It was the first day of her holidays but due to force of habit, Youra ended up waking up at 8 in the morning.

Which instantly put her in a bad mood.

She trudged through the rest of her day, feeling frustrated no matter what she did.

It was like there was no activity she could partake in that didn’t annoy her somehow.

She tried painting but the blank canvas in front of her irritated her to no end, because she just couldn’t come up with something to paint.

She tried reading but all the books she owned had been read by her multiple times already and she had no new books to binge read.

She considered baking but that would mean she had to look for a simple recipe and then check if she had all the necessary ingredients for it.

And she was too comfortable in bed for that.

She scrolled through her Instagram following and started unfollowing the people she didn’t really care much for anymore, like Dylan Wang from Meteor Garden and an old acquaintance from middle school.

She remembered watching Meteor Garden and fawning over how handsome Dylan Wang was. He had this aura around him which radiated self-confidence, making him all the more good looking. And she specifically remembered not being able to believe that he was only 19 years old when he starred in the popular show. At the time, she was 18 and all the boys her age (except for a few) that she knew looked so pubescent that she often wondered just how on Earth this rookie Chinese actor managed to look so good and so much older for his age.

And now, she was unfollowing him, which didn’t really matter anyway considering he barely ever posted anymore and all the photos she had seen of him recently were of him being bald.

Yup, Dylan Wang had shaved all the gorgeous, luscious hair he had.

She sighed before making her way down the list. She scrolled further down and stopped at one name.

@YouJinChoi

A few months ago, the only Instagram account that could ever bring tears to her eyes was Jonghyun’s.

Youra cried a lot when he had passed away. There was something so ethereal and pure about him that made Youra’s heart hurt but in a good way. That was until he passed however, because after reading his suicide note, her heart hurt, a lot.

It especially hurt because it seemed to hit so close to home, he was a student at her sister’s university.

Now, she had another addition to her list. But this hurt, this wound was much more raw, much more profound in its existence.

And if you had asked her a few months ago, what was something that never failed to make her cry, her answer would be a lot different, and a lot less painful.

-

After scrolling through her Instagram for a while and wiping away her tears, Youra scrolled through her contacts, with the same intentions as before, to get rid of the ones she no longer needed.

Not surprisingly, by the end, there were only a few contacts left, and most of them had been kept for the sake of nostalgia, like Grace and Tammy Tuan.

Growing up, if Youra was annoying Mark and Jackson, then her sister would be hanging out with Grace and Tammy.

Well, more like shadowing them.

Grace and Tammy were always older sister figures for Youra and You-jin, considering the massive . Perhaps it was because they were already used to babying their younger brothers that they didn’t mind babying the Choi sisters as well.

Youra didn’t hang around them as much as her older sister did though. You-jin always seemed to make friends wherever she went even if they weren’t the same age as her.

Youra wished she could do that. She didn’t have any friends that were distinctly older or younger than her, there were all roundabout her age. She believed this was the case because she found it easier to relate to people her age and hence ended up somewhat giving up on befriending older or younger people.

But now that she was staring at Tammy’s contact, she thought that maybe now would be a good time to change that.

(No, the fact that she was bored out of her mind did not affect her decision at all.)

Her thumb hovered over the call button before hitting it as she waited for a response.

“Hello?”

“Tammy?”

“Yes, who’s this?”

Youra sat up straight from her bed. “This is Youra, um Mar-”

“Oh Youra! I haven’t heard from you in ages! How are you?”

Youra smiled at Tammy’s enthusiastic response. Sure there was a 10 year between the two, but the cordiality that always managed to shine through Mark’s older sister’s voice was always so nice to hear.

“I’m fine. How are you? I know, it has been a while.”

“I’m doing pretty good. So what’s up? Do you wanna talk to Mark?”

“Oh no, I actually called to talk to you. Are you free now?”

“Yeah, I’ve been free all day. Wanna come over?”

“If that’s alright with you, then yes.”

“Youra, you’re always welcome over here. Don’t you remember ringing our doorbell incessantly on Christmas mornings and then barging in? When have you ever needed our permission to come over?” She asked with a laugh.

Youra blushed at the memory. Was she really that boisterous growing up?

“Touché, Tammy.”

She chuckled. “Well, come over. Grace’s made cookies.”

Youra’s mouth immediately started to water. Grace made the best cookies.

“You don’t have to tell me twice. Be over in a sec!”

Youra hung up after hearing her chuckle again and glanced at the mirror and at herself. Even if she was allowed to come over whenever she wanted, she was sure Tammy and Grace wouldn’t be so nice on seeing her dishevelled hair and week old pyjamas, so she changed into a much nicer outfit and brushed her hair before quickly grabbing her keys and her phone and leaving.

-

“It’s hot, be careful.”

“But that’s when it tastes best!” Tammy and Youra whined, surprising each other. The three of them laughed and moved over to the living room with the cookies.

“Cookies??”

Youra smiled and turned around to face the source of the voice she had heard. She waved and handed Joey the cookie in her hand.

He instantly grabbed it from her and took a big bite as he closed his eyes and relished the flavour. “Mmm, always the best.” He opened his eyes and looked at Youra. “You know I could have grabbed one myself, you didn’t have to hand me one.”

“What can I say, Joey? It’s a natural instinct. You’re like the little brother I never had.” She replied as she ruffled his hair and he took another bite from his cookie.

“And I would say you’re like the big sister I never had but I already do have 2 of them so…” he rambled with his mouth still full, making everyone laugh.

“Okay, imma h