Long Distance Relationship

The Grocery Store
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Sakura couldn't sleep until Life360 notified her Chaeyeon has arrived home. It was rare for her. She rolls left and right in bed, feeling irritated. She feels that there is something wrong about Chaeyeon, that she was not telling her the truth. 

Her intuition never goes wrong.

She plays with the app and found that there is a "daily history" of Chaeyeon. She examines it closely, only to find a few more unanswered questions.

The GPS records show that Chaeyeon has not gone home until now, and she has spent many hours in different parts of the park. So why did she say she has an accident at home? Did she get drunk and was knocked down by a car on the way home? Her voice sounds so terrible like she has been crying all day. But what's most horrifying is that she went back to the park after visiting the hospital and stayed there for almost 3 hours. Did she faint on the way?

Sakura checks the time, it's past 2:30 am. No more message from Chaeyeon. She suddenly feels very tired and conks out. And she spent the whole night dreaming of running around looking for Chaeyeon in her nightmares. 

 

**

 

It is almost noon. Chaeyeon finally woke up from the pain in her hand. She knows she has to get up and eat something before she can take the painkiller.

She struggles out of bed and found that she hasn't brushed her teeth nor washed her face, but the most terrible thing is she is still wearing yesterday's clothes. And her phone battery is totally dead by now. She plugs in her phone and just let it charge (it's not an iPhone and it won't restart automatically).

She leaves her room and goes to the bathroom, and was startled by the scene that her whole family is gathering in the living room.

"Yeon, you go to the bathroom first." Her mother says in a surprisingly gentle voice.

"Eonnie..." Chaeryeong, her law student sister and Chaemin, her baby sister suddenly ran up and hugged her hard. Chaemin is crying and even Chaeri is barking.

"What's happening?" Chaeyeon looks at them blankly.

Her father stands up. "Your seonsaengnim (teacher) called us this morning and told us what happened to you last night. I think we must report it to the police this time."

Chaeyeon rolls her eyes and snorts.

"Yeon..." Mother wants to say something but stopped by Father.

"Yeon, we think we have misunderstood you for many years, and we are deeply sorry for that."

Chaeyeon blinks and looks puzzled. Am I in a dream?

"Your seonsaengnim has explained everything to us," Mother says, "and we are convinced that we have been wrong about you."

"Eomma, why don't you let eonnie go to the toilet first?" Chaeryeong who is closest to Chaeyeon quickly shoves her into the bathroom.

Chaeyeon sits on the toilet bowl and tries to recall what happened yesterday. She met Eunbi...yes, they finally met. Her heart suddenly races and a headache kicks in. And they have reconciled...! How come she has lost her memory about last night which was so important to her? She is too used to hating Eunbi and that seems to have twisted her. Realizing this, she starts to relax and repent a little bit. Yes, they are on good terms now. And Eunbi called her parents probably to explain that she didn't pick up a fight but she was the victim of a crime.

She is always so caring. Chaeyeon sighs. 

After washing her face and cleaning up a few blood stains, Chaeyeon returned to the living room and was surprised that the dining table was full of her favorite food.

"We have not eaten together for a long time. Yeon and Ryeong are going back to the dorm soon, so let's have a good meal to celebrate our two brightest daughters and wish big eonnie gets well soon?" Father says.

Chaeyeon suddenly feels a bit touched, so she decided to sit down. She squirms and cackles while Chaeryeong offers to feed her, and her parents just smile at them.

 

**

 

It is a Saturday. Sakura was woken up by her grandma instead of the alarm clock again.

"Saa-chan, wake up and prepare." Rino starts to sing a few lines from the opera La Traviata. Even at 64, she still has a good voice.

Sakura jumps out of bed immediately and found that there are pains all over her back and shoulder and neck with a severe headache.

"I am sick!" Sakura tries to act cute.

"How can you be sick when there might be more people coming than yesterday?"

"Okay..." Sakura unplugs her phone and walks slowly to the bathroom feeling like a piece of lead.

There is still no message from Chaeyeon. She's probably still sleeping.

She just drank some milk and took a painkiller. She wonders if there is any place she can get some massage treatments.

"There is a clinic nearby that does acupuncture, I will bring you there this evening," Rino says and dials the phone.

"So this is my grandma!" Sakura sighs in her head, "I have not even said yes."

Feeling slightly better after the medication, Sakura starts her long day. She takes out the new banners which have been designed by herself. One of them emphasizes the Machiya with a mood picture taking by Chaeyeon and the Facebook and Instagram search bars at the bottom. The slogan says "Connection of a New Generation with History". The other banner has a cute manga plum proudly presenting the new brand "Sasshi Granny's Umeboshi". Sakura drew the plum and almost felt like a genius.

Grandma is right. Saturday brings more tourist-looking people than Friday. Many of them come and take a selfie and buy cold drinks, while other local looking people ask for the Sasshi Granny's Umeboshi. 

A tall and slender woman caught Sakura's attention.

"Sensei!" Sakura quickly walks out of the shop and bowed deeply to the woman.

"Sakura?" The woman holds Sakura's hand with a delightful surprise. "You have grown so tall and beautiful now – and how is your injury?"

"Almost recovered." Sakura lowers her head, "thank you – how is the school?"

"That's the reason I am coming. Anna forwarded me your story on Facebook so I know that you have come back. When do you have time to visit your old school?" 

"Sure, how about...next Monday?" Sakura feels delighted that the principal of her old dance school is visiting her in person.

The woman takes out her phone, "let's exchange our numbers."

 

**

 

After breakfast/lunch, Chaeyeon took a long shower. It is very messy and inconvenient to have only one hand while the other got to be sealed in a plastic bag. She thinks she can fully understand Sakura's feeling now. An uneasiness suddenly crossed Chaeyeon' mind when she realized she has lied to Sakura yesterday. She is not sure why she did that. And she is also not sure how and how much she has to tell Sakura about what really happened. After the shower, she locks herself in her own room with Chaeri as usual.

She her phone, and to her surprise, there are not many messages as she has expected. Sakura just sent the standard good morning icon and nothing more. Sh

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So the long journey finally came to an end, and a new beginning is heading to start. Thank you all for supporting this story to its end.
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robogirl98
1718 streak #1
Chapter 26: oh my goodnesss!!!!!!!!!! this is so sweet! yes yes yes!!!!
robogirl98
1718 streak #2
Chapter 25: i'm so glad everyone got to meet and get the closure they deserve!!! here to the bright future for this big happy family!!
robogirl98
1718 streak #3
Chapter 24: ooo la la!!! go get them tigers!!
robogirl98
1718 streak #4
Chapter 23: sigh... man it went from the couple have a moment to the miyawaki family reunion!
robogirl98
1718 streak #5
Chapter 22: gahhh!!! i'm so happy! everyone is getting their happy ending!!!
robogirl98
1718 streak #6
Chapter 21: goodness, that secret was pretty big!
robogirl98
1718 streak #7
Chapter 20: wow wow wow!!! yes yes yes!!! go kang go!
robogirl98
1718 streak #8
Chapter 19: oh man, the rollercoaster ride with these visitors! no wonder she was tired!
robogirl98
1718 streak #9
Chapter 18: yes yes yes! a relationship is a two person job, both should push and pull to make it work! and communication is key!
robogirl98
1718 streak #10
Chapter 17: ohh so sweet! will kang and eunbi end up together or what!? they are so cute together and you can see how kang is treating eunbi like a gentlewoman!