Heehyun rushes into her home, hands and face pink from the cold weather. Rubbing her hands together and blowing into them, she kicks off her shoes and drops her backpack by the door “Mom, I’m home.” she yells, basically running towards her room only to stop once her mom calls her “Heehyun, go ask Nayoung’s mom for some rice. Give her some dry squid to trade off.”

Heehyun stands in her place, her head slowly facing the door. It was probably -6 degrees celcius out there and her mom was really going to make her go out there again? She doesn’t say anything as she quickly picks some good dry squid from the pile and slips her shoes back on. Nayoung’s home was right across from her own. Heehyun thinks for a moment, would it be better to just make a run for it to not be in the cold any longer or would that only make her colder? She decides to make a run for her dear life because damn she could feel her toes get frostbite.

Heehyun doesn’t even bother to knock but rather make an announcement that she had entered the home “Auntie it’s me Heehyun, mom sent me to get rice.” Her face was numb and Heehyun wonders how she even managed to open . Instead of meeting Nayoung’s mom in the kitchen she meets the only child of the house who greets her with a relieved smile “Thank God you came first, mom was literally about to send me to your house.”

So you’re telling Heehyun that she could’ve stayed in her warm home, lied in bed with her blankets taking a nap instead of her freezing her off? In a bad mood she opens the bowl her mom had given her before she left and hands it over to Nayoung.

“Your mom bought squid right?” Nayoung questions grabbing a spoon to pour the rice her mom had made earlier. “Dried squid.” Heehyun corrects her “This is literally the third day in a row that I’ve eaten dried squid for dinner. Mom even makes me take it to school as a snack.” Heehyun is pretty sure if she even looked at a squid one more time she would throw up. Now that she thinks of it, Nayoung’s head was similar to a squid.

She places the bag of dried seafood on the counter and Nayoung makes a comment “You should eat what your mom feeds you, we’re still growing. Add a little more height and be more healthy.”

Heehyun makes a bewildered face “First of all, I’ve stopped growing since our 3rd year of middle school. Second of all you’re the only one out of us besides Chaeyeon who’s still growing and that’s only because you’re parents are tall.” she throws her arms up “Genetics Nayoung! Something mine have stopped doing!”

Nayoung shakes her head and puts the lid back on the bowl, handing it back to the girl “Whatever, you should still listen to your parents well and just eat what they give you. Now go before mom gets anymore ideas and tries to send one of us somewhere we obviously don’t want to be.” she shoos the girl away.

Heehyun makes another quick sprint back to her own home and takes her shoes off. She places the bowl of rice on the table and reaches to grab a blanket that was already on the chair “Oh yeah, Byul-yi’s mom cut up some vegetables for us. Go bring her some dried squid and come back with the greens.”

Heehyun just about wants to rip her hair out, did her mom seriously not realize just how freezing it was for her to go outside? She could catch a cold! A parasite! An STD! Okay maybe not that last one or last two but still! Heehyun grabs some more squid, repeats putting on her shoes and sprints towards her next door neighbor.

“It’s me Heehyun, I brought some dried squid for you.” she opens the door and greets Byul-yi’s mom who was cleaning in the living room. She looked behind Heehyun and Heehyun turns around wondering what she was looking at “Are you not with Byul-yi? She said the two of you were going to study at the library today.”

Heehyun freezes in her spot, Byul-yi never gave her a heads up. She couldn’t find her words and was thinking of the right words to say to not get the both of them in trouble “A-ah well…” she walks to the kitchen to place the seafood down “I actually wasn’t feeling too well, the weather and all, so I left early. Byul-yi said she was going to study a bit longer.”

Moon Byul-yi was definitely not at the library, that place would be the last place she would be at. The girl had recently started getting into video games so she spent most of her free time at a internet cafe- I mean studying.

After those words left her lips Byul-yi’s mom goes into action, digging through her cabinets. And Heehyun groans because she already knows what the older is doing “I know I have some medicine in here.” she continued to search.

“It’s fine, I really should be going.” the girl grabs the already cut up greens, hoping to escape.

“I found it!” Byul-yi’s mom pulls out some pills and Heehyun swears they’re the biggest pain killers she has ever seen in her life “Now don’t forget you need to swallow, don’t chew. I know you can’t swallow pills well and have a habit of chewing them.” Well how the did she expect her to swallow that pill in one gulp? Heehyun was convinced that that pill was bigger than Nayoung’s head!

