***

Once Yerim was done cleaning herself, she came downstairs straight to the dining room to eat the food Jungkook had left for her. When she opened the food cover on the table, there were three kinds of meals—two of them with broth—and another bowl of rice that was waiting to be indulged into Yerim’s stomach. She picked out the wooden chair behind her and sat down.

Every spoon of rice and side dish that got into Yerim’s mouth, made her remember her mother's home-made meals. Even though that took place a year and a few months ago, Yerim still felt agitated for losing her entire family. She admitted, Jungkook’s mother’s home made meals were far more delicious than her own mother’s that would always lack of or excessed something : lack of salt and too much salt, lack of sugar or too sweet, less tastier and never was too tasty. Yerim recalled, she was the only family member who constantly complained about her mother’s cooking. As the youngest in the family who was always spoiled by her father, mother, and older sister, of course she did not feel any guilt when she had done that. And now that her mother was gone for good, she missed her mother’s imperfect home cooked meal.

Yerim’s tears fell down  her cheeks. In a day she would cry at least once when she would recall what happened to her poor family.

Yerim remembered, when she had just woken up from her coma, the first person she looked for was her mother. Because the last time before she was laid on the hospital’s bed, she was with her mother and brother-in-law. Then the doctor came to  inform her that her family was gone. Her entire family. From her mother, father, Sooyoung and Sungjae. They were all gone leaving Yerim alone. Leaving her with the newborn nephew.

Yerim would not stop crying back then. She did not even sleep for three days and the only thing she had done was crying her heart out. Almost 72 hours she had cried! The neighbors who had came to the hospital to pay a visit to Yerim , Sungjae and Sooyoung's son. They had also came to calm Yerim down and to gave her some encouragement. And the most thing Yerim had disliked was when the neighbors had asked her agreement for her nephew to be taken care by them.

Weird, was it not ? The person who Yerim blamed because of the deceasing of her family. Sungjae. Because of him, Yerim, her mother and him had been in an accident. And because of her mother’s death, plus her older sister who had passed away first after giving birth, her father was hopeless and had jumped from the hospital building to kill himself. When Yerim had heard a few times of her neighbors wanting to take care of her nephew, her feelings had changed then. Though she hated the father of the baby, she did not have the heart to leave the baby under someone else’s wing. Because he was her older sister’s son. Her beloved older sister. That was why, Yerim could still accept Yook Jaeyoung—the name Yerim had given to the baby, the name she remembered Sooyoung and Sungjae had once talked about it.

In the end, when the Jun family—the neighbors her family used to trust the most, asked her and her nephew to live with them, Yerim had agreed. Because Yerim was living all alone by herself, with the rest of her family living in Jeju. And Yerim had been living with the Juns for a whole year.
 

***

“Ya, Yook Jaeyoung, you better grow up to be a cold guy. I don’t like it when you smile.” Yerim said to the baby who was merely one year old, playing in her lap. At the moment, Yerim was with her nephew in her room that was once a guest room before she moved in.

Same reason. Yerim said it because she really did not like her nephew’s smile. Jaeyoung had a visual very similar  to Sooyoung’s. But when he was smiling and laughing, he looked exactly like Sungjae. After all, she still had hatred towards that guy.

“How can you look so similar to that guy when you’re smiling? Even though you have my older sister’s eyes, nose, and lips.”

Yerim caressed Jaeyoung’s head. She just realized how strong the baby’s head was becoming. She still remembered when she touched Jaeyoung for the first time to move in with the Jun, it had felt like touching a jelly!

“I’m so scared that I can’t take care of you. Your parents have left you even before you were born. But I don’t want anyone else to take you away because I don’t want my older sister to be disappointed in me up there.”

Sooyoung and Sungjae had never asked her to take care of Jaeyoung, even in their last breaths. Well, of course, Sooyoung had died once Jaeyoung was out of her stomach. And Sungjae had died on spot of the accident. But, Yerim felt like this was her duty to take care of Jaeyoung. Because he was the only family member who was left alive. Do not mind about Sungjae’s parents, because he did not have any. Short story, Sooyoung had met Sungjae near an orphanage which had taken care of him when they were still in high school.

Back to present time, Yerim’s lap was still full of Jaeyoung who was punching both of his small fists onto her calf. While Yerim was still engrossed in her past—again. Until something warm was awakening her from blank state. At first Yerim was confused because there was no s