"You did amazing sweetie,"

"Our daughter, winning as always!"

Both parents were flattering their daughter all the way back home. Tiffany just smiled back at them without a word, Jieun did the same, just smile.

Once they reached home, Nichkhun suggested going to have some late-night dinner somewhere but Tiffany refused, she was "too tired", Jieun had no other choice but follow her, even though she do was hungry.

That night Jieun was going to stay there, Dara was away on a business trip.

The girls were both laying on their mattress, eyes wide open, deep in thoughts. The moon light coming through the window barely illuminated their faces.

"I miss Jiyeon" Jieun broke the long silence. She knew Tiffany was still awake.

“Me too.” She replied after a sight.

Both girls stayed in silence after that for the next couple of hours. The sound of the sheets as Jieun rolled on her mattress already asleep, Tiffany was still awake deep in her thoughts looking up at the ceiling.

She then sighed again and stood up carefully to not wake Jieun up.

She walked out the room, opening the door slowly, she looked at her left side to the main room, just to make sure she didn’t wake anyone up with the sound of the creaking door.

Then she made her way downstairs toward Nichkhun’s office. There were still a few boxes without open since they had arrived not long ago.

She closed the door behind her and walked carefully toward the cabinet were Nichkhun kept awards, diplomas and old pictures framed, that seemed like a good place to keep photobooks.

She looked through all the drawers, between every book that was placed perfectly in the shelves “Where it is??” she talked to herself while flipping the pages of all the books she took.

One after the other and then another, she was starting to get tired when suddenly the next book she took was what she was looking for: the photobook.

She flipped all the pages but all she could find there were Suzy’s baby pictures, she and her parents’ pictures at all ages. Looking all happy and smiley.

After she reached the end, she took another photobook and repeated the process, flipping all the pages “This it is!” she exclaimed to herself in a whisper, black and white pictures, the old pictures she was looking for.

She looked at them all before reaching the end, and there, flipped backwards and under Victoria’s graduation photo, her grandpa's photo. He was next to a smiling woman and a small Victoria. She could tell it was Victoria and her mother since they appeared in all the other pictures.

She stared at it for a few minutes before notice something weird on the picture, it seemed cropped. She pulled it out from the protector and there it was, folded behind, an eye smiling girl: Miyoung.

“Mommy!” she smiled.

There it was! This was the reason why she was inside this body. It was her cousin’s body; Victoria was her aunt she never knew about it, or at least she didn’t remember have heard of.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next morning

Jieun opened her eyes slowly, holding her hand up in front of her face to avoid the sun from hitting her eyes, she yawned and turned back toward Tiffany’s bed “What are you doing?” she asked Tiffany who was sitting on the bed doing something “You didn’t slept?” she stood up slowly and made her way toward Tiffany, her eyes widen at the perfectly made time map, scrabbles, notes and pictures “What is all of this?” she asked again holding up a sheet to look at it closely, it was one of the letters she had found before.

“I’ve found it Jieun-ie, I made this map with everything I had, letters, pictures and some facts of my family,” she began “I found this picture last night,” Jieun held the picture Tiffany gave her “That’s my grandpa, it’s his wedding picture with Victoria’s mom. This is Victoria’s mom” she pointed out.

“Where did you found this?” she asked.

Completely ignoring that question she continued “Back in 1982 my mother was 16, that year my grandpa married Victoria’s mom, Victoria seems to be around 6 years old, I think… I actually don’t know yet witch year she was born.”

“She was born in ‘76”

“Thank you.” She said while writing down that number on a post-it “Anyway, 2 years later my parents got married and I was born 9 months later after that. As this letter states my mom wanted Victoria to meet me, but it seems like she never replied. I remember my mother told me Grandpa and his new wife decided to go live in China, while my parents stayed in Busan in their newlyweds house. So, I guess Victoria was with them, since she was sending these letters.”

“But wait, it doesn’t make sense, your mom wrote that they lived close, China and Busan aren’t THAT close. Also, who was Boa and why did she know about Victoria? She told your mom Victoria didn’t wanted to ‘come’?”

