Few days had passed and ByulHee began to slowly settling in and familiarize herself with her new life. MinSeok and MinYoung too had been helping her as much as  they could to make ByulHee feel like home. She still hadn’t say much to either of them and both MinSeok and MinYoung did not want to coerce her and gave her time instead.

Even though to be honest they both hoped so much that their daughter will open up to them soon and make herself comfortable with them. They really much wanted to get to know her more but everytime they tried to make conversations with her, it will always be short as ByulHee will only reply with short sentences or sometimes with a nod or a shake.

To make things worse, HeeJun, their son, was not helping at all. Even though it had only been a few days but there wasn’t once when HeeJun didn’t criticise her whenever they were together. This complicated things as his ill comments made ByulHee became more quiet and refused to speak sometimes.

She often hung her head low at times as she was hurt with what HeeJun always said. She wanted to fight his words back but she didn’t want to appear herself as defensive much and yet HeeJun was just a kid. ByulHee didn’t want to pick a fight with a seven year old even though he didn’t act like one.

MinSeok and MinYoung tried to reason with HeeJun and often warned him that they will stop his privileges if he continued his behaviour but the boy didn’t even care. His parents warnings seemed to bore him everytime and it can be seen on his face just how much he didn’t give a damn. To him, his parents can stop whatever they wanted because he knew that he can always got them back from someone else, even though not his parents.

You’ll know soon who am I referring to.

So, one weekend morning, the four were having their breakfast at the dining table quietly and peacefully as always. MinSeok was reading the papers while MinYoung and the kids were enjoying the pancakes.

Still not used to with the modern type breakfast, ByulHee struggled a little but no longer as bad as when she first arrived. MinYoung had been guiding her and exposed her with varieties of things and slowly ByulHee began to get the hang of it. But that did not stop HeeJun from teasing her and commenting how she looked like an idiot each time she saw foods that she had never seen before.

The two children were still eating their breakfast when MinSeok suddenly said to MinYoung, while putting down the newspaper, “Don’t forget tonight’s event, MinYoung. I might not be able to be at home for half the day as I have a meeting I need to attend to but I think I’m able to reach home in time before all of us leave to the company.”

MinYoung nodded her head in understanding and put her cutleries down, as she had finished eating. “No worries, MinSeok. We will all be ready by the time you get home. In fact I was just thinking to take ByulHee out for a while this morning.” She said and then turned to HeeJun. “Do you want to come with us ? We’re going to buy your sister a dress for her to wear for the event.”

HeeJun pulled a face and rolled his eyes at the suggestion. ByulHee saw very clearly what he was doing as he was sitting at the opposite and ignored it the best she could. It was still early in the morning and she didn’t need her temper to be out unnecessarily.

“Why would I want to go ? I’d rather stay at home then going out with her. I don’t want my friends to see me walking with this loser.” HeeJun replied before getting up from his chair and locked himself in his room.

Three pairs of eyes were following him but as his figure disappeared, sighs could be heard from MinSeok and MinYoung while ByulHee remain sitted. She looked at both of her parents and she could see the look of distress in their eyes. ByulHee knew that MinSeok and MinYoung tried to get them close like siblings should be but HeeJun always rejected and distance himself from the idea.

ByulHee had no idea what she did wrong to receive such treatment from him as she knew very well that she did nothing harmful or offensive towards HeeJun. The kid just hated her the minute he saw her and it went on up to that day.

Feeling a bit curious, ByulHee then asked, “Why does he despise me so much ? I haven’t done anything to give him a reason to hate me.” She looked at her parents expressionlessly while the both of them threw her a sympathetic smile.

“He doesn’t hate you, love. He just needs to .. adapt of having you here is all. I told you that for years he’s been the only child and received the attentions all to himself. I think he’s just a little afraid that he won’t be getting the attention anymore.” MinSeok said, while MinYoung only nodded eagerly. Hoping that ByulHee will believe them.

ByulHee didn’t say anything and just lifted her shoulders. She knew that that wasn’t the real case but she became bored to argue about it. Talking more about it won’t even solve the problem as the boy will continue to hate her no matter what MinSeok and MinYoung said or do.

Feeling like her mood was gradually dropping, MinYoung quickly asked to change the subject, “So ... are you ready to go on your first shopping trip ? We are going to have so much fun, you and I !” she put a lot of excitement in her voice while hoping that ByulHee will be as excited as she was but to her dismay, ByulHee’s expression remained as it was before and not even a pinch of enthusiasm.

“Sure. Well if there’s nothing else please excuse me.” Was all ByulHee said before disappearing to her room as well, leaving the husband and wife at the dining table staring after her.

MinYoung’s shoulders fell as she felt that ByulHee was not expecting the shopping trip as much as she did. MinYoung had waited for so long to have a mother-daughter time with ByulHee and there was just so many things she wanted to do with her and this was one of it.

However, seeing ByulHee’s lack of reaction of MinYoung’s plan to take her out, she had a feeling that it won’t be long until ByulHee refused to spend time with her anymore.

MinSeok could sense that his wife was feeling a little sad hence he threw her and encouraging smile and said, “Give her time, dear. She still needs to get used to being around us.”

“But don’t you think that it’s been a bit too long ?” MinYoung suddenly argued, a little frustration and sadness in her voice.

MinSeok sighed a little and grasped his wife’s hand, “It’s only been almost a week. We can’t expect her to straight away being jovial or being close to us. You must remember that for her whole life, she only had Chen and no other. I know SuBin was there but most of the time in her life, Chen was all she had.”

“Well, that’s another thing. Do you know that every single day she asked me whether she could go back to Chen ? I mean, it isn’t wrong but can you just imagine how hurt I’m feeling when she asked when can she go home ? This place she lives in now is her home, Xiumin. All of our hardwork and sacrifices seem to be nothing to her each time she asked to return her back to Chen. I’m her mother, Xiumin and you’re her dad but yet she wants to go back to someone who is not !” MinYoung poured out everything that she had kept inside this whole time.

MinYoung was completely disheartened and MinSeok could clearly see it. As much as he wanted to agree with what his wife just said, he chose to stand with what he said earlier.

It was true that it was a little heart breaking to know that his own daughter kept asking to live with someone else but a part of him seemed to understand why she was behaving like that.

He and MinYoung came out of the blue and appeared way too suddenly in her life, with no