It was probably the most silent dinner they ever had since their last relative died.  Mrs. Kwon tore her kimchi in many different parts, pretending like she was going to eat it at even given moment but for the time being she kept tearing it with her chopsticks, one in each hand.  Mr. Kwon chewed on the same piece of meat since his first bite, staring at his wife and frowning at her weird behavior.  She seemed oblivious of his stares but she knew she was being watched.  Haeyoung felt nervous, and didn’t want to be in such tension any longer.  He glanced at his little sister sitting across from him, eating like any other meal and was nearly finished.

“Sohyun,” He called out, his voice cracking in the middle of her name and everyone at the table brought their eyes toward him.  “Your day…how was it?”
He was trying to bond again.  Sohyun could have shook her head at how weak her brother’s attempts were but she too had been bothered by the awkward silence in the dining room. When he asked her this question a few days ago she dediced to leave out the part where she saw a monster for the first time in her life, and that it came from her own body, her and a iljin went flying across the town, were almost killed in an earthquake and attacked by rapists thugs.

“Today? Well, you know, it was the last day of school.  I’m thrilled that I don’t have to do homework anymore but I'll continue my studies.”
Haeyoung smiled at the fact that Sohyun was smiling.  He found it weird that she was not in the least bit reckless over the idea of only having five days or so left to live.   Just what their family needed—an optimist.

Mr. Kwon decided to input.  “Did you say goodbye to your friends?”
“Kwon So Woo!”  The mother finally snapped, crashing the metal chopsticks into their mahogany table, sure enough making holes.  “Watch. Your. Words.”  She avoided any possible talk of death or the world coming to an end.  The very subject of it bothered her to no end.  Sohyun’s father returned the hateful look back at his wife.  Their kids were becoming more uncomfortable.

Sohyun’s father asked smartly,  “Mrs. Kwon, are you in denial?”  He rested his head on his hands, a grin planted on his face while he waited for his wife to answer which, in result, she did not and only stared down at her uneaten food, afraid that her response could only be as ridiculous as her trying to pretend like everything was ok.  Just as he suspected.  “Mrs. Kwon, have you been watching the news?  Are you aware that the world is ending?”
“Stop speaking.”
He didn’t abide by those words.
“Are you going to continue to neglect you family because you can’t come to the reality that we’re all going to die in just a few days?”
“Stop it!”
Haeyoung swallowed what felt like a brick.  He felt hopeless watching the contents of his parent’s bottled up fears and frustrations unfold in front of him and his younger sibling.
“Are you going to continue to act like everything is ok when you know it isn’t?”
“I said stop it, damn you, why are you doing this?”
“Answer me!”

“Dad!” This time Sohyun demanded an end to the nonsense.  She stood, bumping the table and caused everything on it to tilt but then land right back in its original state before they could fall.  “Dad, stop.  Don’t do this to my mother.  Not like this.”

She walked away, disturbed at the behavior of the adults who were losing their sanity in a situation she, herself, had not come to full terms with.  She began remembering the attack, which she did not want to do, but everyone was losing their minds. Was she in denial about the world coming to an end as well?