It was Saturday at two o'clock in the afternoon and Dawn was alone in the Magic Box - her calculus book open on her right, an ancient Sumerian text open on her left, and a nearly empty donut box in the center of the table. Dangerously close to a stack of papers covered in Dawn's wandering scrawl, was a sweaty plastic cup with a large puddle underneath – once it must have held coffee-flavored deliciousness, but now was just old whip cream, melted ice, and the lingering remnant of caramel syrup.

Dawn eyed the cup warily, picked it up, swirled it around in an attempt to re-blend the now separated ingredients, and then shrugged to herself as she slurped as much liquid as she could through the straw, shivering a little. She debated the prospect of walking over to the trash and disposing of said cup. But it really wasn't worth it, instead setting it carefully on the little round puddle of water once more.

From the storage room, Anya let out a short burst of obscenities. She was looking for a special item someone had placed on layaway, leaving Dawn in charge of the shop during her absence. That had been over an hour ago. About twenty minutes before that, Spike and Buffy had breezed through on their way to the training room, Spike handing off Dawn's favorite: a triple shot iced mocha with extra caramel. She could hear them periodically crashing around, Buffy giggling, Spike swearing.

For the most part, though, she sat in silence. No one had come into the shop all afternoon. Not that Dawn wished for a full shop – but she was bored. Sungyeol and Myungsoo both had shifts at a local pharmacy, Sungyeol as a cashier and Myungsoo in the photo developing department. Dongwoo was at rehearsal for a dance recital they had invited her to later that night. Sungjong had agreed to chaperone Suji and a group of her friends at the movie theatre that afternoon, no doubt dragging Hoya along. (No one had Sungjong wrapped around their finger like little Suji… and no one but Sungjong could have convinced Hoya to spend the day with a group of squealing teenage girls.) And Woohyun… Dawn blushed. All these new friends and no one was available on a Saturday afternoon – so there she was, stuck in the Magic Box.

Not that she would have been able to be anywhere else, anyway. Technically she worked the shop with Anya on the weekends, scraping together enough of a salary to keep herself in shoes and nail polish.

Not that she would have invited any of the boys to the shop, anyway. She was working hard to make sure they were kept safe from the underbelly of Sunnydale, from the reason why she sometimes had bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, why that Wednesday she had fallen asleep during lunch hour, with her head in Myungsoo's lap as he stroked her hair. Inviting them to the Magic Box was a recipe for disaster.

Dawn turned her head toward the door that lead to the training room and smiled when she heard Buffy collapse into loud giggles, Spike's shouts coming through the wall incoherently. It probably was for the best if the guys didn't show up out of the blue without giving Buffy any warning again… The previous weekend Sungyeol and Myungsoo had shown up with food and a bunch of movies and moved into the Summers living room for several hours. Buffy had been at work and on patrol, so Dawn hadn't bothered her. Of course, when Buffy came home to Dawn asleep on the couch in a tangle of Sungyeol and Dongwoo's limbs (the older boy having stopped by after work), Myungsoo playing with Miss Kitty Fantastico in the corner – she regretted not sending a warning txt, at least.

Spike had been surprisingly calm about the whole thing.

She looked around the empty store, for a moment feeling a little lost, as though she wasn't sure how she got there – as though she hadn't been sitting in that spot for the last few hours. The thought occurred to her that it was impossible to be there – the store intact like new. There was a memory – tickling the back of her consciousness – that it wasn't possible for her to be sitting there at all. But as soon as she directed her attention to it, it was gone and she had forgotten. It left a strange yearning in her, a soft taste in her mouth of spice This had been happening more and more frequently to her, but Dawn brushed it off as just feeling bored and restless… with a bizarre craving for kimchi.

She pulled a stack of post-it's to her and wrote: "Anchovies and kimchi pizza?!"

Willow breezed through, the bell on the door jingling happily, replacing Dawn's empty coffee cup with a smoothie and a napkin on her way to the counter. If anything, the people in Dawn's life kept her in high supply of food. Most of it not very good… but she didn't complain. (Not when she now had daily lunches supplied by Woohyun and Fei-unni… who seemed to be in some sort of food-war over her, but she wasn't complaining.)

Willow kept up a stream of chatter about her classes that semester, her homework, Kennedy's trip to Brazil, and Giles' last email about a weird disturbance of energy near Sunnydale until customers finally started trickling in … while checking Dawn's calculus and grimacing at the Sumerian text. The shop never got really busy that day, just a slow and steady stream for the next hour or so. With Willow around and Anya finally emerging from storage, Dawn was left to her books (and her phone) for the most part.

