>_____<;;

She remembered hearing a shout from the top of the stairs. Suddenly, she was surer than ever that someone had come to her aid. Namjoo didn’t know who though. And her fall had been cushioned or else she would have knocked out for a much longer time even after Chanyeol arrived. But who was it she’d seen leaning over her before he disappeared? How had he cushioned her fall? He couldn’t have caught her when she was that close to the ground.

“What are you thinking about?” Chanyeol asked from behind the wheel, but Namjoo was too lost in thought to pay attention to him.

She rubbed her chin and tucked her lower lip into before chewing on it.

“Luhan,” she whispered.

It had to be him. Who else came and went like that without a trace? Could it have been him who had thrown that white orb she’d seen? If so, who had attacked her?

“What did you call me?” Chanyeol questioned.

Namjoo turned to him and shifted in her seat, “Nothing.”

“Are you alright?” he wondered.

“I’m fine,” she replied before she turned to watch them go pass a business building in the metropolitan area, “where are we going?”

“Not back to your place,” Chanyeol stated, “what if you’re alone and get attacked again? No, I’m not going to let that happen.”

“Ugh…please, I can deal with it on my own.”

“Over my dead body.”

Namjoo heaved a sigh, “Chanyeol, please. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“You can’t guarantee that,” he shook his head. “I’ll take you back when one of your sisters get home.”

She grunted. “Fine, but I’m not in the mood to be dilly dallying outside right now. I’ll just stay at your place in the meantime.”

He smiled satisfied before saying, “You never told me why you returned home. I had to ask your landlord about it.”

Namjoo shot him a quick glance before focusing her stare elsewhere. “It was requested by grandma before she died.”

“Your grandma…” he started but quieted. “You should have told me!”

“It’s fine. It’s already over and done with.”

“Still, you should have said something to me.”

“If you’re going to get angry, drop me off here.”

His words twisted up in his mouth before he said, “I practically grew up knowing her too. That wasn’t fair.”

Namjoo quietly sighed and wished she could walk herself into a wall or something. They finally reached his apartment some time later and Namjoo couldn’t be any more thankful to be standing outside. When Chanyeol walked around his car he grabbed her hand before leading her in.

The only thing she liked about his place was that it wasn’t too big or too small. When she walked right in his bed was to her left and straight ahead was the living room. The kitchen was on the other side of the extended hallway on the right. Since it was a one person apartment privacy didn’t seem to be a big deal.

Before the walls turned green, it had been a sickly faded yellow. They repainted it during the time when she most came over. Those memories seem so far away now.  

She made herself comfortable on the couch and turned the TV on. Chanyeol sat beside her and took the remote to turn the TV off. “Namjoo, can we talk about us?”

Namjoo knew it was coming. She shifted to face him, “What do you want to say?”

“Come back.”

>_____<;;

Victoria was at her computer fixing up a diagram for her project. At least that was the last thing she remembered before suddenly knocking out.

When she opened her eyes she was in this really strange place with nothing in it, but a heavy thick smoke floating around her. Victoria looked down to discover that she couldn’t even depict her feet through the foggy smoke. Confused she turned to look around. There was really nothing there. It was like she was in a cave created from papier mache. There was this really weak glow as if the sun was directly outside.

Really soft footsteps sounded from behind and she spun around alarmed. Her heart quickened before her lips fell apart. A gorgeous woman in a long white dress slowly stopped in front of her. Her long black locks were draped over her shoulders beautifully just like how Chorong often kept her hair.

Victoria felt teardrops fall so quickly that they didn’t even have the chance to take a stroll down her face.

“Hi.” Her mother smiled.

“Mom?” Victoria’s voice trembled.

“How are you doing?”

“Mom,” Victoria suddenly started bawling as the words rolled out, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I only found out that someone killed you. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry that I hated you so much.”

“Oh…Victoria,” her mother smiled, “it’s ok, but now you have your sisters. Don’t lose them.”

Her mother walked closer and reached her hand out to her hair, but before she could feel her touch, her eyes popped open. Victoria suddenly found herself sleeping with her face hidden in her arms. When she sat up she felt the muscles on her back ache painfully. She glanced around the empty room utterly confused.

>_____<;;

Namjoo slightly tilted her head down unable to define her emotions. “How am I supposed to make you happy when I don’t know anything about myself?”

“It doesn’t matter. You’re…just you.”

“No, you don’t get it,” Namjoo shook her head.

