“Let me…” Her mid-pitched voice is still ringing in her head as Sakura fixes her gaze to the Hangang River outside the window. The car’s engine is humming rhythmically but it is not calming her senses. Not daring to steal a glance at the owner of that sweet voice who is now at the driver’s seat, Sakura wonders who will break the tense silence first, and when it happens, how much will she be able to understand?

Flashback to half an hour ago…

Sakura huffed and puffed to catch her breath after putting down the suitcase full of clothes, manga, and computer equipment. It is afterall, hard to shrink and uproot her livelihood into a single box and carry it all the way from Japan to Korea.

“Let me……...Bag?” A woman with shiny, black center-part long hair looks straight into her eyes, speaking a long string of words she was trying to pick up with her knowledge from the limited Korean crash course, until Sakura realizes that it was actually Japanese...albeit, questionable Japanese.

“Sorry, say...again, thanks?” Sakura paid back equally with all the politeness she could muster from her Korean, but she is already looking down at her hands that are clutching onto the handle of her suitcase tightly as her voice trails off out of shyness. She’s not the type to really look into someone’s eyes when they talk, at least, not to someone like that…

“I mean, this, HAha..” The woman she replies now in Korean, her voice still warm but the laugh a bit nervous. Suddenly, Sakura saw a hand brushed past her fingers, and she flinched at the sudden sensation of the touch and let go from the tug, which was the suitcase getting relieved from her sorry pair of under exercised arms.

“Welcome Sakura...Saku-chan!” She struggles to speak again in her broken Japanese, but she is trying really hard to compensate with a big smile. “Nako said to call you she usual does...ok? And I, you know?” She suddenly points to herself, rounding into a cute o-shape.

“Yes, that is how Nako-chan calls me….” Sakura switches back to Japanese and murmurs to herself, quickly raising her voice a bit as she bowed again to greet her. “Of course I remember you, it has been a while, Oneesan (sister).”

“Uoooh, no no, just call me Eunbi-chan! We have been looking forward to see you!” Eunbi...chan(?) switches back to Korean once she heard Sakura’s polite greeting, too eager to stop the formal nonsense and slipped back to her usual style. “Now,” turning her back and walking towards the entrance, “let’s get the car and we will..….Nako….!” Sadly, that’s how much Sakura could catch, and even though Nako’s lack of presence has been bothering her since she set her foot into the arrival halls, she could only quicken her pace to follow her sister, who’s already taking long strides ahead even with the large suitcase. It seems like she’s carrying feathers.

End of flashback

Yes, her sister. Just like Nako, who is also Sakura’s sister, but Eunbi-ne is not blood-related. Someone whom she had met three times so far in her life, one for a wedding, and two for funerals. Worse still, she was the one who chose to live apart these past two years, the one who was too late to see their mother before she died. Sakura still resents the fact that Eunbi-ne spent more time with her birth mother than she did during her last years, yet she hardly knew anything about this big sister of hers. She has never directed any of her loathing to her though; rather, she is more apprehensive about how life is going to unfold, as they finally gather and start a new life as one family. She was hoping at least that her other sister for 16 years would be there to ease her in, but it seems she will be absent in the first hour of her new, Kwon family Korean life.

“Saku-chan?” Eunbi’s voice broke the silence and her trance. “Are you cold? Are you hot?”

Sakura forced herself to turn her head towards the driver and smiled. “No I am okay. Nako...is she at home?” She attempted again in Korean.

“Nako-ya...Nako is, uhhhh…..food…..wait a bit… em…” Eunbi starts to struggle with Japanese again as she mumbles something to herself with furrowed eyebrows. “10 minutes?”

Guessing that she meant they would be home soon, Sakura politely thanked her and look back out of the window. How can I make this less embarrassing? I am bad with strangers, let alone my stepsister and someone who I can’t communicate with!

The ride home seemed to take forever, but finally, Eunbi backed the small light blue Hyundai into the driveway, and they both went into a small, two-storied semi-detached house that is now Sakura’s home.

“Sorry to disturb…” Sakura mumbled as she steps inside, quickly getting corrected by a short girl with blonde hair and straight bangs, who’s still wearing an apron.

“It should be ‘I am home!’” Nako winks and grins happily. “And, welcome back by the way, Saku-chan. No hugs for your sister?” Sakura sees the wide opened arms and the usual dimpled smile that her little pea sports. Realizing that she appears too hesitant for someone who actually misses her sister dearly, Sakura took her into a tight hug and lingered till Nako poked her at the sides, causing her to squeal. “Stop being sentimental, that’s so not you.” Nako deadpans and lets out a laugh before going back into the kitchen. “Hey, and you weren’t the angsty teenager I was expecting either. What a disappointment.” Sakura quickly returns the banter with a bright smile as they all move into the house.

They didn’t waste time to set the tables as Nako brings out dinner, which consists of miso soup, tteokbokki, mentaiko pasta, and bibimbap.

“Wow Nako-ya, you are spoiling us with Unnie’s favorite food!” Eunbi naturally sits down beside Nako and patted her head lovingly.

“It’s our special day after all, and mentaiko pasta! Saku-chan, I know it might not be anything like Murashige-jii-chan’s cooking, but your chef Nako is not getting worse each day either…” Nako gave herself a thumbs up after putting down a generous portion on Sakura’s plate across the table.

“Let’s eat!” Nako announces cheerfully, and the mood of the table quickly heated up with conversations in both languages sprouting. Obviously, Sakura is still too clueless to understand anything between the Korean-speaking girls, having only a week of half-assed phrase book studying. However, Nako is quick to translate some funny things that were mentioned, and they also managed to catch up a bit as she gobbles down the food. 

“Yabai! Nako-chan! You’ve become that good?” 

“Yes, Saku-neechan, making three meals a day does help, and not to mention, I love seeing the satisfaction in your faces when I feed you.”

“The miso-soup…” Sakura slows down as she stirs the base gently. “Tastes like mum’s.”

Nako smiles and reaches out to pat her hand. “Yes, it tastes like home, doesn’t it?”

“And tada!” A plate of macarons materializes. “The last dish of your 10-course Chef Nako’s selection!”