Yerim unlocked the door to her home and entered. Dread filled her as she stood frozen in the doorway, listening intently. From the sound of it, Chae-eun and Yoo-rim were watching a movie upstairs, most likely “The Little Mermaid” for the hundredth time. It wasn’t a weekend day, so Ye-eun would still be staying at their aunt’s house. Down the hall in the kitchen, came noises of metal scraping on metal, along with the scent of spices and fish as her mother prepared dinner. Yerim locked the door behind her, took a deep breath, and began walking over, readying herself for whatever hellstorm her mother decided to unleash upon her as retribution for her actions today. She just hoped that all the yelling wouldn’t disturb Chae-eun or Yoo-rim too much.

She walked into the kitchen, her sock-covered feet padding lightly across the carpet at each step, transitioning to a soft swooshing noise as they moved over tile. Yerim lolled against the wall directly adjacent to the doorway, shifting back and forth, her clammy hands clasped together over her chest.

Yerim’s mother was a short woman, even shorter than Yerim herself was. She had a similar appearance as well, although her black hair was faded and less lively, and her skin didn’t have the same tightness that Yerim’s did. Her back was turned to the doorway, and she was humming to herself as she went about her cooking, moving from pot to pot seemingly without noticing the arrival of her eldest daughter.

“Mom?” Yerim asked, peering down at the floor, “I’m home.”

The older woman spun around at the sound of her daughter’s voice, her prematurely wrinkled face taking on a cast of fear, her tired eyes widening as she practically threw her cooking spoon down and rushed over to Yerim.

At first, the blonde expected to be scolded, or even hit; although her mother hadn’t spanked her in years, this incident could have been reason enough to do so. However, rather than being met with harsh words or sharp smacks, she was met with a pair of arms holding her tight, rocking her back and forth.

“Yerim, oh my god,” her mother said fretfully, “My baby, my poor baby, are you okay? Are you hurt? Did those girls hurt you?”

“Huh?” Yerim replied stupidly, “Wh-what? Yeah, I’m okay…”

Her mother held her out at arm’s length, those chocolate-colored eyes scouring her body relentlessly, searching for any signs of damage to her confused daughter.

“Your uniform is so dirty! You didn’t take a shower at Sae-ron’s house?”

“No… Sae-ron was worse off than I was, so I kinda just took care of her all day.”

Yerim was becoming very adept at lying.

“And why didn’t you answer my texts?” Yerim’s mother demanded, although she sounded more hurt than stern, “I was so worried about you.”

“I… I don’t know…taking care of Sae-ron, and all that,” Yerim repeated shamefacedly.

Thankfully, her mother didn’t seem to notice the lack of honesty in her daughter’s voice, instead ushering the girl over to the kitchen table and sitting her down.

“The school called me and told me you’d been in a fight with three girls. They didn’t mention Sae-ron being involved. What happened?”

And so, the blonde recanted the tale, despite how tired she was. At her mother’s insistence, she provided as many details as possible, including the main reason the fight was instigated, the fact that Sae-ron had thrown the first punch (Yerim felt very much like she was selling her friend out, but her mother asked specifically), and what had happened to the other girls as a result. Upon finishing, she realized how dry and raspy was, so she stood and went to get some water from the sink as her mother absorbed the information.

When Yerim turned to face her mother again, the older woman appeared as if she were heavily contemplating her next words.

“So…” she said, folding her hands in her lap and turning to face Yerim, “A week of detention for this?”

Yerim nodded as she filled another glass of water.

“That’s not too bad. At least you’re not suspended.”

“Yep.”

A short silence followed, one that was dense, laden with nonverbal emotions that Yerim had trouble understanding. It was as if her mother was holding something back from her, something that was weighing heavily on the older woman’s mind. Eventually, Yerim’s mother spoke, her words coming slow and carefully planned.

“When Sae-ron hit that girl, it was because she made fun of you for being a homoual?”

Yerim’s eyebrows crinkled together and she leaned up against the faux-granite of the countertop beside her.

“Yeah, that’s essentially what happened.”

“What made her make that joke? Are… are you gay, Yerim?”

