Umji sat down at the shelf closest to the door, waiting for Sowon to come through at any time. Today, Sowon was supposed to be out till lunch and then out again till dinner. Umji had been waiting since 6 pm for her owner’s return.

Swinging her legs lightly, she hummed to herself, maybe Sowon was just running late?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Miss! Miss! Can you hear me?! An ambulance is coming! Stay with me Miss!”

Sowon groaned, her body hurt, and her head was spinning, was everything fading away?

The little nuko opened her eyes, head pounding. Freeing herself from the human grip she stared down at her savior.

Sowon’s eyes focused once more, one eye closed because the blood from her head flowed down and in, causing it to sting from the iron.

“Y-You o-k?”

The nuko’s eyes widened, this human, that ran out into the street because she wasn’t checking the traffic, had picked her up telling her to be more careful before one of those thugs chasing her shoved into her causing her to fly out of the human’s hands and into the traffic once more. To her surprise, the human must have run out to catch her once more, resulting in this accident.

Nodding once, she put a hand on the human’s.

“Why?”

“Y-you remind me o-of when Umji was little an-an didn’t listen.”

The human’s eyes unfocused, going slightly limp before passing out. The nuko patted lightly at the human’s cheek.

“Please,” almost crying, “please be okay. You’re the only human who cared for me. Please.”

She cried on the human’s chest, ever as the nurses lifted the human’s body to the ambulance, she didn’t move, crying her eyes out.

Looking up for a second before the door closed, she saw the thug that shoved this human talking to the driver, that was their getaway vehicle and the police hadn’t arrived yet, the firemen and ambulance first.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sowon had been hit from the side, rolled over the car hugging the nuko carefully to her chest, arms crooked to make sure that when she rolled, she wouldn’t crush the nuko.

As she waited inside the hospital room after they had wheeled the human out of the ER, she saw the human’s belongings.

Flipping open the wallet, she found an ID card. Kim Sojung.

Flipping the extra card holder, she found a polaroid. Pulling it out, she saw a young girl holding a teeny nuko. Looking between the photo and the patient, she concluded that it must be her in the picture, and perhaps the little nuko was the Umji she spoke of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Umji frowned, it was 8pm and the others had started eating the cereal from the dispenser and she didn’t blame them. It was way past dinner time and Sowon was still not home.

“Sowon unnie where could you be?”

Suddenly the landline in the house rang, causing all the nukos to jump from its shrill ringing.

“Hello?”

“Is this Yewon?”

“Sowon unnie’s mama?”

“Yes, it’s me. I’m coming over to make food for you now okay. When I get there I’ll tell you what happened.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Umji watched as Sowon’s mom walked in the front door, holding a bag of tupperware. She noticed several of her favorite foods from when she was little.

“Hello momma.”

“Hey Umji.”

They silently made their way to the kitchen, the three other nukos watching from a bridge away from the kitchen.

“Here’s your favorites, I packed them in a hurry.”

“Um, momma has unnie told you that Sowon’s unnie left two nukos here?”

“Yes, where are they?”

Eunha and Yuju walked forwards, this was their first time meeting their future grandma(?).

(Cuz in this case for them two, Sowon’s older sister would be their new mom making Sowon’s mom a grandma, when Umji was basically more of a sister.)

“Hello.”

“Aren’t you two just beautiful.”

The old lady smiled at them softly, but they could still tell a certain sadness in her eyes.

“A-Also momma?”

“Yes, Yewon ah.”

“We picked up another nuko, her name is Yerin.”

Umji waved Yerin over, who tentatively stood at the end of the table.

“She’s from an abusive place Sowon said.”

The old lady gasped before breathing evenly, placing a kind smile on her face, her eyes still crinkled in sadness.

“A-and y-you said that there was something you n-needed to t-tell me?”

Umji was on the verge of crying, if it was Sowon’s mom coming to feed them, what happened to Sowon that made it, so she couldn’t come home?

The old lady held out a hand to Yerin, not entering her personal space but leaving her hand there for Yerin to come to her.

“You have beautiful golden hair.”

“Th-thanks?”

Finally, Sowon’s mom sighed and put her hands on her face, covering her expression.

“Sowon’s in the hospital.”

“What.”

Umji froze, her tears streaming down, unable to stop them.

“She’s broken her arms and several ribs. A minor concussion because she protected her head well, but she’s also broken a leg.”

It came out as a cracked-up cry.

“WHY?”

Umji let herself be held, she needed it. Wailing into the embrace of Sowon’s mother.

Yerin began crying and Sowon’s mom carefully scooped her closer, letting Yerin cry against her arm. Eunha cried into Yuju’s shoulder, and Yuju stared dazed into space.

When the crying had slowed to a sniffle, Umji lifted her head.

“When can we go see her?”

“In the morning sweetie, in the morning.”

“Will you stay here?”

“I will.”

“Thanks momma.”

The old lady rubbed Umji’s head lightly, just the way Sowon would, bringing fresh tears to Umji’s eyes.

======================

I'm in America, I know there are two other countries that also don't use metric but they can use metric more than Americans can, did you know that roughly 40% of Americans know how to use metric system? Shocker, also how'd you know I was gonna post again, you fortune teller you~