Jessica and Krystal rushed off to the Seoul General Hospital in one of the police cars. Once they arrived, they got news that both their parents were in critical condition and in the operating room. Jessica held Krystal who was crying, trying to console her, “Don’t worry, it will be fine,” Jessica kept saying as if talking to herself.

After a few hours the doctor came out from the operating room with his head hung low, “I’m sorry but Mr. Jung passed away on the operating table...” Jessica and Krystal felt their heart break into a million pieces that their father, who meant the world to them was no longer there to give hugs or encouraging words. “However, Mrs. Jung will be sent to the ICU. Her body was 80% burned so her condition is not much better, but we were able to stabilize her for the time being.” Although Krystal and Jessica were devastated by the news of their father, the words of their mother still alive helped ease the pain.

Krystal and Jessica rushed up to the ICU and looked into the room where their mother was placed. Jessica saw one of the nurses, “Mam can we go in?”

“I’m afraid not. It is a clean room and everything must be sterilized before entering. Right now only doctors are allowed.” It pained both of the sisters that their mother was suffering but they could only watch behind the glass. Soon enough, the trauma and tears caused the girls to collapse on each other’s shoulder from tiredness.

Jessica awoke when Krystal shook her frantically, “Jess! Jess! Her heart stopped!”

Jessica bolted awake and the familiar tears swelled around her eyes, “No this can’t be!” Jessica rushed to the window and saw a team of doctors trying to revive her mother. “Mom, you can’t do this to me. You can’t abandon us like dad.”

Pleading and crying didn’t change the fact that on that day, both parents in the Jung household passed away. Leaving the girls to rely on one another.

A few days after the funeral, they were assigned to live with the family of their father’s cousin, who was the closest related relative in the family since neither their father or mother had any siblings.

Since their house was destroyed, Krystal and Jessica arrived at their new home with only one suitcase each with clothes borrowed from friends. Jessica rang the doorbell but there was no answer so she looked at Krystal for an answer.

“I’m sure they know we were coming. Ring it again.” Jessica tried ringing it again but still no answer.

“What should we do?”

“Wait? I’m not sure.”

Jessica and Krystal sat on the porch of the house waiting for someone to come but as the hours passed, they had doubts anyone lived in this house until a car pulled up in the driveway. Both Jessica and Krystal stood up in anticipation of their new family.

The adults came up to them, “So you are the Jung brats.” Krystal’s heart dropped when she heard the greeting but Jessica was b with anger.

They saw twins come out of the car, a boy and girl, “Mom are these the orphans that we have to live with?”

Jessica clenched her teeth trying to hold back her fury. She didn’t like the word ‘orphan.’ It made it seem like her parents willingly abandoned them.

“Come on brats, we have a legal responsibility to take care of you,” the mother said snobbishly as the family entered the house. Krystal and Jessica didn’t want to follow but they had no choice, this was their new home and new family.

The sisters walked into the house and had a quick glance around before getting thrown into the basement. “This is where you stay when we are home. Every morning you will have tasks to do before school and after school. We will post them on your door. Make sure you get up at 4 am to do your chores.” The father slammed their door without letting them retaliate.

Krystal looked at Jessica, “Jessy, I’m scared.”

Jessica held Krystal, “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you We can make this work.”

“I want mom and dad and our home.”

“Me too. More than anything.” The girls held each other for love and warmth until the night fell and they prepared themselves for the next morning.

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4 am.

The sisters got up as they were told and opened the door to see the note that was promised for them: Sweep, dust everything, mop, laundry, prepare breakfast, clean dishes. Krystal looked at Jessica, “Doesn’t seem that bad and there are two of us.”

“Do you know how to do all this stuff? I never watched the maids before.”

“It can’t be that hard.” After two hours they finished most of their list but Jessica was making Krystal do the majority of the work since she was clueless about anything related to cleaning and she couldn’t cook. “Jessica you better remember all of this by tomorrow because I can’t do everything by myself!”

“Krystal I am trying! I didn’t expect to have to do all this stuff!”

“Quit yelling at me and just get out of my way. Go get our stuff for school while I finish up.”

Jessica stomped down to the basement to get their stuff for school. She was getting frustrated and fighting with her sister was something she wasn’t used to, but the tiredness from waking up early and doing all the manual work in the morning was pressing on her.

The girls ran out of the home realizing that they were running late. They made it to the gate as it was closing but they didn’t make it. “Sorry girls but you have detention for being late.”

Jessica became a bottle of emotions with anger, sadness and frustration which went out on Krystal, “Krystal, I said that the cleaning didn’t have to be perfect!”

“I don’t want to hear it from the dragons when we get home!”

“I am sure we will hear it anyway since we are going to come home late now! We also have other chores to do when we get back.”

“Don’t blame me when you didn’t help with anything.”

After getting out all their anger, they both went to their respective classes.

Jessica was tired from the entire morning of chores and arguing with her sister that she just did her usual with sleeping during class. However this time she wasn’t surrounded by her friends and people saw the change in her appearance which seemed more ragged, not like her usual glowing aura. Class ended, “Jessica you need to wake up.”

“No mom...a little while longer.”

“Jess...we are at school wake up.”

Jessica woke up and realized it was only a dream and her mother wasn’t around. She felt the wetness of tears surrounding her eyes again. She didn’t want to show her weakness to the girl that was waking her up, “I’m awake. Please leave,” She said with her head still down in her arms.

“Okay.” The girl said before leaving Jessica.

Jessica heard footsteps becoming distant from her so she lifted her head, but the girl who she thought that left was now in front of her with a tissue, “Jessica we all know what you went through. You don’t need to act strong.”

Jessica had a better look at that girl and knew that she sat next to her but she never bothered to talk to her before, “Who are you?”

“We had the same room together for three years now and you never noticed me? Wow...my name is Taeyeon.”

Jessica felt guilty that she didn’t know the girl even though they had the same class for that long. Made her think that she was pretty selfish back when she had everything. “Sorry and thanks,” she took the tissue and wiped away the tears.

“I hope you feel better.” Taeyeon said before leaving Jessica.

The school day was over and Jessica was making her way over to the other building for detention. As she was walking over, a tall girl blocked the way, “Yuri?”

“Jessica I am sorry I couldn’t make it to your parent’s funeral.”

Jessica was actually furious at her girlfriend. Not only was she not around when she was at her lowest, she never contacted her once since the day of the fire. “Where the hell have you been? Didn’t you think that I needed you?”

“Well...I thought you would want to be alone...”

“Alone! Are you kidding me! Why would I! I think we are over.”

“Jess don’t do this to me! I still love you!”

“Yuri I can’t handle this!” Jessica was now crying because of her anger and broken heart.

“Please Jess!”

“Just leave me alone!” Jessica couldn’t face Yuri anymore and ran off with tears blinding her path and it wasn’t long before she ran into someone.

Jessica couldn’t see who it was that she ran into because all the crying made her vision blurry. “A lot of crying for one day I see.” The person bent down to Jessica and wiped away her tears, “Don’t worry. It can only get better from here.” Jessica liked the soothing voice of the girl so Jessica let the girl console her. She was tired of fighting the tears and living her life full of anger. The comfort of this stranger was what she wanted most at the moment.

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A/N

Second chapter out! Sorry I left for a small vacation so not much time to write. Hope you continue to support this story ^^