Yerim’s eyes widened, jaw dropping as her mind froze in shock. Her mother’s inquiry caught her completely off guard; why, after that entire story (one that involved her daughter near single-handedly fighting off three larger girls) was that the woman’s first question? The oddest part was that Yerim didn’t have a definitive answer. She had no clue what to say, because she wasn’t sure herself. Growing up, she’d never really taken an interest in boys. She’d thought that some of them were good-looking, but never anything beyond a quick mental note here or there. Not that she’d ever taken an interest in girls, either… Up until recently, that is. Thinking back, she found that there were many times where she considered the attractiveness of two girls in particular, two girls she had met recently, two girls that both just so happened to live in the same magical house. It wasn’t like she was drooling over them or anything, but they were both stunningly beautiful enough for her to recognize and appreciate. She’d literally contemplated the consequences of dating Sooyoung, who was very much an individual of the same gender as her. And that kiss earlier… although it hadn’t been Yerim’s first kiss, it sure felt like it. Hell, it felt like much more than that. She’d equate it to the old trope of “sparks flying”, but that wouldn’t do it justice. She could still taste Sooyoung’s lips on hers, their honeyed surfaces embracing her own with a sort of tender innocence that had brought warmth and calmness to Yerim’s heart.

Yerim’s mother waited with uncharacteristic patience as her daughter stared off into space, the younger girl rapping her fingers on the countertop and chewing on her lower lip.

“Well,” Yerim finally said, snapping back to reality and registering the concerned appearance on her mother’s face, “Honestly mom, I don’t know. Maybe?”

The older woman exhaled powerfully, pinching the bridge of her nose and obscuring her eyes from view. Yerim had a sinking feeling that this was not the answer that her mother was looking for.

“How could you not know?” her mother questioned, and that all too familiar, argumentative tone returned, sending a spark of fear up Yerim’s spine, “It’s either yes or no.”

“Because I’m not sure,” Yerim said peevishly, furrowing her brow, “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.”

Yerim’s mother’s frown deepened and she stood. The blonde reflexively moved away as she approached, though the woman passed her without a second glance and moved to check on her cooking.

“And what if I was?” Yerim asked, speaking entirely to her mother’s back now, “What would it matter? Do you have a problem with it?”

“I don’t, not really,” Yerim’s mother said without turning around, stunning her daughter into silence for what might have been the hundredth time that evening, “But other people do. If you feel that way about other women, it’s probably best to be as quiet about it as possible.”

Yerim could sense the potential anger draining from her body, melting through her torso and disappearing into the floor as she stood there, racking her brain for a response. Since when was her mother so understanding and sympathetic? It was almost as if something was wrong.

“I’ll, uh, try,” Yerim said once she regained the ability to speak, “Thanks.”

They returned to their uneasy silence, Yerim staring at the floor and playing with her fingers while her mother continued to cook. The blonde wanted to make an exit, to go up to her room and hide away for awhile, intent on ruminating over the events that had transpired that day, but she felt as though the conversation wasn’t over yet. That same sensation of hanging, unspoken words remained.

Then again, that was how most of Yerim’s interactions with her mother went. In instances that they weren’t arguing or ignoring each other, it was a weighted expectedness, as if they were both waiting to be at one another’s throats again.

    Fortunately for the blonde, the awkwardness was broken by the sound of two pairs of tiny feet stomping their way down the staircase. Yerim looked up just in time to see her two little sisters, adorned with matching purple pajamas and giddily welcoming smiles as they ran forward to greet her.

    “Unnie!” Chae-eun called out as they barreled into their older sister, enveloping her in a twin embrace as she stooped down to meet them, “Unnie are you okay?”

    “Mommy told us what happened to you at school,” Yoo-rim said, her tone alight with melancholy and concern, “We were so worried about you.”

    “I’m fine,” Yerim soothed, holding her sisters close, “It was just a little fight.”

    “Who was it?” Chae-un demanded, “We’ll get revenge on them for you.”

    Yerim laughed and held the two youngsters out at arm’s length, appreciating the comical indignance that had come over both of their youthful visages.

    “You don’t have to do that,” Yerim said with an exaggeratedly secretive glance at their mother’s back, “I won the fight, anyway.”

    Chae-eun’s and Yoo-rim’s faces lit up, even as their mother turned to give a disapproving sideways glance towards Yerim.

    “You three should go wash up,” their mother said as she switched off the stove, “Dinner’s ready.”

    “Okay, come on girls,” Yerim said, ushering her younger sisters out of the kitchen and into the hallway, “Let’s go get cleaned up for dinner.”

    As usual, the two younger girls obeyed Yerim without question, somehow excited for such a mundane task, so long as their big sister was with them.

