Chapter Sixteen.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          (Three years ago*)

Nayoung’s aunt Dasom was an irritable woman in her early fifties. Having nothing to look forward in life, she found herself being overly indulgent with her brother and his daughter’s day to day affairs. Meddling with their lives was nothing new to her. What else could she do? She was stuck with a good for nothing daughter and an alcoholic husband, who believed in spending all of his savings in liquor.

Sales at her laundry shop weren't quite good recently, which got her more worried. She had to take care of her daughter’s wedding; her husband would obviously be of no use. She was jealous of her brother. He had his heart broken by a conniving woman who abandoned her child and yet somehow he managed to raise his daughter well. The girl would make him proud, she knew. She had excelled in everything she had done, while her own daughter was struggling with her life. She had shelled out every damn penny she had saved to get her daughter into a good college. But the girl didn’t fare well at all in her studies.

What hadn’t she done for her daughter? She had even convinced her brother to send Nayoung away to Seoul so that her own daughter didn’t feel inferior to the other girl, for they were always being compared to each other. And at one glance anyone would have realized how her daughter was nothing compared to Nayoung.

So when the word got around that her brother, Jisung’s daughter was back in town, the lady couldn’t help but be curious. Her brother would have informed her about it if he had known which made her wonder if Nayoung had just arrived suddenly. It certainly meant that there was something wrong. She had found out through others that her niece had come back.

She couldn’t contain her curiosity much longer; she went ahead and closed down her shop for the day. She waddled across the street to make her way to her brother’s house which was just a few blocks down south.

Nayoung’s father was perplexed when he saw his elder sister at his doorstep. He was already bothered with whatever that was going on with Nayoung. The last thing he needed was her meddling in Nayoung’s problems. Sure, she was his elder sister but the woman knew no boundaries at times. He didn’t know if she was to be trusted, he knew how the woman was frustrated with her own life and that she sought ways to sabotage theirs instead. But he knew he had no choice but to tell the older woman everything, she always found ways to extract information anyway.

“Jisung-ah.”

She yelled in her annoying shrill voice, which got on everybody’s nerves.

“I heard Nayoung was here. Is that true? I had to find out through others!” She rambled on.

“It made me seem like an idiot, having no clue about my own niece’s whereabouts.”

Nayoung’s father sighed inaudibly when he heard his sister rambling on.

“Yeah, she came home two days back.” He spoke, hoping the woman would shut up.

“So it is true.

Why is she here?”

“Does there have to be a reason?” Nayoung’s father tried his best to keep things from his sister although he knew it would never work.

“Of course, you don’t just show up unannounced like that unless something had happened.”

The man sighed, of course she would know.

“She got her heart broken.” He finally informed his sister, whose eyes widened with surprise. Now this was something unexpected, the lady was internally delighted. At least a few things didn’t work in their favor and one of them happened to be falling in love.

She clicked her tongue loudly as if showing disapproval.

“Like father like daughter!”

“Where is she?”

Jisung quickly blocked her way, he definitely didn’t want his sister to be feeding negative thoughts into his already heart-broken daughter’s mind.

“Well, I thought it’d be better if she were left alone.”

“Nonsense. What do you know, Jisung-ah? Only another woman would understand a woman’s woes.”

He ultimately gave in; this had to happen one day or the other. The sooner it got over, the better.

Nayoung who was lost in her own thoughts was startled when her aunt had come barging into her room, without bothering to knock.

“Imo?” She exclaimed.

Nayoung had never thought ill of her aunt. If anything, she was closest to a motherly figure she could have. She would listen to her aunt’s advices diligently. Perhaps her aunt would have something to say about the situation, she thought.

“You stupid girl. Did I not warn you? But you had to go get your heart broken.” She taunted her niece.

“Imo.” The girl cried, she was already feeling miserable.

“Tell me what happened child.” Her aunt asked. The lady had wanted to know every bit of it.

Nayoung was sl