“Yes Auntie, thank you.” she says her goodbyes to the older lady, muttering another thank you as she slips out the door. She enters her home, keeping her shoes on just in case her mom asks her to go to Chaeyeon’s place. “I’m home.” she says slowly not moving from the front door. After a quick couple of seconds of not moving, Heehyun finally makes her way to the kitchen.

“Um, did you hear me? I’m home.” she places the bag of vegetables on the table.

“I heard you, hurry up and freshen up so you can help me set out.” her mom says.

Thank God! She tears off her thick coat and hangs it up. “Actually..” Heehyun freezes in her spot “I think Chaeyeo-” Heehyun groans while shutting her eyelids.

“Auntie, I came-” Heehyun snaps her head to the girl who opened the door, her small voice filling the whole house. Chaeyeon was holding a medium size bowl in her hands, her scarf almost hiding her red nose “and brought some kimchi my mom had made the other day.”

“You’re parents are out of town, right?” the youngest nods her head, walking towards Heehyun with a small smile “Yeah they’re going to be out for a couple of days, they’re visiting my grandma.”

“Oh so are you going to stay for dinner?” Heehyun questions, taking the bowl from the girl’s arms.

“Yeah, you’re mom invited me earlier.” she turns and faces Heehyun’s mom “Do you need me to help out set out?”

Heehyun then pushes the younger into the living room “Chae, you know we don’t ever make you do anything around the house. Just go watch t.v. until we’re done.” Chaeyeon furrows her eyebrows as she was seated, wanting to open but deciding to listen to the older’s command.

It didn’t take long at all and they were all seated at the dining table. Somewhere along the way, Heehyun’s dad came home from work. Heehyun sat in her seat, looking at the dried squid that was placed in front of her. She wonders if anyone would notice her eating just the sides, she grabs her chopsticks and gives some of her squid to her younger.

Chaeyeon then denies her “You should eat a lot tonight, unnie. You have a big test tomorrow, you shouldn’t sleep with an empty stomach.”

It was times like this that Heehyun had wished Chaeyeon wasn’t kind in nature, she wanted to strangle her if she were being honest. “You should eat what I give you, you’re still growing. Add a little more height and be more healthy.” she repeats what Nayoung had told her earlier.

Heehyun’s mom then places more dried squid on Chaeyeon’s plate “Now both of you guys can sleep with a full stomach tonight.”

---

Nayoung keeps looking at the clock that was placed above the board, Heehyun was late. She was tapping on her desk, worried that her teacher would come in, close the door and the testing would begin. An automatic zero would be place in her friend’s score.

“Im Nayoung.” she then puts her attention on their class president who was doing roll call. “Here.” she says, her attention going back to the door. She was internally praying that the girl would magically appear and put her at ease.

Her friend’s name comes up and Sojung, their president calls out. No one claims the name so Sojung looks up searching for the girl “Ki Heehyun.” she repeats again. She waits another ten seconds, wanting to give the girl longer.

“Here, I’m here.” the owner of the name says as she slips into the classroom through the back door. Nayoung wants to laugh at her friend who obviously just woke up, her hair not even brushed.

Heehyun makes her way to sit behind Nayoung, in a hushed whisper “Yah, why didn’t you wake me up this morning?”

Nayoung raises an eyebrow “I didn’t know I had to be your mom. Did you want me to make you breakfast too?”

“Well you didn’t see me at the bus stop, you should have known I hadn’t woken up yet.” Heehyun leans back into her seat, running her hands through her hair untangling the knots. Nayoung shrugs her shoulders “Yeah but you’re always late. I’m surprised you’re even here.”

The teacher walks in and soon enough their test begins. Nayoung flies through the test with ease, her and Sojung had studied together a couple of days ago. Going over what questions they thought would be on the test. Nayoung even gave Heehyun the notes she had to help the girl at least make a B. She wonders how the girl was doing,

Holy crap she was going to fail. Heehyun didn’t even spare a glance at the notes her friend had let her borrow. Would the teacher notice if she took a peek at Nayoung’s paper? Heehyun shakes h