***

    DInner with the family was something that Yerim rarely participated in. Under normal circumstances, she would retreat to her room as her mother and sisters ate together, or she would have dinner over at Sae-ron’s house. In spite of her naturally argumentative nature, Yerim’s mother never questioned her eldest daughter’s decision to eat away from the family. This was, of course, barring special occasions such as holidays or birthdays, and Yerim had dinner at the house at least once a week, mostly out of guilt. Her mother certainly noticed her eldest daughter’s absence, but she never spoke of it. Neither of them spoke of it, or the fact that the trend had begun around the same time that Yerim’s father had passed away. Yerim’s sisters were too young at the time to remember occasions when the older girl dined with them, so it was the norm to them. Like many things in Yerim’s life, it was just a simple, sad fact that went unaddressed.

    In light of the events of the preceding day, Yerim had planned to go through her regular routine of watching “THRICE” vLives while eating her food. However, given her mother’s bizarrely reasonable behavior tonight, Yerim decided to sit down and have dinner with her family (barring Ye-eun).

    And it was confoundingly pleasant, to a point. Her mother’s cooking was amazing (although this was expected, it was still welcome), and despite the blonde’s previously full stomach, she was able to have two helpings of everything. The conversation was smooth and relaxed. They spoke mainly of Chae-eun’s and Yoo-rim’s adventures in preschool, ones that involved the nostalgic themes of learning the basics of reading and writing as well navigating this strange world that they were still so unfamiliar with. This left Yerim wishing that she could go back to a time when things were that simple, when her biggest problem in life was getting yelled at by the teacher for running too far out in the playground at recess. Yerim’s mother updated her daughters on Ye-eun’s progress in kindergarten, and assured them that their absent sibling would be around for the weekend. The older woman also spoke of her job, about all the business-related things that Yerim frankly had no clue about, but pretended to understand. This led into the dreaded talks of what Yerim would be doing post-graduation.

    “Well… you know,” Yerim said, pausing to take a forkful of fish and rice in order to divert the question, “College.”

    “But what would you be doing in college?” Yerim’s mother asked, sounding preemptively fed up.

    “You know that I have no idea what I want to do yet.”

    “Well, you’d better decide quickly,” her mother said, “We don’t have the money for you to just be messing around with some worthless dance or acting major.”

    “That’s what Sae-ron’s doing…” Yerim said with a frown, “She got into a special school for it and everything. And you haven’t seen her act. She’s really good.”

    “I’m sure she’s great at it,” Yerim’s mother’s tone dripped with disbelief bordering on sarcasm, “But the fact of the matter is that actresses now are a dime a dozen. What do you think her chances of getting a job after she graduates are?”

    “Pretty high, if she’s good enough.”

    “That’s what the thousands of other unemployed girls with acting degrees say,” the older woman rolled her eyes in a fashion that caused Yerim’s temper to spike, “No, what she needs to do is something that’s worth it, like business or engineering or something in the medical field-”

    “What, so she can just toil away the rest of her days doing something she hates?” Yerim said, her words coming out biting and angry.

    “Would you rather her living on the street after wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars and four years of her life on acting of all things?” Yerim’s mother bit back.

    “She should just be an astronaut,” Chae-eun chimed in, causing both verbal combatants to snap out of their tunnel-visioned states, “That’s much cooler than any of those other jobs.”

    Yoo-rim nodded fervently in agreement.

    Yerim smiled at her sisters, eternally grateful for their ability to defuse such tense (and potentially disastrous) situations such as these.

    The dinner continued on without any more incidents, though Yerim’s mother was markedly quieter than she had been prior to their minor spat. If Yerim was being honest with herself, this was more standard for dinners with the family, and while it wasn’t optimal, it was definitely customary.

    When everyone had finished up, Yerim offered to do the dishes, as she did with most meals that she ate at home. Yerim’s mother accepted graciously, and considering that Yoo-rim and Chae-eun needed to prepare for bed, the eldest daughter was left alone downstairs, scrubbing absentmindedly as she gazed out the kitchen window, into the thin, moonlit backyard beyond.

    It seemed like this was the first time in a long time that Yerim had some time to herself. Time to contemplate, reflect, and register all that had occurred in the blurry hecticness of the day. With it came an immense blanket of tiredness, so much so that she was yawning and suffering from a severe case of drooping eyelids by the time she was done cleaning up. Without ceremony, she made a beeline for the bathroom, halfheartedly brushing her teeth before beginning that satisfying final slog towards her bedroom, disregarding the fact that it was only eight twenty-five.

    As she was about to turn the corner into her room, a small voice called out from the bedroom directly adjacent to hers:

    “Yerim has to tuck us in!” Yoo-rim yelled indignantly.

