The police had come, the auntie who was with Yerin's brother was told off by the officers for not listening to the children, SinB got another check up by an onsite doctor because of her cheek. The officers were a little annoyed it was such a simple problem, all sat around the kid's room, lecturing the adults at the daycare for their way of caring for the children. Believing the words of a handsome high schooler over the words of several children was bad.

"Yewon ah!"

Even Umji's mother came running. Everyone else's moms all were called but after being told the circumstances, they had a call with their kid and left it at that, Sowon's mother was supposed to be coming, seeing as it directly involved her, but Sowon told her not to after a serious discussion. It wasn't that serious, just, someone didn't listen, and police became involved because of their conditions.

They couldn't get a hold of Yerin's parents. Her brother was actually not intending to be picking her up.

"Kiddo Yerinnie, could you tell officer unnie where you live?"

Yerin was still hiding behind Sowon, her brother was almost half a block away, with the police who were talking with him, asking how his progress was on getting counseling.

"Yerin ah, you have to tell them."

Yerin shook her head.

"What if they get hurt too? I don't want dad to become a criminal."

The officer unnie just smiled.

"You don't have to worry about us getting hurt, I have a bulletproof vest, do you want to see?"

Yerin nodded, her hands still stuck to Sowon's jacket.

The officer ped her jacket and revealed the bulletproof vest.

"Here, punch it as hard as you want."

Yerin gave it a light tap, it was sturdy.

"Y-you're sure?"

Sowon noticed how the officer left out the criminal part, anyone who blocked police activity was in trouble.

"See, you can trust the police."

Though Sowon had her doubts, due to listening to the news with her dad too often, but still. For this, they could trust the police right?

"Fine."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sowon waited in the police car with Yerin, the other girls were sent home, the daycare was going to have to take a class on rules and regulations again if they wanted a clean record. The car was parked outside Yerin's house, Yerin held Sowon's hand tightly, her other hand gripped tightly into her shorts.

"It's fine Yerin ah."

"I'm scared."

"It's okay to be scared."

"But I don't want to be scared."

Sowon pulled Yerin to lean on her shoulder. Her mom was going to be mad when she got home, for telling her not to come, but she rather be allowed to hold Yerin rather than get whisked away by her mom.

"Don't be scared, I'm here to protect you."

"Thanks unnie, I know you're scared too."

Sowon stopped rubbing Yerin's shoulder, how did she know?

"Unnie's hand is shaking."

"A-ah, is it? Sorry Yerin ah, I'm just worried for your mom. And your home condition after this."

"Unnie tell me about your day."

"Eh? Sure, today I had a math test, they asked some weird questions, like if I had to buy 8 oranges but only had enough to buy four on the first day, and then went home for more money, came back a second day, they didn't have oranges anymore."

"Huh?"

"Confusing right? So then suddenly I'm supposed to buy four apples to replace the oranges, if I had spare change left, how much was each apple it I had received like ten dollars total? Anyways, I didn't do that well I think."

"It's okay, unnie is a genius in other parts."

Sowon chuckled, leaning her head on Yerin's head.

"I don't think I'm a genius."

"Then you're a hero."

"I still don't think I'm a hero. Yerin ah, you're the smarter one here."

They stopped chatting as the front door of Yerin's home burst open. Sowon pulled Yerin closer as she saw Yerin's dad charging out. He spotted Yerin and ran straight for their car, crashing into the side, screaming at the window.

"YERIN! YOU KNOW DADDY! DADDY IS NOT BAD! TELL THEM!"

Yerin started shaking again, Sowon glared at the man, covering Yerin's ears. The officer in the front seat got out to help grab him, the other officers came running after him out the house, they seemed a little roughed up.

Still trying to cover as much of Yerin as possible, Sowon remembered every detail of the moment, Yerin's scared shaking in her arms, Yerin's father screaming back at their car as he was pulled away. Yerin's mother being escorted out of the house, her hair hanging over her face, hiding her injuries. Yerin's brother was left at the house, he was old enough to stay by himself and he technically didn't do anything wrong, Yerin's mother told him to get Yerin for her.

"Officer, may I take Yerin home with me instead of the police station or the hospital with her mother?"

"I'll see what I can do, would you like to call your mother again?"

"Yes please, and I think Yerin has a trauma. If you could tell me how we can help her, I would be thankful."

"You're quite wise for a child."

"I get that a lot."

Sowon didn't want Yerin to be forever afraid of the dark, loud noises, or even men in general. Rubbing Yerin's back comfortingly until Yerin's shaking stopped, Sowon released a sigh. Adults were always losing out her trust, save her parents and the adults she knew and already trusted.

"Yerin ah, it's okay, he's gone."

"I-is he going to jail?"

"I think so, do you want to meet your mom before going to my house?"

"Huh?"

"You're staying the night at mines, we can play with my big sister. She likes to play monopoly, I just play to amuse her, but its pretty boring in my opinion."

Yerin relaxed a little, listening to Sowon talk about her sister and what games they would play.

===================

Hmmmmm yea I can't hold angst for very long, my heart hurts too much for that. There's also a saying I stand by as I write this series, "The world would be a better place run by innocent children. The older they get, the more corrupted they can get." Of course, I don't think children should really run the world, but rather our experiences growing up takes out a lot of our happiness that we used to have. Be happy everyone. I apologize if I botched this chapter, I liked it imo.