Author's note: You are all beautiful people... That is all...

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I wouldn’t even know what to write.

I sat on the floor staring at my diary. Mr. Hwang had carried mine and my sister’s bags upstairs while we were sleeping, and I decided to get settled in. Tiffany had already left the room by the time I woke up, so there was no confrontation as I unpacked my bag.

I was mostly refreshed from the sleeping, but I was still a bit tired. As soon as I sat up, I could feel all of the muscles in my body tightening and pulling.

”Eunguhhh”

A weird noise escaped my mouth as I stood up: my entire body was sore. I did a few stretches to release the tension, and then headed to the bathroom.

The Hwang house was as large as I remembered from all those years ago. Tiffany’s parents were supposedly world-renowned doctors, but I was sure they were more than that: especially after seeing Mr. Hwang flip that table the way he did.

I found my way to the bathroom and stepped in their oversized shower. Setting the water to hot, I braced myself as it fell to my skin and steam filled the room. I stood there for at least an hour; just thinking about everything. My parents, my home, my sister, and… Tiffany.

What happened to her? I know we haven’t seen each for some time, but something is obviously wrong.

I formulated an idea, in my head, to get Tiffany to talk: I would let her get the anger out of her system during the day, and then, at night, I’d annoy her until she talked to me. It was the perfect plan.

After I felt content with the shower, I stepped out and tried to make myself look presentable. The whole ordeal had me looking like a zombie, and a simple shower wasn’t going to fix everything. While cleaning, I could feel my hand stinging. The bandage that was wrapped around it had become a nasty brown and red color, most likely a combination of my sweat and blood.

Knowing that Mr. Hwang was a doctor, I got dressed and headed downstairs to get his diagnosis. As I walked down the hallway, a clock caught my eye: It was 3’oclock in the afternoon. My sister and I had gotten to the Hwang’s house around 8 the previous night; my conversation with Mr. Hwang took around two hours, and I spent about an hour in the shower just now. Doing the math in my head, I realized:

I slept sixteen hours?!

It was to be expected, with my lack of sleep and all, but the fact still surprised me…

I quickly arrived downstairs to see my sister watching T.V. in the living room: She was freshened up and there was an ice pack, held down by tape, where she had bruised her sternum.

“How are you holding up?” I asked; positioning myself behind the couch she was sitting on.  “I’m fine, but this thing is troublesome.” She fidgeted with the ice pack to increase her comfort as she looked up at me. I could tell that Haeyeon still hadn’t eaten by how weak her movements were.

“You need to eat something…”

She gave me a sour look before responding. “I’m going to eat today… Don’t worry, Unnie.”

A wiry smile found its way onto my face after hearing her answer. I was still concerned that she hadn’t eaten in the past two days, but her words consoled me enough that I wasn’t going to pester her.

*Clink, clink, clink*

There was the distinct noise of somebody washing dishes behind me. I turned around to see: Mr. Hwang, with his sleeves rolled up, washing dishes while Tiffany was sitting at the kitchen table; eating cereal.

They both must have noticed my presence as I walked towards them because Mr. Hwang turned around to greet me as Tiffany picked up her food and walked past me; towards the living room.

“She’ll come around eventually.” Mr. Hwang said in response to me biting my lip in anger.

“Did something happen to her?” I allowed the anger to leave my body as I spoke.

Mr. Hwang didn’t respond. Instead, he focused on my hand which was lined with a nasty colored scab. “This looks bad” he said while gently grabbing my hand “I’m going to get my kit, you sit here and get something to eat.” With that, he slid out of the kitchen almost without me noticing. 

I scrambled around the kit and found the utensils necessary for me to eat a bowl of cereal. Tiffany shot me a glance from one of the couches as she heard the rustling of cereal in the box I had just picked up.

This must be her cereal.

It crossed my mind that I should put the box back and eat a different cereal, but if I wanted my plan to work out: I would need Tiffany to get even more upset with me so she would vent out her anger.

I sat down with everything ready and slammed the box of cereal onto the table to let Tiffany would know that I hadn’t put it back. She didn’t budge from the sound, but I could tell that she noticed. I opened the box and started pouring the cereal: Making as much noise as possible. Tiffany nudged a bit, yet refused to look in my direction again.

By the time I was done, I had poured an enormous bowl of cereal. However, it wasn’t all for show: I planned to eat the entire thing. Sleeping for so long had created a pit in my stomach, and I planned to fill that pit with all of this cereal.

I quickly downed the first bowl, so I decided to have another. In short time, I had eaten three bowls of cereal and had to hold myself back on a fourth. All of the noise from the spoon hitting the bowl must have grabbed Tiffany’s attention for she shot me a sneer.

I wasn’t even trying to do it that time.