    Yerim knew that the girls would refuse to go to bed until she tucked them in, so she turned and stepped into the lamp-illuminated shared room of her sisters. On the bed sat their tired-looking mother, holding a children’s book that she must have been attempting, unsuccessfully, to read to them. The older woman near-shoved the book into her daughter’s hands before standing up and letting out a sigh of pure exhaustion.

    “I have to go take a shower…” she muttered, “Try and see if you can get them to sleep.”

    The older woman then departed, her posture and gait just as slumped as Yerim’s had been.

    “Okay,” Yerim replied, turning to her two sisters.

    Yoo-rim and Chae-eun were huddled up under the blankets with only their eyes visible, though it was apparent that they wore large smiles at the prospect of their big sister reading to them.

    “Scoot over,” Yerim said, crawling up into the bed.

The two younger girls moved aside to make room for their older sister, lifting up the covers so that she could slide beneath them. They then clung to either one of their older sister’s elbows, resting their heads on her shoulders in order to see the pictures in the book better. The bed was warm and comfortable, and it took all of Yerim’s energy to bring the book up to her face so that she could begin reading.

“Where did mom leave off?” she asked.

“The part where Max went to bed without supper,” Chae-eun answered.

“Ah, okay. I’ll start there, then.”

And so she did. She read with a lulling, soft cadence, one that was almost musical in nature, with peaking highs at climactic sections and pacified lows at the slower-paced sections. The intended effect was to engross the girls in the story and distract them from their pre-bedtime restlessness, and it seemed to be working; however, it produced the added result of depleting all of Yerim’s remaining energy. By the time she reached the final page (the one involving Max finding that his mother did, in fact, bring him supper), Yerim was already half-asleep, the book dangling listlessly between her hands.

Luckily for her, Chae-eun was still awake enough to pluck the fluttering sheets of paper from her, placing them on the nightstand beside the bed before switching off the lamp, leaving the only source of light as a blue-tinged nightlight that the preschoolers insisted on keeping on (to scare the monsters away, of course). By the time Chae-eun had turned back, Yerim was fast asleep, curled up against Yoo-rim’s back as the two sisters snored away peacefully. Chae-eun gave her big sister a quick kiss on the forehead before placing her own head on the pillow. She was asleep seconds later.

***

    It wasn’t a surprise that Sae-ron and Yerim weren’t allowed to sit beside one another in detention. The teachers couldn’t risk them accidentally having fun during their punishment, and honestly, Yerim understood. That didn’t change the fact that she was bored out of her mind, though. She had to be there for two full hours after school ended, doing essentially nothing. The room was just hot enough to make her sleepy, but she knew that if she drifted off she would surely be scolded and given another day of detention. They were allowed to work on their homework if they so desired, but Yerim had finished hers within the first thirty minutes of her time there. So instead, she took to scribbling random drawings on a sheet of notebook paper, occasionally glancing up to see if the teacher had noticed.

    The prior day had been decidedly uneventful. Amber and Krystal were back in school, though they avoided both Yerim and Sae-ron like the plague. Luna was still nowhere to be found, likely kept out of school for an extra day at the insistence of her parents. Jungkook hadn’t returned to yet, either, and there were whispers of him having to switch to another high school due to the presence of “potential PTSD triggers”. Yerim purposefully didn’t try to expand upon these rumors, and the other students didn’t speak of them around her. Most people congratulated Yerim on how well she did in the fight, much to the blonde’s chagrin. She hated the unnecessary attention.

    Once Yerim was finished with her drawing (a rather well-done sketch of a certain wooden mansion in the forest) she stared out of the classroom’s window and at the sunlit road that ran directly adjacent to the school, watching the cars speed by and zoning out.

    When five o’clock rolled around, she and Sae-ron bolted out of their seats in tandem, bade a quick goodbye to Mr. Jones, and hurried out of the classroom. Both girls were grinning with their newly acquired freedom as they practically skipped out of the empty building, their footfalls clicking against the tiles as they went.

    “So what are you gonna do now?” Sae-ron asked as they stepped into the chilly autumn air, “You wanna hang out?”

    “Sure,” Yerim said, “Wanna come over? I have to watch Chae-eun and Yoo-rim, so I gotta stay home.”

    “Oh, of course!” Sae-ron exclaimed, her smile growing wider at the prospect of playing with Yerim’s rambunctious little sisters, “Mind dropping me off at home first so I can shower?”

    Yerim nodded, secretly thrilled that she had some time in between. It would be only about thirty to forty-five minutes, but it wouldn’t have mattered if it was thirty to forty-five seconds. Where she wanted to go, time wasn’t an issue.

