Word Prompts: memories, family, abandonment.

Language used: purely English.

Word count: 7715 words

Characters used: Red Velvet, Own Character.

 

 

 

 

[Joohyun; Home.]

 

 

 

The woman trudged along the cobblestone path, walking ever so slightly as she could not find it in herself to stare or look at the surroundings before her, for she knows that it brings uncertainty in her system as much as it brings unwanted memories.

 

 

She doesn’t know what she feels as she trudged along the ever familiar path; the memories tainting the place only brings out such emptiness upon her, and half of her already wants to leave and to bolt out into the other direction—but the other half of her trods on in childlike wonder.

 

 

What happened to this place?

 

 

What happened to the things I left behind?

 

 

A lot of questions circle her mind at the moment but she chooses to ignore them and push them off of her mind as she treads forward—the muddy ground causes her to slip once, almost twice, sending her into a rush of nostalgia as she had always slipped in these cobblestone pathway painted with moss and algae when she was a child, seemingly so long ago.

 

 

But as she forces herself to remember the parts of her childhood that seems to be significant to her, she could only see black; literal black, the memories erased from her mind and she doesn’t have any way of getting back, at least for now, for she knows that the answers lie inside this house.

 

 

The house stands only a couple of meters away, looking so regal like it had been in her mind, etched permanently like a painting she had brought with her wherever she goes, and as she stares at the house she can’t even remember her moments in, she feels an awkward familiarity—like she had been in and out of this house a lot of times.

 

 

“Hello?” she calls out, her voice answered by only the silence that the house had brought upon her arrival. For once she hesitates to put her hand on the knob of the door that lay there waiting to be opened, and for a minute or two she stands there thinking about the horrors she might unleash once she opens the door.

 

 

“Is… Is anyone there?” her shaking voice asks the silence that constantly follows afterward; and so she knocks.

 

 

The footsteps start from the farthest, inward from the house, moving forward towards the front door upon hearing her slightly loud knocks that beckon for attention to let her in without the need for barging, as she hated to resort to that.

 

 

“Who’s there?” the voice from inside asks, and the voice tugs into the locked chest of memories inside the woman’s mind; waiting to be unleashed like the silent horrors she knows is lurking inside this house, the horrors that wait for her to come close and snatch her into her fears of going back, of returning to the things she had left behind so desperately years before.

 

 

“Joohyun.” She says, utters the name she had not used for a very long while, the name that she had left behind in this place that holds the most of her memories—and yet it feels as if it was just yesterday that she had used that name again, as if it was the key to the locked chest in her, a chest that she had locked away so desperately.

 

 

“Joohyun,” the voice inside the house starts, that strong feminine voice slowly and silently crumbles with every passing second, “Is that really you?” she asks, as if she does not believe that she—that the woman who had run away had come back; that she’s finally here.

 

 

“Yes. It’s… it’s me.” She says, the words sounding so foreign in her lips, in her tongue but nevertheless she spits it out, along with a name that she had never uttered in a very long while—

 

 

“Seungwan, please let me in.”

 

 

The door opens, creaking ever so slightly as it is worn down by time, the rust settling in at the joints and threatening to give out, but nevertheless it opens, and the woman sees a face she had not seen in a very long time, and tears threaten to fall even after long years of training not to fall that easily.

 

 

“Joohyun.” The name unstoppably utters from the woman’s—Seungwan’s—lips, and Joohyun could hear the crack that follows her voice thereafter as if she’s also trying not to let her tears fall, as if both of them are putting on their respective masks that are slowly crumbling upon seeing each other.

 

 

“You… you’re back.” Seungwan utters, a relieved chuckle escaping her lips after uttering those words, and Joohyun could no longer stop her tears as the relieved woman pulls her into a tight hug, the tightest hug she had ever been in after a very long while—and for a moment, she feels that she’s truly at home.

 

 

“Who’s that, Seung—oh.”

 

 

The woman—tall woman, as Joohyun observes—moves towards the front door, probably wondering about who Seungwan had been talking to for the past few minutes, but Joohyun could recognize who she was, for she could see it in the woman’s eyes.

 

 

How she looked at Joohyun back then, when she had ran away.

 

 

Joohyun could see it like it was at this moment that she had been staring, like she was in that moment all over again, the tall woman’s stares towards her full of anger, hate, fears and worry—

 

 

“After all the years… you come back.” She said, her voice laced with spite and poison in every word and every syllable uttered from , and Joohyun could only look down as the tall woman’s stares become too much for her to handle, too much for her to even look back without the strong façade she had ultimately crumbling into unfixable pieces.

