Sooyeon comes home to an empty house. The lights are all off, and as Sooyeon turns it on; she's surprised to see that the house is clean. The books by the shelves of the living room used to be scattered all around the floor, but now, they were neat and tidily arranged by color. The walls were dusted and so were the furniture, the floors were swept and the windows even shone under the streetlights of outside. Well, except for the intoxicating scent of cigarettes, liquid and perfume mixed together in the air, everything was perfectly clean.

Sooyeon sighs. "It must be that time of the month." she says softly to herself as she scans around the small house. "Yes, it must be." 

She doesn't need to call out for her foster mother anymore, because Sooyeon knows she's not even in the house. Every month or so, Solbi would go out on a so-called 'vacation' with one of her friends. Maybe their just around the corner by the nearest bar, or probably at Incheon enjoying the night life there. Whichever the place, Sooyeon is used to Solbi's wild behavior and she won't even be surprised if one night, she walks in drink with a man by her side. 

But maybe that won't happen any time soon. Because usually, Solbi leaves the house for a week or so, and sometimes leave extra pocket money for her adopted daughter and she even cleans the house just for Sooyeon, to lessen her troubles. The longest Solbi had gone out was nearly two weeks, and she had left 130,000 won to Sooyeon that time. 

Kang Solbi isn't actually that bad, but there are times in where Sooyeon had absolutely loathed the woman. 

Sooyeon, I'm away with some friends for a while.
Will be back in a few days.
There's extra money under the doormat. Take care.

Sooyeon crumples the paper and rolls her eyes as she throws it in the trashcan. She hums a song to herself, trying to block out the thoughts of Solbi and where she might be this time. She changes into her favorite pair of pajamas before she cooks herself a meal.

It's so quite and eerie around that Sooyeon purses her lips. Thoughts and echoes of her laughter mixed with his fill her hollow mind. His corny jokes and punch lines make Sooyeon's heart flutter. The sound of his voice repeating over and over in her head makes Sooyeon crack a smile.

Later on, Sooyeon sighs. She misses Yifan's presence. 

/\|\/

Yifan is too shocked to even move from his spot. "Mom?" he lets the word slip out of his tongue without thinking twice. It sounded so foreign, so new and so surreal to him. Her presence makes Yifan's knees week to the core, and even his large hands are shaking as he stares at the person he had addressed. So, it really was her car that was outside. "Wh-"

"Kris," it breaks his heart to hear her voice like that. So weak and tired like she's been overworking herself. 

The woman, maybe formerly known as Mrs. Wu, steps forward while extending a hand out to caress her son's face. Yifan only stiffens even more upon the skin contact, and he stares wide-eyed at his own mother, still not believing she was in the house. 

Yifan doesn't say anything though. He only lets her touch the side of his face, and soon, Yifan relaxes under his mother's touch. A faint, sad smile was on his face but he still doesn't utter a word as he looks deep down into her mother's eyes. 

"My, my, you look pale. Have you been eating?" she asks, putting a hand behind his back, urging him to walk forward. They walk downstairs, in where they could be out of earshot from Yifan's father. 

"Yes. Three meals a day." he says, his voice a little too soft and shaky. 

His mother nods. "I see. Good. That's good." she says weakly. She is obviously tired, maybe even exhausted. 

Yifan furrows his eyebrows and turns to look at his own mother. It was only then that he noticed she too was looking pale, wrinkles began to show on her forehead and at the side of her face, her lips were slightly chapped and her eyelids looked heavy. "Mom, are you alright?" he asks her in Chinese.

She laughs lightly and Yifan couldn't remember the last time he had heard her laugh. "Why wouldn't I be?" she just laughs, but Yifan wasn't in the mood to join her. "I'm just a little tired, dear. I've been going back and forth from Seoul to Beijing for the reports and files.. and I'm tired, but I'll be alright."  but there's something in her voice that seems to be telling him otherwise. 

"Where are you headed?" Yifan asks, deciding not to dwell on that topic. "Do you have an appointment to get to?"

She nods. "Something like that." 

"Can I come?"

"I'm sorry, Kris, but no."

"Please?"

She sighs. "No." 

"But, mom, I-I.. I missed you." Yifan frowns as he looks down on his mother. "Can't I come with you? Just this once?" he was practically begging her. It's the first time he's seen her in over a month and he could see she's aged. She's only in her mid-30s yet she looked a little older. The stress of everything had gotten to her, Yifan could tell that much. 

His mother hugs him, and again, Yifan is shocked. Her thin and rather pale arms encircle his waist, bringing him closer to her for a warm hug. She places her head on his chest, since she was a good head shorter than her own son, and she closes her eyes, trying to inhale his scent. "Oh, Yifan, I-I've missed you too." she was sobbing. 

Yifan only frowns even more. "Mom.." he doesn't know what to do. Yifan stands there awkwardly as her mother embraces, but soon, he remembers Sooyeon's words that time when she was crying and hugging him.

Just shut up and hold me. 

He hugs her mother back and sighs. "Mom, let me take you to your car." he whispers.  

His mother looks up and wipes the tears away, laughing at herself while mumbling something that Yifan couldn't quite hear. It was at that moment though, when he was looking at her, that the divorce was not only hurting him, but his mother as well. 

\/|/\

The wind passes by and ruffles his hair a little as it did. Yifan closes his eyes for a while, listeing to the sound of the winds and relaxing to the peaceful atmosphere around him. The rooftop was a nice place to hang out when you just want to laze around all day. 

"What's wrong?" 

