JIGSAW PUZZLES

Creeping back to the room, the towering figure struggled to contain her happiness as she recounted the rather pleasant moment that she shared with a special someone.

The kiss never failed to replay itself in Ahn Eugene’s head as she blindly walked past a pair that just stopped in their tracks, upon witnessing Eugene walking giddily back to her room at such an odd hour in the morning with a bike in an equally 

“Eugene, what are you doing up so early at nearly 3 a.m. in the morning?” Chaewon asked, her eyebrows arching in surprise.

Eugene suddenly froze upon hearing a voice call out to her but to her relief, it was just her sister, Minjoo and Chaewon who peering intently at her disheveled figure which was covered with plenty of stray moss and a twig stuck in one of the holes of the silver helmet that she was wearing.

“Funny, I could ask you the same thing but I just went to do some things.” Eugene stiffly replied.

“What ‘things’ could possibly concern you to be up till 3 o’clock in the morning.” Chaewon asked again, persistent to know.

Eugene could see Minjoo’s face into that of an unfathomable expression but she brushed it aside with her being perhaps, disappointed that her older sister was not abiding to the palace’s rules.

“Uh, well maybe if you told me why you are up at 3 o’clock in the morning, will I be willing to explain my presence at such an ungodly hour.” Eugene said, trying to divert her attention on Minjoo’s face which seemed rather still, a stark contrast to her mood earlier that evening. 

“Oh, I just stumbled upon Minjoo who was walking round the castle, roughly a few minutes before so I decided to accompany her for just a pretty late night time talk.  But with you around, I suppose it can’t hurt to have a little crowd to listen to her worries.” Chaewon bopped her head towards Minjoo’s direction to which it shook her out of her little stupor.

“Regarding the worries, Chaewon, I think it may be settled for another day and I want to go and rest for the time being I suppose.”

Eugene could visibly see Chaewon’s shoulder drop slightly while her slight smile never seemed to falter in the slightest.

An echoing silence shrouded the three of them till Eugene said that it was best for them to retire for the day.

With that, the three of them bade farewell and headed off to their rooms respectively with the royal sisters heading down to the left corridor whilst Princess Chaewon went straight to the opposite direction.

Just as Eugene was about to turn herself in for the night, Minjoo called out to her.

“Say Eugene, do you mind saying why you were out with all those stuff on your body.” Minjoo commented while gesturing to her head.

“Oh, just wanted a little breather I suppose. Just like you. But swear not to snitch to either of them alright?” Eugene replied, removing the helmet littered with twigs.

“Yeah, I will uphold my promise as a loyal citizen of Elbonia.” Minjoo gave a smirk to which the both of them snickered silently at.

“Alright. Alright, come on let’s get you to bed.” And with that, Eugene landed a little sisterly peck on Minjoo’s forehead, just to kiss her nightmares away.

And with that, both princesses slept soundly till the wee hours of the following morning.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

“I’m really sorry, Miss Lee. It seems that your request for searching for your child, Lee Yujin has been denied by our chief. As much I’d want to help, maybe you could find further assistance with our other department, Department for -“

However, Chaeyeon headed straight for the lift without even wanting to listen to the receptionist’s words.

“Damn who’s she?” Minnie muttered while sidling up to Shuhua who shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t really know. For all I know is that everytime she is to come by here, I need to give her the same usual excuse from the higher ups. She’s been doing that for the past few years. Every month, without fail she will turn up to ask for her child, Lee Yujin. Unfortunately for her, there’s no information on her so-called child ‘Lee Yujin’. I’ve been contemplating reporting her to the hospital but Boss said I shouldn’t report people unnecessarily, so I just leave it at that. Besides, I get a bit of personal time in the break room while waiting for the supposed follow up from the higher ups.” Shuhua said while processing a few documents.

“That’s really weird. Did you ever try searching up her child’s name online or something? You know just to do a little scoop around here.” Minnie pried, curious as to why someone’s records didn’t appear in the transparent system.

“Yeah, I did but it always led me to a different name which is-“

“I think that will be enough chit chat from you two ladies today” Someone cleared their throat and both of them looked up to have their boss stare at them intently.

“Come on, get back to work. No use mucking about.”

With that, the two employees returned to their respective work piles with the fellow higher-up lingering for a while till he left for his own cubicle. Suddenly, Minnie felt someone nudge her lightly.

“Here. It’s the person that I am always being led to.” Shuhua whispered, so as to not attract any attention from their higher up.

Minnie let out a silent gasp upon seeing the name and the picture that came along with it.

“Her? That’s impossible.” Minnie replied in response.

Shuhua shrugged her shoulders as if unsure to make something out of it.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Mama. How’s your search been?” Hitomi softly asked with Nako patiently awaiting the results.

“Useless. They gave me the same response.” Chaeyeon replied monotonously.

Just the same old all over again. Giving her the same old pathetic excuse. Truth be told, Chaeyeon felt like giving up but she felt heartbroken knowing the fact that if she chose to give up her child to another family, regardless of their status in society, without putting up a fight for her child. However, it just happened to be an unfortunate situation in which some ran