Yerin sat on the couch, Sowon was seated at the kitchen table, watching her. They were waiting. Yerin's mother was supposed to come soon, to get Yerin to bring back to her house, but Yerin wasn't super excited for it.

Sure, she was glad her mother was better and out of the hospital, but she wasn't sure she wanted to go back home. Home, where evidence of her father's rampage still existed. Home, where the marks she left in her closet to count the time as it passed as she hid from the terrors outside. Home, where her brother would still be waiting.

She knew that she shouldn't be too harsh on her brother, he was on the path to recovery, some degree of cautiousness was needed, but to help him, she should be more accepting. That is, what her counselor told her to do. It wasn't going to be easy, to forgive him, but at the least, she wouldn't aggravte him any further.

"Yerin ah."

"Hm?"

Sowon stood next to Yerin, holding out a double popsicle.

"Wanna share it?"

Yerin was reaching a hand out to accept, when the doorbell rang. The girls stood together, watching as Sowon's mother went to open it.

"Ah, delivery? Sign where?"

Taking a breath and realizing that she had subconciously held it, Sowon pulled Yerin to sit back down on the couch, breaking the popsicle perfectly in half to share. They happily enjoyed their frozen treat in silence.

"Yerin ah."

"Hm?"

"When you go back, I want you to give my house a call, in fact, call my sister's number. Just to you know, let me know that you're safe."

"Okay."

Sowon ran off to get a piece of paper for Yerin, to write her sister's number down. Successfully printing her sister's cellphone number in neat numbers, Sowon folded it nicely and tucked it into Yerin's overall's pockets.

"You know, you're really cute in my overalls."

"I'm just glad I'm tall enough to not trip."

They giggled, the past few days, Yerin had been sharing Sowon's clothes, the ones that Sowon grew too tall for, the ones that Sowon wanted her to wear. Today was a white t-shirt and overalls outfit, a big pocket right in the middle of the front.

"Oh, and when my sister get's home, you can call again, so I can talk with you too."

"Do you know when she'll be home?"

Sowon hummed, her fingers laced in Yerin's free hand, the popsicles forgotten in their opposite hands.

"I'm not sure, but when you call her the first time, I'm sure you can ask her. It'll probably be more accurate then than asking her now. Her groupmates are still cramming their work."

Yerin nodded, noticing that the popsicle was now melting closer to Sowon's hand.

"Unnie, your hand."

"Ah!"

It dripped one cold drop of sugar onto her wrist and Sowon quickly her treat to prevent any more mess, lest her mother yell at her for being messy again.

"I'll do my best unnie, to be strong."

"That's all I want. For you to be strong, healthy and happy. If it makes you upset, I'll just have to find some way to kidnap you from your house."

"I don't think you should be using the word kidnapping so freely unnie, that's a crime you know?"

Sowon just giggled.

"Fine, I'll borrow you from your house."

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

When her mother finally came, Yerin hugged Sowon one last time, the older waving from the balcony until she had gone out of sight. Yerin held her mother's hand tightly.

"Mom?"

"Yes honey?"

"Are we okay?"

"We will be honey. We will."

Yerin looked back forwards to the road ahead of them, a bus stop away from Sowon's place, she tried to memorize the entire route to Sowon's place.

"Mom, do you know how scared I was? When I saw you going in an ambulance?"

"I'm sure you were very scared honey, I mean I was, and I am the person who went to the hospital in tatters."

"Mom, you sound angry."

"I'm not."

Yerin kept quiet, it seemed as if her mother had changed, just from a few days away from each other, and yet, she seemed like a stranger, calling herself Yerin's mother.

"Mom? Are you okay?"

"Why are you repeating questions?"

"I didn't repeat them, mom, I asked two different questions, the first was were we, both of us okay. Now it's you. Mom, are you okay?"

Her mother sighed but squeezed her hand lightly in reassurance.

"I will be. I just need time, to adjust. To come with terms okay honey?"

"It's okay mom."

Maybe she shouldn't tell her about being unable to sleep alone anymore. Her mother seemed to have enough on her mind. Tonight was going to be a long night.

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

"Unnie! Did Yerinnie call yet?"

"No, do you want me to call her instead?"

Sowon was hanging on her sister's arm, her sister just went with the flow, using Sowon was a weight for lifting, flexing her muscles to lift her skin and bones of a little sister.

"I swear, we feed you so much but you're still so skinny."

"Hehe, it's a good thing isn't it? I get to eat as much as I wanna and not get fat."

"I suppose so, maybe I'll be jealous when my metabolism slows down."

"What was metabolism again?"

"How your body burns your food into energy."

Sowon hummed and let go, accidentally making her sister overcompensate and her arm to go flying up and hitting the lamp hanging from the ceiling.

"Ouch!"

"Omo! I'm sorry unnie!"

"It's okay, I'm okay, I didn't break the light bulb, so the light's okay too, you know, just in case you were worried about it."

Her sister giggled as Sowon slapped lightly at her arms at the tease. Feeling her cellphone vibrate, she quickly fished it out of her pocket and handed it to Sowon when she recognized it as the number that Yerin used to call earlier.

"Hello! This is Sowon speaking!"

Sowon's sister smiled as Sowon wandered off, finding a place to relax and talk with Yerin.

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

I'm half an hour late to reach my every 24 hours udpate regiment. Oops.