Eli POV

A few days later Minah had run away and was apparently going to spend the night with Hannah noona, although I don’t know why she would just leave Hyerin here… Minah… Such a strange child. I guess she figures that she’s part of the family now and can take care of herself…? I don’t know… Then my parents left to visit some friends. So Hyerin and I were left all alone. The snow was falling hard outside and we were sitting on the couch together watching a movie. Suddenly everything went dark. The T.V. flashed out and the lights all went black.

“Ahh!” Hyerin screamed when it happened. I blinked in the dark, surprised by the suddenness of it. “Eli! Ottokae!” I heard her say next to me.

“Shh, its okay. The electricity just went out. It must be the storm.” I moved slightly, trying to regain my bearings so that I could get up and try to find a flashlight.

“Where are you?” She asked.

“Right here.” I reached out and touched her shoulder. She quickly grabbed my arm.

“Uhh, are you scared?” I asked.

“Ugh,yes! I hate the dark like this. It’s so unexpected.” She said. I chuckled under my breath. I tried to get up. “Where are you going?” She asked.

“I’m trying to find a flashlight.” I answered.

“Oh…” she said. I sighed,

“Come on. Help me.” I grabbed her hand and began leading her into the kitchen where I knew we had one. She followed close behind, still clutching my arm in the hand I wasn’t holding.

We went into the kitchen and I started rumaging about for the flashlight that I knew was hiding around here somewhere.

“Aha!” I exclaimed when I found it and turned it on.

“Yay!” Hyerin cheered. I continued looking around for awhile and found some candles and matches. We grabbed as many as we could and returned to the living room and began lighting them so that we had a steady source of light. Finally we finished and sat back down.

“Well, this is nice.” I said. She just smiled.

“Hmm, well, what should we do?” I asked her.

“Well…” She thought for a minute and got up with the flashlight. “Oh, there are some games over here.” She pointed. I joined her and looked. Sure enough, a bunch of typical American games that I hadn’t played in forever (and that most of the people I was with on a daily basis in Korea had never heard of) were sitting there. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed them untill now.

“Woah! I haven’t played this in forever!” I grabbed a box off of the shelf and examined it.

“Yeah, me neither. Do you want to play?” She asked excitedly. 

“Yeah!” I said and grabbed the box and we went back and sat down by the table in front of the couch. We moved the candles around so that we had space and that there was no chance of anything catching on fire, and began to set up.

We played board games untill we were thougoughly sleepy.

“Oh, I’m so tired Eli.” Hyerin finally said.

“Me too.” I said as I rubbed my eyes.

“Ohh… But it’s so dark and scary on the stairs. I don’t want to go!” Wow. She really was scared of the dark wasn’t she? I started blowing out the candles. “Oh! What are you doing?!” She asked.

“Come on. I’m going to bed. I’ll help you upstairs.” I stood up and she did too. There were just a few candles left and I blew them all out. It was completely dark again.

“Ahh! Eli! Why did you do that?!" I just laughed and the flashlight.

“Come on.” I walked over to her. She looked at me like I was crazy. I began to laugh even harder. Suddenly I picked her up by grabbing her under the knees and around the waist.

“Yah! YAH!” She yelled at me. I just laughed. “Yah! Put me down!” She said.

“No.” I said as I began walking towards the stairs.

“Pabo.” She said in defeat. I just continued laughing at her as I climbed the stairs.

Finally we made it upstairs and I headed for her room and laid her down on her bed.

“It’s so dark!” She whined. I smiled.

“It’s always dark when you go to bed.”

“Yes, but then I know it’s going to be dark and I make it dark. This is still scary.” I could tell she was pouting, even though it was hard to see her with just the flashlight. I stood there for a minute and thought.

“Aish, scoot over.” I said, motioning for her to move. She looked at me surprised at first, and then did what I said. I lay down next to her and turned my back to her. I don’t think that she had been expecting that. “Happy?” I asked. She was silent, then,

“Thank you, Eli.” She said softly. I just grunted in response, although really I was happy to be there for her. I quickly fell asleep next to her.

The next morning I woke up to Minah staring down at me.

“Yah, Eli. What are you doing?” She asked me.

“Aish, chincha. Go away.” I rubbed my face with my hands, trying to wake up. “Ugh,” I sat up. “The lights went out last night. She was scared, so I stayed.” I said.

“Oh,” Minah said. “Okay.” She smiled. “You all looked so sweet laying there sleeping. I even took a picture. See?” She said, holding up her camera.

“Yah!” I yelled.

 “Shh! Hyerin’s sleeping!” She yelled back, just as loud.

“No I’m not. Not anymore.” Hyerin said sleepily from besides me as she too sat up. “Aish, why are you two so loud in the morning? Is it a sibling thing?” She asked.

“Ne.”We both replied at exactly the same time.

“Tch.” She tisked in annoyance. After a while Minah left us alone and I started to leave.

“Eli?” Hyerin said. I turned around,

“Hmm?” I asked.

“Umm, thank you again.” She smiled shyly and I smiled back and noded.

“Of course.” Then I walked away back to my room where I laid down in content.

Yeah, I definatly liked her.