With no heating unit, the three cold bodies can only shiver while they wait for the afternoon sun to pour through the broken window and warm them up. In another room, the only bedroom, a woman with traces of grey in her hair lay quivering under thin sheets. Her eyelids jumpy from the lack of sleep, Busan’s morning ocean breeze, and her failing health. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, two young women were putting breakfast together at a stained counter.

“All we have are potatoes?” one of them asks. Of the two, she is shorter but in clothing that made her look bigger than her lookalike. 

The other hums. “These are the last two. Just enough to make potato soup for us,” says the one smashing the vegetables.

There is a moment of silence before the shorter says and suggests, “I think I have enough change for one of us to go to Seoul and come back. And between the two of us, I think you should be the one who goes, Eunbi,”

The young woman, Eunbi, halts but does not look up. “Why would I go to Seoul?” Her tone is lower and less chirpy than earlier. 

“You know mom’s heart is there, she has been asking for her for a long time. Also, we’re dirt poor so if you go there and tell her family, they might send help,”

Eunbi snaps her head up until she is looking into the other woman’s eyes, “Joohyun, quit lying to yourself. For ten years, no one looked for mom. If they really cared, they would have tried to find her. Mom said it herself that her family abandoned her. I’d rather use that money to buy her a warmer blanket or a heater than to blindly go to Seoul,”

The shorter woman now identifies as Joohyun couldn’t accept what she is hearing, “You don’t know that. Someone at her house might still care. They could still be searching for her. If they hear she is sick, they will definitely help. Think about it, would you not care if someone tells you mom is sick?”

Eunbi shakes her head with a heavy sigh then she picks up where she had left off. Pounding away at the starchy plant without sparing Joohyun another glance and chance to talk. 

Seoul...

Nothing in the world is louder than her step-sister, Hyewon, excitedly shrieking in the presence of food. When Chaewon peeks her head into the dining room, in her silky blue raspberry PJs, she thought the housekeeper has fallen again. However, all she sees is a Hyewon stuffing her pretty face with kimbap. Upon locking gazes, Hyewon wave Chaewon over then diverts her attention back to the food as if to say Chaewon had better grab a piece before they’re all gone.

Entering the room fully now and walking along the long table, Chaewon breathes a sigh, “Hey Hyewon, go easy or you’ll choke,” she quickly catches herself and mumbles, “not that you ever will. I forgot that you’re nothing like a normal human being when you eat,”

Standing beside her step-sister now, Chaewon watches as Hyewon swallow roll after roll, offer and feeds her one or two. Then in the blink of an eye, twenty odd rolls of kimbap were gone. The silver platter looks as good as new and not a trace of rice could be spotted. Chaewon scoffs in disbelief and amazement. “You’re an eating machine, seriously a machine,” she scratches the back of her head and tries to leave when Hyewon hooks arm with her to make her stay.

“Are you going out again today? Want to watch ‘Attack on Titan’ season 3 with me if you’re not?”

Chaewon heaves a weary sigh, “Is that series seriously still going? I thought the main character died in the beginning?”

Hyewon shakes her head while keeping a warm smile, “He did but I'll say no more because I don’t want to ruin it for you,”

Chaewon never understood the older girl’s love for anime. She gets that it’s entertaining but it isn’t beneficial in any other way. At least, not financially. When Hyewon tug at her arm a few more times as a sign of begging, Chaewon rolls her eyes. “I don’t want to. Goeun is coming over later today and we’re going to the pool,”

Na Goeun is Chaewon’s best friend from high school. They met in the school choir and has been inseparable since. They even attended Seoul National University together after Goeun, who is from a middle-class family, stayed up late nights to earn the grades and money to get in. Not only is it fun when they’re together but they came to need each other physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Chaewon needed Goeun’s endless brave support and somehow Goeun’s offhand remark about being Chaewon’s girlfriend has been successful in keeping away erts. Although they both know she’s straight as a die and Chaewon look nothing like a superhero.

“Can I come with?”

Chaewon wrinkles her nose a little in uncertainty. Hyewon isn’t always bad company, but at the pool, she has a tendency to cling to Chaewon in or out of the water. Though Chaewon knows her older step-sister can't be blamed as she did nearly drown as a child. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it was in the hospital’s pool where Hyewon’s mom and Chaewon’s step-mom works as a director in the emergency unit.

Just for the sake of poking fun at the older, Chaewon says, “Only if you promise to keep the life vest on at all times,”

“Okay, but can we watch one episode of AOT before we leave?” Hyewon’s twinkle as she waits for an answer. It bothers Chaewon that she can never say no to her step-sister. At some point, she wonders if she’ll jump off a bridge if Hyewon asks her to, although simultaneously trusts that Hyewon won’t request anything impossible of her.

