Your POV

I smiled at Jongdae when he told me not to overwork myself.  It was nice to know that he cared.  He was so nice and caring and handsome...  I wondered why I couldn't have fallen for Jongdae. 

"Thank you," I thanked him. 

He smiled back and said, "Why don't you come over?  We'll be heading home soon anyway." 

"Uhmm..."  I thought for a second.  "I have to get home.  I have to watch Minkyung." 

"Oh... well, do you mind if I drop by again some time?" 

"Sure.  Just give me a call so that I can be home when you come by." 

Jongdae smiled and started acting a bit shy.  It made me think of how adorable he could be sometimes.  When I realized what we were saying and how we were talking, I noticed how flirty we seemed.  If no one knew the context of our conversation or knew about us and our relationship, then they would probably take it the wrong way. 

"Wait!" Sehun suddenly exclaimed, startling both Jongdae and I. 

"What?" I asked. 

"Noona, are you still looking for a job?" 

"Yeah.  Why?" 

Then Sehun looked at Jongdae and started slapping at his shoulder in excitement.  "Hyung!  Remember?  We need a new translator at SM." 

Jongdae looked at the younger for a second and pushed his slapping hands away.  Then, as if a light in his head, he gasped.  They both turned to face me with big smiles on their faces. 

"There's an opening for a translator at our company," Jongdae explained.  "And since you speak Korean and English, I'm sure they'll hire you right away." 

I hesitated.  "Well..." 

"Please?  They pay pretty good, too!" Sehun added. 

"And you'll probably get to spend more time with us," Jongdae said. 

"I don't know.  I mean, I was going to accept an offer that I got at the community center," I told them. 

"Areum, you have way too many jobs and it'll just stress you out.  You could quit your tutoring job and even you daycare job if you get hired at SM," Jongdae said and took a step towards me. 

I looked away from the two.  Even though I wasn't looking at them, I knew they were giving me a pleading look.  Although I would like to quit the two jobs and apply at SM, I wasn't too sure if I wanted to see or be near EXO- specifically Baekhyun at the moment, especially after our little talk. 

"Noona, please?" Sehun pleaded with a puppy face. 

Without thinking, my eyes made their way to Sehun's eyes.  We locked eye contact and I got into his deep, brown eyes.  I smiled at his cute, pouting face and couldn't resist any longer.  "Fine," I said, giving in. 

Sehun threw his arms around me and squeezed all the air I had in me, out.  Then Jongdae made the gap between us even smaller by taking another step towards me.  "This is great," he started.  "I'll tell the company as soon as we get back." 

"Alright," I said.  Then Sehun let go of me and stared down at me with a smile.  That was when I realized how tall the youngest actually was. 

We walked out to the front of the cafe and I locked the door.  We said our goodbyes and I watched them walk away.  Once they were almost unable to be seen anymore, I turned the corner and started on my walk home.  When I got home, I noticed that my mom was home, too.  She was sitting in the kitchen alone.  I walked up beside her and realized that there were beer bottles sitting in front of her, some empty, some halfway done.  She brought one of the bottles up to her lips, but I grabbed it out of her hands. 

"Mom, what are you doing?" I asked with a serious tone. 

"Give the bottle back and go to sleep," she commanded me. 

"No," I told her sternly.  "You should go to sleep." 

"Don't talk back to me.  Now go!" she snapped. 

I frowned and placed the bottle a good distance away from her.  "Drinking won't make dad wake up.  Drinking won't get us out of dept.  Drinking won't give us more money.  Drinking won't do anything for us!" 

"Why do you keep talking back to me, huh?  Just shut up!  You're such a brat!" 

I just sighed.  I was tired of it.  "So what if I am?  I'm earning money for you to get us out of the garbage can.  What about you?  You haven't even gone back to work yet."  I tried to keep my tone calm, but my emotions got the best of me and I felt very frustrated. 

"I didn't teach you to talk back!  Why are you talking bad now?!?"  My mom started yelling and complaining about this and that and how our life ended up getting to where we were. 

"Just go to sleep, mom.  The stress is getting to you," I told her calmly after she was finished yelling. 

"It's not just stress!  Your father's condition got worst!  And all you care about is money..." 

"I never said I only cared about the money.  I'm worried abou-" 

"Sure you are...  That's why all you talk about is the money and how we're in dept." 

"Mom..." 

"Shut up!  Go to your room." 

I shook my head.  "You go to yours first and sleep." 

