Days later, I woke to the feeling of relief. My alarm clocks screaming didn’t wake me up today. I probably forgot to set it last night. What time is it? The sun is way too high so I probably already missed the bus. I turned over onto my back, resting my hand lazily over my stomach, and listened to the birds chirp outside my window, watched to sun’s rays fill my bedroom slowly. My mom must be at work already, it’s so quite I can hear my neighbors. Eventually I’m gonna have to get ready for school.

                Sighing reluctantly, I got up to gather school clothes. My eyes landed on my calendar, its Saturday! Somewhat running, I flew back to the safety of my bed. Returning to comfort as my memories from the week came back. Not only was it Saturday, it was also the start of the winter break! I closed my eye blissfully and fell back asleep.

                By the time I woke back up, it was already past noon. I stretched my stiff muscles, got out of bed, and took a long hot shower. After putting on fresh clothes I sat by the window and stared at the browning leaves until the hollow pit in my stomach could no longer be ignored. I should probably get something to eat. After searching the kitchen I decided to pop some microwaveable food in the microwave to lessen my chance of burning down the house.

                Thinking about burning down the house reminded me of Jiyang. I hope that he passed all his mid terms. There’s no need to worry about Taemin, he was literally the first person to finish in both our classes, and I can’t exactly say that about me. What if I didn’t pass mine? Ugh, I don’t want to think about this till the break is over! I should call Munhee or something. After eating, I grabbed my phone and did just that.

                “Hello?”She answered on the first ring. Was she waiting g for a phone call?

                “Oh, hey Munhee. Are you busy?”

                “Nope, I had a feeling you would call soon, and then you did.”She said cheerfully.”So what’s up with you?”

                “I’m trying not to stress over the mid-terms.”

                “Me to,” She said solemnly.

                “I’m sure you did fine,” I assured her. How could she think she’d ever get anything lower than an A?

                “Thanks.”She breathed,” You probably did well to.”

                “I hope so.”

                “Well I know so, so you can relax and enjoy the break. And we’re going to Yeong’s house tomorrow so that should be fun.”

                “Yeah you’re right. Do you know what were gonna be doing?”

                “Nope,” She said with a bit of a hysteric laugh. Maybe she was remembering last year’s winter break when Yeong decided it was time to pull out the ghost stories…at three in the morning. Strangely, I don’t think that the ghost stories scare her as much as the others.

                After a good conversation, some mild television, and a short nap, I had successfully avoided all thoughts of Taemin…until now. I wonder what he does in his free time. Does he-The sound of footsteps on the porch stopped  my train of thought. I turned down the volume and listened. It couldn’t be Taemin! The doorknob started jingling. I know he doesn’t have a key to my house.

                With a sigh of relief, I watched as my mom rushed into the house and shut the door behind her just as quickly. I could feel the cold burst of air all the way in the living room. I shook off the chill and meet my mom in the kitchen where sat down the grocery bags and started rubbing her hands together.

                “I can’t believe how cold it’s been this year. It probably is going to snow this year.” She said as she continued to rub her pale hands together.

                “Hey mom.” I greeted her,” It’s gonna snow?”

                “Hey,” She smiled and placed her cold hand on my forehead, “Well that’s what they said on the radio this morning, but I haven’t seen a flake.” I grabbed her hands and warmed them for her, reminding me of when I was younger.

I went to bed early that night, so around the time that was planned to go, I was already ready. But, Yeong obviously wasn’t.  She was on my living room couch nodding off.

“Hi.”I said to Yeong’s mom in the kitchen.

“Hey Lucinda, It feels like I haven’t seen you in so long.” She hugged me lightly and smiled kindly. Her eyes were the same shade of green as Yeongs. But her hair was a deeper burgundy color. Sometimes it even looked black.

I walked back in the living room where Yeong was now completely knocked out.

“Hey!” My voice boomed into her ear.

“Who?” She exclaimed.

“What?” I laughed. She looked around the room and started laughing.

“Hey,”

“Hey,” I repeated with a laugh,” Did you sleep?”  There were dark circles under her slightly puffy eyes.

“Yeah, I fell asleep in the car.”

“No, I mean did you sleep at all last night?”

“Nope,” She grinned mischievously.

“The break just started and you’re already going nocturnal.” I shook my head at her.

I could hear keys clinking together as our parents finished their conversation.

“Oh yeah, Aedda-“Yeong’s mom started up a conversation again. I stopped listening so I wouldn’t ease drop. It always seemed weird to me to hear people say my mom’s name. She was always just “mom” to me. I wonder if it’s the same for Yeong when people call her mom Sooyoung or when they call Munhee’s mom Ganghee. But what should be strange is that I don’t know either of their fathers.

“So…what are we gonna do today?” I asked Yeong.

“Maybe after we get Munhee we could rent a movie or something.” Like always.

“Sure,” I nodded as Yeong’s mom entered the living room.

“Alright, let’s go.”

After hugging my mom we headed out the door.

“Have fun,” She waved from the door.

“Okay,” We all said in unison.

After picking up Munhee, everything went as planned. Once entering the rental store Yeong went straight for the horror section. Munhee lingered between the comedies and romances, but her eyes were shifted to the children’s movies across from the aisle of TV series.

I walked over to Yeong, who was laughing at the back of a horror DVD.  What could possibly be so funny about that?

“What’s so funny?” I looked over at the interesting cover.

“This,” She laughed, handing me the box. Not wanting to read the whole two paragraphs of information, I scanned over the pictures. They consisted of various faces of stress and or screaming people in blood drenched clothing and skin. Maybe it was the expressions, but there was something hilarious about it. I stared up at Yeong.

