"Unnie.." Naeun called in a very faint voice. When Chorong looked up in response, Naeun shifted closer and held her hand. "I'm sorry for being an that day. I'm sorry for being so rude to you and Eunji unnie. I guess I've changed. Unnie, I, I think I'm really turning into a monster."

The girl's voice was shaky, probably from the disappointment in herself. Chorong pulled the other into her arms and patted on the back comfortingly. "Naeun-ah, I said it that day out of anger and I wasn't rationally thinking at all. I'm so sorry for that. You're not the least a monster Naeun, you're an angel, an angel Mum and Dad left me with."

"Really?" Naeun asked as she looked up, her wide eyes blurred by tears. With protection from the two most precious people in her life, Naeun was never hurt. It was a good thing, but now that she did get hurt, she fell hard.

"Yes of course. What else can my perfect little sister be?" Seeing Naeun's more relaxed expression, Chorong smiled. She always made it her duty to be there for her sister who was always vulnerable and needed protection. They were sisters, but sometimes Chorong played a double role, seemingly like the mother as well. "Naeun, remember that no one can make you have negative feelings unless you allow them to. He's definitely not worth it for that, so please be happy hmm?"

Naeun nodded, once again finding comfort in her sister's arms. "Thank you." It was not words that had to be said between sisters, but no amount of 'thank you'-s can express how grateful Naeun is for having a sister like Chorong.

Bomi fumbled around for her tools, only to remember that Chorong had thrown them all away. The pain was coming back after she saw the photo that was on the table, and it was unbearable.

"If there's anything, call me." Bomi recalled Chorong's sentence, and it seemed like an option now. She was actually not too fond of the idea of disturbing Chorong, but it seemed like a necessity to release the pain.

The phone rang for just a couple of times, before she heard the soft voice that had always calmed her down. "Oh Bomi, why?"

But Bomi kept silent. Truthfully, she did not know why she was feeling that way. It was not the first time she had seen the photograph after her mother's passing. Yet, this time it triggered so much.

"Why? Are you okay?" The voice over the other side asked again. Bomi continued remaining quiet. And this made Chorong extremely worried. "It's alright Bomi, everything's going to be alright. Don't do anything rash, please. Wait for me, I'll come over now."

*** the other side..

"Like a dream I have met you, like a dream we loved, Our love was as happy as a dream." The phone rang, and Chorong quickly picked the call up, seeing that it was Bomi.

"Oh Bomi, why?" She waited a while, but there was no response.

"Why? Are you okay?" There was no sound at all, except the ragged breathing coming from the other side of the phone call.  

"It's alright Bomi, everything's going to be alright. Don't do anything rash, please. Wait for me, I'll come over now." With that, Chorong headed out of the house as soon as possible, without even thinking twice about anything at all.

Meanwhile, Bomi really wanted to wait patiently before releasing everything, just like she was told to. However, her emotions were consuming her at quite a fast rate, and things were getting out of her control. The little demon in her yearned - or demanded - for relief.

She spent some time staring at the glass bottle sitting not too far away. It had been used to contain letters, but now it seemed like a very good choice. She reached out to take it, but stopped halfway and retracted. Unnie told me to wait, I can't be doing this.

Bomi sat there a while longer as the angel and demon in her fought with each other. It got noisy in her head, making her frustrated, feeling worse than ever. At last, she gave in to the devil and throw the bottle on the ground. With shaky hands, she bent down to pick up a relatively big piece.

As she brought the broken glass closer to the surface of her skin, the devil smirked in victory while the angel desperately tried to persuade her to do otherwise. Chorong unnie would be hurt if you really do it! Please Bomi, just wait a little longer, I'm sure she's reaching soon.

Bomi, just let them touch. It's the end of your pain that way. Instant and efficient. The devil sounded so convincing, too convincing. Bomi let the glass piece touch her skin lightly, still mustering courage to shift it. While closing her eyes, she took a deep breath in.

"Bbom-ah!" The door flew open as the ever-so-familiar voice was heard. Bomi's eyes shot open, only to see Chorong standing at the door, not moving. The younger dared not look into the older's eyes, for fear that the older was angry. However, after gathering all the courage she had, Bomi looked up and let their eyes met.

