Title: If Home is where the heart is

Type: Short story

Genre: Poetic, Angst, Slice of life

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When I was five, I asked my older sister if home is where the heart is.

Does that mean that the grand piano is my home?

Because that doesn't make any sense.

How could I ever live inside a piano?

Joohyun unnie laughed at me as she ruffled my hair with her gentle, gentle hands.

“Don't do that,” I said. “I'm a big girl now.”

She laughed even harder.

Then she calmed down in a second, and went back to chopping up onions, humming to a song as she kept the beat steady with the knife.

I didn't understand why she did not cry.

While me, the onions stung my eyes.

* *

When I was ten, I told Joohyun unnie with smugness, if home is where the heart is, then the library must be home, buried in an ocean of books.

I am finally a beautiful heroine; who when she loses her (baby fat cheeks) will get rescued from this dull, unromantic life by a perfectly charming, knight in shining armor.

Joohyun unnie could only smile. A sad, tired smile.

Then looked out the window only to yelp as she ran outside to gather the clothes from the clothesline because it started to pour rain.

She walked back into the room that was now in shadow, gasping for air and choking on it.

Her clothes were dren