“You know what, I always thought you’d be the one to end up in a mental hospital for laughing at death, but here I am, wanting to see it to.” I said, shaking my head pitifully. Her smile widened, revealing her impressive set of sharp milky white teeth. Where they always like that? She tucked the DVD under her arm and continued to search through the titles.

Since my enthusiasm to watch the movie wasn’t as high as Yeong’s, it didn’t bother me that we’d be watching Munhee’s movie first; which was a comedy. We knew she’d be asleep by the end of hers so we decided to wait till then.

Slowly but surely, Munhee started to drifting in and out towards the ending. By the time the credits rolled in, her head was buried in a pile of pillows. At some point she had turned away from the TV. If she wasn’t really asleep she was well prepared to block it out. Yeong quietly changed the DVDs. By now the three large bowls of popcorn the Yeong’s mom had bought were reduced to kernels. It didn’t really matter, I doubt that by the time this ends I’ll have much of an appetite. The beginning of it started off quietly, making a wave of tiredness hit me. The only sound in the room was Munhee’s soft breathing. I looked over at Yeong and saw that the wave had hit her to.

When the movie finally ended, Yeong was sitting very still, her legs crossed with the empty popcorn bowl in her lap. My eyes stared into the air, my mind blank. I think I fell asleep at some point because by the time my eyes focused on the TV again the credits were ending.

“Lucinda,” Yeong whisper so low that if I hadn’t looked over at her I’d think I was hearing things.

“Yeah?” She hadn’t responded in a time limit that was normal. Is she talking in her sleep? I looked over at her more closely, seeing how hazy her eyes look.  

“Let’s go to sleep,” She stood and stretched. Her shirt lifted over her stomach as she stretched, exposing a long scar going across her stomach. Or, had I just imagined it? Before I could ask, she walked over to Munhee and tried to wake her up. I quickly cleaned our mess as Yeong half carried a still sleeping but walking Munhee. I could tell by the way that Yeong was walking that she was in a rush to get to bed. 

Yeong’s room wasn’t big, but it wasn’t entirely small. Her large bed took up most of the space, but we could all fit in it comfortably. Munhee quickly crawled under the covers and fell back asleep. I followed behind her and Yeong came next. The black bed sheets didn’t really match the multi colored pillows but it had a way of coming together. She had so many posters on her wall that you could barely see the deep green paint we used a few summers ago when she attempted to theme her room. I actually like her room covered in posters compared to the way it was last time.

I laid my head on the cold pillow, remembering how Yeong had told me once that  she was having trouble sleeping, or that she could never sleep well. It’s probably because if the way she mostly sleeps during the day. What does she do all night?

“Yeong,” I whispered.

“Yeah?”

“How have you been sleeping lately?” Maybe I could get a sleeping disorder book for her on my next trip to the library. It could have some good advice. Or I can finally put that lavender in my room to good use.

“Don’t worry about it,” I could see her smile in the light coming into the room from outside. Her long hair covered most of her hair as she settled into the sheets.

“Are you sure?”

“Yep,” She yawned a little too loudly.

“Okay, goodnight then,” I laughed.

“Mmkay, you to,” I could barely hear her somewhat slurred voice. My eyes drifted up to the ceiling as her low breathing started. It wasn’t long before I did the same.

In my dream, I stood with Taemin in a snowy field. He held his arms out to me. The scars on his arms appeared to be more graphic than the last time I saw them. I felt his smooth skin and looked into his pale silvery eyes. They were almost the same color as the snow. His expression wasn’t pained like the last time. He didn’t look sad like I would expect him to…instead, he looked amused again. As if he was questioning my feelings once again.

He looked into my eyes as the full moon rose behind him, shining brilliantly. Just as he was about to speak, something cold struck me in the chest. I realized I had woken up when I saw the small lamp lit in the corner. A burning started up when the coldness had struck me. I quickly grasped at my chest and impossibly found the cold necklace at the center. What?! When did I put it on? Maybe-a familiar laugh distracted my thoughts. Yeong was at the edge of the bed by the lamp.

“What are you doing?” I whispered, my voice cracking with every word.

“Nothing, you should go back to sleep,” She sounded normal, like she hadn’t slept at all. Or maybe she was speaking a bit too fast. She turned the lamp out and walked over to the door. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

“Okay,” I lay back down. As she walked out the room I noticed she had on a completely different outfit. She wore loose fitting clothes and tennis shoes. Did she really do all that just to go to the restroom? Well…Yeong did weird things from time to time. I drifted back to sleep quickly. Hopefully I’ll dream about Taemin again. The sound of the front door closing woke me up just as I was drifting off. I sat up again and looked at her clock; it was around one in the morning. What is she doing?

I lay down once again, Munhee was still asleep. My hand grazed the necklace absentmindedly. The metal felt very smooth today. Trying to ignore the fact that I don’t even remember putting on the necklace, I faced the door. I should fake sleep until she gets back, then I’ll question her; I hope she’s okay.

As soon as my sleeping was no longer fabricated, another sound woke me. What’s happening now? Was it the wind? I looked to my right, Yeong still wasn’t back. Then the sound came back…it defiantly wasn’t the wind. It was a long and loud howling. Are there wolves in Yulyeong? Maybe somewhere in the woods but surely not here; …but, it did sound pretty close.

The front door opened again. I lay down quickly and listened as the light footsteps came towards the bedroom. Through half closed eyes, I saw Yeong come in. Her wild eyes matched her hair as they darted throughout the room. It looked like she had been running. Could she have seen the wolf? She did come back as soon as the howling stopped. Even if I did ask I doubt she’d admit to it scaring her. She quickly changed her clothes and came back to bed. What was she doing?