and kept Seulgi from thinking too much about how badly her ankle was starting to hurt. Again. The odd thing was that she could not remember her ankle hurting while looking for the Mystery Singer.

After about thirty minuets, they arrived at the tower. Seulgi wanted to wave off the younger woman, but she looked so earnest she couldn’t bear to break the younger woman’s heart. She even relented a bit and allowed Min-Jeong to put her arm around her waist and put a bit of weight on her while walking to the elevator.

While limping across the atrium, Seulgi saw the usual guard and a new man as well.

“Evening, Jim.”

“Evening, ma’am. Everything OK?”

“Broke my shoe and sprained my ankle.”

“So, business as usual, ma’am?” While he thought about offering to get help for her to get to her apartment, he saw that she already had assistance, so he refrained.

The new guy looked aghast at how informally his team lead was speaking to a resident. The training regiment was that residents were gods and should always be respected.

“That’s right. Oh, this is Min-Jeong and she needs to be added to my guest list. She is always welcome. And this new person is?”

“Yes, ma’am, she will be added. This is Clive. It’s his first night,” said Jim. Turning to Min-Jeong, he said “When you come back down, please stop by so we can take a picture. We would like to make sure that we have a face to put with the name of accepted people. We don’t want anyone slipping in pretending to be you.” Min-Jeong nodded her understanding while chivvying her charge to the elevator.

Over her shoulder, Seulgi said “Nice to meet you, Clive. Ignore Jim, he’s incorrigible.”

Caught between the resident being always right and his boss smirking next to him, Clive chose the wisest course and chose to smile and say nothing. Clive may be both young and new, but he was not stupid.

Seulgi and Jim both chuckled and waved good night to each other.

The elevator door closed on Jim’s voice saying “....don’t you dare even dream of speaking to any other resident like that. Madam Kang is special that way. She seems to like it."