Dara called Jisoo and Ji Yeon for an emergency girl meeting, and being the good friends they were, they didn’t hesitate to come right over, despite the fact that Ji Yeon had been having mild contractions on and off all day, and Jisoo came dressed up for an open house she needed to leave for within the hour.

Ji Yeon broke open the bag of mini powdered donuts she’d brought over. With the first bite, white powder spilled onto her belly. She brushed it off. “This seemed like the perfect sad person food to bring, something that leaves evidence all over you so people automatically know you need support.”

Jisoo picked a mini donut out of the bag and carefully set it on a napkin. “Direct me to one of your cooking aprons, if you don’t mind. I need to convince people to buy a house tonight, not pat me on the head and tell me things will get better.”

Dara gave a feeble laugh. “Second drawer down.” She took a donut out of the bag and ate it thoughtfully. “I know today will be a funny memory someday, but right now it just makes me wish I could hide somewhere.”

Ji Yeon frowned. “I picked the wrong day to miss work. What exactly happened?”

Dara related the story, starting with Jaejoong and ending with Giran leaving the parking lot. There was a long silence when Dara was done. “Go ahead. Say ‘I told you so.’”

Jisoo shook her head. “Have you talked to In-na? I highly doubt she gave her okay for this Jaejoong guy to come scope you out while you were working.”

“Nope. My pending date with Jaejoong is sort of low priority right now.”

Ji Yeon bit her nail. “You’re worried about Jiyong.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t talked to him yet either.” She should be looking forward to resolving everything, but instead, it filled Dara with dread.

They each ate a few more donuts, getting incrementally messier.

“You have powdered sugar in your eyebrow,” Jisoo said, pointing at Ji Yeon.

Ji Yeon ate the last of her donut, wiggling her eyebrows and making them laugh. “Are we done with these?” She twisted the bag closed before they ran to the bathroom mirror to check the damage. There was a little bit of powder on Dara’s lower lip, and a little on her shirt. She quickly rubbed it all off.

Smoothing her hair back from her face, Dara studied the reflection of the three of them side by side. They all had dark hair and brown eyes, but Dara looked nothing like the two sisters in all other respects.

“My sister from another mister,” Jisoo said, throwing her arm around Dara. She looked thoughtful. “Did you ever send for that DNA test?”

Dara nodded. “It should come back any day now.”

“What will it tell you?” Ji Yeon asked.

“My ethnicity for one. I know I’ve got a blend of things going on, from both sides. But also, if anyone related to me has also taken the test and made their results searchable, we could find each other.”

“That would be so exciting, Dara.” Ji Yeon gave her a quick hug.

It was exciting, but Dara had tempered that hope with reality. Chances were good she wouldn’t find anyone right away or maybe ever at all. A relative would have to buy their DNA test from the same company for them to find each other.

Ji Yeon’s phone rang from where she’d left her purse in the kitchen. Her husband, Jung-Suk, was probably a little more than worried about her, considering she’d be delivering their baby any day now. And Jisoo had work stuff she needed to get to. Dara practically shooed them out the door with promises that she’d be fine.

Ji Yeon had left the bag of donuts on the table, and Dara tossed them straight in the trash. She’d had her fill—with donuts and with feeling sorry for herself.

Needing a distraction, Dara began searching for the sappiest, most melodramatic movie she could find, one that would make the last twenty-four hours seem hum-drum. A Google search cheered her up immensely. In addition to Ice Castles and Steel Magnolias, two of her mom’s favourites, s