How could she explain that she was never what she thought herself to be? That normal isn’t a word that described her any longer. That she’s someone with strange abilities and sees strange things and the only way to stay alive is to fight off these things.   

“Then talk to me so I can help make us work.”

Namjoo looked up at him baffled. “I don’t know. You know I’m an indecisive person. I have a lot of troubles.”

He leaned over to kiss her with a, “I know.”

She closed her eyes for a split second to feel him before opening them again to look at him. This man had been by her side since she was 15. They’d started out as friends before transitioning into a pair of lovebirds. Then some time when she was 20 she started feeling unsure about everything. She’d wondered plenty of times about what could be missing from her life. There had always been this gigantic emptiness residing in her. It was something she couldn’t explain and it was the sole reason why she kept wandering away and kept coming back. Namjoo knew she was bad, but she didn’t know what to do.

Namjoo was so easily tempted by the kiss she didn’t know what to do next. Slightly tilting her head she caught his lips inside hers before they started into a frenzy when she locked her arm around his neck. Namjoo felt her body burn up, but quickly pulled back when he began pulling her onto his lap.

“Chanyeol,” she breathed, “lets be friends.”

He tightened his grip around her waist, his eyes dark and intense, “No.”

She gently clamped her teeth together and felt his eyes burn invisible holes on her face.

“What’s wrong with you?” he questioned upset. “Is that…really the only thing you want to be with me?”

Guilt flushed into her. She was hurting him.  

“Maybe you think that, but I can’t do it. You’re really cruel, Namjoo.” He slowly let go of her. “A lot of times, I wonder where the ‘you’ I knew went.”

Namjoo felt upset tears roam in her eyes when he got up to walk away. She didn’t know either. She had no clue anymore about who she was, what she was meant to do, or what she wanted. It was frustrating. Why did she want him in her life even when she felt she it was difficult for her to keep him?

>_____<;;

“Fruits, bread, poultry, meat, check, check, check, check,” Chorong crossed out the items on her list and glanced into her cart before turning to look around. “What else do we need in the house? Cookies?”

While still browsing around she pushed her cart around and gave a shout when she rammed it into another cart.

“I’m so sorry!” she began apologizing then immediately held back when she saw the officer who’d taken over the investigation last night; the one that pissed Victoria off.

Recognition spread through his face and when he opened his mouth to speak she quickly started pushing her cart away. She didn’t want to speak to him, see him, or have anything to do with him. Nothing. Nada.

“Excuse me,” he quickly ran his cart in front of hers to stop her. “Namjoo?”

Chorong watched him point his finger at her. She narrowed her eyes when he called her Namjoo.

“Then you’re Park Chorong,” he stated and looked as satisfied as if he’d just gotten the answer correct to some kind of difficult exam. “About last night, I’m sorry. I was trying to be a little sarcastic.”

“Great profession. Enough said?” she said then without waiting for him to say anything else cut in, “Ok, goodbye.”

Pulling her cart back she started down the frozen aisle, but he followed.

“Anyway, about what you three were doing at the top of the crest hill…”

“I have nothing to say about that.” Chorong stated. “Unless you would like to speak to my lawyer, I’d suggest you stop following me and terrorizing my sisters and I.”

“Terrorizing?” he repeated appalled. “I’ll get to the point then. Were you three there because of your mom?”

Chorong stopped in her steps. Her lips slightly trembled and she tightened her grip on the cart handle.

“Stay away from Victoria,” Chorong turned around with furious eyes, “from us and my mom. This has nothing to do with you or the police.”

Chorong quickly turned around and quickly walked away swearing the worst names she could think of from deep within her mind. When she neared the house she spotted Victoria just getting out of her car. She waited for her when she pulled into the driveway and walked over.

“What are you doing home so early?” Chorong asked surprised. “I thought you said you wouldn’t be back till 7.”

“Well I called in,” Victoria replied grabbing some of the groceries. “You bought a lot.”

“Why?” Chorong wondered. “You never call in for work.”

“Tell you about it later,” Victoria smiled. “I was thinking we could have some bonding time. Look,” she held up a paper bag which obviously held a bottle of wine.

“Really?” Chorong almost frowned. “That’s strange of you. Well at least something good happened to you. My mood got killed extremely quickly.”

They started up the stairs to the house.

“Why’s that?”

“Oh lets just say I ran into someone who I wanted to kick in the balls,” Chorong muttered.   

Victoria slightly laughed at her before unlocking the door, “How’d your interview go?”

“Got the job,” Chorong answered, “but, boy, I don’t know anything at all. Don’t even know why I got the job. So I’m going to be sitting in the back and observe.”

