“Yoona, shall I put your baggage into the master bedroom?”

“Nah Taeyeon, just leave it in my old room.”

“With all due respect Yoona, this house is yours. Why not take pleasure in it?”

“Taeyeon, enough!” Yoona snapped, “You and your sister are both the same!”

“Maybe both of us are wise to your childish and ridiculous acts.”

“Like I said, this is my parent’s house. It is not mine.”

“Are you not your parents’ child?” Taeyeon questioned back.

“By blood.”

“Then this is your heritage, your…”

“No,” Yoona interrupted, “If I had my way, I’ll tear this place down and rebuild it to my liking somewhere else.”

“This building,” Taeyeon pointed, “It has sheltered generations of your family, and it will continue doing so for generations hence to come. This is your legacy. You can’t just throw it away, how could you?”

Yoona just scoffed and continued walking up the stairs.

“The master bedroom it is then,” Taeyeon remarked.

Taeyeon rested the luggage behind the cupboard in the main bedroom. It was neatly set up by Yuri the night before. Clean sheets, fresh pillows and a pleasantly scented carpet lined the floor. One could not ask for more.

Yoona sat on the soft springy bed, just the kind that she liked, and looked at the scenery beyond the window. It was still gloomy. Thunder clouds crowded the skies. This was the window her parents used to look out from when she was playing with Sam in the fields.

“Should I set up your clothing in the wardrobe for you?”

“Leave it. I’ll do it.”

“Very well then.”

Taeyeon left and closed the door, leaving Yoona to her thoughts.

She looked at the pictures hanging on the wall. One of them was the shot of her parents on their wedding day. Another was the picture of her mom holding her, as a newborn. She was barely the size of a papaya, pink and crying in the maternal hands. That was her 18 years ago. Yoona turned her gaze on the floor. Time really flew.

***

“I’m going out.”

“Ma’am, don’t you think you should be resting? You had a long day.”

“I’m going over to Alan’s.”

“Ma’am, it’s already midnight.” Yuri bit her lip.

“Stop nagging me, Yuri. Geez,” Yoona remarked before she left the house.

“Let her be sis. She has to learn on her own,” Taeyeon said as she rested her hand on her shoulder.

The night was chilly and damp from the rain. The streets were dimly lighted from the streetlamps. The road was quiet. Yoona’s footsteps on the pavement echoed in the night. She looked at the skies. It was clear and stars were twinkling with all their might in the atmosphere.

Alan’s home was half an hours’ walk. She remembered because she always ran there when she was depressed and needed someone to talk to. Alan would be in his bedroom, peering out of his window and would rush to the door in open arms when he saw her running towards his house. She would then start crying on his shoulder, sobbing and blabbering at the same time about the things that she wasn’t happy about.

If he wasn’t home, she would sit on the curb opposite of his house under the neon-orange streetlight, covering her face with her arms, waiting for him to return so she could get it all out of her chest. She would always be greeted by Alan’s look of concern when he saw her sitting out there in the night and ran towards her. There, they would chat for hours and hours.

But that was three years ago, before she got exiled to Japan. There she had no connection to him apart from the phone calls and Skype.

As she walked towards Alan’s, thoughts flooded her mind. This street held many dear memories to her. She spent almost her whole life walking down this street. But that was all in the past. Things had changed. Even she herself was not the same. This was life, nothing stayed unchanged.

She rang the doorbell, anxious to see Alan again and to question him about his recent abrupt disconnection from her. Her heart raced and her palms grew sweaty. She missed him, badly. But when the door opened, another man answered the door.

“Yes?”

“Um, is Alan there?”

“Alan? I’m sorry, there is no such person. Maybe you got the wrong address?”

“No, that’s impossible. I recognize this house very clearly.”

“Oh,” the man raised his eyebrows, “Maybe you are talking about the old tenant. I’m new here. Barely a month.”

“Oh…I’m sorry to bother you,” Yoona was surprised to hear that. Why hadn’t Alan told her?

The man smiled and walked back into the house but Yoona quickly stopped him before he closed the door.

“Mister, do you know where they are now?”

“No. Sorry. I really don’t know. I never met them.”

That was that. Yoona gave the house one final look before turning her sight towards the curb. Her favourite spot. The streetlamp had fused, so her camping place was in darkness. Yoona rested her bum on the concrete curb, just for old times’ sake. Grass had spurted from the cracks of the concrete. She let out a deep sigh and ran her hands along the edge. She had spent so much time here.

“Goodbye, old friend,” she said, taking a deep breath before standing up and slowly walked away, leaving that spot for good.

***

“Did you know that Alan had moved out, Yuri?”

“No, ma’am. I didn’t.”

“Well, he did and I have to find him. But I don’t know how to contact him.”

“Ma’am, uh, maybe you should prepare for the funeral tomorrow.”

“I’m not going, Yuri.”

“What? Why?”

