—

The weight of the day takes its toll on her when she gets home. The humming of the refrigerator and her footsteps on the way to the living room being the only noise in the household. Hyejin couldn’t help but steal a look at the couch where her brain sometimes conjured the images of her parents, laughing at something together. Or simply sitting on the couch, asking for her to join in with them.

She missed them. It hurt and she missed them every day.

There is a dragging sound until she hears a beep, her feet jolting out of comfortable rest on the couch.

“This is Yongsun and Hyejinnie! Yongsun is probably not here right now to answer this call, so please leave a message!” The machine plays back the childish voice the sisters once took. They sounded particularly cheerful that day. Hyejin had actually been looking forward to getting an answering machine, it gave her an excuse to not talk to people and first here what they actually want to talk about. Yongsun called her silly.

“Yongsun-sshi, we’re being laid off next week. Have you found a new job? If not, call me back.”

Her fists clenches as the message plays. She could stand up and replay it again, to see if she heard wrong. It had been loud and clear. The unpleasant feeling sitting on her stomach ever since the other day was now rising up into anger. They made a promise to tell each other everything. Always everything. How could Yongsun be so prideful to not tell her about this?

How could Yongsun not ask for her help when she needed it?

Without her knowing, her feet dragged her away out of the house once again, crescents carved into her palm after slamming a note on the coffee table that she just went away. While Yongsun was untrustworthy right now, Hyejin could never hope to cause her more worries. She wasn’t that petty.

—

The nib of the pencil snaps, bringing her back to the present. Wheein sighs, she had messed up the drawing again. Pressing too hard on the paper, the shading became unbalanced. The figure isolated in the light sketches of cherry blossoms. Still, she finds herself unsatisfied at her inability to capture her likeness. It was a mystery all together on how all these years, it’s a silhouette she couldn’t seem to bring into life. Out of frustration, she shuts her sketchbook close.

A pair of hands suddenly slam on top of the table she was sketching on moments ago. Moonbyul arrived, as if being summoned by Wheein’s frustration at her lack of skill in expressing silhouettes that led her to quit sketching a few seconds earlier.

“Still sketching the girl in the photograph?”

“Not anymore. I got frustrated.” Wheein pouted, scooting to the side to make space for Moonbyul who brought Seulgi and Seungwan with her. They were fine. Mostly talking amongst themselves. Wheein has no idea why they did not try-out for the choir when they had such great voices only to know then that they went for the school’s theatre instead.

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