He jumps slightly when he hears the voice. Her voice. Yifan sighs, knowing that if anyone could tell that he was not in the mood, it was Jung Sooyeon. 

"Nothing." he lies, not even turning around to face her. "How'd you find me?"

"I know it's not nothing." he could hear her walking towards him. The heels of her shoes creating small click-clack noises as she approached him. "Come on, Yifan, tell me." she avoids his question. 

Yifan sighs again, still hesitating. "I.. um, it's.." 

"What?" when he turns to her, she's raising an eyebrow at him. "Is it something really serious?" 

Yifan only stays quiet, hesitating on whether or not he should pour out his heart to her. The problems he was having with his family and how worried he was for his mother. Not to mention how much he missed her and his sister. All these feelings and thoughts filled him up ever since last night, and ever since then, he couldn't think straight and he'd always get distracted. Just like this morning, he was so out if it recently that it had already caught Sooyeon's attention. 

Beside him, she sighs. "Tell me whatever you want, I'll be right here to listen. You know, it's not good to keep your emotions and feelings bottled up inside you. Sometimes, you just have to let them go. Talking about them is one way." she smiles. 

He stares at her, a little taken aback by what she said. Could she, perhaps, read his mind? "Sooyeon.." 

"You can tell me," she says, encouraging him to do so. "We're friends." 

Yifan purses his lips when he turns his head away from her and that look on her face. "It's about my family." He decided to give in. 

Sooyeon tries to hide the frown on her face. "What about them?" she inquires.

"Everyone must know by now that my parents aren't even sleeping under the same roof anymore, and my sister isn't probably even in Korea." he mutters so low, that Sooyeon had barely even heard him. 

"Maybe not everyone.. but, I did read an article about it somewhere in the internet." she admits. "Why? What happened?" 

"I don't really know." and Yifan doesn't. He didn't know where everything had started going downhill. He didn't know when his parents had started ignoring each other. He didn't know how their love for each other had faltered. He didn't know. "It just.. I-I mean, one night they fought, and mom ran away. Yesterday was the first time I've seen her in a month or so."

"Really?" her eyes never leave his face, she was hoping he would look at her. That he would man up and tell her his problems face to face. 

"Yeah.. and their filing a divorce right now."

Sooyeon purses her lips as she tries to think of the right words to say. "That must be hard on you and your sister."

He actually snorts. "For me, yes, but for my sister? Probably not that much. We cried together about it one time, but by the next morning, she was smiling and grinning. It doesn't really affect her as much as it affects me. I'm close with both of my parents, while she favors mom more."

"Well, she has a point in doing so." Sooyeon says. "I mean, she must be a little bitter towards your father since he made you the heir of the company instead of her."

"Maybe that's it, but I don't know. I don't talk to her these days."

"You want to stop the divorce don't you?" she asks, totally out of the blue. 

"Not.. well, if I had a chance, I would do so. But I can't. I can't do anything about it. They lost their spark, and it's up to them to bring it back." he says, dejected by this fact. Yifan heaves out a big sigh before he finally turns to face Sooyeon. "You can see it right?

Sooyeon furrows her eyebrows. "See what?" she tilts her head to the side, wondering by what he meant.

"If anyone could see right through me, it's you Sooyeon. You can clearly see that I'm hurt and tearing up inside." 

She opens , but no words came out. She just stares at him. 

But Yifan knows he's right. Sooyeon can see pass through people, she can see their real intentions. He doesn't know how she does it, but he's intrigued by this, by her. She could always tell when he was angry, upset, not in the mood or maybe all. She always knew the right words to say, because she knew what he was feeling inside without him even telling her beforehand. 

Yifan knew Sooyeon could see past him. The cold facade he put up was nothing to her. The walls he had built up around him crumbles down every time she would find out more and more about him. It wasn't Yifan who was letting her in his life, it's her. It was all her. 

"Ye-I mean.. maybe." Sooyeon says. "I can see that you're hurt, and you've been hurt for quite a while. I just never really knew why."

"Well now you do," he gives her a pained smile before looking away again. "I can see it, too, you know. That you're hurt also."

"Maybe I am."

They turn to look at each other at the same time. And when they did, their eyes were locked onto the other's and neither wanted to look away.

"Maybe I'm slightly hurt by the fact that you have a family, and I don't." she whispers. "Or maybe, I'm hurt by the fact that you still hesitate on trusting me."

It was Yifan's turn to furrow his eyebrows. "What?"

"You're right, I can see pass you. I can see that you still have second thoughts on trusting me whole-heartedly." she says, observing his reaction. Unexpectedly, he gives her a smile. 

"I do trust you, Sooyeon. It's just.. I don't know, I've never been good with people." 

Sooyeon laughs lightly. "How ironic. You're the heir of a business company and the one thing you must have is good relations with other people, but that's the one thing you don't have with you right now." 

"It can still develop over time." he says, rolling his eyes. "And.. as for my family, you can't really say we are one right now." 

"Oh, I can still say that. No matter what, family is family. You can't change that." she shakes her head at him, a little disappointed by the fact that he's not even proud of his family. They were the Wus for goodness sake. "Be thankful, Yifan, not all of us have a family to run to." 

It takes Yifan a few seconds, maybe over a minute to reply to what she had said. His eyes scan every inch and part of her face. He looks into her eyes, trying to find something in them, but he sees nothing. He's not like her; he can't seem to look through people's head to figure them out. 

Yifan bores into Sooyeon's eyes. "Why? Where's your family?" 

Sooyeon only turns her head, looking away from him.