It seemed like forever before we parted. My mother (my mother!) dug her phone out of her pocket and passed it to me, beaming happily. I understood her message and tapped in my number, feeling oddly exhilarated.

After all this time, thinking I would never meet the rest of my family again, wondering if I would have to spend the rest of my time under my father’s thumb…

I felt my heart clapping in anticipation as my thoughts wandered over to my older brothers. I could finally meet them again, after so long. I didn’t even know what I would say to them, I hadn’t seen them in so long.

“Do you want to head home?” Superhero-sunbaenim asked quietly, breaking the silence.

“I think I want to say goodbye to my father first,” I replied, steeling my heart.

“I’ll come with you,” my mother spoke, nodding her head determinedly.

I shot her a grateful glance as the three of us stood up and proceeded out of the room.

---

I didn’t know how to explain it, seeing the cold, dead body of a man who once tortured me.

I couldn’t help the bite of guilt as my eyes roved over his covered body, only his face showing. Had it been my fault that he’d ended up this way?

He had been moved to a morgue, where he currently lay swathed in white sheets that covered his body. His face was a passive blue colour.

I reached out a hand to touch his. It was slightly cool to touch, not feeling like a human, but also not feeling like a corpse.

I thought back to all those times he had come after me and abused me. How he had taken out all of his anger and rage on me…

I shivered, thinking of the bruises and marks he’d left on me.

He had never loved me. Not once.

The man had kept me as his own only to spite my mother, and had treated me like I wasn’t even human. He’d beaten me and left scores of painful memories on my skin. He’d threatened me.

And now I was free from it.

I exhaled slowly. It was as if a weight had been lifted from my chest.

“Goodbye, father,” I whispered, hand ghosting over his dead one. 

A warm clutch on my hand reminded me that I wasn’t alone as Superhero-sunbaenim inched closer to me, his tawny hair tussled messily.

I nodded to him once.

I was ready to go home.

---

“Youngmi, I’m not leaving,” he demanded, placing his feet on the ground firmly.

“It’s my house, I’ll be fine,” I rolled my eyes in exasperation. “I don’t believe in ghosts, and neither should you.”

“Don’t say that!” he whispered harshly, looking around him in suspicion. “You can’t play with the occult.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I groaned. “I’ll be fine. I’ve stayed on my own before. I’ll lock the doors, okay?”

“I refuse,” he narrowed his eyes. “It’s dangerous for a girl to sleep by herself in a big house without anyone to protect you.”

“You’re a champion for feminism,” I snorted drily. “I wonder what the Twitter activists would say now.”

He groaned in frustration.

“Just let me stay here with you, to protect you,” he sighed, ruffling his tussled hair.

 “Superhero-sunbaenim,” I said, before correcting myself, lowering my voice a tad suggestive. “Sorry, Hoseok-sunbaenim, are you trying to tell me that you want to sleep with me in my house tonight? Alone?”

“Youngmi…” he flushed in embarrassment. “You know I’m only doing it because I’m worried about you.”

I sighed, finally giving up. This boy was a ing stubborn pig.

“Fine,” I threw my hands up. “But you’re sleeping on the floor.”

I turned around and walked through the open doorway, before catching his last whispered remark, “Who said I was doing it alone with you anyway?”

“What?!”

---

And that’s how I ended up with quite a number of boys crowded around my bed, all chattering like it was a sleepover.

They were playing Uno. Yoongi-sunbaenim was dealing the cards. Jin-sunbaenim was winning, with only two cards left. From what I could see though, he had one green skip card and another red number card which was different from the current colour yellow. Jungkook had four cards, but I couldn’t see the colour. My boyfriend had three as well, and was emitting about seven high pitched screams per second, every time someone threw out a draw two or draw four card. But Namjoon-sunbaenim had the worst luck, with fourteen cards in hand. V-oppa and Jimin-sunbaenim were nowhere to be seen however.

I gave my best death glare to them, but it was like water off a duck’s back.

 “Why the hell are you all in my house?” I asked, breaking the heated silence.

“You keep asking this question,” Yoongi-sunbaenim whined, stretching tiredly. “We told you, it’s for protection.”

“And we know if we leave Hoseok alone in this house with you he might run out screaming,” Namjoon-sunbaenim joked. “He’s afraid of everything!”

I rolled my eyes, and just continued to watch them play.

It was better than spending the night alone anyway, I mused, as Namjoon-sunbaenim threw out a draw four card, to Superhero-sunbaenim’s horror.

