It was their last day in town and just three days before Eunbi was being deployed, Yewon was quiet all morning, hoping for their trip to not end. Luckily, for the most part of the trip, she had been able to not think about Eunbi leaving. Surrounding herself with Eunbi’s family had allowed her to put aside all her worries and just enjoy her time.

They weren’t leaving until that evening, purposely booking tickets for the last train so they were able to spend the morning around the house. Yewon was sitting on the couch next to Eunbi when Jessica walked in with a big smile on her face.

“Yewon, come here for a second, dear,” She said, tearing Yewon’s attention away from the TV. “I have something for you to see.”

Curious, Yewon pushed herself up and followed Jessica out to the kitchen and Eunbi followed Yewon to see what her mom wanted to show Yewon.

She let out a loud groan as she peeked past Yewon and saw the boxes on the kitchen table.

“I thought you might like to see some photos of Eunbi when she was younger,” Jessica told her, sitting down at the table and opening one of the boxes to reveal stacks of photo albums.

“No! No photos,” Eunbi whined, trying to pull Yewon back.

“Little Eunbi? Now, this is something I have to see,” Yewon laughed, shaking off Eunbi’s grip and walking over to the table to sit down next to Jessica.

“That’s not fair! I haven’t gotten to see any of your pictures?” Eunbi complained as she followed Yewon over to the table and plopped down in a chair, sulking slightly.

Yewon barked a laugh at the thought of photos of her. “I’m not sure there are any,” She told Eunbi, “We do actually have some family photos, but they aren’t that good anyway. Although, I’m sure you could find some from events and the paparazzi if you searched for them. You know...if you were that desperate.”

“Maybe I will,” Eunbi challenged her, smiling to herself as Yewon rolled her eyes playfully.

After searching through the boxes, Jessica found the one with the correct date and pulled it open to the first photo, laying it flat on the table and showing it to Yewon.

It was Eunbi, probably just after her parents’ death, sitting in the middle of the couch with the rest of the family. Yewon tilted her head to the side as she smiled down at the photo, taken with a polaroid camera.

“This was the day Eunha met Eunbi for the first time. Their father and I had already met her and decided on adoption, but you know, two teenage girls under one roof…” Jessica explained, laughing quietly.

She flipped to the next page and Yewon smiled at the photo. There was Eunbi, sitting cross-legged in the middle of a bed, smiling while her glasses and bangs covered her face. Yewon laughed,” Look how cute you were.”

Eunbi’s cheeks turned red with embarrassment as they flipped through the pages and pages of photos. There was one photo where Eunbi was standing next to Eunha, both of them dressed in soccer uniforms. Another where Eunbi was happily smiling as she surrounded herself with dogs as she volunteered at the animal shelter one summer. One where Eunha frowned at the camera while Eunbi sat next to her, leaning forward and smiling brightly.

One particular photo came across and Jessica laughed as she remembered what had happened in the photo while Eunbi had groaned. Eunbi was dressed in a baseball uniform, holding a bat as she smiled at the camera. “Eunbi decided to take up baseball when she was fourteen. This was just before her first and last match where she swung at the ball and ended up throwing the bat instead, knocking out the pitcher,” Jessica told Yewon, who laughed as she turned to look at a guilty-looking Eunbi.

“I still feel bad about that,” Eunbi winced, “After that, I decided to stick to watching baseball instead.”

There were a few photos of Eunbi dressed in a cheerleading uniform and Yewon choked on her coffee as she looked at those. She vowed to never let Eunbi live that down, because no matter how rich and fancy Yewon was, at least she had never been a cheerleader.

Eunha and Sojung wandered in later to join in on the reminiscing and all three of them took turns telling stories behind their favorite photos, while Yewon and Sojung listened with amusement. Eunbi had shared a lot of her childhood with Yewon, but it was nice to hear the little stories that they shared. The photos and memories helped Yewon paint a picture of Eunbi’s life after her adoption and she wished that she could see some photos from before, but she already knew they had all gone up in flames with the rest of Eunbi’s childhood home.

~

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