Tiffany stopped one second and started to look down at all her notes, that was true. It didn’t make sense.

“What if Victoria stayed in Korea? She and your mom stayed here because of their respective couples,” Jieun continued “I think I remember Suzy telling me her parents love story, aunt Victoria and uncle Nichkhun dated for a few years, and if I can recall correctly they married while she was already pregnant.”

“If that’s the case then…” Tiffany reached out for her phone and opened the calculator, looking down at her notes she clicked some numbers and then looked up at Jieun “…She was 17 when she got pregnant. In 1996, the same year my parents died, she got pregnant.”

“I can ask my mom, aunt and uncle’s story—”

“Good morning girls!” Victoria suddenly opened the door, both jumped scared but quickly placed the covers and pillows on top of the notes Tiffany made, Jieun literally jumped on top of it “Wow, you are already awake? What a surprise!”

“Yeah well, we got used to the time zone of Jeju,” Jieun quickly said while casually resting her head on her hand.

Victoria frowned a little “It’s the same time here and there—”

“She meant we had to wake up early there because of the rehearsals and all that, you know.” Tiffany replied, showing a small nervous smile.

“Uhmm… okay, well, breakfast is ready. Come down.” She smiled closing the door behind her.

Both girls sighed.

“That was close.” Jieun said turning back to look at Tiffany.

“Close? You made this seem so suspicious. Time zone? You didn’t know it’s the same hour here and there?” she scolded her.

“I’m sorry, I just said whatever I thought first, I’m sorry!”

Tiffany sighed before starting to grab all her notes.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Good morning girls.” Nichkhun smiled.

“Morning.” Both girls replied at him before sitting down at the table.

“Did you sleep well Jieunie?” Victoria asked her while serving them a plate of eggs and bacon.

“Wasn’t uncomfortable to sleep on the floor?”

“Not really, well only for a few minutes then I fell deep on a sleep I don’t remember anything afterwards.” They laughed.

A few minutes were silence, only the cutlery sounds against the ceramic dishes.

“Uhm…” After a while Tiffany broke the silence “We were talking last night, Jieun and—” she stopped when her eyes caught Victoria and Nichkhun expression, she then looked at Jieun whose eyes were wide open and slightly shook her head “—I meant IU, IU and I…” she stopped again and sighed “I’m sorry… I… I just lost, IU,” she placed down her fork and faked a laugh while looking back at Jieun who just stood there staring strangely at her “The bet we did, remember?”

Jieun eyes didn’t moved “The bet?” and awkwardly she asked.

“Yes, the bet, that it will be impossible for me to not call you IU for a week.”

Jieun slowly nodded her head “Aaaaah… yes… I won.” the room went silence again for a few seconds.

“Okaaaay, well, yay to you Jieun” Nichkhun joked and laughed, so did Victoria.

Tiffany sighed and looked down at her plate “Anyway… we were talking last night, IU and I, and I realized that… I forgot a lot of things from my past.” She said.

“What do you mean you forgot?” Nichkhun asked worried.

“Yeah, I… we were talking about our childhood and some other things and, she asked if I had any relatives and I just stood still, I couldn’t remember anything.”

“What did you forgot, sweetie? How is that possible?” Victoria was worried as well.

“I think I have memory lost.”

“You what?! My daughter has memory lost!!” Nichkhun yelled and stood up reaching down to cup Tiffany’s face “Let’s go to the hospital right now!”

“No, no!” Tiffany tried to stop him from lifting her up from the chair, but he was just too strong.

He carried her over his shoulder and rushed toward the door “Wait!” she yelled.

“Khun calm down!!”

“Uncle!” Victoria and Jieun stood up from their chairs and walked behind them.

He opened the door and stopped before walking out.

“Oh! Wow! What a welcome.”

“Mom!!” Jieun rushed toward the door once she saw her mom standing there.

“Aww my daughter,” she pushed Nichkhun aside and reached down to hug Jieun.