The thoughts of my father whirled in my head. I still could hardly believe that the man was dead. For ten years, he had beaten me black and bloody, had come after me with bottles, had insulted me… His friends had had no respect for me, had treated me like dirt. He himself had made me believe that I was dirt and nothing else. He had been the cause of all my misery, had been the nail pierced into my back.

But he had still been my father. He had given me a home. He had brought me to life.

I felt relieved that he was dead, but also guilty.

How could I feel that way when the person who had brought me into the world was finally dead?

And another part of me felt angry too.

He had tortured my family so much, yet he died so painlessly. Was it fair that he had died in his sleep, when he had brought me to so many points of almost death?

 I rolled over in my blanket, pushing the thoughts away, but it was clear that even though my father was no longer alive, his memory was still torturing me.

---

The doorbell trilled, waking me from my slumber. I was slumped into Superhero-sunbaenim’s side, as the rest curled around on the floor in various positions. Glaring at the morning sun, I stumbled to my feet, and glanced outside the window.

It was my mother, flanked by two tall men.

My heart dropped to my feet as I snapped into a crouching position, covering my eyes in shock.

Were those… my brothers? I was going to meet them so soon? But I wasn’t prepared! What was I going to say?!

“Mmm…” my boyfriend moaned, stretching and blinking sleepily at me. “Why are you up so early?”

“My mother,” I hissed. “And… m-my brothers… they’re outside!”

He shook awake, eyes wide and mouth splitting into an excited boxy grin.

“Oh my god!” he mouthed, pointing at all the other boys clustered around the room.

“What am I going to say to them?” I fretted quietly, wringing my hands in despair. “I don’t have anything nice to wear!”

I’d been so caught up with yesterday’s game that I hadn’t realised that my mother was bringing my two brothers to see me today.

Superhero-sunbaenim grabbed onto my hand and pulled me into his chest, laughing throatily.

“Be yourself,” he mumbled against my cheek. “They’ll love you.”

I felt a sense of overwhelming appreciation for this boy as the nervousness melted away. How did he always know exactly what I needed to hear and when I needed to hear it?

He ushered me out the door, kicking away any stray boys lying in our path. As we reached the door, he pecked my cheek, grinning cheekily.

“Brush your teeth!” he gestured, before shutting it and leaving me to face my demise.

---

I heaved a breath. It was time.

I opened the door, letting the morning sun shine through the doorway.

“Youngmi,” my mother greeted warmly, gripping onto my forearm. “I was afraid we woke you up.”

She was wearing khaki pants and a checkered shirt, like any middle-aged ahjumma would wear. The two men behind her wore caps, but I was too mesmerised by the thoughts of having a mother again that I didn’t really notice them.

“No you didn’t,” I lied through my teeth, smiling welcomingly. “Do you want to come in?”

I led them through the doorway to the living room, where they sat on the sofa. Bottles littered the floor, evidence of my father still haunting this house.

Superhero-sunbaenim was right. Maybe ghosts did exist.

“Sorry about the mess,” I smiled ruefully. “We got back quite late, and I didn’t have time to clear up.”

“It’s alright dear,” my mother smiled tenderly at me. “Your boyfriend didn’t make you stay alone did he?”

“No, he brought some friends over to keep me company,” I smiled.

“Boyfriend?” asked one of the boys curiously.

I turned to face the voice.

My eyes widened as my mind rapidly made the connections.

This person’s face was burned into my memories, from the time I met him at the competition, to when I got Mirae to find out about his group, to when I finally let that information go, convinced that it had meant nothing then.

The person was none other than Yoo Youngjae from BAP.

“You!” I exclaimed, jumping up from my seat.

He cracked a throaty laugh, a laugh I hadn’t heard in years.

“Yes me, Youngie,” he smiled, crinkling the corners of his eyes as my eyes watered. “I’ve missed you, my baby sister.”

I launched my arms around him, crying openly as he held me carefully, as if afraid I would dissolve into mist if he held too tight.

I breathed in his cologne as memories came flooding back to me.

When we got stuck in the cave together when we’d gone to the beach, and it had become high tide. When I got a paper cut and cried buckets until he promised to kiss it better. When he got the top in class for math and I’d been so excited I’d screamed from halfway across the hall in school. When we sat in the treehouse together, watching the stars. When we fought over the remote, me wanting to watch Power Rangers and him wanting to watch anime. When he would share his dessert with me and I would eat everything, not knowing that he’d scrunched up the entire week’s pocket money just to buy it.

I cried, feeling the hole in my heart as he embraced me, his hair tickling my forehead.

His features were aged now, his cheeks less chubby than before. Gone was the mullet hairstyle he’d worn proudly, being replaced by a shock of red-brown hair. His eyes were just as crinkly as ever, and his lips were pulled into a warm grin. I felt myself smile painfully, so happy that I was crying buckets of tears.

