“Aww, it hurts”

Chorong instantly glanced over her shoulder to look at the owner of the weak voice. “What is it?” she asked while turning her body to face Hayoung. “Where does it hurt?”

“I don’t know”. Hayoung replied weakly.

“Is it your head? Are you dizzy?”

“Yeah, I guess so. It feels so light”

“It’s because you slept too much. I’ll tell the nurse, maybe they’ll give you something to relief the headache”. Chorong fixed Hayoung’s head posture and slightly raised up her pillow. From on the both sides of Hayoung’s head to her scalp, Chorong carefully massaged the kid for several minutes.

“Unnie….” Hayoung said, staring at Chorong who was still massaging her with a serious look on the face.

“Hmm?”. Chorong moved her eyes down to Hayoung’s.

“You can stop now…”

“Are feeling better?”

Hayoung blinked her eyes as a sign of yes. “Thank you”.

“Let’s take a bath, Hayoungie”, said Eunji.

“That’s gonna be hard. She can’t wet her hand”, Bomi interrupted.

“You’re right. But…. she hasn’t showered yet today”

“It’s all right, kids. We can wipe her body with wet towel, that should be okay…”, the leader spoke.

“But I want to take a real bath. I feel so stuffy”. Hayoung whined.

“Can’t we just put something like plastic on her hand to cover the IV site?” Naeun gave an idea.

“Oh? Why didn’t we think of that sooner? Naeun-ah, you are so smart!” Bomi smiled and then searched for something through her bag. “Here!”

“Why do you have such a big plastic bag with you, unnie?” Namjoo asked as Bomi waved the plastic bag that she took out.

“Well guess who persuaded me to stop at literally every convenience store on our way back home to buy junk foods?”

“I don’t know who you are talking about but I assumed that she must be very pretty and cute!” Namjoo, also known as the self-praised queen said while laughing.

The girls were not so surprised to hear that because Namjoo often praised herself. Namjoo’s level of confidence is always something to be admired of. Their laughter filled the room as the sun fully set, allowing the moon to shine brightly on the sky.

…………………………………………………………………………

Eunji and Hayoung sat across each other on the couches. The two sisters were playing chess together. Bomi was on the phone, ordering delivery food for their late dinner. Naeun was watching movie. Meanwhile, Chorong played some online games with Namjoo on their smartphones. The leader tried spend as much time as possible with Namjoo that Hayoung’s doing well after taking her bath.

“Did you order mandu, Bbom-ah?” Eunji asked.

“Yup! A lot of them.” Bomi said.

………………………………………………………………………

Knocks on the door meant that the food had arrived. Chorong and Namjoo went to get it considering they were the closest to the door. The girls stopped whatever they were doing and gathered around the table. “Jal meokgesseumnida!!!” They said as they grabbed their chopsticks, except Hayoung.

“Hayoung-ah, what do you want to eat?” Naeun asked. “This or this or that?” She pointed at varieties of Chinese food on the table.

“It’s okay, unnie. Don’t mind me. Eat your food”. Hayoung smiled innocently.

“What’s wrong?” Naeun asked again.

“You can’t lift your right hand, is it?” Chorong said. Earlier that day, she noticed that Hayoung’s hand was swollen due to the IV drip insertion. “Let me feed you”.

“Thanks, but you eat first, unnie”. Hayoung refused politely.

“I can eat in between”. The older girl replied. “Here, have some jjampong”. Chorong fed her. “Yummy, right?”

“Very..”. She smiled.

The older girls took turn to feed Hayoung different types of food. Although the youngest did not eat a lot, they were satisfied that at least she ate something rather than closing her lips tight and torturing her own stomach. Bites by bites, the food gradually disappeared.

“I’m so full!” said Naeun. She wiped with tissue and went to brush her teet