The cherry blossom petals have lined the path towards a quaint, two-storey house by a street in Namsan, and Nam Chung Ae kicks away these petals to his amusement, watching the light pink petals dancing under his feet. Another school day has ended, and the young boy is ecstatic to come home, a few papers folded inside his little backpack that he couldn't wait to show to his mother. Nam Hee Young, however, could care less about her brother's antics. The unsettling feeling inside her chest was still there, and it was getting unbearable for her to hide it. 

"Hee Young-ah," her brother called. "Why are you so quiet? Aren't you going to brag about how high your scores are in today's quizzes to my face?"

"I don't want to talk right now." She grumbled, pressing her lips together in a thin line, her grip on her bag tightening with every step that she took, her braided pigtails swaying along with her steps. As they go down the small ramp to cross the street, the young girl sighed as she stopped fighting her thoughts.

"Chung Ae-ya." Hee Young stopped in the middle of the road, a pout across her lips as she glared at the horizon, the golden rays of the sun hitting the side of her face. 

"What?" The boy looks back at her. 

"Isn't it weird that we're the only people in our class that don't have two parents?" 

It's that question again, and Chung Ae sighed in response as well. 

"Haven't we gone over this before?" The boy scratches his head, before adjusting his round-framed glasses slightly on the bridge of his nose. 

"I know, it's just..." Hee Young sighed as she caught up to her brother. "I'm tired of people asking questions about our parents. It's like, even if I told them whatever eomma told us to say to them, they would still keep on asking." 

"Well, I have to admit that I'm getting tired of them too." A sigh left his lips as they both trudged home. "But, this is what eomma taught us, so we can't really say anything else." 

"Have you ever wondered what would it be like to have an appa?" Hee Young had a faraway look in her eyes. "You know, have your appa fetch you from school like how our classmates do? See him support you in your piano recitals?"

"Must be nice," Chung Ae murmured, gripping the straps of his backpack tighter. "But... eomma doesn't really talk about him much."

"That's the thing." Hee Young sighed, matching his pace with her footsteps. "Eomma rarely talks about him. I don't even know what he looks like or what he does." 

"Do you think he lives here? Or maybe he's somewhere else?" 

"I don't know either, but I hope he's here somewhere near." The young girl grumbled. 

The conversation halted once they finally arrived at the end of the street, the pavement in front of the wooden gates littered with piles of cherry blossom petals, and Hee Young had to stop Chung Ae from kicking the piles, clearly making sure that he doesn't ruin the streetsweeper ahjussi's hard work. After buzzing the doorknob, a warm, familiar figure welcomes them to their surprise. 

"Halmeoni!" The twins cheered as the old woman embraces them in a hug, a megawatt smile on her face as she hugs her grandchildren tight. 

"Oh, my little bundles of joy." She squeezed the two tightly, before oulling away and smoothening their hair. "Chung Ae-yah, you should be making sure your hair's in place. You look like you have a bird's nest on top of your head."

"I'm sorry, Halmeoni." He pouted. "The wind was pretty strong on the way home."

"Alright, alright." The old woman tutted. "Your eomma is on the way home from work, so it's best if you put your stuff inside first."

"Yes, Halmeoni." The twins nodded, but before anything else, Hee Young moved back to her grandmother, and Chung Ae stopped by the doorway when he realized his twin wasn't following him.

"Oh, Hee Young-ie. Do you need anything?" The grandmother caressed her hair. 

"Halmeoni," she sighed. "Please don't get angry if I ask about this."

"What is it?" She replied, before her eyes widened. "Wait, is there a bully? A subject you can't understand? Do you want me and your eomma to go to school? Do you want us to talk to the teacher?"

"No, Halmeoni." She squeezed her grandmother's finger, a pout on her lips. "It's... I... Do you know who's our appa?"

The question made the old woman freeze, her lips parted, as if she had the answer at the tip of her tongue, but alas, she didn't have the courage or the right answers to break it to her gently. Hee Young awaited her response with hopeful eyes, but as Halmeoni crouched down to her level, Chung Ae couldn't help but move closer to them.