 

 

“Sooyoung, enough.” Seungwan says, always the peacemaker as Joohyun slightly remembers, and she only watches as Sooyoung walks away from the door angrily, knowing that Seungwan would scold her later for how she acted in front of the guest that had just arrived—a stranger, despite knowing her by name.

 

 

“Come in, Joohyun.” Seungwan sweetly says as always, and Joohyun could only offer back a smile as a response while she undoes the laces of the tight boot that she had been wearing for the travel towards this place, and with a grunt she removes the footwear, placing it upon the porch so as not to leave the whole place muddy.

 

 

“It’s been… it’s been how long, again?” Seungwan asks, careful to strike conversation upon these dangerous and sensitive waters as Joohyun had noted for all of them, but she could not answer the question immediately as her eyes get distracted upon the scenery the house offers her.

 

 

Nothing had changed, she had noted that; it’s like everything had been put completely in the order that was the most familiar to her, as if the owners of this house had been waiting for the moment that she would come back to this house—to this home.

 

 

But is it really a home when I had ran away from it without question?

 

 

Without any second thoughts?

 

 

“Ten years,” Sooyoung notes, her voice coming from deeper inside this unfamiliar house, “Ten years since you were gone.”

 

 

Those words weigh heavily against the air as Joohyun could no longer contain the composure that she had gathered on her way to this place. She storms inside the place like she knows every crevice, every nook and cranny of this house that she had not seen in ten years, and upon the familiar kitchen she finds Sooyoung hunched over the sink with her hands wet and the water overflowing upon each crevice—so is her tears, falling upon those pale cheeks.

 

 

And so Joohyun’s anger dissolves into emptiness yet again as she stares at the tall woman and her vulnerability shown for everyone to see, and upon seeing her Sooyoung quickly wiped those tears away and gave her that same resounding glare—those emotions in her eyes piercing through Joohyun’s soul like a sword ready to kill.

 

 

“Ten years that we stood without you, and ten years that we’ve mustered through every obstacle that this wretched fate had thrown at us. Tell me, Joohyun…” Sooyoung starts, moving closer towards the woman who could not even move from where she was standing, could not even turn away from the tall woman’s glare that seem to cast a spell upon her.

 

 

“…why bother coming back?” she asks, the question thrown upon the air so carelessly and without any filter, those four words stabbing Joohyun straight into her heart—into that locked cage she had desperately kept closed, into those memories that force its way out of its broken cage, and as Sooyoung pushes her out of her way, she could feel her breath slowly stopping into none—

 

 

The memories rush out like water from a broken pipe, filling the every crevice of her mind and bringing out all the emotions she had never felt in more than a decade—the images overwhelm her, thousands of scenes rushing to attain the focus and attention she had deprived them of until those images only cleared down into one.

 

 

Joohyun watched as her young self trodded along the same path, the same algae and moss covered cobblestone path that had decorated the front lawn of this house that she had grown accustomed into for a very long time, and she could see the three children she had left behind.

 

 

Seungwan, Sooyoung.

 

 

Yerim.

 

 

The youngest who offered her a smile every time that she had arrived back home from her duties in school, the child that she had lost—

 

 

The family that she had ran away from.

 

 

“Yerim had always tried to run away, like you did.” Seungwan says, gently pulling her towards the leathered sofa that offered weary guests a place to rest upon the living room, the memories invading her every sense—it was Seungwan’s hand, holding hers tight, that was able to stop hers from shaking.

 

 

“So one morning, we woke up to her bedroom empty and her belongings gone—father said he sent her to a boarding school overseas, to straighten her up.” She added, and Joohyun could notice her wincing upon uttering each and every word upon that sentence, as if it pains her to jog upon that memory, but for Joohyun’s sake, she still did.

 

 

“And… and where is she now?” Joohyun asks, desperate for answers to the questions she had held off for ten years, and Seungwan smiles as she grabs one of the boxes upon the edge of the furniture and gave it to Joohyun who opened it immediately—revealing different postcards, different pictures of the child who is now grown into a beautiful woman.

 

 

“Became a singer, that girl, after Father passed away. Kept this house still up and paid all the debts our parents had given us as a final inheritance, and she is the reason why we are still here, after…” Seungwan trails off, looking back at Joohyun as if considering the next words she should say, but she utters it nonetheless.

 

 

“…after you left, and almost never came back.”

 

 

Those words are met by silence as Joohyun sifts through the pile of postcards and pictures sent by their youngest, and Joohyun only observes one thing from the countless mementos that dear Seungwan had kept inside this little dusty box that is now on her lap.

 

 

The child’s smile is gone—snatched by the cruel world she was sent in.

 

 

Because she left.

 

 

Because the eldest ran away.