At that instant, saying that Bomi regretted was a total understatement. There was no sign of anger in Chorong's eyes, absolutely none at all. Rather, her eyes was filled with nothing but hurt. It was a sight Bomi did not want to see, and it hurt Bomi even more that she was the one who caused Chorong to be like that. Because she did not listen, because she did not wait patiently, because she was just that small step away from entirely giving in to the demon.

The first of either to speak was, surprisingly, Chorong. Taking a few steps closer to the crying and trembling one, she stretched out her hand. "Bbom, if you want to hurt someone, then just hurt me, not yourself please."

To that, Bomi stared blankly at the other. She just could not imagine how hurt the older was to say such stuff. She threw the broken piece of glass back to the direction she picked it up from. She leaned towards the girl who was in front of her and hid her head into the older's clothes. Her hands were tugging tightly onto the back of the older's shirt, as she said in a muffled voice, "Unnie...."

Just with that one word, both her apology and pain was delivered to Chorong. She placed one hand on the back of the girl who was hugging her, while she used the other to carress the girl's hair. "Bbom ah, just let it all out, I'm here."

There was no exchange of words after that, the room only had muffled sobs of the younger girl. It lasted for a long time, and Chorong was just constantly trying to not make Bomi feel like a burden. When Bomi finally calmed down a little, the former wiped away the tears that stained her face.

After taking a cup of water to help Bomi further relax, Chorong begun sweeping the broken pieces of glass on the floor. There was a piece rather out of reach from the broom, so Chorong bent down to take it with her own hands. Being the careless her, she accidentally hurt herself, the glass causing blood to ooze out from her finger. "Ah!" She quickly took a look at her finger and blew it.

"Unnie, are you okay??" The girl who was sitting on the chair immediately put the cup down and rushed to the other's side. "I'm sorry." Bomi gave a quick apology before blowing the finger for Chorong. "I'm so sorry I didn't listen-"

"Shh." Chorong gave her a look with the message that it was okay, before carefully using her other hand to dispose of the glass piece. When she was done with sweeping it up, Bomi approached her with a plaster and insisted on her putting it on. The older smiled as she watched the other gently wrap the plaster around her finger. "Thanks Bbom-ah."

Chorong suddenly recalled that she had undone chores, and started panicking internally trying to hide it from Bomi. The latter, however, observed that her unnie was looking a bit flustered. "Unnie, if you have stuff to do, you can go now. I'm fine now."

"No Bomi I can stay here with you throughout the night." Chorong tried to sound convincing.

"No, unnie. Go home." Bomi insisted, grabbing the older's arm and headed towards the exit. She looked at Chorong and gave the widest smile she could bring herself to do. "Thanks for coming, unnie. And I'm sorry again. I'll see you tomorrow."

Chorong looked back at her friend and sighed. If not for what she had to do at home, she would definitely stay here the entire night. She pulled the younger into a final hug and said, "Bye Bomi. Thanks for being strong, I know you struggled a lot before I reached. See you tomorrow."

Naeun watched in fear as her sister came back. Their aunt had been waiting for her return, and Naeun knew very well that she was going to rage. Chorong gulped as she saw her aunt's face, but tried to pretend like everything was normal and wanted to start doing her undone chores.

"Where do you think you're going, Chorong?" The stern voice stopped Chorong in her footsteps, as she turned. "Why were you out so late? And how dare you go out without doing your chores at all?"

"I'm sorry," Chorong apologised as she gave a polite bow.

"Sorry? Is that all?" The aunt came towards her and grabbed her by the ear. She pulled her all the way to the oh-so-familiar corner, before throwing her onto the ground and picking up the cane which the two sisters had nearly forgotten the existence of. Things at home had been going oddly well for them, and it was finally the time of eruption. Hit after hit landed on Chorong's body, and her attempts to run away were futile and only made things worse. Their aunt grabbed hold of her tightly and the hits became harder. On top of that, she threw insults and mean remarks towards Chorong, such as "It's precisely because your parents knew you'd turn out so disobedient that's why they left early."

