Taeyeon sighed loudly when the video call with her family ended. Her eomma had told that her halmeoni is not in a good condition. 

Few months ago, her first imo went to halmeoni’s house and found her with a big lump on her ankle which halmeoni said was only her gout per the doctor’s words when she visited the nearest clinic. Luckily imo was quite hard to convince type of person, she asked her doctor’s friend and her friend suggested bringing halmeoni to the hospital. Of course, it was not easy. Halmeoni refused because she didn’t want to leave her house. 

But after that, imo successfully brought halmeoni to the hospital in Seoul, almost three hours later. 

Halmeoni’s ankle was diagnosed with diabetic foot ulcer by the specialist doctor and she needs to undergo small surgery and at that time, all of us just pray two things; halmeoni will be fine and the doctors do not need to amputate her lower limb.

Taeyeon shivered at that time. She knows it is not something new to hear, but hearing her dear halmeoni had to face that, it hurts her. 

However, this concern was already in the past. They passed the shocking moment and now her halmeoni’s ankle is getting better. Another concern now is the fact that halmeoni does not want to eat. She said she cannot swallow the food. It makes her want to vomit. Because of this, she doesn’t have energy to even walk.

Halmeoni was left in the care of first imo for 2 months before she started to complain about everything that first imo and her family tried to do. It led to first imo feeling like halmeoni hates her. 

That was why, eomma brought halmeoni to our house. Well another issue arises here. Her unnie, Kim Jiwoo is the only person that is available and willing to take care of halmeoni from bringing her to bathroom, feed her, and listen to halmeoni’s wants.

Her unnie doesn’t say it, but Taeyeon knows she’s tired doing this alone on top of her completing her studies. 

Taeyeon can only help her whenever she goes home to Jeonju as most of the time she stays in Seoul to finish her studies.

Because she is always away from home, she usually doesn’t know what happened in the family unless her eomma or her unnie says it. Every now and then, she always feels like a stranger to her own family. Maybe that is why she subconsciously put herself in the passerby point of view in everything that happened within her family. 

For example, she knows that her halmeoni just wants to go home and she has this mindset not to worry her daughters but halmeoni should see how first imo and her family try so hard to cater to halmeoni’s needs. But also, first imo should not feel like that too. Halmeoni is already too old and it is usual for older people to act like this and from first imo and eomma’s stories, Taeyeon is sure that the daughters already know that their mother is so stubborn. 

***

“Arghhh!!! I hate my old self.” 

Taeyeon looks at Sooyoung and just chuckles. Her friend is in her usual self, regretting her decision of continuing her study in law. Well, the four of them will randomly say that they regret taking law whenever they get stuck in doing the work.

“Same, chingu-ah. Same”, sighs Yuri while patting Sooyoung’s hand. Trying to give strength to each other. They need to submit a group assignment in two days but their procra