 

 

“Forgive Sooyoung for her anger, Joohyun. I know she doesn’t mean it—”

 

 

“Her anger is justified, Seungwan, and she’s right.” Joohyun says, sighing as her finger runs across the youngest’s writings, the woman imagining how the youngest must have been giddy and excited upon sending these letters to her older sisters—but not once did she read her own name upon its contents.

 

 

“I left you all behind when you all needed me the most, and that is what I regret in all my life.” She says, sighing as she put the lid back upon the little box, setting it down upon the floor and a faint smile decorates her lips, and finally the tears fall upon her face, her façade crumbling down upon the floor.

 

 

“But I know that you have a reason for running away, Joohyun.” Seungwan says, sighing as she stood up for a moment and disappeared back into the kitchen, coming back with two mugs on each hand—setting one in front of the eldest who nodded as a reply.

 

 

“And if things could be changed, I won’t let you stay because I know that you were tormented in this place.” She says, putting a hand upon her lap, as if it was an attempt to comfort her and let her know that what she did was just right, but Joohyun knows that it isn’t.

 

 

“I ran away because I was tired of Father controlling my life, Seungwan. And at that time… I did not consider the three of you and only thought of myself—”

 

 

“You decided to do the thing that was most rational to you at the time. I admit that I hated you for the first few years, but now I understood why you had left.” Seungwan says, sighing as she drank a sip of the drink that she had brought out for her and the eldest, and Joohyun only looks down at the ground, knowing that she blames herself for these decisions that she had made in the past.

 

 

“Do you want to see your room, Joohyun?” Seungwan asks after a long silence, the woman knowing that she must have a lot of things that are running in her mind at the moment and that the woman needs a distraction at the moment; or at least, that’s what Seungwan knows about Joohyun.

 

 

“Yes, please.” Joohyun says, sighing as Seungwan nods at that and gently drags her towards the second floor, the hallways and the floorboards creaking with her every step like before, and there she could even see how the young her and her three other siblings were running and playing in these very halls, years ago.

 

 

“Open the door.” Seungwan says with a faint smile, standing in front of the door that led to the woman’s former room in her childhood, and Joohyun’s hand inches slowly to the metal knob, holding it and turning it every so slowly, as if she had waited for this very moment—with a held breath.

 

 

Open the door to your past.

 

 

 

 

[Yerim; Overseas.]

 

 

 

The singer angrily trudged towards her dressing room as her manager had interrupted her ongoing practice for a new song that she was about to release; Yerim had always been strict upon herself and the time that she has in a day, and she feels annoyed that the practice she had been doing to make this new release perfect would be interrupted by an unknown reason.

 

 

The woman sat down upon the couch she had specifically ordered for herself as the manager follows her inside the room, finding her quite annoyed and irritated that she is here at this moment instead of finishing preparations.

 

 

“This better be worth my time, Alice, because I don’t like imperfections for the fans—”

 

 

“Your older sister, Sooyoung, had been calling you for the past hour or so.” Alice says, a sigh escaping the open gap upon her lips as she picks up her phone from her purse and shows the screen to the annoyed woman, the anger and irritation slowly dissolving into worry.

 

 

“…they never call at this time of year. Did she tell you about the matter?” Yerim says, her voice coming out a little shaky and worried while she leaned back into the couch and waited for her manager’s response as the worry prickles the back of her mind, constantly tugging and waiting to be acknowledged.

 

 

“She told me that you need to hear it firsthand, and not from me. That you should call her when you have the free time, and I figured that it was important so I stopped practice—”

 

 

“Thank you, Alice. Can you please leave me here for an hour or two? I have to find out what’s going on; send the coaches home.” Yerim said with a faint smile as Alice nodded, disappearing out of the room, leaving the singer ample time for her privacy.

 

 

With her shaky hands she gripped her phone tight, releasing a shaky breath that she didn’t know she was holding as she dialled her sister’s contact, deeply worried for what is going on.

 

 

[“Yerim! That was awfully quick of you—“]

 

 

“Do I need to go there, Sooyoung? What happened? Did something happen?” the singer asked, nearly releasing the cascade of tears that had unknowingly settled in her eyes as Sooyoung’s enthusiastic expression suddenly turned into worry, trying to calm her younger sister down before she even released a tear or two.

 

 

[“No, love. Don’t worry, nothing happened to me, or to Seungwan; we’re doing fine here, thanks to you.”] Sooyoung said with that familiar smile that reached her eyes, but Yerim was no stranger to her own sisters putting on a façade in front of her; she could see untold emotions in her sister’s eyes, and she would never let her sister hide like this anymore.

 

 

“Something happened… right? You wouldn’t call so many times and so frantically if you’re only here to inform me that you both are well.” Yerim says, willing her hands to stop shaking as the worry still did not quite leave her system—especially when the wide smile disappeared from her sister’s lips.