Around the time I had finished eating, Mr. Hwang re-entered the kitchen. “Sorry, I had a difficult time finding the kit… Now let’s look at that cut.” He was unimaginably quick with diagnosing my wound and knowing exactly what to do. “It’s extremely lucky that you showed me this; the wound would have gotten seriously infected in a few more hours.”

That was a close call.                                                                 .

“I’m just going to rub some of this disinfectant and antibacterial on the wound, and it should heal in a few days. You’ll need to re-bandage it every few hours, but other than that, it shouldn’t need any maintenance.”

 “Alrigh- Yahhh!”  The pain of the disinfectant was intense as Mr. Hwang abruptly applied it. “This is going to hurt for a bit.” He said while swabbing the cut again. My hand felt as if it were on fire during the process, and still ached afterward. It was clear that he wasn’t using average disinfectant: The amount of pain from it was too high, and the effects were nearly immediate. Within seconds of the disinfectant being applied, I could feel the bacteria being destroyed; causing a bothersome itchy feeling added to the pain.

“Don’t scratch it.” Mr. Hwang quickly said as if he knew my intentions. After another minute, Mr. Hwang applied the anti-bacterial so I wouldn’t have to worry about the cut getting infected again. The anti-bacterial didn’t hurt at all, compared to the disinfectant, and actually felt a little soothing.

“Ok, all you gave to do is change the bandage, like I told you, and you’ll be one-hundred percent in no time.”

“Thank you” I wasn’t just thankful for the treatment, but for the shelter and hospitality he showed me and my sister.

He caught the motive behind my words, and looked me directly in the eyes. “Think nothing of it; you’re family.” He smiled. It was true: I thought of Mr. Hwang more of an uncle than anything, but I thought of Tiffany in a different way…

I snapped out my thoughts when I saw Mr. Hwang drop some money on the table. “You girls go enjoy yourselves today… all three of you.” The last part he said in a loud voice that was meant for Tiffany’s ears.

“What about the situation with my parents?” I asked making sure Tiffany couldn’t hear me: I didn’t want her to know yet.

“Well deal with that tomorrow” Mr. Hwang responded “Right now, the three of you need some downtime.”

“Ok” I responded half-heartedly “But what about the men who were after my sister and me?”

“Since they haven’t found the two of you yet, they probably assume that you’ve met up with us; which you have. They won’t be looking for you anymore”

Us…?

Haeyeon replaced the ice pack that was taped around her with just a coolant pack, so she would be able to move more around easily.

After some badgering by her father, Tiffany reluctantly joined us as we walked out of the front door.

…

“Why are you two walking so slowly?” Haeyeon was a few meters in front of Tiffany and me: It baffled me how she still had so much energy.

“Why is your sister such a brat?” Tiffany said coldly as we walked towards the center of town.

It took every fiber of my being to not slap right where she stood. “I want to ask your sister the same thing.”

Tiffany stopped walking and stared me down. I stopped, likewise, and returned her stare. Tiffany was trying her hardest to show pure disgust, but that sorrow was still prevalent in her eyes. She soon ended the stare-down by walking past me with her nose held high.

It hurt me that Tiffany was acting this way, and it hurt me that I had to respond in a similar fashion. Minus my family, Tiffany was the only person I shared a real bond with.

Which is why I need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible

We reached the town center around 5 o’clock which was just in time to go around before the shops closed. The center of Gachul had a big city feel to it. There were a lot of high-end stores and restaurants lining the main streets. Mr. Hwang had given us a good amount of money, his reasoning was that: we needed to buy new clothes and things to entertain ourselves. I wasn’t much of a shopper, but I agreed with the idea of needing new things: my sister and I had to leave nearly everything behind.

Haeyeon and I decided to go through all of the stores that lined the main street of town, which was no easy task. We blitzed through each store; trying on clothes, checking out gadgets, and looking at anything that caught our eyes. We tried to include Tiffany in our shenanigans, but she just followed along wordlessly.

We were able to finish with the last store a few minutes before it closed. Tired and sweaty, we sat on a bench and reviewed the items that we had just purchased. Haeyeon bought some clothes along with a few new games, and some sort of spy-kit.

I decided to get some new clothes, a book, and some random trinkets that caught my eye. I looked over at Tiffany, who was standing a meter away from us; the only thing she bought was a small pink wallet. During the few hours we have been around each other, I could tell that Tiffany retained her love for the color.

It’s nice to know that some things haven’t changed.

“What should we do with the rest of the money?” We still had a few hundred won left, and didn’t want to end the day without spending it.

“Ice cream!” Haeyeon shouted excitedly, pacing back-and-forth.

I turned to Tiffany and tilted my head “You want ice cream?”

“Whatever”

As we walked towards the ice cream shop, my sister whispered to me: “What’s wrong with Tiffany, Unnie?”

“I wish I knew…”

…

“I’ll just have a cup of mint chocolate chip.” The cashier nodded as I handed him the money. “Good choice.”

