“Jessi ! Jessi ! Where is that girl?” I’m the youngest of the family and yet here I am, desperately running through the streets of Jeonju, a small town located in South Korea, in search of my older sister, Jessica.

As the dawn nears, my worries begin to increase. I am so distress because of her, searching high and low, but there is no sign of Jessica. With the thought of giving up escalating through my mind, I turn around with my body facing the view of the lonely fogged up path, my eyes widen as through the midst, I see a lone petite figure lying across the spring meadows; suddenly the energy within my body rises as I pick up my speed.

 “Jessica Jung! What are you doing here lazing around, mother is looking for you” I scream out with every last breath that was left in me. No reaction. Is she dead? This girl is really asking for it, I give her several light kicks until her eyelids finally flutter open. 

“Oh hey sis, what’s up?” Jessica questions me.

“What’s up? I’ll tell you what’s up; I’ve been running around searching every corner of Jeonju hoping to find you, mother is worried out of her mind!”  I exclaim with both my hands on my waist, feeling annoyed as ever!

“Yeah, Yeah whatever, Relax for a bit Krystal” with that she continues doing what she does best being ignorant towards my words and sleeping. What am I going to do with you? I sigh and join her, as after all she is my big sister. With my back laying flat on the ground, I daze up at the clear blue sky, searching for what? A miracle I guess.

Now that I have time to think about it, my life is complicated. It was just me, Jessica and my mother. My father passed away during the cold civil war between the North and the South, I barely knew the man. But from what mother has told me, he was a great man. All these thoughts lead up to my mother, she’s the centre of my life, and from day one she taught me and Jessica how to survive and how to live life to the full.

“Nice place isn’t it” she breaks my trance and I found my sister sitting up. “Huh” I lift my upper body and follow her gaze, out to the far horizon. There they were the tall grey figures, each varying in size meeting the sky, the city of Seoul, I could almost hear the sounds of the busy roads. “We’ll get there Krystal, one day, together with mom” she pauses and turns her head facing me before she continues, “I promise” ending it with one of her rare smiles. I search her eyes and found determination “Okay” I reply with an insecure smile.

“Come on then, didn’t you say mom was looking for us?” She jumps up and extends her hand, Jessica’s sudden release of energy surprises me, she pulls me up and we start jolting towards home. With two hands join together, we run with our hair flying against the wind.

We come to a stop in front of our family’s dumpling shop “Hwang’s dumplings” the words printed neatly on top of the shop’s entrance. It’s nothing much, it’s not like one of those 5 star restaurants you would find in the city, but it was enough for us, our whole life is built up in this shop. Chairs and tables were organised neatly in each section giving enough room for people to walk around. A woman not any taller than me comes rushing towards us, with two aprons in her hands she come to a stop and scans our bodies checking if there were any scratches or bruises.

“We’re fine mom” Jessica gives her a warm reaffirming hug.

“Sometimes I wish you girls could behave and stay put sometimes” she give out a long sigh, she then turns and walks towards me and gives me a cuddle, I break the hug and took a moment to look at her. Her eye bags were visible, wrinkles began to slowly appear, she has tired weary skin. It breaks my heart, seeing her like this.

“Are you okay mom?” she gives me a reassured smile, but I could see the sorrow and sadness behind it.

 “Alright girls, we got to start cleaning up and get ready, because it’s nearly lunch and there’s going to be a lot of hungry customers” she exclaims as she throws each of us our maroon coloured aprons. “Yes Boss!” Jessica and I shout in synchronisation.