Wendy wakes up the next morning to an arm gripping tightly around her waist. Looking down she sees Joohyun curled into her, legs tucked up and face nestled into her side. There were bags under her eyes and she knows why they’re there, Irene cried for a long time last night. She cried over her parents, over Yerim and over herself, telling Wendy how she’d failed as a sister. All Wendy could do was hold her and whisper soothing words to her while Joohyun let tears fall until there were none left to give.

But now Joohyun was quiet, finally resting after the whole ordeal, her chest rising and falling with a calmness that was long overdue for the girl. In her sleep, Joohyun moved slightly, tightening her hold on Wendy’s waist. Wendy would find it adorable how the girl is clinging to her if it wasn’t for the twists in her features and the small noises escaping her lips.

Joohyun was dreaming, but her whimpers told Wendy it wasn’t the pleasant kind.

After trying to soothe the girl with gentle touches doesn’t work, Wendy decides to slowly rouse the sleeping Joohyun with soft nudges until the small girl’s eyes flutter open and Joohyun is rubbing the sleep from the, she looks at Wendy with confusion at her awakening.

“You were dreaming,” Wendy softly explains, “you seemed… upset…”

Joohyun looks around, seemingly realising she is in fact awake and no longer dreaming. She sits up and rubs her eyes again,

“You… Yeri… you were in my dream… and then mom she…” Joohyun pauses as she seems to recollect last night, “mom…”

Wendy pulls her in tighter, hushing her and telling her not to worry, that they’ll head home today and sort this out when Joohyun feels less suffocated by it all. Joohyun nestles in closer to her and Wendy can’t help the feeling the need to protect this girl more than anything in the world. She then thinks of Yerim, how she can’t offer the same, that by getting Joohyun away from this that they’re leaving the small girl behind. She decides to talk to her before they leave, to reassure the younger girl one last time so she knows there’s someone fighting in her corner who isn’t just Joohyun, that she has people on her side.

“I feel safe with you,” Wendy hears Joohyun mutter out, quietly but she catches it, “despite everything that’s happened and the fact that we’re still under the same roof as people who never wanted us here, I feel like I could just stay with you… in this bubble, nothing bad can happen when I’m with you…”

Joohyun let’s her words trail off, distracted by drawing small patterns on Wendy’s arm, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

“...Yerim could come,” she suddenly voices, still concentrated on the intricate lines she’s tracing along Wendy, “in our bubble I mean, I could never leave her behind…not like I am today...”

Guilt flashed across Joohyun’s face at her words and Wendy immediately went to console her,

“It’s not your fault and you’re not leaving her behind,” Wendy says, gaze steely, trying to convince Joohyun of her words, “just because you want to go home and not be in a place you don’t feel comfortable doesn’t mean you’re abandoning your sister, you’re looking out for yourself and that’s okay.”

Joohyun remains quiet in Wendy’s arms so she just holds her closer, letting the small brunette know she’s there for her.

After a while they decide to make a move. They pack up what’s left of their things and get ready to leave, Joohyun suggesting they get breakfast at the station instead of eating at the house. It breaks Wendy’s heart to see her girlfriend so afraid to be in her own home, so scared to stay any longer than she feels she should. She just wishes she could make it all go away, that she could free Joohyun of all this stress and worry and just give her the happiness she knows she deserves.

Joohyun goes to Yerim’s room and goes to say goodbye but Wendy doesn’t follow. The sisters need their alone time and she knows Yerim needs to hear from Joohyun more than anyone in the world. She and Yerim gained an understanding of each other yesterday while Joohyun was downstairs. They hugged, Yerim cried and Wendy listened. It sounds so simple when she thinks back to it but the situation was anything but, no matter how much she wished it weren’t.

So instead, Wendy takes herself downstairs, carrying their small suitcase and bags in her arms, intending to wait on the front porch for Joohyun.

But when she gets downstairs, she sees Joohyun’s mother sat at the table, hand wrapped around a mug, back to the doorway. It was as if she wanted to see them off, but she couldn’t bear the sight of the pair of them. Wendy decides to drop the bags, slowly approaching the doorway, not daring to venture any further and face the woman in front of her.

She decides to choose her words carefully, knowing this conversation won’t last,

“What you’re doing to her… if you keep doing it,” she her lips, “it’s going to destroy her.”

An ugly silence hangs in the air and Wendy is ready to accept defeat then and there, it was worth a shot, she thinks.

However, slowly, the head of Joohyun’s mother turns slightly towards Wendy in the door frame, not enough to see her, but enough for Wendy to know she heard her,

“...Who?”

The woman’s voice is hushed, bare