“Oh, and can I get gummy bears with it?”

“Not a problem.”

The three of us sat down in the middle of the ice cream store and waited for our order to be ready. Normally you wouldn’t have to wait for and order when buying ice cream, but ours was excessively large. I got my one cup of ice cream, while Tiffany decided to just get a large cup of pink lemonade (figures). My sister on the other hand, ordered a party sized bowl of ice cream; with various flavors made for seven people to eat. With some time to kill, I thought it would be a good idea to try and get Tiffany to open some.

“So how was America?”

Tiffany was already drinking her lemonade, and replied only with a sour look before turning away.

It wasn’t the response I wanted, but at least she didn’t attack me. Maybe I’m getting through to her.

I tried to make small talk with Haeyeon, but she was too focused on her new game to be interested in conversation, so I decided to read my book. It was somewhat of a comic book, and had something to do with a talking frog.

Keroro Gunso…  

Before I had the chance to open up the book, our order was ready. The cashier handed me my mint chocolate ice cream with gummy bears while it took two extra employees to carry out my sister’s bowl.

The owner of the store walked out of the back and greeted us as our order arrived: She was and ahjumma with long hair and well-defined smile lines.

“It’s been a while since anyone has ordered the party bowl. Are you three girls going to eat this by yourselves?” She was surprised at our small number of people compared to the size of the order.

“Nope, it’s all for me!” Haeyeon excitedly grabbed on of the large spoons that came with the bowl and being downing the ice cream.

The employees, along with Tiffany, stared wide-eyed as my sister ate nearly one-third of the bowl within the first two minutes.

“Where is it all going?” Tiffany said through the straw in .

A few minutes later, Haeyeon had finished the entire bowl. She leaned back in her chair and let out a heavy sigh of accomplishment as the side-effects of her indulgence kicked-in.

“Ahhh! Brain freeze!”

“You shouldn’t have eaten it so fast.”  I said while rubbing her forehead. I had to play the concerned sister, but I was laughing in my head.

After Haeyeon finished, everybody in the store gave her a round of applause. The owner of the store approached us with a smile on her face:

“You are welcome here anytime.” She spoke towards the three of us. “In fact, I’ll even give you girls a discount.”

“Why?” Tiffany responded through her straw; she had a quizzical look on her face.

“You three remind me of myself and my friends when we were younger: specifically you.” She pointed at Haeyeon.

My sister was too busy trying to recover from her brain freeze to thank the owner properly, but she made an attempt.  “T-t-hank you…”

We sat there, just relaxing, while Haeyeon let her ice cream hangover wear off. Things were nice and tranquil as I read my book: even Tiffany seemed less confrontational. It felt like things were normal again, whatever normal was. The past few days were an eternity compared to the simple pass-time of enjoying each other’s company.

It took me a while to realize it, but the thought eventually came into my mind.

My sister just ate!

I quickly lowered my book, and stared Haeyeon in the eyes. “So this is what you were waiting for?”

She grunted in agreement, holding off a burp all the while. Haeyeon lowered her head for a moment before looking back up at me:

“When I got on the bus two days ago, I told myself that the next time I would eat: It would be ice cream with my Unnie.”

She lowered her head again. “I’m sorry for worrying you… please don’t be mad.”

I had to hold back tears as my eyes started to water. I patted her on the head and spoke through a dry throat:

“Just don’t scare me like that again.”

Haeyeon…

We wiped our eyes nearly simultaneously as she raised her head once more. Some time passed before the emotions in the air cleared, but eventually my sister went back to playing her game.

I looked over to Tiffany. I could tell that she had also been taken back by the situation because the sour look had left her face. Replacing it, was a look of deep thought; as if she wasn’t actually in this room.

“Fany”

She shook her head, snapping back to reality, before turning to look at me. The sorrow in her eyes wasn’t hidden this time: They were like two overflowing pools of sadness. Tiffany quickly wiped the tears from her eyes; hiding her sorrow once more as she did. She stared at me blankly for second, as if thinking to herself, before taking out her phone and playing a game on it.

“Tiffany.”

She ignored me this time, pretending to be deeply concentrated on her game. It didn’t bother me as much as it should have, but I just figured it was because I realized that Tiffany was somewhat opening up. The wall she had put up between herself and the rest of the world was slowly crumbling.

I noticed Tiffany glance at me as I raised my book up over my face. It was good that the book was hiding my face because a smile slowly crept onto it. The thought of having old Tiffany back gave me more joy than I thought it should have.

I’m coming for you, Fany; just wait!

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I personally feel like I could've eaten the party bowl without a problem lol (Just kidding, I'd probably die.)

Tiffany's slowly opening up? Well Taeyeon will make sure of that. Something will probably happen that pulls them back together, but who knows...