“I’ll be going now, Ajumma!” the girl shouts out as she brings out all her luggage outside the apartment complex door. She barely hears the audible voice of the landlord saying, “Stay safe” before she shuts the door of the building close.

She hums a happy tune as she makes her way to the train station. It’s been a year since she’s seen her family, only reserving those brief interactions in short video calls and online messages.

Of course she misses her parents but Eunseong is the reason she’s visiting her childhood home. Back when they were kids, the two of them were inseparable sisters, whether it was playing, eating, or sleeping they did it together. But as they grew older she couldn't help but feel that some kind of intangible wall was built without them noticing. Her younger sister acted distant around her, almost as if she was purposefully ignoring her. Of course, she can’t pinpoint an exact reason but blames it more so on Eunseong wanting to be independent.

Eunseong had always wanted to do things by herself; however, as time went by, even though Eunseong tried hard to make friends with other people, she still felt alone at times because no one really understood her like her sister. She can only hope that Eunseong was able to find friends by herself.

"One ticket to Mokpo Plaza please." she asks the clerk nicely who looked like she wanted to be anywhere else.

A few minutes later the train arrives and she makes her way inside, finding a seat near the window and takes out her phone from the small bag she has slung over her shoulder and opens up her messages app.

Eomma, I'm on the train now.

she waits a minute before receiving a message back

Ok

she sighs but can't help but expect that response. Truthfully she feels that visiting her parents would only lead to them arguing over her leaving her childhood town for college; however, she couldn't pass up this opportunity. She wants to see her sister again, even if it's just a short visit.

***

Dosie carefully lays down the cooked omelets on the table for her parents. She definitely got on their bad side last night for coming home so late and now her sister was coming home. If she plays her cards right, she can get through this visit with minimal blows to her already strained relationship with her family.

She hears shuffling from her parents bedroom, signaling her that they're awake. She hurries setting up the table pouring fresh-brewed coffee and setting down bowls of steamed rice.

She sees her mother walking towards her

"Good morning!" she says cheerfully, hoping that maybe this is a good start to a new day where she can mend fences between herself and her parents

"Here, I made you coffe-" she couldn't even finish her sentence when the cup she was holding was slapped out of her hand and the ceramic cup instantly shattered on the hardwood floor.

Her mother glares at her, "You think fixing breakfast and a good morning is supposed to excuse your unacceptable behavior yesterday?!" her voice already rising. Her father stands there with his arms crossed, silently watching over her mother's outburst. He doesn't say anything but he can see how upset his wife was, and he sighs heavily.

"Eunseong." he starts, "You have shown that you can't be trusted on your own by worrying us and not telling us where you are. Is this some kind of phase? Are you rebelling against us Eunseong?"

Dosie can only whimper as she clenches her adjoined hands together, "I-I'm sorry."

"Is this the kind of child that I raised?" her mother, "Some kind of, of delinquent that spends her off time partying off with entitled classmates?"

"I want to make this very clear, Eunseong." her mother sneers, "If you're going to act like such, it's none of our business, but don't you dare drag your sister down to your level."

Dosie pinches herself harshly, focusing on the pain rather her heart being twisted around with a knife. It was taking all of her being not to scream.

"Do you understand?" her mother asks, and Dosie doesn't respond

"I said," Dosie's mom suddenly grabs her arm harshly and the young girl winces in pain, "do you understand me, Eunseong?"

Dosie nods, "Y-yes..." she whispers, defeated, "I'm sorry."

Her mother let go of her arm and sighs, "Clean up this mess, and you should at least have the decency to cook for your sister too. She's already on the train going here."

Dosie nods as she goes to get the broom and dustpan, "Yes, Eomma." she obeys, trying her best to avoid those peering eyes, judging her very existence.

Sujin watches her unnie in concern, since the beginning of class Dosie has not moved her eyes away from her textbook while taking notes with her other hand. Usually she'd already be taking her morning nap at this time but here she was, focusing all her might on reading up with dark circles surrounding her eyes.

"Eunseong-ssi," the teacher calls out from the front of the class.

Dosie instantly looks up from her book, "Yes, ma'am?" she asks timidly

"I find your willingness to study admirable, but can you please pay attention to the topic at hand?" she points at the white board displaying practice questions for the class to solve.

Dosie looks down in shame and puts away the textbook, "My apologies ma'am, it won't happen again." she tries to avoid the stares surrounding her from her classmates and gets to solving the practice questions.

***

"Dosie-unnie?" the voice of Sujin makes Dosie snap to her direction

"A-ah, good morning Sujin-ah." Dosie gives a polite smile.

