“Unnie....”

Jessica slowly opened her eyes, wary of any glaring lights. Rubbing her eyes she sat up only to curl back down under the blanket after feeling the cold air blasting in the plane cabin. A soft cry of unnie to her left and a tugging on the blanket reminded her of what woke her in the first place. Jessica turned around, facing away from the window, and looked into a pair of dark eyes staring out of a small pale face. The face broke out into a smile as the 8 year old realized she had caught her unnie’s attention. “Unnie!”

“Shhh....” Jessica shushed the younger girl. “Everyone is sleeping Krystal, you have to speak quietly. Indoor voices okay?”

Her eyes wide, Krystal nodded and moved closer to her unnie...or at least as close as the armrest would allow. Seeing the blanket pool around Krystal’s waist, Jessica reached out and tucked the blanket around her sister. Keeping her hand on Krystal’s shoulder, she patted the younger girl to try lulling her back to sleep.

“Unnie...”

“Mm?”

“Is Korea scary?”

Jessica’s sleepy eyes shot open. Trying to give a reassuring smile, Jessica told her it wouldn’t be scary, just different. “Seoul is different than San Francisco but you’ll see when we get there. And unnie will be right here too so if you’re scared or anything, just come to me okay?”

Krystal smiled and snuggled down into her blanket. “Oh!”She sat back up, another question in mind. “Unnie do we have to speak Korean all the time now?”

Jessica smiled at the question, “You’re going to have to speak Korean in school. We’ll use Korean at home sometimes but we can speak English at home too like we did before.”

Krystal yawned, “I gu...esss it’s good omma and appa speak to us a lot in Korean then right unnie? We won’t be so behin....” her voice trailed off succumbing to sleep.

Continuing to pat her sister’s shoulder, Jessica stopped when Krystal’s breathing steadied and the blanket followed the rise and fall of her breathing. Pulling her hand back under own blanket, she watched her sister sleep. “We’ll be okay Krystal,” she murmured recalling their multiple moves so far. First leaving San Francisco for Seoul when she was only 5, they had left Seoul when she turned 8 to go back to America. Now 14 years old, their whole family was leaving New York to return to Seoul. Omma said they were ‘going home’ but each move she had said the same thing.

Jessica clutched her blanket closer to her body, wishing this would be the last move they would ever make.