Hyun Hae went in a convenience store after losing ‘the battle’. She needs ice cream. She knows she does. Ice cream never fails to cheer her up no matter how low her mood dropped. She bought for herself a cheese-flavored sundae which she immediately ate. Little by little, that ice cream worked its unfailing power on cheering her up. She finished the cone and went home.

She got a job so, there’s really a great reason to be happy, she entered the house. The flower shop is closed by the time she arrived; her Eomma is in the kitchen preparing their dinner, while her Appa is in the living room, watching some drama.

“I’m home!”, she excitedly said a little too loud that startled her Appa, he just chuckled.

“Oh, Hyun Hae-ah, you’re back, how did it go? I’m sure they liked you there. Come here, say that your Appa is correct”, he happily said, gesturing her to come sit with him on the sofa.

She come closer to her Appa and gave him a soft peck on the cheek. The old man smiled.

“Dae, Appa, Mr. Choi said that he’s glad to have me there”, she said, proud of herself, as well as happy that his foster father have so much belief in her. She gave him a smile.

“Okay, you two, come over here, dinner’s ready”, Mrs. Lee softly said.

Hyun Hae immediately stood up and gave her Eomma a kiss on the cheek.

“Kamsahamnida, Eomma. Where’s Eonnie?”, she asks while turning her head around to look for her sister.

“Oh, she’s upstairs, go get her, change your clothes as well, then come down for dinner, arasso?”

“Dae”, and she quickly ran up the stairs to get her sister. She has something to share with her.

“Eonnie!”, Hyun Hae gave her sister a hug when she saw her sitting on her bed, busy with her camera.

“Oh, Hyun Hae-ah, how was it?”, she said, now lifted her gaze from the camera to look at her dongsaeng.

“The job? It went great, people there are nice. It turned out that I will be working with a guy, he’s a writer, too.”

She can see the look her sister gave her upon the mention of a guy.

“I know what you’re thinking. Changjo is nice but he’s not my type”, she said guessing that her sister is thinking of a possible romance between her and her new officemate.

“Hey, you know what, eonnie”, she said, suddenly thinking of something. “I think you and Changjo will look better together”, she said while giggling. She knows that her eonnie doesn’t like it when she’s being paired to men she hasn’t met yet; exactly the reason why Hyun Hae is saying this. She wanna turn the wheels a good one hundred eighty degrees and have her eonnie on the spotlight instead of her.

Hyun Hae laughed at the expression on her eonnie’s face.

“Haha, eonnie, you should’ve seen your face, hahaha!”, Hyun Hae keeps on laughing when they heard their eomma calling out for them.

“Yah, Hyun Hae-ah, I told you to call your sister for dinner, what’s taking you two so long? Come down now.”

“Oh, right, I forgot”, she laughed sheepishly before shouting back, “Dae, eomma, we’re coming.”

Hara just giggled at her sister. Hyun Hae quickly changed into more comfortable clothes and they went down together.

After dinner, the two are back in their bedroom. Again, Hara is busy with her camera while Hyun Hae prepares to go to bed.

“Eonnie, guess what I found this afternoon while walking out”, Hyun Hae said while combing her straight, black hair that reaches her waist.

“Huh? What?”, Hara asked still looking at her camera.

“What is it that you’re looking at your camera, anyways? You’ve been doing that even before I came home”, asked Hyun Hae out of curiosity.

“Oh, I was just checking out the pictures I took of Kim Heechul during our photo shoot earlier”, she explains.

“Oh, is that it? Wait, Kim Heechul? You mean Kim Heechul?”, Hyun Hae asks, surprised.

“Yeah, Kim Heechul, Super Junior’s Kim Heechul, who else?”, Hara said laughing at her sister’s shocked expression. “Why? I didn’t know you like him.”

“Well, no, it’s just that, you’re working in a fashion magazine, right? How come a musician is there?”

“He is chosen to endorse one of the brands that our magazine featured this month, so, we held a little photo shoot”, she explains.

“Oh”, is all Hyun Hae could say.

“So, what were you saying earlier? About the thing you saw while walking out?”, Hara asks, now putting her camera in its bag, and starts to prepare for bed as well.

“A book! And just any other book, eonnie, it’s The Vampire Chronicles! Well, not the entire set, but one of the eight books! Can you believe it? I didn’t find one whenever I’m in Japan and I already saw two here, Memnoch The Devil, and Interview with the Vampire. And now, I got to see yet another one, The Vampire Lestat! Omo, my beloved Lestat!”, she talks about those books rather animatedly which Hara found amusing. It’s another side of her sister, people are yet to discover. They often see her as the tough one, but she actually has this baby side of her.

Hara started laughing at her. She watch Hyun Hae tell her story with hand gestures, and the occasional enlarging of her eyes whenever she mentions the title of the book, that got Hara to laugh even more. She can watch Hyun Hae all day long.

“Yah, eonnie, why are you laughing?”, pouts Hyun Hae when she noticed that her sister is not paying attention to her, better yet, laughing at her. “It’s not funny at all, I lost the book”, then she pouts even more, one can hang a kettle on it.

Wiping the tears off her eyes, Hara tried to stop laughing and when she succeeded, she then asks, “What do you mean you lost it?”

“I lost it”, then she told the whole story of a young man getting to the book the same time as her, their Kai Bai Bo battle, her winning on the first two rounds, up to her losing on the last three rounds. She remembered her disappointment when she didn’t got to have the book. With this, she pouts even more.

“Aigoo, my dongsaeng is so cute”, Hara says then pinched Hyun Hae’s cheeks. “It’s okay, I’m sure you’ll find another copy of your Vampire Chronicles. As she said so, she imitated her sister’s way of saying it—hand gestures and eyes widening.

“Hmm, you’re making fun of me”, Hyun Hae pouts. “But I don’t think I can find another one anytime soon.”

“Okay, don’t think about that book anymore, think of that man instead”, Hara teases; she will never let an issue of a man with her sister.

“What man?”, she asks, clueless.

“Aish, that young man you battled silly on the ownership of the book.”

“Oh, that man”, she said remembering, “what about him?”

“Well, I’m just curious, what does he look like?”

“Why do you wanna know that all of a sudden?”

“Hmm, nothing, just curious”, Hara answered while plopping her chin on her pillow, the back of her right hand resting beneath.

Hyun Hae now laid on her bad, her still folded blanket resting on her tummy; she always put her blanket on her tummy no matter the weather.

“Hmm… he’s okay”, she answered that got Hara even more curious.

“Okay? That’s it?”

“Yeah, what else? It’s not like I’ll look at his face or anything, I’m only concentrated on the book, nothing else matters for me during those times, so, I really don’t pay that much attention to him, though, maybe I can recognize him when I see him again, that’s all. Why are you curious, anyway?”

“Nothing, it’s just…”

“Just what?”

“Nothing, sleep now, you have work tomorrow, right?”

“Alright, good night, eonnie. See you tomorrow”, she said, gave Hara a smile then closed her eyes.
 

Hyun Hae always sleeps the way Sleeping Beauty and Snow White do. Her back lays straight on top of the bed, so as her legs, while her hands rests on her tummy, above her blanket. And when she rest in that position, she’ll wake up in that same position the next morning—a trait Hara found amazing. On another note, when Hyun Hae sleeps so firm and peaceful, Hara would turn around and around her bed every so often that there are times when she woke up, her head and feet dangles on the either sides of her bed. In return, Hyun Hae always find her funny.