 

 

[“It’s…”] Sooyoung trailed off, and with every passing second of the woman’s silence Yerim’s anxiety rose up, higher and higher until it threatened to boil over the edge—

 

 

“What is it, tell me—”

 

 

[“Yerim, Joohyun’s back.”]

 

 

The news strikes upon Yerim’s system like lightning, dancing upon the ground, causing havoc wherever it touches.

 

 

It wreaks havoc upon her already fragile heart, breaking it into pieces ever so slowly, something she never thought would happen upon the mention of that woman’s name, a name that she had never heard for a very long time—too long that she had already lost count.

 

 

A thousand questions run into her mind as she stared absentmindedly upon Sooyoung who doesn’t utter a word after what she had said, probably seeing Yerim’s dazed expression upon hearing the news—the questions in her mind continue to flutter around, and she couldn’t even grasp one of them to utter out.

 

 

“Why… why is she back?” Yerim asks, her voice cracking in the middle of that sentence that she had struggled to coherently form while Sooyoung released a shaky sigh upon the other line, and Yerim could see confusion and irritation upon those eyes of hers, written all over it, clear as day.

 

 

[“She still hadn’t told us why, and I don’t want to find out why she’s back. Seungwan’s touring her into the room she left behind at this moment while I… I’m just here, locked in your old room.”] Sooyoung says, a halfhearted chuckle escaping her lips while she leaned back upon the bed Yerim recognized as hers, a place she had not set foot in ever since their Father had sent her far away.

 

 

“I… do I need to go there?” Yerim asks, the question falling out of her lips even before she could think about it, as if those thousand questions fleeting inside her thoughts at the moment decipher itself immediately and are thrown into the air as she absentmindedly stares at the screen; as if she had gone autopilot.

 

 

[“Question is… do you want to go here?”] Sooyoung stares at her intensely as she asks the younger that question—for she had not gone back in such a long while (eight years, she surmises, although she never really kept track of time) and she doesn’t even know if she could step foot inside that house with that woman—

 

 

“I’ll… I’ll have Alice book the fastest flight home.” Yerim says, mustering a faint smile upon her lips that immediately turn into a wide smile as she sees her sister bring back that wide smile that reached her eyes, certainly overjoyed upon hearing that their younger sister would be coming back home after a long while.

 

 

[“Perfect! I’ll tell Seungwan that our baby is going home—“]

 

 

“No.” the singer stares at the ground as she utters that response, Sooyoung’s demeanor changing immediately as she hears that from the woman.

 

 

“Don’t tell them just yet; I want to see her face when she sees me in front of that house’s doorstep.” Yerim says with such certainty and Sooyoung’s eyes light up into a mischievous smile, agreeing with the plan the singer had in mind.

 

 

[“Alright. Text me when you get in the airport; I’ll arrange for something to get you here without Seungwan catching wind of it.”] Sooyoung says as Yerim nods at that, knowing that the woman must have been distracted by the sudden news.

 

 

“Sooyoung?”

 

 

[“Yes?”]

 

 

“I love you.” Yerim says, uttering those words for the first time in a while, making Sooyoung smile again—Yerim had always effortlessly made Sooyoung smile every time.

 

 

[“I love you too, kiddo. See you soon!”] she says, hanging up immediately and leaving Yerim right in her thoughts, basking in the silence possessing the room after the call, the silence making it harder and harder for her to breathe—

 

 

The tears fall one by one, ceasing to stop even once as it cascades upon her cheeks without fail, the phone dropping down upon the ground as her hand shakes uncontrollably even as she tries to stop it from shaking—

 

 

The memories rush inside her mind.

 

 

Unstoppable.

 

 

Without fail.

 

 

Joohyun.

 

 

Joohyun?

 

 

She’s back.

 

 

Why?

 

 

Why did she come back when she had left you all in your wretched Father’s care?

 

 

For four years?

 

 

“Is the call over, Yerim—”

 

 

Alice enters the room and finds Yerim slumped down upon the couch with both palms situated upon her face, trying to hide the vulnerability that she had never shown anyone before—not even this manager of hers, Alice, a woman that she had been working with ever since she started in this industry.

 

 

“It’s alright…you can tell me, Yerim. It’s alright.” Alice says, and Yerim rushes to hug the older woman—hugging her tight, tears falling from her eyes immediately and never ceasing to stop, and Alice could only rub her back and trying to soothe her and calm her down.

 

 

“Joohyun… Sooyoung said that Joohyun had come back, back home.” Yerim barely utters through the tears but Alice understood it just fine, widening her eyes as she knew some things about the star that she had been taking care of ever since this woman had been just a teenager who found her way into stardom.

