“Come on dear, just one more step. Come on!”, a woman gently opened her hands and welcomed HyunAe into her lap. “You did it my little baby. You know how to walk!”. Then the woman’s face slowly faded away…

“HyunAe!”, HyunAe opened her eyes after gasping and saw YongGuk, “Op… Oppa…”

“The alarm clock has been ringing for five minutes but you still haven’t been awaken yet…”, YongGuk explained the reason why he was shaking HyunAe hard.

HyunAe combed her hair with her fingers and stuttered, “I… I saw that dream again…”

YongGuk sat down on the bed next to her, “See? I told you to go to sleep early. Everytime you feel tired and you see that bad dream…”, YongGuk took out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat on HyunAe’s forehead.

“I’m okay oppa…”, HyunAe took the handkerchief, “You should go to work now or you’ll be late…”

“Uhm…”, YongGuk nodded and left a peck on her cheek, “You also get up now or you’ll be late for school…”

“Arasseo oppa!”, HyunAe hurriedly got out of the bed and changed her uniform then quickly grabbed a piece of sandwich that her mother put on the table before rushing to school. Luckily, her school wasn’t far from home.

Just like every other day, DaeHyun and YoungJae have already been there in class.

“Good morning my girl!”, DaeHyun greeted HyunAe when she put her bag down on her desk then turned back to his desk and finished his cheesecake for breakfast.

“Have you done your homework yet?”, YoungJae opened her bag and took her notebook out without even a care if she allowed him or not.

HyunAe nodded while still trying to steady her breath. “But there is only one question I couldn’t answer. And I know that the best student YoungJae can!”

“Kekekeke… You trust the right one, HyunAe! It’s easy…”, YoungJae turned back to his desk, which was next to DaeHyun’s and in front of HyunAe’s then turned completely his body to HyunAe’s desk with a pencil in his hand. “This one right? You have to do like this…”

“Ah I see now…”, HyunAe nodded with YoungJae’s solution for the question.

==

YongGuk fixed the cap on his head to make it stay and not fall down while he was working then started to trim the range of flowers near the gate. Just a few minutes later, YongGuk heard the horn of a car and he knew that the owner of the house was home. He stopped and stepped aside to let the car drive in.

The mistress took off her coat and gave it to the butler, “I can see that you couldn’t find your sister… again”, the butler gently received the coat and hung it on.

“I don’t want to talk about that… I have met a hundred HyoMi but none of them is MY HyoMi. This time I had to take a long trip to that remote province… What a waste of time! It took me three days”, HyoSung dropped herself on the armchair and facepalmed. The butler understood his mistress very well as this wasn’t the first time she came home with a big disappointment that her sister hadn’t been found yet. A hot cup of tea was served to relax her.

“I saw the new gaderner at the gate. He’s the new one right?”, HyoSung tried to keep her mind busy with other things so she could stop thinking about her sister.

“Yes. I fired the old one just like what you said”, the butler poured more tea for HyoSung.” This new guy is a very good gardener. He has worked for many other famous houses. Hope he’ll make you satisfy with the new garden”

“Okay… I’ll take a look after bathing. Don’t interrupt me until then!”, HyoSung flipped her hair and walked to her room.

==

“Breaktime!”, DaeHyun screamed out right after the bell rang. “I mean… snack time!”, DaeHyun immediately took out a small pack of snack.

“You’re really a food-addict, DaeHyun!”, HyunAe closed her notebook and rested her head on it.

“HyunAe, today is Friday!”, YoungJae woke her up.

“So what…?”, HyunAe pouted and still didn’t want to open her eyes.

“What do you mean by “So what”? Tomorrow is weekend! Let’s go somewhere and have fun!”, YoungJae leaned down as HyunAe still didn’t pick her head up.

“Let’s go to the amusement park! I miss the cotton candy, sausage and chips there…”, even though DaeHyun was holding snack in his hand but he still could think of food.

“Okay stop it DaeHyun!”, YoungJae patted DaeHyun’s head. “All of your life is only about food? What else can you do?”

“Eating…”, DaeHyun mumbled while chewing.

“Aish… are you crazy because of food?”, YoungJae pushed DaeHyun and he fell down on the floor from his desk.

Both YoungJae and HyunAe burst to laugh and didn’t forget to give each other a high-five.

“Sorry guys… Gotta go to work with my big bro tomorrow”, HyunAe refused her two best friends. “He has just been accepted to a new beautiful house and he said I had to see it. You know I like big houses…”

“How about Sunday?”, DaeHyun held on the desk to get up. “Oh I forgot… Girls day out… Shopping with JiEun noona…”, he asked and answered himself.

“Are you playing hard-to-get with us? We’re not even your boyfriend!”, YoungJae crossed his arms and pouted.

“Guys… I’m sorry okay?”, HyunAe shook YoungJae’s hands. “Hey… But we can hang out in Sunday night!”. The bell rang.

“Okay…”, YoungJae nodded, “Sunday night!”. “Keep your promise!”, DaeHyun said before turning back to his desk.

==

“The butler was right about you!”, HyoSung’s sudden presence made YongGuk gasp. YongGuk was hanging the pot of flowers on the balcony. “You’re YongGuk right?”

“Ah yes… hello, Mistress… I’m the new gardener”, YongGuk awkwardly greeted her and climbed down the stairs.

“I know! Well… the garden is kind of important to me so please take good care of it…”, HyoSung reminded the new guy and started walking down into the garden. “Perfect…”, HyoSung looked around and felt so satisfied with the new garden.

Everytime HyoSung felt exhausted, the garden was always there for her and helped her feel better and also this was the last place she and her sister were playing together, before that tragic trip. HyoSung loved the garden as much as her sister HyoMi.

“Mistress…”, YongGuk’s call got HyoSung out of her thought.

“HyoSung…”, HyoSung turned to look at him, “Just call me HyoSung!”

“Ah yeah, Ms. HyoSung, tomorrow my sister doesn’t go to school and she wants to come and help me. Can I take her with me?”, YongGuk scratched his head.

“Sister”, the word that always made HyoSung depressed but she couldn’t blame a stranger like YongGuk for saying that word in front of her. Anyway, maybe a strange little girl could change the heavy atmosphere of this house.

“Okay… Just don’t let her mess everything up!”, HyoSung replied and walked inside the house.