"My little angel," Halmeoni cooed, caressing her cheek. "I think it's best if you ask your mother the right answer. But, I will tell you this, I know for sure your appa is out there somewhere."

The young girl sighed in response, nodding towards her grandmother, and before they knew it, a car engine stopped by the driveway, followed by a sound of closing doors and clicking heels. The gate opened, and in comes a young woman, donning a white coat over a light pink blazer with a suitcase in hand, a tired look in her eyes that was swept away after seeing the two children. 

"Eomma!" Chung Ae runs towards his mom, followed by Hee Young, who wrapped her arms immediately around their mother, inhaling the scent of her mother's favorite perfume.

"How was school, my little angels?" She asked as she kissed the top of their heads.

"It was okay, eomma!" Hee Young looked up at her mother, her pigtails swishing with her head. "I got the highest score in my Math quiz!"

"I got the highest score in my English and Math quiz too!" Chung Ae pulled away from her. "Also, Hee Young wants to say something!"

The girl glared at her twin brother. "What? No!" 

"You kept talking about it on the way home!"

"I'm not asking eomma!" 

"What is this about?" Their mother asked, an amused smile on her face. 

"It's about..." The young boy trailed off, unsure if he should say it. 

"About what?" The mother crouched down in front of her children, squeezing their hands to get them to say something. Chung Ae hesitated as he looked at Hee Young, but he continued as he whispered something to his mother, the smile on their mother's lips fading after his words. 

"We'll talk about it later, alright?" She asked the two, and they nodded in response. 

"Alright." She sighed, pinching both of their chins. "I want the both of you to settle your stuff upstairs and do your assignments, okay? If you don't finish your assignments, no ice cream for the both of you." 

"Eomma!" 

"Aish." She glared at the both of them. "Now, now. Go upstairs, and I'm not kidding about my punishment."

The twins bolted upstairs to their rooms, immediately settling their stuff and taking out their sheets for their assignments. As the two quietly wrote and solved their answers, but in the midst of it, Hee Young stopped writing before turning to her brother. 

"What did you whisper to eomma?" 

Chung Ae stopped writing, before looking out at the window. "I asked about Appa."

"WHY WOULD YOU ASK THAT TO HER?"

"Because you couldn't say that to her face."

"So that's why eomma got sad earlier." She murmured as she wrote something on her notebook, feeling guilty to even bring up the topic in the first place. She knows for sure that she'll probably get the same answer as before, but she couldn't help herself. It just bugged her so much that she gets to see all of her friends have their fathers and mothers picking them up from school, or maybe going with them during school events, while she doesn't even have a clue on who their father was. It bugged her even more when their section was going for an assignment of introducing your parents, and she couldn't escape the questions of her peers on why she always left the information about her father blank on the page, and it just made her more upset that she had no clue as to why it's blank as well. After a few moments of silence, her twin brother spoke up. 

"I actually found something."

"I'm guessing it's a shell of a snail or something?" Hee Young asked as she kept her gaze on her notebook, writing the solution to the math equation.

"It's way more important." 

"How important?" 

Chung Ae hesitated, his fingers itching to grab the thing inside his drawers, before going back to his work. "I'll tell you later at bedtime."

"Why not now?"

Chung Ae looked back at the closed door of their rooms, before leaning towards her, his voice hushed.

"It's top secret, and it's best if we talk about it when everyone is asleep."

"That important?"

He nodded in response. "You'll be really surprised of what I'll show you."

"That better not be a dead snake."

"This is way more important than my dead animal findings, Hee Young-ah." He rolled his eyes. "Let's finish everything first. Actually, last one that finishes won't get all the ice cream."

"Hey! We didn't have a deal like that!"

"But, I bet you won't even finish everything. I'll get all the ice cream if that's the case."

"Oh, it's on now!"

And so, the twins continued on finishing their assignments, making sure that they're going as fast and as efficient, but right, as possible. Here they were, solving their small math problems and puzzles in their notebooks, the faint petals of the cherry blossoms dancing outside their windows, the spring breeze giving them peace in their small little world as they await for nightfall, the little secret snuggled inside Chung Ae's drawers, waiting to cause a ripple.