“And then I found you.” Shuhua whispers it like some form of reverence.

But that’s where it ends. Because in the stifling train of her thoughts, Soojin fails to respond, and Shuhua lets her. Lets her remain distant and unbending in the face of a bold declaration that paints Soojin, home and loneliness all in the same state of being.  

“She fell asleep didn’t she?” 

“Oh !” Falls from Soojin’s lips, an unconscious habit. Like a child caught red handed, she rips her fingers away from the milky soft skin of Shuhua's forearm. 

A throw blanket in hand, Miyeon enters the room. Waltzing to the side of the bed, she smiles. Unlike the exuberant energy she carries in front of a camera, Miyeon is reticent with a tinge of anguish painted in her irises. “She’s always slept better with someone next to her when she’s sick.” The expression in her eyes fade, replaced with a plasticity of camera worthy deceit. 

“Oh.” 

There's nothing overwhelming or engulfing about the blanket, but beneath it, Shuhua looks like a child. It also highlights her abnormally pale pallor and the weight loss evident in her cheeks. When she calls out in her sleep, low and timid, Miyeon’s there to sooth the furrow from her brow and whisper gentle words of reassurance. 

Or at least, that’s what they might be, as nothing in the home of the Yontararak's is spoken in English for long. It's all whispers of French, with half strung sentences in Thai, and swathed in Mandarin or Taiwanese or some concocted hybrid of the two. English is simply the garnish to the cacophony of sounds the walls hear. 

“Ren will take you home.” Miyeon motions towards the door, not sparing a glance to Soojin as she tucks a pillow under Shuhua's head. It's a substitute the young woman subconsciously protests, but stills the moment a gentle lullaby leaves Miyeon’s lips. 

Rising to her feet, Soojin nods. The unspoken message is as clear as Shuhua’s virtual home projected above them in 20k resolution. “Right.” 

Ren is the man waiting in the elevator. He’s the same man from the dorm and, just like that night, something about him is oddly familiar. 

“Let me see you out.” The elevator doors close behind Miyeon as she joins Soojin and Ren in the steel box at the last moment. 

None of them speak, the elevator bathed in the mechanical sounds of its descent. 

As the g