Chapter 2 - New Year

When she opened her eyes that morning, it’s gonna be the last day of the year and that meant she’d be leaving the house the next day.

Minjoo suddenly found it hard to leave, because living in one room with Hyewon for one week long was her best moment throughout the year.

“I don’t want to say goodbye now,” Minjoo held her sister’s hand and tangled their fingers together.

“Me too,” Hyewon said softly with a hint of sadness upon the thought of parting from her younger sister. “But we still have one more night with us,” the older started to get a little more cheery. “Let’s enjoy it to the fullest!”

When they were having breakfast, Hyewon’s dad asked about Minjoo’s new house that they’d be moving into once her parents come back next month. “I heard it’s not going to be far from here?” he waited for her answer while scooping a spoonful of rice and took the food inside his mouth.

“I haven’t visited the new house yet so I didn’t know that much either. It’s an apartment and she’s just happy that she’s finally moving to a new house with the man that mom liked so much.”

“Does she have any plan of getting a new job? She seems to settle well with this new husband and I just hope that she’d leave-”

“Appa!” Hyewon groaned, glaring at her dad. “Stop commenting so much about what mom did! It’s not like her job wasn’t decent enough for you to say things like that!”

Mr. Kang was stunned on his seat for a second. “W-What? But I was about to say that I hope she’d leave her old job so it’ll be more convenient for her family and herself since it was quite far from the residency area!” he retorted, which wasn’t entirely wrong.

Minjoo and her mother used to live in the rural area where her mother’s workplace was close by. She worked in a bar and served a lot of clients, which always involved men. And her new husband was one of them. Minjoo better left the how-they-fell-in-love-with-each-other part out because it was so cringy for her to take seriously.

However, the apartment they’d be moving into would take one hour and a half ride to the bar she worked at, that if the road was smooth and the vehicles were not getting stuck in jam.

“I will surely ask her that later,” the girl smiled though anyone could see she was somehow upset. But nobody dared to say a word in the awkward situation to cheer her up, even Hyewon.

“Why don’t you go upstairs with Hyewon if you’re done?” Chaewon’s mother asked brightly to lighten up the atmosphere and gave her motherly smile. “Chaewon will help me clean the dishes!”

“You’re making Chaewon doing a lot of hard works lately,” Mr. Kang frowned.

“It’s fine. I can do it.” The red-haired stood up and followed her mother to the kitchen. Minjoo eyed the girl’s movement before feeling her arm was tugged by Hyewon.

“Come, let’s go~”

***

“Her name is Yujin!”

Minjoo was showing off a photo of her girlfriend on her phone to Hyewon, talking about how she and the Yujin girl first got together.

“Ahn Yujin!” There was a glow on Minjoo’s face when she said her name. Hyewon could see it and knew right then how special the mentioned girl meant to her younger sister.

“She goes to the same school as Chaewonnie!” Hyewon claimed when she read Yujin’s profile on her instagram that wrote the high school she attended. Her eyes were sparkling every time she mentioned Chaewon’s name and Minjoo was somehow a little bothered because of it.

“How did you two know each other in the first place? You both attended different school though?” Hyewon asked again, with an interrogative tone, as if her protective older sister mode was just .

Minjoo was excited as she started her story-telling about her girlfriend. “We knew each other from a dating apps, you know the super popular one by *Just Dating, No Marriage!, do you?” Hyewon’s eyebrows knitted together as she thought of the super weird name, but didn’t recall a thing, so she shook her head. (*Note: a quick reference to the k-drama Because This Is My First Life xD )

“Anyway,” Minjoo just gave up from sparing a full, detailed explanation about the apps and just kept talking about Yujin. “She saw my pic

and made the first move. It turns out she’s one of the most popular girls in her school, and even shot a few commercials! She’s a star student!” she grinned.

“But is she good at her study? Does she have good grades?” Hyewon asked the most unexpected question out of nowhere and she wasn’t even ecstatic when Minjoo mentioned that Yujin is a commercial model.

“That...I don’t know.” Minjoo actually sighed. “I heard she failed her maths though,” she mumbled  at the last part but Hyewon heard her.