"Unnie..." Sujin says her voice laced with concern, "It's nearly 4 pm."

Chaein and Ireh stroll by, "You've been completely out of it the entire day, unnie." Chaein raises a brow, "You're the talk of the school today. The class napper studying like it's exam week?"

Dosie shuffles in place, "Well-"

"Having problems maybe?" Ireh cuts her off,

"I'm not-"

"You know that you can tell us anything, right?" Chaein this time cuts her off

Sujin sighs, "Guys, let her talk."

Chaein and Ireh both huff, "But Sujin-ah, we're just concerned about her well being." Chaein explains

Dosie was starting to get frustrated, "I'm not-"

The sound of the bell interrupts her once again, and students start heading to their classes, one of them being Yuki who came across the group.

"Oh , Chaein-ah, you got notes for the quiz today?" Ireh starts panicking

Chaein shakes her head, "Nope, we gotta steal em. Gotta go guys!"

Dosie can only watch those two sprint their way through the crowded hallways, genuine smiles plastered on their faces.

Dosie has never felt more envious.

***

"Eunseo-I mean Dosie-ah?"

Dosie curses internally, for the third time today she had to be snapped out of her trance,

"Apologies, Jieun-unnie."

Jieun only smiles sweetly, "It's not bother, I was wondering if you'd like any snacks?"

The young girl looks down at her feet, "No, thank you." She answers timidly. Her appetite has all been non-existent since that morning.

Jieun stares for a few seconds before sighing, "All right, I will at least order us some tea, I'll be back shortly." she declares before standing up and made her way to the counter to order.

Dosie exhales deeply, she was currently at a local café right now for a study session. But despite her focus being put in the right place she found it hard for her notes to stay. Terms refusing to be engraved in her memory, and numbers looking overwhelming just from a glance.

No, her mind keeps falling back to what happened that morning. Ridiculed and beat down mentally, despite her front she tried to put up to display normalcy it was apparent to everyone who was close to her that she wasn't okay. Her mother's words taking up the forefront of her thoughts, she was nothing more than an anchor, something that only holds things back.

'Why?" Dosie ponders, 'Why do I try so hard?'

"Dosie-ah? Dosie!" Dosie felt herself being shaken by Jieun who was looking at her with anxious eyes.

Dosie finds her breath after being brought back to her senses, "Unnie?" she shakes her head slightly trying to reorient herself.

"Dosie-ah, you're crying! Are you okay?!" the older girl asks, her voice laced with worry.

Dosie looks at her confused, "I'm...crying?" before she reaches her hand up.

She wipes at her eyes that widen upon discovering it was stained with fresh tears. Looking down she saw that her detailed notes were wet and caused some of the ink to smudge.

"That's it, you're coming with me." Jieun nudges Dosie out of her seat and the two leave the café, with onlookers staring in confusion

***

"What's going on Eunseong-ah?" Jieun says firmly with her arms crossed. The two walked in silence to the park, Jieun keeping a close eye on the girl next to her.

Dosie directs her gaze to the ground, "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have..." She trails off.

"Eunseong," Jieun replies softly as she lays a hand on the shorter girl's shoulder. "You can tell us anything, you know that right?"

"No, it's nothing." Dosie mutters as she tries to think of a believable excuse, " I'm just...I was having a bad day."

"Really?" Jieun raises an eyebrow, her tone softening, "Tell me what's bothering you then."

"It's really nothi-"

"Don't say it's nothing when it's clearly not." Jieun interrupts her sternly

"Unnie..." Dosie sighs and looks away.

"Eunseong, it's like you weren't even there." Jieun crosses her arms, "I'm not going to keep prodding you but...please take care of yourself." Jieun says softly

"Okay..." Dosie mumbles, her voice quiet.

"You can talk to me if you want to." Jieun encourages her gently, "We're friends right?" she asks with a gentle smile.

"Yes." Dosie replies, her words slightly muffled from sniffling. She tries to force herself up straight before looking back at her friend.

"Friends." Jieun repeats as she nods firmly, "That means we should be honest with each other."

Dosie goes quiet for a moment before switching her gaze to the ground, "It's my sister."

"Oh? Why is that?" Jieun tilts her head curiously, "She's not doing well?" she asks carefully, trying not to make it sound like an accusation or anything else accusatory towards the girl.

Dosie shakes her head and looks back up at Jieu, "Nono, she's fine." She replies quickly. "But...well she's the family favorite." She explains quietly, her eyes downcast again, "Whenever she comes over, it all becomes about her."

"What do you mean?" Jieun asks slowly.