“Hmm…interesting,” Victoria commented before calling out, “Namjoo!”

Chorong closed the door after her and kicked off her shoes before walking any further in. She glanced around and stated, “The house seems empty.”

“Chanyeol must’ve taken her with him,” Victoria said walking toward the kitchen.

“How would you know that?” Chorong followed.

Victoria set the grocery bags onto the table and looked at Chorong, “He was going on about how he found her unconscious and was really mad about why she hadn’t called the cops.”

“Ooh…that doesn’t sound good.”

“But I guess there’s something else in the picture we don’t know about.”

“Like what?”

Victoria shrugged, “We’ll have to ask Namjoo about that when she gets home.” Then she turned when she heard the door open and close. “Looks like the devil’s home.”

Chorong turned to call out, “We’re over here!”

Victoria listened to Namjoo’s soft footsteps before fully turning to look at her. She looked upset, but when she spoke the expression quickly dissolved. “Wow, you sure bought a lot.” Namjoo reached into one of the bags and pulled out a bag of cookies. “First bite’s mine.”

“Where’d you come from?” Victoria put her hands on her hips. “Chanyeol’s?”

“Why’d you even ask?” Namjoo mumbled.

“You two argue or something?” Chorong wondered.

“More like he’s angry,” Namjoo replied stuffing more and more cookies into before Victoria snatched the bag away. Namjoo shot her a glare before she turned away. “I told him we should be friends and he blew up at me.”

“Hmm…I can’t see why.” Victoria scratched the back of her ear then glanced at Chorong and mouthed the number twenty to remind her of their bet.

Chorong grimaced before turning to Namjoo. “So why’d you say that?”

“Cause I just don’t feel right,” Namjoo answered as if frustrated. “I mean…I like him, I do, but even when I want to be with him there’s something…ugh…I can’t explain it. It’s just like…I want him, but at the same time I can’t deal with it. I feel like there’s a big piece of me that’s missing.”

“That’s your problem right there,” Chorong pointed at her.

“Well yea, gee, thanks for pointing that out.” Namjoo rolled her eyes.

“Just give it some time. It’ll turn out alright,” Victoria said before holding out her bottle of wine, “anyway, drinks anybody?”

Namjoo turned to frown at her. “What’s with you? Isn’t it a school night for you?”

“Class starts late tomorrow, besides; I’m not a heavy drinker.” Victoria replied before heading over to grab cups.

“What’s with her?” Namjoo whispered to Chorong to which she just shrugged.

After pouring some chips into a bowl they headed out into the sitting room.

“So what happened earlier? Did someone break into the house?” Chorong asked crossing her legs and leaned back into the big fat pillow on the couch.

“Oh yea!” Namjoo clapped her hands. “I heard something after you two left. I thought maybe one of you were still in the house so I went upstairs to check. And then this guy just appeared and, well…he shot something out at me and I fell down the stairs.”

“What did he look like?”

“I don’t know. He was in some kind of costume, but he looked like a normal human to me,” Namjoo shrugged, “but anyway, I think someone came to help me.”

“That’s strange,” Chorong mumbled, “but still scary and dangerous. They’re going to try to get us when we’re alone then.”

“Could be.” Victoria agreed.

“Oh…I ran into that officer that pissed you off yesterday,” Chorong turned to Victoria. “He might really start looking into mom’s death since you spoke about it yesterday, and he was wondering if we were at the crest hill because of it. Either way, don’t participate in Ma Ho Jun’s investigation. I have a really bad feeling about this.

Victoria turned to look away lost in thought. “Well none of that makes sense.”

“Like our lives do,” Namjoo mumbled popping a chip into . “After Saturday it’s plot twist here and there.”

“I had a dream about mom.” This time Chorong and Namjoo turned to stare at her. Victoria just shrugged. “I was working on something and then I suddenly fell asleep and I saw her,” Victoria explained, “it was…so weird, but calming and relaxing. I’ve never dreamt of her before.”

“Ah…so that explains this,” Chorong held up her wine cup. “I see. At least you’re in a good mood for once.”

Victoria smiled and held her cup up, “So, lets try to get along from now on since it’s going to be required of us anyway. How about that? We’re still sisters regardless of last names.”

“We’ll probably start going at it again tomorrow morning anyway,” Namjoo commented underneath her breath before clinking her cup against Victoria’s.

“Ditto,” Chorong agreed before clinking her cups with theirs. “Cheers!”