“Fine. Just one episode,”

Except it’s never just an episode. Everyone, except Chaewon, knows this. It’s a vicious cycle.

Even after Goeun showed up, the three girls were glued to the couch and TV. Chaewon sat between Hyewon and Goeun, and while Hyewon combs Chaewon’s wavy hair with her fingers, Goeun was lying down with her head on Chaewon’s lap. Hours later, no one dare put a stop to or turn away from the 127cm TV screen. Not until they hear a loud bang at the door.

It was Chaewon and Hyewon’s father and his personal assistant, Mr. Oh. While their father rolls in on a shimmering black mobility scooter with a looking stump Mr. Oh, the man with a raspy voice looks at Chaewon first. “Where’s your mother?”

Chaewon feels Hyewon scooting closer to her, petrify by the man’s cold tone, while Goeun makes preparation to back up Chaewon’s story if Chaewon needs it. “She was just home but got a call to return to work,”

Instantly, Goeun chimes in, “She said they were short staffed tonight and not enough doctors to perform surgeries,”

Behind the cushion and out of her father’s eyes, she pets Goeun on the hand a few times for a job well done.

The man doesn’t say another word about it but quickly warns them, “Mr. Oh and I have some business to discuss. If it’s not an emergency, you girls make yourself scarce and don’t be snooping around my office,”

“Sure,” Chaewon assures. As the duo disappears around the corner, Chaewon gesture for Hyewon to go up to her room. Meanwhile, Goeun shuts the TV off and waits for Chaewon. After Hyewon goes upstairs, looking apologetic, Chaewon and Goeun head to the outside world. Without a sound, they leave the two-storied building—made with the finest dark bricks—fenced in by long iron fences. The pair makes their way down the hill and in the direction of the heart of town after exiting through the wicket gate, next to the automated main gate.

Unlike Goeun who is in a splendent knee-length sunkissed dress, Chaewon has on a plain white tee and black jeans when she sat down with Hyewon for some anime. Quickly, she pockets her hands and while walking beside Goeun who arms were folded across her chest, the other initiate small talk. “Is your father okay? He seems more stress these days,”

The one being questioned shakes her head and form a thin line with her lips as she thinks it over. There’s a lot that her father isn’t sharing with her. Aside from him being moodier than usual. Chaewon can guess why but didn't want to hurt her head over it. “Ever since the incident, he’s been like that. Over the years I watch as his trust issue worsen, especially with women. I suppose it’s the reason he stopped talking to me, too,”

Goeun makes a clicking sound with her tongue, “Well, that was ten years ago. Besides, your stepmom is a good person so I don’t see why he would think she’s unfaithful,”

Chaewon shrugs, nonchalantly, “Well, I’m sure he’s looking for her because of the divorce papers I took,”

To her surprise, Goeun scoffs a chortle, “I still can’t believe you took them. Luckily your father trusts you. If it was my father, he’d turn my room upside down until he finds it,”

Chaewon stops in her tracks and smirks, “It’s not luck. He knows I have them. He planned it to be that way. He knew I would take them so he can put the blame on my stepmom,”

The shorter woman raises a brow as she processes Chaewon’s twisting words. It takes a second but she immediately gets it. It’s a trait of hers, being a fast learner, that got her into a University that only many get in because of money.  “You mean...,” Goeun trails off in order to give Chaewon the opportunity to explain, in which she did without any emotion. 

“The stigma of being a homewrecker and gold digger. He wants to give her that,”

“If you knew that then why did you take them? I thought you’re close to your stepmom and Hyewon?” Goeun sounded surprised but Chaewon knows she wasn’t. Complaining and putting the blame on their parents was the very topic that made them closer than ever.

Chaewon keeps her grin as she explains, “I am, but it’s not like he’s going to kill them. They will only end up kicked out. There's not a lot to worry about. My stepmom is a director at the main hospital. They will be more than fine. More importantly, Hyewon won’t starve,” everything halted for a minute before Chaewon urges, “since it’s four and the pool is closed, let’s grab ribs instead. I’m starving,” when Chaewon begins moving again, Goeun follows with a deep sigh.

Even after eight years of knowing each other, Goeun still has a hard time reading if Chaewon truly means the mother-and-daughter duo well or not. However, regardless of what she does or doesn’t know, she is certain that the truth will eventually come out. Chaewon, after all, hardly keeps a secret from her.