"My parents love her so much..." Dosie murmurs sadly, "While me, well I'm just there because I have to be." she gives a sad smile

Jieun frowns but doesn't say anything as the two continue walking through the park, "I can't say I understand how that feels but...that's not true." Jieun reassures her softly. "You're your own person. You don’t need to live up to anyone's expectations." She says firmly, "Besides, we all know that family favorite thing is a myth, right?"

"I'm an avid believer then." Dosie chuckles mirthlessly before looking up at Jieun again with a serious expression on her face.

"But...what if it's real?" She asks quietly, trying not to make herself sound pathetic or weak. Her eyes dart from side-to-side nervously.

"It isn't!" Jieun assures her quickly, "Trust me when I say this: It's a lie." she explains gently, "So don't attack yourself okay?" Jieun encourages her, "There's nothing wrong about you so please stop beating up on your self esteem like that!"

Dosie gives a small smile at Jieun's words, "Okay."

"Yeoreum! It's so good to see you again." Eunseong's mother greeted her child warmly

"It's good to be home, eomma." She replied with a bright smile before turning to hug her father. The two exchanged pleasantries for a few moments before stepping back. "Let's go inside."

The table was already set up and the now reunited family minus Eunseong sat down at the table to eat the lunch that was prepared for them by none other than the girl presently absent.

"Is Eunseong here?" Yeoreum asks her parents with a hopeful smile, as she takes a bite of the pork dish spooned with rice. Her eyes widened at the delicious taste and texture that filled . "Oh my god!" She exclaims happily, "This is sooo good! Thank you so much Eomma. I can't believe you made this."

Her mother cleared , "Well actually, Yeoreum. It wasn't me who cooked this."

"Huh?"

"It was your sister."

"Oh! I'll have to thank her later." Yeoreum smiles but it drops when she saw that her mother was frowning

"Actually, Yeoreum, that's one of the reasons why we requested for you to return home." Her mother explained, "Eunseong has been...misbehaving lately." she explains quietly, "We're worried about how much time she spends at her friend's house and whatnot..."

Yeoreum frowned at that statement, "Her friends?" She asks curiously, "What's going on? Wouldn't it be a good thing that Eunseong managed to make close friends?" She says hesitantly

"It's the type of friends she made. They're all hooligans that were all sentenced to detention as their punishment." she pauses

"Including Eunseong."

"Why did that happen?" Yeoreum questions with furrowed brows, "Eunseong has never done anything like that before so why would he get punished for something she hasn't even done."

Her mother scoffs, "You overestimate your sister, Yeoreum. You should know better than anyone else that Eunseong is easily influenced by others. She doesn't have any willpower and can be led astray just because she was told to do so."

Yeoreum's eyes widened at those words, "That isn't true, eomma! You shouldn't talk about my sister like that!" She exclaims angrily but her mother ignores it, instead choosing to turn to her husband, who clears this throat.

"Your mother is right." He says quietly with a serious expression on his face, "Eunseong has been spending more time with these delinquents lately." he explains

Yeoreum frowns, "I'll talk to her, maybe we can figure out what happened." She stands up from the table and heads towards her room. Her mother watches her with a hard look.

"I'm home..." Dosie mutters upon entering her house. She was greeted by her mother's cold stare and she gulped nervously.

"Good afternoon, eomma." she greets politely, "How was your day?" She asks, trying not to make eye contact with her mother.

"Your sister arrived hours ago and you didn't bother to come home early for lunch." her mother scoffs,

"Late, always late!" She exclaims, "Is it those friends of yours again?" She continues angrily.

Dosie shuffles in place and removes her bag from her shoulder, "I was with Jieun-unnie, she was helping me with schoolwork."

Her mother lets out an annoyed grunt, "Because you can't finish them yourself? Have you become dull as well? Next thing, will your grades be dropping and blame it on us?" she snaps at her daughter.

"I-it's not like that, I just had some trouble understanding something so-" she begins but is interrupted by a bedroom door opening

"Eunseong?" and the owner of the voice of the person she has been dreading comes out.

 

Hello everyone :3 It's been a while, we know. If you're wondering, no we haven’t abandoned this fanfic. Unfortunately I, Author 2(I go by Blake :3) have been incredibly busy with work as UPS is currently in peak season. Author 1(goes by Nara who wrote this current chapter :3) has recently moved and is likewise incredibly busy. Author’s 3 and 4(Silver and Jono:3) do more work behind the scenes. Without me and Nara writing they can't do much for us. With that said the fanfic will be put on a brief pause until some time in January when Nara and I will hopefully have more time. Thank you to those that are following our fanfic and we hope you will continue to support us until the end of the story. :3