-Ha-eun-

How long has it been? Four years. It has been four years since I’ve been home, I don’t even visit for the holidays. So why am I here today in this old bus terminal waiting for my dad to pick me up? I came home for my sister’s wedding. I didn’t even know she was dating but it doesn’t surprise me she always had boys trailing behind her like dogs. I didn’t come home ever but I did talk to my parents once a week and I never been inform that unnie was seriously dating. I wonder who the lucky guy was. Whoever he is I have to meet him. My unnie is a wild girl. As kids she was always the one who shine the brightest between the two of us. She was every parent’s worst nightmare. She skipped school, drink alcohol and party every weekend. The last I heard she had finish beauty school and is working at a beauty salon in town. 

I spot my dad’s old truck coughing and wheezing down the road and I stand up with my luggage. I wonder if my mother saw him riding that truck down our drive way? My mother would never and I mean NEVER let my dad drive that in public because it was not image appropriate but I love that truck. 

My dad happily jumps out of his truck and ran over to hug me. It’s been four years since he last saw me and drop me off here at the bus station to go to Seoul. I hug him back and push away the happy tears. He has age and his body has become weak, his hugs weren’t as suffocating as they use to be.

“How was the ride here?” He ask pulling away to observe me. “You’ve grown up so much Ha-eun. You’re not my little girl anymore.”

“And you have age well appa. Still handsome as ever.”

“You should tell your mother that.” 

I laugh at him and he picks up my luggage.

“Come we have to hurry and go met your sister and mother before they blow. The wedding has gotten them so angry lately. I think it’s the stress.”

“I bet it is stressful since they both want a big wedding.”

He opens my door for me and I hope in his truck feeling like a little girl again. I remember we always had our little Sunday date while mom and Ye-eun had theirs. I went everywhere with my dad and always felt closer to him than to my mother. My mother was a great mom but I just never had a good relationship with her. We were always bumping heads with each other when we talked and never had a nice conversation ever since puberty started. She always wanted me to dress like my sister, put on make-up and act like a princess. Even though my sister was a wild child she was the beautiful daughter and had the same interest as my mother. They were close.

My dad drops me off in front of our house and told me to get settle in. My mother and sister were out flower shopping and he was going to check on the workers. My family owns a very well known wine farm. 

In my room I unpack and change into jean shorts and a t-shirt. It was hot outside and I wanted to visit the workers before my mother and sister came home. I grab the romper I had worn here off the floor and threw it into a basket I kept in the corner of my room for dirty clothes and miss hitting a picture frame I had on the wall. My room hasn’t change one bit, everything was the way it was four years ago. I walk to the picture frame I hit and pick up the romper. The one picture I had kept of him. It was during my high school graduation. He came home from college and showed up. Back then I was the luckiest girl or at least I thought I was. He was the town’s golden boy and me…I wasn’t good enough for him. I know I wasn’t good enough for him so I left hoping one day I would be enough to be by his side.

-YoungGuk-

It hasn’t even been five minutes and the town knew I was back. News travels fast in this little town where I grew up. I had grown up on the streets and back then the town people had hated me. I was a trouble maker and no one liked a beggar from the streets. I was always looked down on and made fun of in school, I would have never come back to this town but Seoul was beginning to wear me down and I needed a place to escape to. Home was here and here was where I chose to relax. I pull up to the house I was supposed to call home for the next couple of weeks and park the car. 

I haven’t even got to the stairs when my started going off in my pocket. YoSeob’s name flash across the screen and I pick it up.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were in town?” YoSeob ask angry.

“I’ve been busy. Why, what’s up?”

YoSeob the one true friend I had growing up in this hole had always had my back no matter what he was one of the few people who I miss from this place. He never let the fact that I was poor come in between us. To him I was YoungGuk not the poor kid or the trouble maker. I was just always YoungGuk to him and I thank him for it because he was my biggest supporter and best friend. I was able to find the courage to move from this town and make something out of myself because of him.

-Ha-eun-

I didn’t care how sweaty they were I still hug each and every one of them. My dad’s workers were the best and had been long loyal friends to our family. Grinning from ear to ear I try my best to help them with the wine process and enjoyed myself. Growing up working hard for what I want was always my thing. I never wanted to fulfill my mother’s dream of me marring into a rich family to get a place in society. I wanted to earn it myself. I wanted to let people know that I got what I had because of my hard work. I was more like my dad then my mom. 

My mom had come from a rich family and my dad was a poor man who had to start from the bottom to get to the top to be able to get my mother’s hand in marriage. Even though my mom might be a snobby rich girl she was also a kind person. She saw the determination in my father and loved him because of that not because of his money. 

My phone starts ringing in my back pocket and I pick it up, it was my sister.

“Unnie” I happily pick up.

“Ha-eun where are you? Dad said he dropped you off an hour ago.” Ye-eun sounded weird. She was all calm and monotone. What happen to my hyper sister? I was always the bland one not her.

“I’m at the wine building.”

“Well hurry back, I need to talk to you.” She spoke softly and proper. What has my mother done to her? She sounded like my mother.

“Is everything okay?” I ask worried.

“Yeah, just hurry.” Without further explanation she hangs up.

Why was my sister so weird? She was always a happy person. Why did she sound so down just now? Maybe it was the stress of the wedding that got to her. I pull off my working gloves and said goodbye to the workers. I put my phone back into my pocket and started walking my way back to the house which was like a mile away.

Approaching the house I saw my sister’s car in the drive way along with another. I walk up to the mysterious car and observe it. It must belong to my sister’s future husband and he must be rich. Suddenly the door opens and YoSeob steps out of the car. What was he doing here? He was in a black suit and sunglasses hid his face. How did he know I was back in town? He shuts the door and stood there staring at me like I am doing to him. Can I run to him? Am I good enough to stand by his side now?

The door to the house opens and my sister walks out. YoSeob looks at her and smile brightly at her. Why was he looking at her that way? He was supposed to look at me that way. When he saw me he just stared at me like I was some weird creature, as if he wasn’t sure how to greet me.

Without giving me another look he walks pass me and straight to my sister and my world falls apart. If I thought I was broken before I don’t know what I am now. Leaving him was the hardest thing I had to do and I thought it would be the worst thing that ever happened to me but I was wrong, seeing him with my sister it destroyed me. He had always said he didn't understand what boys saw in her so why is he with my sister? Was I still not good enough for him?

I watch helplessly as he hugs Ye-eun and kiss her. He ask her something and she shook her head no. She sweetly smiles up at him and then looks at me. It wasn’t my mother who had change her it was YoSeob. YoSeob stood next to her and they both watch me. 

“Ha-eun, YoSeob and I…we’re getting married.”

That .

Shock didn’t even come, anger and heartbroken was what came and honestly I didn’t know what to do or say. I wasn’t going to lie and say I was happy for them but then at the same time I wasn’t going to be blunt and curse them at the top of my lungs until I couldn’t scream anymore. What do I do? I don’t know. Someone help me.