My mom suddenly got up and lifted her hand.  I thought that she was going to slap me, but she just walked around me and went to grab the bottle of beer I had taken away from her.  She took another sip of it and sat back down.  At that point, I started gritting my teeth and bit my tongue to hold back anything I wanted to say.  I dropped my bag off to the side and took the bottle away from her again.  She looked at me with glaring eyes and so many different emotions showed. 

"You never learn your lesson, do you?!?" she shouted again. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Eunsun walk out from the hall to see what was happening.  I glanced at her very quickly and then turned back to my mom and poured out the beer from the bottle and threw it away.  When I saw my mom, she looked furious.  It was really scary seeing her that way because she had never become so angry before.  She had never drank that much and she never got so angry at us.  She would yell and scold us, but had never hut us before. 

"Oh look, your sister-in-law is here now.  You woke her up.  Why can't you be like her??  She didn't bother me when I was drinking!" my mom yelled again. 

"Stop.  You'll wake Minkyung," I told her. 

"You mean, you will." 

"Okay, fine.  But you really need to go to bed." 

"No.  You go get me a bottle right now." 

"Go to bed, mom." 

My mom opened to say something, but then we heard the door open.  Myungdae came in, looking exhausted.  As soon as he saw the bottles on the table and me staring down at my mom, he knew something was wrong.  It was almost like deja vu. 

"Go get me a beer!" my mom shouted again. 

"No," I replied calmly. 

"No?!?  Fine." 

She stood up and smacked me.  It hurt and then started to sting.  A tear escaped my eye from the impact and sudden pain, but I quickly wiped it away and continued to stand in her way.  My mom walked passed me and went straight to her bedroom.  Myungdae went after her while Eunsun came up to me. 

"Are you okay?" she asked softly. 

I nodded and looked away from her.  Without saying anything, I grabbed my bag and sweater.  Then I left.  Eunsun had tried to stop me, but I kept going and walked where ever my feet would take me.  I needed to escape, even if it was temporary. 

The first place my feet took me was to the big tree.  I looked up to the very tops of the tree and finally let the tears run down.  I put my hand up to my swollen cheek and felt it sting again.  Then I realized that I was bleeding.  I figured it was probably because of my mother's rings. 

I continued to walk until my feet got tired.  I reached a bench near the Han River and sat down.  As I sat there, I stared out to the water silently.  Then my eyelids started to get heavy.  I zipped up my sweater and decided to rest my eyes for a bit. 

Yixing's POV

Luhan and I were playing some basketball with some others at the basketball court near the Han River because we had a couple of hours to spare after practice.  As soon as we were done, we took a walk just because it had been a while since we were last there.  We were always going back and forth between Kora and China, so we didn't have much free time. 

As we walked down the path together, we talked and talked and talked.  It was nice being out by the river again.  The breeze especially had a nice feel to it. 

"It's cool out, isn't it?" I asked Luhan in Chinese.  When it was only the two of us, we usually spoke Chinese because it felt comfortable. 

"Yeah.  We should come out more at this time," Luhan replied. 

I nodded and stared out to the river.  I was a bit distracted, but then Luhan suddenly stopped in his spot.  He grabbed my arm and prevented me from continuing on.  I turned to look at him and was wondering why he had stopped me. 

"What?" I asked curiously. 

"Yixing, look over there," Luhan said and pointed towards a person who was sitting on a bench. 

I followed his finger to where he was pointing.  At first glance, it just looked like a regular person resting on the bench and I didn't really think much of it, but when I actually took a better and closer look, I realized that the figure looked familiar. 

Hi guys!  it's been absolutely FOREVER!!  I'm soo sorry.  I totally blame school... it ...  and i had to go to a birthday party yesterday so i couldn't update yesterday, and i couldn't update as early today because i had to do homework...  i really hope that you guys are still interested in this story and I'm not boring you to death.  and i really hope i can update this week.  and since it took me forever to update, i totally forgot what i was planning, so i had to make this chapter up off the top of my head.  i know it's really but i still hope you enjoyed this chapter!  :)

Thanks!

~Angelflyer

(1/29/19)

Wow, I cannot believe that I am actually getting this chapter out semi-fast!  It's such an accomplishment haha :D  But anyway, it's like freezing where I live right now T_T  And school is canceled because it's going to be like -20 something degrees Fahrenheit.  Hopefully, I and everyone else living in the Midwest area in the US will survive this...