“Chaewon is good with her study!”

There she went again; Chaewon, Chaewon, and Chaewon! Minjoo couldn’t understand how her sister brought up the girl’s name in this when she didn’t even talk once about her and she’s growing tired because of it.

“Since mom and I will move out next month, I’ll be transferring school as well and will attend the same school as my girlfriend. I’m really excited about this transfer thing!” She was actually jumping on the bed.

“Really?!” Hyewon was enthusiastic and her eyes lit up. “That means you’re going to the same school as Chaewonnie!”

The wide smile on Minjoo’s face slowly faded and her mood was turned down almost instantly.

“Can you stop?” she looked at her sister in disbelief.

“Stop what?” Hyewon was genuinely confused.

“Ugh, nevermind! I just hope we’ll enjoy the festival tonight!” Minjoo became a little grumpy.

“Don’t worry, we have all the night to ourselves! Dad and Miss Kim promise to let us have all the fun at the festival!” Hyewon assured and that actually made Minjoo felt better. She finally smiled although it was just a small one. Hyewon was clueless about her slight change of mood so it’s pointless if she got sulky anyway.

***

After dinner, the family (plus Minjoo) put on warm outfits to step out of the house. They were planning to join the new year countdown at the town’s festival which was located not far from where they lived.

The festival was as expected, crowded with people, some came with family, some came with groups of friends and some were couples that Minjoo was envious of. She wished she could do that with Yujin but the latter had another plan with her own friends that Minjoo had yet to meet. She would see them once she move to Yujin’s school a month later.

Mr. Kang and his new wife would sit at one booth to have a date of their own and told the girls to have all the fun while they could. Hyewon excitedly left the parents and dragged Minjoo and Chaewon with her to walk from one booth to another until they reached the end of it. The eldest was a big eater and she’d stop at every food booth so she could try all sorts of food that night. Minjoo was amused at how much her sister could eat in one night though they already had eaten dinner from home, while Chaewon just silently followed along.

Before they knew it, it was almost time for countdown and the girls had to meet up with their folks to watch the firework together. When they saw each other at their meeting point, neither Hyewon nor Minjoo realized the other girl, Chaewon was missing until her mother pointed it out.

“Where’s Chaewon?”

The question alone sent a chill down to Hyewon’s spine and made her had quite a panic attack.

“I swear she was just behind me when we walked here…” she was mumbling under her breath. Minjoo heard her and was worrying for her older sister instead of the missing girl. Hyewon looked like she was losing her breath the moment her step-mom asked about Chaewon’s whereabout.

“How did she go missing and why did you leave her alone?” the elder woman raised her voice and began to have an anxiety. Mr. Kang held her shoulders to calm her down.

“I’m sorry…” Hyewon lowered her head and Minjoo could see the former’s tears slowly came out from her eyes.

Shortly after, the four of them began to frantically search for Chaewon together with her mother led ahead. With the festival swarming with a lot of people, it was hard for them to find the red-haired girl with a fast speed. It made Minjoo thinking the girl was nothing but a bothersome and such a pain in the .

“Unnie! Hyewon unnie!”

Minjoo heard very small voice trying to shout between the loud noises. She noticed her older sister heard it too and turned their heads to find the source of the voice coming from.

“CHAEWON!!!”

Hyewon was the first to find the missing girl and the step-sisters reunited with a dramatic hug, and the eldest was embracing the younger tightly as if she regretted leaving her alone.

“Where did you go???!” they broke the hug and Hyewon shook Chaewon by her shoulders, with tears streamed down on her face.

“Kim Chaewon!”

Before the poor girl could say anything, her mother already came running at full speed when she saw her daughter and hugged her tight, causing Hyewon to step backwards.

The firework went off, but none of them enjoyed it as much as they originally planned, all thanks to Chaewon who went missing and ruined everything.

She ruined the night that Minjoo dream for.

***

“It was her who stopped by the booth without telling us! Why was your step-mom throwing a fit on you?! She didn’t even bother to apologize for doing you wrong!”