 

 

“Do you want me to book you a flight to go home? I’ll have to come with you, because the big boss isn’t really keen on letting you leave alone—”

 

 

“It’s fine… I’d want you to come, anyway. I don’t think I’ll be ready knocking upon that door and showing up alone.” Yerim says, now mustering a smile as Alice chuckled and grabbed a napkin or two and dabbed upon the woman’s tears, smiling as she finally saw the woman’s smile.

 

 

“Thank you, Alice.” Yerim smiled, and Alice patted the woman’s head, comforting her like how a mother would comfort a crying child—it had always been that way, for Yerim had always made sure that Alice would become her manager no matter what.

 

 

“Time to pack up your things, young one.” Alice says, and Yerim nods at that—

 

 

Finally, a small distraction for her, a way to take her mind off of things.

 

 

From the storms.

 

 

 

 

[Sooyoung; Home.]

 

 

 

In all honesty, Sooyoung doesn’t really know what to feel upon the sudden intrusion and the sudden change in everything—especially when only her knows that the youngest is coming back home, and this… this oldest sister who is practically a stranger is now going to stay in her old room for a while.

 

 

There are a lot of questions in her mind; being the third child had certainly been hard for her, especially when that woman left; she had a lot to sacrifice because for the ten years she had to take care of herself, Seungwan who had started to work for the three of them, and Yerim who was still a child, full of youth—

 

 

Sooyoung always blames herself on why Yerim was sent away at such a young age and forced to live alone without the sisters she had grown to love and be accustomed to—from four, then it was three; and from three it became only two.

 

 

It wasn’t enough that their wretched Father had left them a lot of debt upon his sudden death; they had been left with this house that holds a lot of memories, both pleasant and unpleasant ones, fluttering around each and every crevice, as if waiting to be uncovered.

 

 

She had never been out of town for a very long while for she had assigned her roots here; it felt like she would rightfully die when she sets foot out of this city—the very place she had unconsciously wanted to get away from.

 

 

Seungwan had spent two years out of the city as Sooyoung remembers, and she is left alone to finish her studies in the city, and Seungwan always tells her that she has to get out of this old city and into the world—but Sooyoung fears.

 

 

That she would end up a stranger.

 

 

That she would be branded as the one who had run away, as the one who had been too selfish to care.

 

 

That she wouldn’t be the one who would stay.

 

 

She would be the one who would continously wait, even if she does not even know that she’s waiting; deep inside she was never even close to anger.

 

 

The pain and all the hurt overwhelms all of her other rational emotions at the moment, all those emotions heightened by this stranger who suddenly shows up in their midst—is that the reason why she had never left this place?

 

 

Because as she sees Joohyun upon that front door, all emotions come hurtling at her all at once—and anger is the only emotion that translates into words.

 

 

Anger is the only emotion that she could only decipher, that anger translating into those hurtful words that she uttered without second thought, without any prohibitions, and as she disappeared from the woman’s sights, she could no longer control the cascade of tears that had been threatening to give out any moment.

 

 

For her, Joohyun signifies all of the ghosts of her past—of their past—that she had unwillingly left without acknowledgment because she had to move forward without looking back.

 

 

But now… Joohyun’s arrival back into these confines she dares to call home forced open the door of memories that she had sealed in the depths of her mind, locked for so long that she had forgotten them—but the woman’s very presence had unlocked all of those, swarming into her mind without fail.

 

 

Sooyoung remembers.

 

 

Every minute of the torment, of the feelings her heart had been forced to feel, every thought in that twelve year old mind of hers all swarm back into her mind, and in the moment it feels as if she’s staring at the window from her room again.

 

 

Watching sixteen year old Joohyun go, barely slipping into those cobblestone paths they had never dared to clean, hand holding another; a child she could barely remember the name—

 

 

Seulgi.

 

 

The name haunts her like a curse—a name she did not dare utter for ten years, a name that she had cursed as well as Joohyun’s.

 

 

She remembers, vividly, how Seulgi was the one who helped her older sister run away.

 

 

Young and daring, sixteen and fifteen year olds running away in the middle of the night, where Joohyun chose to be with someone not of her blood but the one that she had liked the most—one that Sooyoung had also liked.

 

 

Sooyoung loved Seulgi, but Seulgi had always chosen Joohyun, as she remembers.

 

 

Seulgi had been a friend; a neighbor, someone whose family knew about the struggles Joohyun and her sisters had been facing, and Sooyoung remembers how the woman had always been there; had always offered a safe place whenever things get rough.