Seeing her sister scream so loudly as she struggled and squirmed in their aunt's arms, Naeun started crying in shock and fear. In her blank state of mind, the only thing that occured to her was to call Eunji. Just a few moments later, the doorbell rang, and their aunt, thankfully and finally, let Chorong go. The poor girl instantaneously ran into her room and hid under her blanket, trembling from both crying and the pain which seared through her body. It felt way worse than usual, it was either their aunt was particularly ruthless that day or she was not that used to it anymore. Naeun inched closer to her, but was hesitant to touch the crying older in case she accidentally triggered more pain. Naeun was still crying, it pained her so much knowing that she could do nothing to help her sister. Luckily, Eunji entered and comforted her, assuring that her sister would be okay. "Chorong unnie will be fine. I brought oilment with me again, Naeun ah."

The two tried hard to get the oldest to calm down so that they could apply the oilment, but their attempts, one after another, just failed. Chorong was still crying as badly, if not harder, and they could do nothing about it. Desperate, they decided to try their last bet.

"Unnie, please stop crying." Bomi wiped the older's tears slightly before going back to hugging her. She indeed had a way with Chorong, it did not take her that long a time to get the other seated up and letting everything out in her arms instead. The only issue was that she was still crying hard, and it had been some time already. While Eunji and Naeun felt relieved that there was progress after all, Bomi was taken aback at how the situation changed entirely in only about an hour. But she was glad to be there, to provide relief for Chorong as well as distract herself from thinking about her mother. Once Chorong had stopped sobbing so terribly, Bomi gently led Chorong such that the latter was leaning against the wall, before taking the oilment from Eunji. She went back to the girl who was now sniffing and taking in deep breaths and said softly, "Unnie, it might hurt a little, but bear with it a little okay?"

Looking down, Bomi took extreme care in making sure that every wound would heal as fast as possible. Chorong had sharp movements whenever it hurt a little too much, but she would immediately return to the original position, bearing with the pain just like she was told to. The two girls sitting not too far away watched in amusement at how Chorong listened so well to Bomi, like an obedient child. When the latter was done, she put the oilment aside and knelt down next to the former. Pulling Chorong's hands in hers, Bomi looked into her eyes earnestly and said, "I'm sorry unnie, it's my fault that you got hit, that you ended up crying like that. And you did a great job enduring the pain, unnie. Here's a reward for you."

With that said, the younger patted the other's fringe and leant closer to kiss the other on the cheek, tasting the saltiness of her dried up tears. Chorong gave a weak smile at the younger's actions and words, liking how she was always so considerate and caring towards her. With her soft voice, she replied, "It's not your fault Bbom-ah. Being able to make you happy just now makes everything worth it anyway. Thanks for coming."

The two younger ones at the side were smiling as well, Chorong definitely seemed better. Looking at the time, Eunji decided to go, and Bomi thought she should get going as well. However, Chorong held her back, tugging her by her hand. "Stay here for tonight?"

Bomi thought it probably was not a good idea since she might been imposing them, but it was indeed getting late, so she agreed. She originally wanted to just grab a soft pillow and settle on the floor, but Chorong requested that she sleep on her bed. "Please?"

Bomi could never reject Chorong, so she laid down next to the latter instead. She faced the older, so that she could make sure that she fell asleep before falling asleep herself. Unexpectedly, Chorong nestled into her arms, and she could feel her shirt getting wet. She wondered why the other was crying again, but decided that it was better to stay like that. She heard muffled words coming from Chorong and it sounded like "They didn't leave intentionally right? They died from the accident, right?" "I'm not useless right?" but Bomi did not say anything, thinking she had heard wrongly. She just pulled the older into a tighter embrace and rubbed her back, while praying that the older would be alright soon.

A/N: So I'm back with this longer-than-usual update!! :D The tests are finally over, did y'all miss me? /being totally shameless/ But since it's semester two there's really a lot of stuff going on and it'll be exam soon before we even know it, so.. let's just hope I won't get too busy :D Hope you guys liked this chapter! ChoMi + a little 2eun. Because ChoMi needs to be there for each other :D Do comment^^ thanks for reading :)

@akumatsubasa yepyep, no more fights too haha

@Nachomisan hahaha Taemin is so mean right? :< He needs to learn that Eunji will always be there for Naeun. Probably (:

@jetiunique same here :3 well Chorong is always so caring and being able to understand how Bomi is feeling makes her feel like taking care of her more :D but ah wells... Let's hope Chorong will be happy sometime ^^ haha thanks for that!~

@blue_periwinkle hahah probably because of the limited vocabulary or cliche plot or smth >< but thanks anyway :) haha transport time is the best for writing, if there's inspiration that is. Thank you~ :D