Enjoy!

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“What’s wrong, Unnie?” my sister spoke, surprised at my urgency.

“Some men were here, looking for us!” I quickly jumped in the car and turned it on.

“Things must’ve gotten bad if you had to use that…” she replied, pointing at the wrench in my hand.

I nodded in acknowledgement as I tossed the wrench to the backseat. Strapping on my seatbelt, and urging Haeyeon to do the same, we hit the road in an attempt to escape for a second time.

When we were about a kilometer from the store, I looked in my rearview mirror to see the ahjussi standing in front of the store; flailing his arms around.

He must have not been able to make the call.

A sweeping feeling of relief rushed over me as I came to the conclusion.

Who was that foreigner though?

I peered in my rearview again, and was able catch a glimpse of the foreigner walking to his car. He appeared unscathed, but the store owner was still giving him an earful.

I hope he’s okay.

With the convenience store now out of sight, I pushed the recent events out of my head, turned the radio on, and zoned out once more.

…

This is really tedious.

My jaw was becoming sore as I chewed the gum. I chose the gum that was the most elastic because it would do the best job at filling the hole, but that also meant it would be the toughest to chew.

My sister and I were back at our little spot in the dip in the land: It was the best spot for us to be hidden while still being able to move around. Haeyeon continued to play her game, while I was at the side of the car; ready to plug up the hole.

It had taken me nearly fifteen minutes, but I finally got the gum to a good enough texture that it would fit in the hole, and stay there.

I took the gum out of my mouth and carefully pressed it in the hole. It required more concentration than I previously thought to make sure that I didn’t get the gum stuck to anything else.

I am way too tired.

I was able to get the gum in the hole without error, and next was to push it farther in. The wad of gum was pretty large so I needed to make sure that most of it was inside the tire so it didn’t get stuck to anything else while I was driving.

Smoothing it out, I was able to make the outside layer of gum level with the tire. My next idea was a result of my tired mind’s unorthodox thinking: I got some dirt from the ground near me and started sprinkling it over the layer of gum. My reason was:

The gum is going to try to stick to something… so why not make it stick to this dirt instead of the asphalt that could pull it away.

There was a conversation somewhere in my memory about bonds and whatnot, but I was too out of it to recall it off the top of my head.

Stepping back, I could see that the tire was smaller than the others, but I was at least able to stop the air from leaking out anymore.

After dusting off my hands, I made my way back into the car. I looked towards the sky to use the sun as a clock, because the one in the car was off.

It’s only been about hour since we were last here.

The convenience store wasn’t that far away, so the whole altercation there didn’t shave too much time from our journey. There was still a good chance that we would get to the Hwang’s house before nightfall.

I hopped back in the car to find out that Haeyeon had been watching me the entire time. “That was cool, Unnie! You’re like MacGyver or something!”

“Who’s MacGyver?” I rarely watched TV, but my sister enjoyed watching old shows and I figured that this person was from one of them.

Haeyeon just laughed, instead of answering my question; she tended to do that.

I grabbed the extra can of gas from the car and filled up the tank. The messed up wheel caused the car to burn more gas, so I was thankful for having an extra can: We wouldn’t have to make another unsafe stop.

Getting back in the car; I the radio as we hit the road once more.

Who is MacGyver?

…

The sun was setting when we finally reached the town where the Hwang’s lived. It was a change of scenery for me and my sister: Our town was small and rural; theirs was large and more like a city.

It’s a lot more advance than I remember.

It had been some time since I was last in the city, but I still retained a pretty good image of it in my head. With the sun going down, the town was dark save the multi-colored street lights that filled every street.

“They’re pretty.” Haeyeon said as we drove up to a red light. The street in front of us was lined with the colored streetlights: They resembled the lines of a color spectrum.

My eyes were tense, and my vision was somewhat blurry from my lack of sleep, but I was still able to make out the rows of light.

“They are pretty...”

After I plugged the hole in the tire, we were lucky enough to not have any run-ins with the people looking for us. I did, however, spot what appeared to be a makeshift roadblock a few miles from the convenience store. It would have been a problem if I hadn’t seen it from afar, but since I did, evading the roadblock was easy… Now we were driving through a town somewhat familiar to us; searching for the large, secluded house that belonged to the Hwang family.

Where is it?

I knew that the house was elevated a bit higher than the rest of the town, but it was dark so I wouldn’t be able to see it from a distance. The main problem was that the layout of the town had changed somewhat so it was difficult to know exactly where I was.