 

 

Sooyoung remembers how she had felt helpless, especially because Joohyun had never been the one to deal with the consequences that happened soon after—it was the three of them, as she vaguely remembers.

 

 

Seungwan had been forced to lose her youth at an early age of fourteen—she had to stop schooling because their Father had forced her, serving as punishment because their Father thought that the three of them knew about Joohyun leaving—but they did not have a clue, a single inkling.

 

 

Sooyoung had been the only one who had the strength to continue her studies after the wayward events; she remembers how she stayed up all night at times, waiting for the bright and cheery eyed Joohyun to come back, to walk upon that cobblestone path again, but her wishes had never happened.

 

 

After Yerim’s banishment, Sooyoung had frankly stopped caring.

 

 

Joohyun?

 

 

Who is she?

 

 

Is she even family?

 

 

If she is indeed family, then why did she leave?

 

 

Why did she disappear when her younger sisters had desperately needed her the most?

 

 

In her burst of anger upon those invasive thoughts Sooyoung throws the only thing that she’s desperately clutching tight against those shaking fingers—her phone, as it turns out—across the room, a resounding crack echoing upon the only safe space she had upon these confines.

 

 

Every corner, every nook and cranny of this place screams Yerim and her over joyous presence, a place that Sooyoung had worked hard to preserve and clean even after eight years that the woman had not set foot back into this place—Sooyoung had never felt safer than here.

 

 

Where she imagines the happiness that the three—four—of them had before the storms that destroyed all of them, now fading back into the unremovable black.

 

 

The black that smeared upon those happy memories, tainting everything with the pain and unresolved emotions that had settled upon their midst—forgotten by time.

 

 

Why did you come back?

 

 

What happened in the ten years that you were gone?

 

 

What happened to you?

 

 

Questions.

 

 

A lot of questions circle around her mind at the moment but she does not dare question any of those, she does not dare decipher any of those for fear that any other untold tales of the past would be uncovered—and partly because she does not dare question Joohyun’s presence in their midst.

 

 

Sooyoung fears, once again—that Seungwan might be right, after all.

 

 

That her anger is never justified; that her anger should not even be an emotion she should feel at the moment—

 

 

That Joohyun had her reasons.

 

 

That her leaving was justified.

 

 

Sooyoung does not want to find out that she had been wrong to feel anger against the eldest; that she should have welcomed the woman just as how Seungwan had welcomed her earlier—but her very system forces her not to do so.

 

 

Prideful, yes.

 

 

She feels that this is the least she could give as a revenge—make Joohyun feel helpless as she had felt the night that the woman left, and the nights that she had waited so helplessly without fail until she felt like she did not even care at all.

 

 

Joohyun abandoned them—Sooyoung will make her feel the same.

 

 

Even if it would blacken her very heart.

 

 

Even if it means that she would let her anger overcome her system.

 

 

Even if it means that she would be swallowed by her very pride, accumulated across the years.

 

 

She would not let the prodigal child come back home.

 

 

 

 

 

[Seulgi; Roads.]

 

 

 

Seulgi knows that she should never had let the love of her life come back into that place alone.

 

 

That is the very reason why she is currently pressed for time, driving across the country and towards Joohyun’s birthplace—towards the place that she had abandoned as well for a long while.

 

 

Seulgi had never returned because she had no reason to; because her parents had moved out of that city as well, because she had no reason to visit a place that had brought torment and suffering to the person that she had loved the most.

 

 

And hearing about the idea that the love of her life wanted to come back after ten years of practically avoiding anything about that city, about her ever elusive hometown, Seulgi thought that it was absolutely absurd.

 

 

Why would you go back to the place that brought you a lot of painful and tormented memories, Irene?

 

 

The very reason why the woman had used a different name, cut off everything from that place even the sisters that she had left behind… Seulgi thinks that it is very outrageous that the woman even thought of coming back there, much less bringing that outrageous plan into life.

 

 

She hates how Irene—Joohyun—decided to leave while she was in her slumber, mustering through atleast six hours of commute and journeying across the country alone, without her knowledge, without leaving even a note of her whereabouts.

 

 

Seulgi just learned that Joohyun had went through this plan when she asked the officers in the lobby of the penthouse condominium that they had afforded to live in; Joohyun had ridden a taxi towards a nearby train station, and Seulgi figured out the rest.

 

 

Seulgi has an inkling that she would not be welcomed, that her dear Joohyun would be cast out of that place because of the remnants of the past that Joohyun’s presence would bring back into the surface, and as much as she loves the woman’s independence and headstrong attitude—she would rather accompany the woman into this phase that she is undergoing at the moment.

 

 

From the early memories she has of that house ten years ago, she remembers how those four sisters had always been close, how they had been with each other through thick or thin—and as much as she hates ripping away Joohyun from that life, from those sisters who had lost her, she knows that it is for the best.

