8 Alone

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Piercing waves of coldness hit Jiwoo's messy sheets and exposed her skin, instantly making the poor girl tremble in her bed. She frowned deeply at the feeling. She was wearing only a pair of shorts and a tank top, but it should have not been that cold. Such a chilling breeze was oddly unusual during a spring that felt endlessly hotter than last year's summer.

When Jiwoo couldn't take it anymore and finally opened her tired eyes, outside it was already daytime. The room was fully covered in the light of the sun, which was really faint. How much must have she slept? It looked like everyone woke up and left the room already. A quick look on her phone made Jiwoo sigh as she dragged herself out of bed and went straight to closing the window. As much as she hated the cold, it was a good idea to open the window after so many people slept in such a small room as hers. She didn't want for the air to get too stuffy later.

After tidying her bed and putting some things back into place Jiwoo went downstairs.

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The teal colored kitchen was quiet despite everyone's presence. The windows had a white, gentle glow to them and the fresh air that came from outside was filled with the sweet smell of pancakes. The room however held a gloomy aura that for some reason won't dissipate. It wasn't bothering though. Not until someone said a word about it, at least.

For Jiwoo it was rather calming and quite understandable for such an early hour. She wasn't a person to like noisy places or people anyway. Perhaps it was just her imagination. The dream she had a few days ago and the condition that followed after it were just a mere memory now, but that didn't mean that she couldn't still feel anything of it anymore. There were slight feelings and sensations Jiwoo perceived from time to time, and she didn't mind them that much.

Nobody seemed to notice the girl's presence by the door, not even Haseul, who was setting the table in a very elegant and meticulous way. The style she went for matched her personality a lot.

Jiwoo's attention slowly shifted on her mother, who's slim back was facing everyone as she cooked some pancakes at the stove. She would flip them oh so gracefully that Jiwoo couldn't help but be mesmerized every time. She really wished that one day she would become just as good as her mother was at cooking. Instead, she could barely prepare a couple of basic dishes without making a mess.

At one side of the table sat Heejin and Hyunjin, both boringly talking about school related things and such in between occasional yawns, while Jiwoo's father was, as always, reading his newspaper at the head of the table. It seemed like nobody noticed Jiwoo's presence yet. After stretching her arms a bit she walked past her dad's chair, deciding to sit across Heejin, who smiled warmly at her. Hyunjin smiled too, but it wasn't very noticeable. She looked a bit sad.

“Good morning, everyone.” Jiwoo said in a voice which sounded oddly tired compared to how she actually felt. The two girls, along Haseul who just sat next to her, looked all very surprised by Jiwoo's tone. She was literally the only one among all four to have slept peacefully so it was fairly strange.

“Good morning dear.” Mr. Kim lowered the newspaper to look at his daughter with a smile and gave her hand a few pats. The girl kindly returned the gesture, taking her father's hand into her own before letting it go and instead, grabbed an apple from the straw bowl placed in the middle of the table. As soon as she did that her mother came beside her with a tower of pancakes in her hands. She looked troubled to find a place suitable for the plate, so Jiwoo immediately grabbed the bowl of fruits and put it out of the way and onto the counter behind her.

“Thank you love.” The woman said sweetly as she placed the pancakes on the table. Everyone looked at each other unsure on what they should do next. Seeing that neither the girls or her husband were willing to do the first move, Mrs. Kim walked confidently at the free head of the table with an expression of mixed incredulity and humor, before shoving her fork into the soft pancake at the top and bringing it to her own plate. The action was so natural and innocent, that it almost looked like a teenager did it. They stayed still yet, watching as the woman happily cut a piece of her pancake and shoved it into . She seemed to be really satisfied with the taste, but stopped after the first bite, rapidly pointing her fork at the tower of pancakes that were about to get cold.

“Com' on cutiepies! Eat them up before they get cold!”

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Later that morning, for the time they had left together, Jiwoo and the girls decided to stay in the living room instead of going back to her room. They already filled back their bags with all the things they brought along and placed them on the couch, so there was no motive to worry about forgetting or losing anything later. Since neither of them had any interesting ideas on what to do or talk about, they opted to watch a movie instead. Maybe play some videogames later on too.

Jiwoo had an entire shelf dedicated to DVDs, games and whatnot, so they sat comfortably on the couch and waited as Heejin gently inserted the CD into the DVD player. When she pressed 'play' she waited for something to appear on the screen, just to be sure she did everything right, and when it did she went to sit next to the others.

“I've never seen this movie before. I hope it's interesting.” Said Hyunjin as she ate a handful of popcorn. Little did she know that after barely not even half an hour into the movie she would fall sound asleep and snore loudly, making the others look at each other with very, very unimpressed faces.

Everyone knew that Hyunjin wasn't really into movies. She just didn't have enaugh patience to watch them. Apparently not even being at a friend's house really made a difference, but it was okay. If she was tired then they would let her have some rest. Jiwoo didn't mind at all.

When the movie ended and the credits started to scroll Heejin turned the device off. She then walked up to take a look at Hyunjin, was still sleeping peacefully beside Haseul. “Do you think we should wake her up?” She asked a bit unsure, but the other two didn't know either. Maybe Hyunjin will get angry that she didn't have fun before leaving, but at the same time she didn't look like she was in the mood for it either.

“I think it's better to ask her.” Said Jiwoo and the girls nodded. After a couple of shakes they managed to wake the girl up. She looked a bit disorientated and for a moment almost forgot where she was, but then she regained her memories and frowned.

“I fell asleep.”

“Yup.”

“And I didn't even get to see the ending. What a shame.”

Heejin couldn't help but chuckle. “Yeah 'cause the ending is the only part you missed...” She muttered and Hyunjin opened to argue back, but then closed it right away because it was the truth. With a slight pout she looked back at the girls, not knowing what to do.

“Do you wanna play some games with us?” Asked Jiwoo, unsure. “If you're tired you can rest some more, we don't mind.” Added Haseul with an encouraging smile. Hyunjin then shoke her head furiously, clearly still very sleepy, but very stubborn too.

“No no! I wanna play!” She said determinately as a couple of strands of her hair fell into her eyes. Haseul stoke her arm slowly.

“Hyunjin are you su–”

“Hell yeah! Let's play Tekken! I'm starting off first against Heejin!”

Sadly Hyunjin wasn't very good with games. But of course Heejin, as the good friend she was, and as a pro at acting like she doesn'