Minjoo was full of complaints when they got home and Hyewon was the one who heard all of her rants. Sure, the younger was really triggered when her beloved sister got scolded for something that wasn’t even her fault, not to mention the one who scolded her was her step-mom. To Minjoo it was just really unacceptable and she started to doubt that if Chaewon’s mom was even nice.

“I was wrong too, I deserve the scoldings!”

It broke Minjoo’s heart when Hyewon looked so down when Chaewon was missing. She just couldn’t understand how the girl was so special that everyone was so anxious when she was absent. The girl was not a child, even freaking older than Minjoo was!

A few gentle knocks on the door interrupted the heated conversation. Minjoo who was losing her cool calmed down as Hyewon got up and got the door.

It was Chaewon, with her head hung a little low and looked at Hyewon with the most guilty expression. The eldest sister turned around to see how Minjoo was doing, and when she saw the latter was playing (pretend) with the phone in her hand, she turned back to Chaewon.

“Are you okay?” she asked in concern of the younger who must be surprised by the night’s turn of event. Minjoo just internally cussed her half-sister for being too nice.

“This is for you,” Chaewon spoke with the most angelic voice. Minjoo extended her head up to peek at what Chaewon was giving Hyewon and saw some kind of gift, looked like a bracelet.

“I bought it for you at the booth earlier. I was stopping by because I thought it’d look nice on you and bought a pair, for you and myself.” Chaewon was actually smiling, even just a little. “It’s our first Christmas and new year together as a family. I didn’t tell you I’d stop by because it was meant to be a surprise for you.”

Hyewon was stunned and touched that she stood frozen by the doorway. It was a nice bracelet charm, came with a pair for couple but Chaewon made it as something meant more than that. She was spending time to add initials on Hyewon’s and her own bracelet, that was exactly why she lost both girls before the countdown.

“Thank you…” Minjoo heard her sister said, and she knew by her voice that the eldest sister was crying.

Chaewon left a minute later after and Hyewon returned to the bed, her eyes were red. Minjoo was staring at her and saw how Hyewon was giggling while she had her eyes on the bracelet. She must be too happy to receive the present that she couldn’t take her eyes off of it.

“Look,” Hyewon showed off the bracelet around her wrist to Minjoo. “She added her initial on mine and got my initial on hers.” Minjoo almost snorted but Hyewon’s next words stopped her from doing that. “She even got your initial too, see here; “KMJ”, wasn’t that really nice of her?!”

Basically Hyewon was just boasting off about Chaewon like usual but why did Minjoo feel weird inside? It’s like her heart skipped a beat (a little) at the girl’s (actually) sweet gesture, like she knew and actually acknowledged about how much Minjoo meant to Hyewon that she made that kind of effort.

In the end, Minjoo admitted Chaewon was quite decent after all.

“Yeah, it’s nice.”

She replied to Hyewon like the Chaewon’s style.

***

The high school student went downstairs to get something to drink for her thirsty throat despite the time. The house was dark and she was sure nobody was up anymore, even Hyewon already went to slumber.

When she reached the kitchen, she didn’t expect to hear talking voices and quickly went on hide mode before she could be caught. She was eavesdropping to the conversation by accident (she swore it was unintentional, the situation made her did it) and was stuck at the entryway.

“I would love it if you could talk to Hyewon unnie and say sorry to her.”

“Chaewon sweetie, I know I shouldn’t snap at her that harsh but I couldn't help it. I was really worried about you!”

“I’m not a kid, I can take care of myself.”

Please note, Minjoo who actually heard this conversation knew that Chaewon was talking like she was giving a curt statement and not getting angry at her mother. She never raised her voice.

“But you are my kid, I know you couldn’t stand the crowd and get scared of firework easily without me or your sister!”

“That’s when I was 15, and I’m not 15 anymore. I am fine now mom, trust me.”

Minjoo forgot about the drink and turned back to Hyewon’s bedroom to head straight to bed when the mom and daughter seemed to reconcile well after the talk. It made she wondered, what’s wrong with Chaewon that everyone in the house was basically pampering her?

***I think I kept you guys waiting for so long so here's an update! Writing Chaewon's character in this story makes me soooo soft and I think I just fall in love 😍😍😍