 

 

Because Joohyun had been ruined by that house, tormented by her own thoughts that had left her fighting for her life every time—much as Seulgi would have liked to divulge information to the younger ones, Joohyun had prohibited her from doing so.

 

 

Because the woman was intent on giving her younger sisters the life that she had wanted for herself.

 

 

Because she tried to clean their wretched Father’s reputation among his other children—albeit there’s already little to none of the clean reputation left.

 

 

Because she did not want her sisters to know that their wretched Father had taken out his anger upon her—upon the eldest, upon the one who resembled his dear wife the most.

 

 

The one who left them too early.

 

 

Seulgi knew that, knew the truth that Joohyun would not dare divulge to anyone else, and that is the very reason why she had ripped Joohyun away from when she had the chance, because she was intent on protecting the woman that she had loved the most.

 

 

Joohyun needed salvation, and Seulgi would be the villain who would be giving her just that—even if it meant her sisters hating on her.

 

 

Even if it meant that she would have to stay with dear Joohyun for the rest of her life.

 

 

But her dear Joohyun is also tought as nails; confident as she may be, she is also stubborn and whatever she is bent on fulfilling that she will do—and the woman probably knew that she would never approve of the six hour journey back to that hellhole.

 

 

And so Seulgi raised against the clock, hoping that the Joohyun she had struggled to protect would still be there when she arrives; that the Joohyun she had preserved by ripping the woman away from her familiar place would still greet her when she sets foot in that place again.

 

 

But if her Joohyun is ripped up into pieces by the storms of the past—she knows that she’ll be there to help her.

 

 

Because that’s how she loves.

 

 

Because that is her brand of love.

 

 

Because that is how loving Joohyun would be.

 

 

The signboard depicting Joohyun’s hometown finally arrives in sight, signifying that she is growing terribly close into opening up that chamber of her life again—and upon seeing that house, the ever resilient place of childhood that she knows still stood even after all the years had passed, will she ever be ready?

 

 

Seulgi thinks that she won’t.

 

 

That she will never be ready for the consequenes that would rain down straight upon her head.

 

 

That she would see the price she is still yet to pay for her actions ten years ago.

 

 

Seulgi knows that she is the very reason as to why Joohyun had left wtihout a word, and that she is the selfish one in this little yet very complicated tale.

 

 

And yet she never acknowledged that fact—Joohyun had always told her that she had saved her from living a life that she did not want, that Seulgi was Joohyun’s savior; but Seulgi knows that the act of kindness she had exacted upon these sisters’ lives was just a single act of selfishness that muddled the clear reflection.

 

 

Seulgi was the one who tossed the black paint upon that painting carelessly—ruining the perfect picture, all because she fell in love with one of them.

 

 

Of the four sisters who had lived a fairly harmonious life even with their wretched Father in their midst, Seulgi had fallen in love with the rose that possessed thorns that gently pricked her little heart.

 

 

She had fallen in love with the ever mysterious Joohyun who had loved her back.

 

 

Her phone suddenly rang upon her side, seeking for the attention it needed upon the call that ripped through the silence that let her sift through the difficult thoughts of her previous hometown, and she put the phone directly into her ear after answering it, wondering who it was that called her in the middle of her lonesome journey.

 

 

[“…Seulgi?”]

 

 

Joohyun.

 

 

Her angel.

 

 

Her light—

 

 

“What happened?” Seulgi asks, urgency for answers evident in her tone as she knows by the woman’s tone upon calling her name that something must have happened.

 

 

[“You… you’re coming here, right?”] the woman asks, her voice barely audible through the winds blowing around her as Seulgi hears, figuring out that the woman must be outside.

 

 

“Yes, I am. How do you know? Where are you right now?” the woman asks frantically, but half of her worries disappear when she hears her lover let out a chuckle, easing the tension and stress she feels while she slowly enters the suburban parts of this very familiar city.

 

 

[“Near the park.”] Joohyun says and Seulgi immediately turns towards the direction of that place, knowing the streets here like the back of her hand—even though she had never been here just like her lover.

 

 

“Wait for me, love.”

 

 

Joohyun, please be alright.

 

 

 

 

 

[Seungwan; Home.]

 

 

 

 

Seungwan sighed as she stared at the mess that had happened, upon the vases that now lay upon the ground in ruins, the peace finally broken by the tension and the memories that had cut it severely like a knife—no, like a chainsaw driven out of control.

 

 

The piece that she had tried so hard to keep and preserve, gone in an instant.

 

 

Because the family she shares blood with had returned.

