ISABELLA

“What’s up?” I’m so thrilled that Gabby is here.

Sleepy and tired, she looks at me, her dark circles so visible. “Unnie…what’s with the tone? Why do you sound so excited?”

I really can’t control myself anymore, I shriek. “You just don’t know how happy I am that you’re here!” I shake her by the shoulders.

“Yaaaa” DK rolls to our direction, eyes closed. “Keep your volume down…let me sleep in peace please”

It made me giggle. I get up from Gabby’s bed and throws myself on top of DK, making her groan. “UUUNNNIIIIEEEEE!”

“Gabby’s here!” I shout so close to her ears.

My lovely sister pushes me away, giving her drop of energy to it. “I know”

“How come?” I turn to Gabby who is still so busy doing her term paper.

She closes her laptop, puts it down beside her and sighs. “I bugged her till she cries a while ago...I’m just too excited to be home…and because the kids are already sleeping and you and Mum and Dad are not home yet...I released my excitement through DK”

“That’s true Isabella Unnie…Gabby Unnie woke me up in the middle of my wonderful sleep and even made me eat almost half of the cake she baked at her apartment that tastes so bad you will not even want to put a bit of it in your mouth” DK is so disgusted, just by the tone of her voice I feel like I can taste the cake already.

Gabby being Gabby, she crawls out of her bed holding a pillow, walks to DK’s bed and slams the pillow at her, making a loud sound. “I worked so hard on that cake!” she looks at me and I laugh “She’s such a liar…I swear…a while ago she’s all compliments to my cake....she even said that I can have my own cake shop already”

This is what I miss. My sisters and I just have a different kind of relationship. I don’t know, maybe it’s because our s are not that far or we grew up leaning on to each other to get by, especially when our family is still a mess. Too bad, ever since Gabby moved out, we bond less and even talk less, one reason why I’m so glad she’s going to stay with us again at least for a week or two.

“Where’s Mum and Dad?” Gabby asks, walking out of our parents’ room.

I shrug. “Don’t know”

DK flops herself on the couch, face first. “Yah!” Gabby runs to her and slaps her . “You said you’re going to cook ramen for us!”

“Aigoo” she lifts her heavy body up and sits. “You guys are aware that I have school later and my class is going to start” she looks at the Grandfather’s clock “in exactly six hours from now”

“FYI Ms. Kwon” Gabby pulls her up by the arms “My class is going to start by seven later…I have to be up by five to prepare and leave the house by six coz my university’s an hour away from here”

They are bickering once again and if before I hate it to the core, now, I love it very much. It’s just so refreshing. I’m just so thankful that we’re all mature already, that there are no crying moments anymore. Well, unless one of them gets pissed and decided to out. Oh gosh! If that happens, Mum and Dad will surely go nuts!

“STOP IT!” I yell and as expected, they listened. “I know that we should be sleeping already coz you two have school and I have work later…but…can we…even just for a few minutes…talk while eating like we usually do? I swear…I miss it already”

As if an angel talked to them, Gabby and DK stopped bickering and peace embraces us again. DK who is so good in cooking ramen and partly because she’s the youngest, prepared our midnight snack.

“How are things going here?” Gabby rarely asks this question because she’s sure that things are going well.

“Hmmm” I’m nibbling the bread that Mum bought yesterday. In all fairness to it, it still tastes good. “I feel like we’re being brought back to when we were kids”

“Why is that?” she asks curiously.

DK sits with us while waiting for the noodles to cook. “Mum…as usual…is so busy with the magazine”

“Actually” I swallow hard “She’s going to be busier in the coming months”

The two rolls their eyes. “And Dad?” Gabby asks.

“He’s busy too and totally occupied”

Gabby sighs heavily. “Oh yeah…he is….when I arrived a while ago…he just celebrated for a few minutes and leaves…he didn’t even ask me how’s school”

We have nothing about our parents being so busy, simply because we’re used to it. Thing is, after Dad’s retirement, our lives started to be as normal just like other families. My only concern now that he’s going to be active in the entertainment industry again is our privacy. Yes, we cannot be as private as we want to be, but having no privacy at all, just like before, is going to be so hard to take. I don’t want to go back to the past where our every move is being watched.

“To be honest” Gabby started nibbling on the bread I’m eating as well “I don’t want Dad to go back to being a celebrity again”

“Unnie…he’s still a celebrity…and will always