After a few more minutes of driving we saw a sign that read:

“Welcome to Gachul”

I had seen this sign many times because it was directly next to the field that the Hwang’s and my family had picnics in.

Now I know which way to go.

The field happened to be within walking distance of the Hwang’s house.

I started to drive with a newfound enthusiasm. After two days of running and being under constant stress, things were finally looking up…

*Knock, knock, knock*

No answer…

Maybe I should try the doorbell.

As I reached over to ring the doorbell, a noise came from within the large house. Moments later my sister and I could here someone stumbling down a staircase.

“Aishh! ... Who’s knocking on my door at this late hour?!” The person said with clear irritation in his voice as they swung the front door open.

A thin, middle aged man stood shirtless in the doorway with frustration covering his face.

“Mr. Hwang…”

“T-T-Taeyeon?” Mr. Hwang said while rubbing his eyes to get a better look.

“I’m here too!” Haeyeon said excitedly while jumping out from behind me.

Mr. Hwang blinked a few times after rubbing his eyes to make sure they weren’t deceiving him. He poked his head out of the door and looked around before responding.

“Are you two by yourselves?” As he spoke, he analyzed the both of us; noticing our various wounds and lack of hygiene.

My sister and I nodded in agreement.

Mr. Hwang’s face quickly lost its frustration as it was clear that he became concerned. He led us into the house; looking around outside again while he did.

He motioned for us to move towards the living room, and as we did he spoke towards me in a low voice. “Were you followed?”

“No.” Though I was exhausted, I had made a serious effort to make sure my sister and I weren’t being followed.

We stopped in the middle of the living room: It was as large and spacious as it was since we were last there. Mr. Hwang started talking, but Haeyeon and I felt awkward about the situation. “Umm…” my sister uttered while pointing out the fact the Mr. Hwang wasn’t wearing a shirt.

“Omo” He looked down, embarrassed. “I’ll go get dressed. Make yourselves comfortable: You’re safe now.”

Haeyeon and I plopped down into one of the couches as he walked up the staircase. As soon as we made contact with the couch, a mist of drowsiness swept over us.

So…Comfortable…

It felt like I was being wrapped in a blanket of clouds. We were both dead tired from the events of the past two days, so our bodies’ were inclined to try and make us sleep.

I looked over to find that my sister had already fallen asleep. She had drifted off to dream land: not surprising as it took all of my focus just to stay awake. In the end, I decided to stand up so I could stay awake long enough to discuss everything with Mr. Hwang.

Now fully clothed, Mr. Hwang came back downstairs. He initially had a dismayed look on his face, but quickly shook it off. “Did you bring anything with you?” he said while noticing that Haeyeon had fallen asleep.

“I just brought us some clothes and whatnot.” I pointed in the direction of the car. I was already carrying the bag with the bracer and books in it, because I didn’t think it would be smart to leave them in the car.

“I’ll go get your things while you take your sister to one of the bedrooms upstairs.”

I nodded in acknowledgement and tossed Mr. Hwang the keys as I picked up my sister.

You are heavy for such a small girl.

I knew that she wasn’t actually heavy, and I was just tired, but the thought lightened up the mood from the past few days. I carried my sister up the stairs to the room that used to belong to the Hwang’s oldest daughter. She had gone off to college so the room was vacant and clean.

As I walked back downstairs, a thought came to mind.

I feel like I’m forgetti-

My thought was cut off by the re-entrance of Mr. Hwang into the house: He was carrying the bags of clothes that I had packed for my sister and myself. He dropped the bags in the middle of the living room and sat down at a table; motioning for me to join him.

I pulled out the written note from my father as I sat down, and showed it to Mr. Hwang. He put on a pair of reading glasses and scanned over the letter. When he was finished reading, Mr. Hwang lowered the note and looked me straight in the eyes. “So tell me everything that happened.”

I took in a big deep breath and sighed.

 “Well the day started out…”

…

I sat, patiently waiting for Mr. Hwang to respond: It had been a few minutes since I recounted the events of the past few days.

I had spoken for nearly two hours and was already tired from my lack of sleep, but this needed to be discussed before anything moved forward. Finally, Mr. Hwang lowered the letter and started talking.

“I assume that the bracer and books are in your bag.” His voice was firm and unshaken. It was as if he didn’t care about what happened, or he was prepared for it.

“Mhm” I felt a strange attachment to these items, and didn’t want to separate from them.