 

 

Because the four of them are now in the same roof, and a lot is certainly needed to unpack upon Joohyun’s arrival and Yerim returning to see the sister that had never been home for a decade or so—which Seungwan did not know until she saw Sooyoung staring at the door frantically earlier—and the events after that were pure chaos.

 

 

A lot of shouting had happened—with Yerim’s voice breaking as her manager tried to hold her back, and it was Sooyoung who had thrown away the vases upon the floor in her anger—and Seungwan was the one who sent Joohyun outside for the moment while Sooyoung dragged the youngest up the second floor and towards her room, while the second child stared upon the aftermath.

 

 

Having little to no thoughts upon her head she began to clean up, sweeping away the shards of broken pieces from the vase and the glass mirror that she did not know had been wrecked beyond repair. She moved closer to the broken mirror upon the far side of the living room, her reflection broken—like she is, even with how hard she tries to hide it.

 

 

One of the shards prick her skin, drawing out blood—she panickedly dropped the shard that had inflicted a wound upon her finger as the blood poured through—she only stares at the wound, at the blood pouring from the broken skin.

 

 

Seungwan widens her eyes as a woman comes inside the house and grabs one of the tissue papers, pressing upon the wound that colored the thin tissue a dark red, the woman wincing as a short bout of pain shot from her finger up to her nervous system, and she grabbed the tissue from the woman who went in—

 

 

“Careful, Seungwan.” Seulgi utters, Joohyun behind her and looking so worried upon the wound the woman had attained.

 

 

“You… you’re back as well. Is this some… some grand reunion?” Seungwan says, her façade cracking upon the surface, threatening to give out as she stares at Seulgi and her sister, knowing that she’s finally had enough.

 

 

Sooyoung is right.

 

 

Seungwan and the others had been the ones who received the consequences and suffered under their wretched Father’s care—why does Joohyun get to go back so easily?

 

 

“What happened here?” Seulgi says, ignoring the woman’s question as she picks up the shards that Seungwan had left behind after her wound.

 

 

“A fight, overdue for ten years. And for once, I agree with Sooyoung and Yerim.” Seungwan says without batting an eye, as if it is the most natural response to the woman’s questions—as if she did not reprimand Sooyoung earlier for saying such hurtful words to her younger sister.

 

 

“You left without a word, you left us there. I know that there are a lot of things that you did not tell us because you think it would be protecting us, but not an inch of that was protection.” Seungwan says, gritting her teeth as she moved closer to her older sister, pushing Seulgi away who was about to confront her for what she said.

 

 

“You could have told us, Joohyun. Because we were sisters. Because we were all children of our wretched Father who I know had treated you so badly.Your first instinct being to run away and abandon your sisters says a lot about yourself—”

 

 

“I was the one who convinced her to run away, because I thought that she needed it, Seungwan.” Seulgi says, gritting her teeth as she stepped in front of Seungwan who is now staring at her for what she had said.

 

 

“Because she was tormented in this place, in this house that you all call home. She had been hurt for a very long time, and you don’t know that—”

 

 

“Yes, I did not know what she had suffered, what she had felt. But I had come to realize that when we three had to suffer for her actions. When I was forced to work to support that drunkard and I had to stop my studies just to do that, did I not suffer? When Sooyoung was constantly beat up because that bastard thought that she would never be enough, did she not have any pain?” Seungwan says, gritting her teeth as she pushed Seulgi away, harsher this time, moving in front of Joohyun who is now close to tears.

 

 

“When Yerim also attempted to run away from home because of you and was sent overseas as punishment she had to face alone, is that not torment? Joohyun, you took the easy way out, and I had always convinced myself that I had forgiven you—but I don’t.” She adds, each word filled with venom and the hurt that she had dismissed so carelessly over the years; she finally had enough.

 

 

“You left and did not even ing look back, while we fought for our lives everyday. Don’t think that you can come back so easily because I, for one… I don’t consider you as family anymore.” Seungwan says, gritting her teeth as she angrily walked out towards the second floor, finding Sooyoung panickedly trying to get back to her room.

 

 

The tall woman hurriedly rushed towards her older sister’s aid and hugged her tight as the woman’s strong façade broke like the glass of the mirror, breaking so effortlessly after those hurtful words that she had kept inside her for a very long time.

 

 

“It’s okay,” Sooyoung starts, hugging her after a very long time, “I’m here.”

 

 

Seungwan likes to think that this is for everyone.

 

 

For the three of them.

 

 

For her own sanity, only held by a thin string at this point; the string being Sooyoung and Yerim, the only people she considers to be family at the moment.

 

 

No one else.

 

 

She would do anything to protect her family—

 

 

—and Joohyun is not one of them.

 

 

 

[To Be Continued.]