Luna slowly sunk her nails in the crescents just once to pull her from the chaos inside her head.
She winced and pressed her palms together to soothe it, she felt bad for doing this to Haemin.
It was a wrong trick but it worked.
She walked into the lair and found Joy in the swimming pool.
The pool was made with Vantablack tiles so it looked like Joy was swimming over a void.
"That looks terrifying."
"It is." Joy agreed, "You know how they say that watching horror movies burns calories? And this is equally scary, more actually. So, that's the only motivation I had for getting in here, otherwise this whole idea is annoying." Joy said without turning to Luna so that she would continue to float perfectly.
She wore a luminescent black swim suit which made her skin look fairer than usual.
"This isn't your idea? I thought the whole lair was your creation."
"Since, my brother's the one who drew it, he added a few things. For example this pool. He saw the idea on the internet and tried it out on my blueprints."
"Well it is cool." She laughed, "Absolutely petrifying but cool. How many siblings do you have?"
"Three older brothers. Dongwook is married and has two twin daughters. Kyung is studying architecture, he is in his last year and Daniel is in his third year of med school."
Luna sat on one of the pool chairs, "Why do you and Daniel have english names?"
Joy swam out, "Actually only Daniel does. My real name is Danoh, Joy is like a stage name I used for modelling. And Daniel was named after a man who saved my dad's dog."
Luna laughed, "Wow."
"Uh huh, and I got another one, want to know why Haemin has a girl's name?"
"Oh yeah I was wondering about that when I met him."
"Well Aunt Seyoung and Uncle Kijun had a hard time conceiving and Aunt Seyoung had three consecutive miscarriages. And after three years Haemin was born and named after the gynaecologist who delivered him."
"Oh.."
"That's why the whole family treasures him, and he has such a lollipop personality that its easy to like him.
Aunt and Uncle go a bit overboard though, they coddle him immensely and Aunt Seyoung seems to cease to believe that he is not a 5'11 adult but a toddler. Thank god he has turned out normal."
"Im flattered." Haemin said while walking in.
Luna turned around, startled and stretched her sweater paws to completely hide her hands, the crescents were slightly pink.
"Haemin." She uttered.
"Look who got in, Luna." He was holding the ginger cat from earlier.
Luna closely studied Haemin's expressions to see if he was mad about her rudeness towards his mom, she definitely must've told him.
"What shall we name her?" Haemin held the cat up and looked under its tail, "Oh its a him."
"Stop staring at the cat's furry balls and pass me that towel." Joy told him.
Luna snapped out of her reverie,
"Uh so I wanted to tell you that Jihoon will be coming with us."
"Oh no problem." Haemin told her right away and she looked at Joy.
"Im fine with it but first I have a question, Is he gay? Or in a relationship?"
"Interesting sequence of questions," Luna chuckled, "And no and no. I once caught him staring at Miranda Kerr in a bikini on the cover of Women's Health."
"Huh, okay." Joy mulled over her words and was about to walk out of the room when Luna said,
"So, I was wondering why this place is called the lair."
Haemin chuckled, "We dont usually have to introduce it to people so we dont use its name that much anyway."
"We didnt put much thought into it, now that I think about it, its quite lame."
"Oh okay." Luna replied.
Haemin looked at her with a soft expression, "Do you want to name it?"
Luna widened her eyes, "Oh no no I cant. This is your hideout."
"It can be yours too, but first you have to name it." Haemin urged her.
Luna looked down, she hadn't meant to impose, they were nice enough to let her in here, she didnt want to seem ungrateful.
"Luna, the only reason Im asking you to name the lair is so that I get to name this cat." He tried to trick her.
And it worked.
"Fine, I think you should call it 'El Hueco' or just' 'Hueco' it means an alcove in spanish, basically a place that's hidden."
"Huh I dont know if you're aware but you're actually very smart." Joy said and Luna blushed, "I love it, now bye, Im gonna go change before I get Hypothermia like Yohan."
"Yohan got Hypothermia?!" Luna called out after her.
"Just kidding." Joy shouted back.
Luna laughed.
"Since, he looks like a tiny lion, Im gonna name him Leo."
Luna rubbed Leo's head and he started purring.
"Awe he's purring." Luna gushed, "Im gonna shower you with so much love Mr. Leo."
Haemin blithely watched Luna,
Leo meowed loudly towards Haemin and it broke him out of his trance,
"Arent you a needy one." He gave the feline what he wanted and pet him.
"Want to adopt him instead of going to the adoption centre?"
"Yes!" Luna cheered, "And it'll be easier too because look how comfortable he is here, and he was quick to get in the house when I opened the door."
"Oh so you let him in."
Luna grimaced, "Yeah.. sorry. I tried to catch him but he ran off."
"Did you meet mom?"
"Nope."
Luna's inside was absolute panic, what if Haemin already knew of her encounter with his mom and this was his way of getting Luna to come clean and she just lied to his face.
"Okay."
"As I was coming in, Leo jumped out of my hold and ran around for a while so I heard you guys talking about Joy's brothers." Haemin said casually.
"Yeah, she's from a big family isn't she."
"What about you?" He asked, "What are your siblings like?"
Luna walked to the pool and swirled a finger around in the warm water, "Well, Francis has the personality of a big cuddly bear, like a papa bear!"
Haemin smiled, Luna rarely showed genuine delight, other times she just went along with others.
"And René.. well you know how the middle child is kind of neglected? Yeah, all three of us were neglected and she actually was the middle child. Our parents were as René called them 'Money rich and time poor' my dad has a younger brother and an older sister so its always a race to who will get the company, my grandpa doesn't believe in born heirs, so it could be anyone. Actually that's the smartest thing René has ever said"
Luna laughed and Haemin chuckled along with her.
He was relieved that she talked lightly of it.
"But she was intelligent in the artistic sense. She hardly ever showed me her pieces but I used to sneak in her room, and the dresses she designed were just so mind blowing and out of this world."
"And now they're out in the world."
"Oh you've heard of her brand?"
"Of course, even locals wear 'Renaissance', copies of course because their clothes are so expensive but everyone knows it, and its quite popular in the states as well."
"That's not all René Im sure, my friend's sister Diane also helped, she's a marketing major.René would've probably gone bankrupt without her." Luna joked.
"Well, as far as the world knows, René made 'Renaissance' "
She pet Leo slowly, thinking of her sister made Luna miss her.
The annoyed girl with crazy curly hair, always in some corner of the house, drawing on her art tablet.
"I have to go pack for tomorrow's trip, so see you in the morning?" Luna stood up with Leo.
"We can go together, is five a.m fine? Since the flight's at six."
Luna nodded, "Sure."