“Aish, you kids are making me cry,” the other male sniffed, wiping his tears. “Have you forgotten me already, dongsaeng? I’m Youngwon-oppa, remember?”

I nodded my head silently, tears streaming down my face as I recalled his strong, broad features. I could recognise him distinctly, seeing as he’d been 16 years old when they left while Youngjae-oppa had only been 8.

And now I had both of them back.

“They’ve missed you a lot,” my mother said warmly. “As have I.”

I couldn’t speak, I was crying so much. From happiness? From nostalgia? I have no idea. But what I did know was that I had a bunch of cool friends upstairs that I had to introduce to my family.

I wiped my tears with my arms and gestured upstairs.

“Do you want to meet my boyfriend and friends?” I asked cheerily.

“Of course, you haven’t properly introduced us yet,” my mother smiled as the three of them got out of the seat.

“Well, we’ll have to do the boyfriend talk then,” Youngjae-oppa cracked his knuckles jokingly, cricking his neck.

“Yeah, we might have to show him a thing or two about the Yoo family,” Youngwon-oppa joked, tussling my hair.

I mumbled a squeak of protest as they laughed and gestured for me to lead them.

I turned, only to see Superhero-sunbaenim tumbling down the stairwell.

“Um… hi?” he greeted hesitantly as I slapped my forehead in exasperation.

---

Hoseok didn’t like sad films, but the reunion between Youngmi and her brothers was almost as touching as her reunion with her mother had been, and he’d cried buckets at that.

He couldn’t believe it. She could finally find happiness. Hoseok was so happy he could scream.

“Don’t,” Namjoon warned lowly, gesturing to the family talking downstairs. “They’ll hear us, and your girlfriend will rage.”

Hoseok uttered a squeak of agreement, muffling it with his hands. He’d suffered at Youngmi’s anger before and it wasn’t pretty.

“Do you want to meet my boyfriend and friends?” she asked clearly enough for everyone at the stairwell to hear.

“ she’s going to come up-” “Get out of my way she’s going to-” “Holy she’s gonna catch us eavesdropping-” “I do not want to eat off the floor-”

And in the ruckus, the boys accidentally pushed Hoseok off his seat on the lower step, causing him to tumble down the stairs, landing onto the ground floor in a crumpled heap.

“Ouch…” he groaned, aiming a glare up at the offending parties upstairs before realising the predicament he was in.

“Um… hi?” he offered, waving a hand as his girlfriend facepalmed.

“This is… my boyfriend,” she sighed, and Hoseok pouted, before bouncing over to the family.

“I’m Jung Hoseok, nice to meet you!” he bowed to Ms. Yoo first, then to the two boys.

He stood back up and did a double take. That boy… wasn’t he…

“You!” he pointed in shock. “ AP! I mean BAP!”

“ AP?” Youngwon-ssi aimed a doubtful glance at Youngjae-ssi who laughed and shook his head.

“I see you’ve made good acquaintances with my baby sister,” he smiled as Youngmi protested at being called baby. “Have you been treating her well?”

“Oppa, we’ve only been dating two days!” she protested but Hoseok pacified her with a hand on her wrist, effectively silencing her.

“It’s only been two days, but I’ve known her for almost a year now and I can confidently say that I love her,” he puffed out his chest. “I’ll marry her one day.”

“If you hurt her…” Youngwon-ssi glared at him as he wilted. This family had good genes of death glares.

“If he hurts me I’ll make sure he lives to regret it,” she smiled as her grip on his hand turned vice-like.

Hoseok let out a nervous laugh as he steeled himself. His girlfriend was terrifying. And so was her family.

 “That’s a good girl,” Youngwon-ssi ruffled her hair. “Anyway, Jung Hoseok-ssi, you can call me Youngwon-hyung. I think we will be very close from now on.”

“And just call me Youngjae!” Youngjae-ssi piped up, grinning at him.

Hoseok felt himself relax into a friendly grin.

“Now let’s get you moved out of here,” her mother interrupted. “I want you living with us as soon as possible.”

“Is that really okay?” Youngmi asked, her eyes going wide.

“Why not, silly? You’re our family,” Youngjae laughed. “Come on, let’s go get your stuff packed up.”

Youngmi turned to face Hoseok, emotion welling up in her eyes. She looked frightened, yet exhilarated.

He gave her a knowing smile and squeezed her hand comfortingly.

“My room is just upstairs,” she made her way to the stairwell, as Hoseok bounded after her, eager to help his favourite person move into her new life.