“Ok” He said calmly “We’ll discuss everything in the morning, but you should get some rest right now.”

Finally

“You can go up stairs and sleep in-”

The front door suddenly sprung opened, causing me to jump back and ready myself. Mr. Hwang was also on alert: He had tilted the table onto its side and ducked behind it to give us cover.

A tan, brunette haired girl walked through the door carrying a load of bags with an upset look on her face.

Tiffany!

…

Tiffany stood at the door uncertain of what was going on. Mr. Hwang and I stood up from behind the table attempting to look as natural as possible. Before I had a chance to speak, Tiffany started the conversation.

“Taeyeon… What are you doing here?”

The root of her question surprised me. She didn’t ask out of curiosity or concern, but of annoyance. Before I was able to respond, Tiffany continued talking.

“This is why you couldn’t pick me up from the airport?” she said, towards her father. “I haven’t been home in four years, and…” Her voice trailed off as she looked at me, noticing my appearance.

She didn’t apologize for her rudeness, but simply picked her bags up and walked past me and her father. Her body language and facial expression gave off an angry, rebellious feeling, but her eyes read something different. I saw that she was hiding some kind of sorrow, but what exactly, I couldn’t tell.

Tiffany…?

As Tiffany walked pass us, Mr. Hwang stopped her. He looked down as if regretting something. “Taeyeon and her sister are going to be staying with us for a while.” He looked back up as he spoke “She’s going to be sleeping in your room.” His voice was stern as if he was trying to prove a point. Tiffany looked at us for a moment, but then continued up the stairs with her luggage. “Whatever”

It had been nearly seven years since I had since her, but this wasn’t the Tiffany I remembered. The Tiffany I did remember was quiet, but strong willed and had a heart made of gold.

What happened?

Mr. Hwang stared off to the side for a second, and then looked at me. His head was held low compared to before. “Don’t mind her.” He said “She’s probably just tired from the flight… Well head upstairs, and get some sleep: Everything else can wait until tomorrow. Blankets and pillows are in the closet.”

“Ok” I moved sluggishly as I made my way upstairs, forgetting the bags I brought except; the one on my back. I didn’t have the energy or willpower to do anything else. Even talking was expending to me, which is why I hadn’t said anything to Tiffany.

I grabbed a blanket and pillow out of the closet and crept into Tiffany’s room. She hadn’t unpacked her bags, but just laid in her bed; facing the wall. Without a word, I set the pillow down and let the blanket fall on me as I dropped to the floor. I could feel sleep’s embrace creep up on me as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Finally

The moment I closed my eyes, a pillow came hurdling towards my head. The pillow hit me with an fwap because I didn’t have the energy to dodge it. Sitting up, I looked over towards Tiffany: She was in the same position from when I entered the room, but I knew that she threw it.

I decided to ignore the attack and laid back down on the floor. I closed my eyes once more, and was hit by another pillow…The stress of the past few days coupled with a lack of sleep made my patience unusually thin.

“What the hell is your problem, Tiffany?!” I snapped at her; raising myself from the floor to see her reaction.

Tiffany sat up in her bed, and turned to face me. “What’s my problem?! Why are you in my room? As a matter of fact: Why are you even in my house?!” Her words echoed with resentment.

“I have nowhere else to go…” The anger quickly left my voice as I spoke: Each word hit me heavily as if I had just come to that conclusion. I have nowhere else to go…

Tiffany’s eyes stared in my direction, but it was as if she was looking through, and not at me. “Well that’s ironic.” She spoke in a low voice as if talking to herself. After shooting me a dirty look, Tiffany eventually turned around and lay back in her bed.

I stood in the same spot for a few minutes just staring at her: I wanted to make sure that she didn’t pull the same stunt again, but I was also trying to get a read on the situation.

“When did you become like this…?” I said in a voice loud enough for her to hear.

She didn’t respond, just pulled her blanket further up her body.

I took that motion as a sign that our altercation was over, at least for now. Dropping back to the floor, it took me no time to get comfortable again.

As soon as my head touched the pillow, I was off to sleep…

“Gee Gee Gee Gee Baby, Baby, Baby. Gee Gee Gee Gee Baby, Baby, Baby.”

Tiffany was in the group with me this time.

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Tiffany?

Their reunion wasn't as heartfelt as Taeyeon imagined it would be. Something must have happened during their time apart... I'm sure Taeyeon will get to the bottom of it in the next chapter.