Around five o'clock – about an hour before Dawn needed to make her way back home to get dressed for Dongwoo's recital that night and just after Willow had ducked into the back to talk to Buffy about that night's patrol – the little bell rang and she heard the distinctive murmur of two voices speaking in Korean. One light, airy female voice. The other a slow male voice with a slight (and not at all endearing) lisp.

"Fei-unni!?" Dawn exclaimed, standing up quickly and thrusting the Sumerian text (a catalogue of Far Eastern demons and hell-gods from the 15 th century) into a shelf behind her.

"Dawn-ssi!" Fei exclaimed as she trotted down the short stairs in her customary heels and skinny jeans, grasping Dawn into a bright hug.

Dawn stood happily as Fei played with Dawn's hair, asking about her day and school and her studies – though the older girl had just seen her the day before and had asked and received the same questions and answers. Fei narrowed her eyes at the opened calculus book on the table and pushed Dawn into the chair, "Now I want you to finish your homework so that you can come to dinner tonight at our house after Dongwoo's recital tonight, yes?"

Anya sidled up, "I can help you find anything you want." She was decidedly less perky today after wrestling with mysterious articles down in the storage room all day.

Fei took Anya's arm comfortably and steered her towards the front of the shop, talking quietly. Sunggyu hovered at the bottom of the stairs uncomfortably.

Even though she didn't want to, Dawn knew it rude not to say hello to him, so she did – with a very stilted voice, her neck straight to the point of awkward, "Hello Sunggyu-ssi."

Sunggyu bowed to her respectfully, hiding his disappointed expression in doing so. In the last month, she had taken to calling all of the older boys in the house "oppa" with ease and a little bit of teasing from Jia and Min. All except him. "Annyong Dawn-ssi," he said shyly.

Fei and Anya seemed occupied in some haggling and Dawn knew they'd be a while, so she stiffly pointed to the box of donuts, "You can… You can have one if you want."

Sunggyu eyed her and the box warily, as if she was offering poison and then sunk into the chair near her, taking out a bear claw with delicate fingers. They sat in silence as Fei and Anya conducted business. Dawn thought briefly that it was probably one of those silences someone else would consider a comfortable silence. Something she so rarely was able to accomplish around other people. She so often felt so anxious and worn out around other people, not as though they expected something from her (not always), but that the space between her body and all others needed to be filled with energy, with words, with something. But of course – she wouldn't allow the thought to take root, pushed it aside, and instead related the moment later to someone as "awkward" and "uncomfortable" and Sunggyu as "rude and uncommunicative" …

Afterwards, Fei bowed to Anya and said respectively, "In her name."

Anya bowed back and repeated the phrase.

And then went straight to the laptop behind the counter with an odd expression on her face.

"Sunggyu-ssi? Will you take this out to the car for me?" She handed him her shopping bag, "I want to talk to Dawn for a minute."

As soon as the bell jingled at Sunggyu's back, Fei turned to Dawn – her eyes pleading, "Dawn-ssi! Take him off my hands, please?"

"What?!" To say Dawn was shocked would be an understatement.

"Sunggyu-oppa. I need you to keep him here with you for a while."

Dawn didn't even deign Fei with another answer, just crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. Surely she was joking.

"Ya! I'm not joking! He's driving me nuts! I need to get some shopping done and I need space to do it. Please just… ask for help on your homework or something?"

Dawn stared at the older girl hard, "You owe me."

Fei planted a sloppy kiss on Dawn's cheek, leaving a smear of lipgloss, "You're the best!"

Sunggyu came back in the shop seconds later. Fei gave Dawn a meaningful look. She started blushing, she knew the only way to convince him that she wanted him to stay, and she really didn't want to do it. The older girl turned to Sunggyu, "I'm worried about leaving Dawn all alone here – she's really struggling with her homework. Do you think? Sunggyu-ssi! You are so very good at math."

Sunggyu blinked at her. This was not necessarily true. They both knew it. He typically asked Myungsoo for help with any math homework he brought home. And Woohyun had completely taken over the household accounts out of frustration. He opened his mouth to protest—

(Dawn sneaked a glance at Anya – glad that the ex-demon wasn't paying attention. It would be just like her to point out Willow's presence in the back room.)

"Please?" Dawn wished she could shoot daggers into Fei with her eyes. She took a deep breath, "Please Sunggyu-oppa? I could really use the help."

Fei winked at Sunggyu as she breezed out of the store, leaving him standing with his mouth hanging slightly open, his heart somewhere below his knees.