“Yuri. I am not attending to my parents’ funeral. I don’t want to see it.”

“Ma’am, you owe it to them. This is your sendoff.”

“Yuri, stop telling me what to do. Get out of my room. I want to be alone now.”

Yuri knew better than to continue persuading her now. Maybe later. She left the room and continued doing her house chores with her sister.

“What’s up?” Taeyeon asked looking at her sister in deep thoughts.

“Yoona doesn’t want to attend the funeral.”

“God, Yuri. You just let her do what she wants. She’s a stubborn one. She has to learn and experience things herself.”

“I…I just don’t want to see her doing something that she will regret.”

“There’s nothing much you can do about that.”

“We owe it to her parents, Tae. We have to take over.”

Taeyeon rested her hand on her sister’s shoulder.

“We are. We just have to take a different approach.”

Yuri continued doing her chores but Taeyeon could see her sister was not at ease. She could read her like a book.

“Alright Yuri, I’ll talk to her later.”

***

Yoona traced her fingers along the wooden fences around the fields. The animals were gone, leaving a bare green meadow stretching out to the horizon. She leaned on the fence and sighed. It was nearly sundown. There were so many things running in her mind. Then she felt something scratching her leg.

“Sam! Come here!”

She lifted the dog and cuddled him in her arms.

“Where have you been? I missed you, sweetie! Who’s a good boy!?”

She rubbed Sam’s tummy, causing him to pant with his red tongue sticking out.

“It’s been a long time, my big boy.”

He sniffed her neck in response, wagged his tail excitedly before wiggling in her arms and jumped off to chase the poor frightened squirrels in the fields.

“He’s already ten years old. Can you believe that?”

Yoona turned around.

“Taeyeon.”

“He was here since you were eight. Just a small little puppy back then.”

Yoona smiled in reminiscence. She remembered that day clearly. One of the happiest days of her life.

“You remember? You were jumping around uncontrollably when Sam first arrived. You even sneaked out of bed at midnight just to play with him. You just won’t let him rest,” Taeyeon leaned on the fence next to her.

“I suppose you didn’t come all the way out here just to chat old times with me.”

“Why not?”

“Come on Taeyeon. If you are here convincing me to attend the funeral, you are wasting your time.”

“Your parents’ funeral, and no. I’m not here to convince you to do anything. You are not a child anymore. I won’t try to control you.”

“Good,” Yoona looked at the elder servant and smiled, “Thank you.”

Both stared at the beautiful sunset. The orange ball was half gone, covered by the edge of the horizon.

“That’s a lovely view. Makes you think back on life doesn’t it?”

“Not really. I just don’t want to think about anything anymore.”

“You know,” Taeyeon sighed, “Back when I was very young, I had this friend, Sunny. She was as every bit as cheerful as her name dictates her to be. We practically grew up in the same place together.”

Taeyeon narrated as her eyes remained locked on the setting sun, “She’s funny, cheerful, but very naïve. One day, many years ago, we went into the Amazon forest; it was a one-week expedition. Somehow as luck would have it, both of us got separated from the group. We wandered around the forest, trying to make contact with the rest but to no avail. We were not even sure if we were headed in the right direction, whether we were headed towards the edge or deeper into the woods.”

Yoona stared at the elder in curiosity as she continued.

“We walked around the woods for hours. As time passed, panic was starting to take over. Soon, the sun had set and night had basked the forest. Even with our flashlights, it was nearly impossible to tell where we were, much less finding the rest of the group.”

Taeyeon shifted her gaze to Yoona.

“Then, out of the blue, we heard a weak whimper in pain. When we shone our lights in that direction, we saw an injured puppy, bleeding. It had its leg trapped between two boulders. At that moment, I didn’t care about it. All I wanted was to find the group and finally retreat back to our safe sanctuary, drinking hot chocolate and watching TV. Sunny, however, couldn’t leave the poor animal there. I told her to ignore it but she wouldn’t listen. I could still remember clearly what she told me:

‘Taeyeon, if we turn our backs to everything but ourselves, there will not be a thing worth dying for. Without that, we don’t live. We just exist.’

So, I told her not to be ridiculous and it was then I saw the flashes of light shining from across the trees. It was the search party. They had found us. I screamed and tugged on Sunny’s arm before running in that direction. I couldn’t care what was happening around me. All I could think of was that I was about to be saved. Soon, I was reunited with my group. I was so relieved. It was over. I was thanking God when I realized that Sunny was not with me… She was still out there.”

“Why would Sunny do that? Help had already arrived. She should have just bailed and ran to the rescue party.”

Taeyeon looked at Yoona in the eye.

“Sometimes, Yoona, life doesn’t ask you what you want. Sometimes life just throws things at you and demands you to take over. Sometimes, you just have to choose, but not of the right choice or the wrong,” Taeyeon rested a hand on Yoona’s shoulder, “But of the choice that you can live with.”