    On the drive home, Yerim fantasized about all the things that she’d do when she got to the house as Sae-ron chirped on about some random school gossip she’d heard. She really wanted to practice the crossbow with Seungwan, but she knew that Sooyoung would feel left out if they just did that the whole time. She wouldn’t mind having her hair done again; it was very relaxing. She hoped that Seulgi and Joohyun had patched things up since she’d last saw them, because she missed seeing the two of them together. To her, they were like the perfect couple: they shouldn’t be fighting like this.

    Yerim dropped Sae-ron off at her house before making a beeline for her own home. As she stepped out of the car and started her walk into her backyard, and subsequently, the woods, she wondered how Sooyoung would interact with her. The kiss they’d shared still hung in Yerim’s mind, and it likely did the same within Sooyoung’s. Would the witch be awkward and shy? Would she be outgoing and bold? Yerim anticipated the former. Either way, she felt an anxious buildup working its way into her stomach as she crossed into the circle, catching her first glimpse of the house a few moments later. Through the denseness of the woods, she could see two figures moving about in the front of the home, one taller and one shorter, standing directly next to one another. If she had looked harder, she would have noticed that they were having an animated, almost argumentative conversation, one that she interrupted with her arrival.

    “Hey guys!” Yerim called, pushing into the clearing, “What’s-”

    The blonde was unable to continue, as the sight before her left her completely breathless. Sooyoung was dressed in the same sports outfit from the previous day, though her hair was allowed to hang freely over her shoulders, with neatly done bangs that stopped right over the tops of her eyebrows. But it wasn’t Sooyoung’s appearance that made Yerim’s heart skip a beat, no, it was the much shorter girl beside her.

    It was the first time that Yerim had seen Seungwan in any kind of outfit that wasn’t her admittedly unflattering orange-checkered dress. Her now purple-black hair was done up in a messy ponytail, with swooping bangs that skirted across her forehead in thin waves. Her lips were full and glossy, and a pair of large hoop earrings dangled from each of her earlobes. She had on a black velvet jacket that covered the similarly-colored tank top beneath it, one that was cut low and left little to the imagination. Her pants hugged her sizable thighs snugly, the sunlight reflecting off of the leather surface, each crease and groove crisply outlining her curves in an elegant, yet brash, way.

    Leather ing pants.

    Yerim had to put effort into tearing her gaze away from those two shiny black pieces of eye candy.

    Neither of the witches seemed to notice Yerim’s reaction or hesitance, because they were too busy appearing utterly aghast at her arrival. Seungwan recovered quicker, giving a small grin and a wave of greeting. Sooyoung, who Yerim fully expected to break into a wide smile and sprint over for a hug, instead frowned, the color draining from her face as she her heel and ran inside.

    “Sooyoung?” Yerim called, staring at the witch’s retreating form, “Sooyoungie, what’s wrong?”

    But there was no response, as she had already disappeared into the darkness of the house.

    Yerim moved to chase after her, but Seungwan stopped her with a firm yet gentle hand on the shoulder. They stood face-to-face, the apprehension on Seungwan’s visage reflecting back as a pained expression on Yerim’s.

    “I wouldn’t bother her right now,” Seungwan explained sadly, “She’s not in a good mood.”

    “Is it because of me?” Yerim asked in an almost frantic manner, her mind racing to find any reason that Sooyoung could be angry at her, “Is it because I was staring at your legs? I didn’t mean to, it’s just that the pants look so good on you, and-”

    “Wait, what?” Seungwan’s eyes widened comically, her eyebrows disappearing into her bangs as they shot up, “N-no, that’s definitely not it… but um… thanks.”

    Both girls stood there for a few seconds, acutely aware of their close proximity, their faces painted pink by embarrassment.

    “Well, anyway,” Yerim said in an effort to break the spell of uncomfortableness , “What is it?”

    Seungwan sighed, her stare remaining at the ground.

    “Well, you see… Sooyoung had a nightmare about you last night. It’s not like you were a monster or scaring her or anything, but in her nightmare…” Seungwan stopped for an achingly long moment as Yerim’s heart raced in preparation for the news, “You died.”

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Bunch of schoolwork this weekend, but I figure I'd finish this one up because I'm not a good student. I wanted to get some interactions with Yeri's mom and sisters in, and setup some stuff for the future as well. Hope you're cool with the minimal interaction with the witches. Next chaper will focus much more heavily on them, I promise!

Thanks for reading<3