“Dara, how are you?” Victoria walked toward the door too and greeted her as well.

“Girls, I am sorry to interrupt but I have to take my daughter to the hospital!”

“Can you please put me down? I’m okay.” Tiffany told him while patting his back. He then reached her back to slowly place her back on the floor “I don’t need to go to the hospital, I just wanted to talk.” She said,

“Are you sick Suzy?” Dara asked.

“No, we were just talking.” She said.

“You know how overprotective my husband is.” Dara laughed “I think Suzy is having some aftermath after that motorbike accident.”

Dara turned to Tiffany and placed her hand on her arm, staring at her worried “Are you okay?” she said.

“I’m fine, I was just going to ask something, and he started to act all crazy and worried.”

“He?” Nichkhun exclaimed.

“Well I hope you get better. Jieun, grab your things and go back home. I have something to tell you.”

“He?!”

“Is everything okay Dara? Is your mom okay?”

“Grandma?” Victoria looked at Dara, and she shut her eyes, she had messed up.

“Sorry” she mouthed.

Jieun moved away from her mother’s hug and looked up at her “I thought you went to a conference in Japan,” Dara opened to talk but Jieun continued “You went to see grandma in Philippines? Why?”

“I did go to Japan darling.” Dara held her daughter by her hands “I went there and then to see your grandma. Go grab your things and let’s talk home.”

“Okay.” Jieun sighed and nodded her head.

Suzy held her hand and both walked upstairs.

“I’m sorry Dara.” Victoria quickly apologized giving her a hug, Dara shook her head and tapped her back.

“It’s okay,” she said breaking the hug “My mom is fine, I just thought back then that… I just shouldn’t hide a person from my daughter, a person that turns out to be a family member, someone from the same blood as her.”

Dara stopped when Victoria sighed, she brushed her hair back feeling uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean too, I just…”

“Don’t worry. I think it’s great the decision you just made, but you know we just can’t do the same.”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“Heard that?” Jieun whispered to Tiffany, both were hiding at the top of the stairs listening to their parents.

“Is she hiding my mom? Suzy’s aunt, why can’t she talk about her?”

“Let’s go change and you can come with me, I can ask my mom a few things about your—I mean Suzy’s parents.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Okay, we’re ready.” Jieun said grabbing onto her backpack,

“Yes, let’s go.”

“Oh wait, wait… where are you going?” Victoria held Tiffany’s arm as she was about to leave with them.

“You can’t go” Nichkhun told her.

“Why not? IU invited me, and Aunt Dara doesn’t have a problem, right?”

“No, I don’t sweetie, but I’m afraid today I have to say no. I have something to talk with Jieun, but what about we meet up for dinner at my house and you can stay there then?” Dara brushed Tiffany’s arm.

“They have family matters to talk darling, and we have to take you to the hospital too.”

“I am super fine, I just wanted to ask something.”

“That’s great then, we’ll talk and later at night go with Dara, okay?”

“Gosh, why they treat Suzy like a baby? She’s a goddam grown up 17 years old!” Tiffany talked to herself inside her head.

Dara and Jieun waved goodbye and left.

Then Victoria and Nichkhun both sat down at the couch, waiting for Suzy to ask the questions she had.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Is grandma okay?” Jieun finally asked.

They were inside Dara’s car, halfway to home. They both were silence, the music on the radio at the level 35 of volume was the only sound inside the car.

It was awkward to be this quiet, they were a pretty noisy family, but Jieun could feel her mother feeling nervous so she just kept quiet. She was worried.

“She is fine sweetie.”

“Why didn’t you told me you were going to visit her? We never hide things from each other.”

Dara sighed before turning off the radio and sat straight back on her sit “Yes, we should always tell each other everything, no secrets between us.” She stopped a minute turning her gaze off the road to see her daughter’s reaction, she was just staring clueless, Dara looked back at the front and sighed again gripping hard on the steering wheel “I hide something from you sweetie. And I think is time for you to know the true.”