Ara really hoped that it'd stay so calm, but much to her dislike it didn’t … The calm did last for a few days – well, that is, until Hyejin came home one evening, nervously fiddling with her fingers. “Say what you have to say,” Ara sighed and rubbed her forehead tiredly, having a small headache since she just finished her homework. Hyejin gave her a lopsided smile and tilted her head.

“Unnie,” she cutely said, attempting to use her aegyo even though she knew that it didn’t effect Ara all too much. “Yeah?” The older girl raised her eyebrow, putting away her pencil.

“You know, there is this party on Saturday. A birthday party of a senior,” she slowly said and twisted . Ara narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the way Hyejin emphasized 'birthday'. “So?”

The younger girl took a deep breath before rattling down, “Kai asked me to go to it with him and his friends!” She squeezed her eyes shut, as though waiting for a shout of Ara, and opened her eyes irreducibly as nothing happened. Surprised, she assessed that her older sister was completely calm and collected.

“Why not? It's just a birthday party, isn’t it?” Ara shrugged her shoulder and grabbed her textbook and pencil. Hyejin looked at her with wide eyes. “You mean, I'm allowed to?!” She squealed. Ara frowned at the excessive surprise, but was too tired from the loads of homework that occupied her mind for over two hours to think about it further.

Just then the door opened and a middle-aged woman entered the flat, her face clearly showing how tired she was. “Mom?” Ara and Hyejin both called out surprised.

“What are you doing here? I thought your shift ends at 3am … ?” Ara slowly asked reluctantly as she already noticed the look on her mother's face. Hyejin jumped from the sofa and dashed to their mother. “Are you sick?” She put her hand on her mom's forehead, checking the temperature.

Mrs. Park shook her head tiredly. “No, I'm okay.” Hyejin flashed her a bright smile before she hugged her. “Mom, I missed you!” It had been one week again since Mr. Park last saw her daughters. Their different schedules due to her night shift and her daughters' timetables had caused them to rarely see each other even though they lived in one flat.

“I missed you, too,” she mumbled and patted her younger daughter's head, before she closed the door. As she put the keys on the table, she was met with a pair of eagle-eyes. Ara was looking at her precisely, and she could see it in her older daughter's face that the said one already figured that something was wrong. “Hyejin-ah, can you cook something? Mom's really hungry.” She weakly smiled at Hyejin. The latter nodded eagerly and went to the kitchen.

Once the door was closed, Ara spoke up, “What happened?”

Mrs. Park tiredly rubbed her forehead – she had the same habit as her older daughter –, and sat on the chair on the opposite side of where Ara sat. “I got fired.”

“What?” Ara blurted, unbeli