“Mihye ah…I made you dinner…be a good girl and eat it all up, oh?” Mrs. Nam hoaxed as she laid a tray with a huge bowl of delicious, homemade Kimchi fried rice and another bowl of piping hot miso soup.

Mihye shook her head stubbornly, hiding under the covers without even sparing the tray of food a second glance. She was starving, yes she was, but she had absolutely no appetite. She had stayed on the bed in the guest room for the entire day, refusing to get up to even eat, no matter how much Mrs. Nam tried to persuade her to eat up.

One might call Mihye ungrateful for refusing to accept Mrs. Nam’s kindness, but really, who could blame her? I mean, imagine if the father who loved you left your side, just like that, without any warning. And if things didn’t enough, your stepmother decided to abandon you and send you far, far away to another state, without anyone to depend on. Top that off with the fact that it was your freaking birthday and you’d probably only understand a small fraction of what Mihye was feeling at that point of time. Mind you, all her life, Lee Mihye had never been alone before. Her father adored and doted on her like no one’s business, playing with her and taking care of her meticulously. She could always depend on him, no matter what happened, because he loved her. But he was gone, just like that. For the first time in her life, Lee Mihye was all alone.

“You have to eat something, Mihye ah…” Mrs. Nam chided Mihye, worried about the growing child’s health. “You haven’t eaten a single thing since breakfast, which was almost twelve hours ago! This can’t go on, sweetie! You need food to grow and survive, for goodness sake!”

Mihye didn’t budge. She remained firmly in her covers, refusing to come out to have dinner, because she simply had no appetite at all.

 “Fine, but I’m leaving this here. Eat this the minute you get hungry. I’ll be leaving now.” Mrs. Nam sighed as she left the guest room, worry lines forming on her face. Even after she reassured Mihye that she would take care of her, Mihye wouldn’t stop crying. She ran to the guest room and buried herself under the covers, refusing to take a single bite ever since then. Mrs. Nam fervently hoped that Mihye wouldn’t keep this up. She was already skinny enough, and if she starved herself, goodness knows what would happen to her.

At that moment, the doorbell rang, and Mrs. Nam rushed to get to the door.

“UMMA!” Upon opening the door, a pair of small arms wound themselves around her waist tightly. Her worry lines instantly disappeared as a huge smile appeared on her face.

“Woohyun!” she picked the little boy up, and gave him a big kiss on the cheeks tenderly. “I almost forgot that you were coming back from camp today! Umma missed you so much these three days!”

“Woohyun missed umma too!” The little boy beamed as he planted a kiss on his mother’s cheek back. “Woohyun really REALLY missed umma! Woohyun loves umma so very much!”

Mrs. Nam chuckled. Her sweet little boy never failed to make her day. “Umma loves you too” she squeezed little Woohyun tightly as she placed him down gently onto the floor, ruffling his soft hair.

Nam Woohyun was Nam Sunhee’s 10-year old son. When Woohyun was 2, his father had passed away due to lung cancer, leaving Mrs. Nam to take care and raise little Woohyun alone. And she had done an amazing job doing so.

“Umma…” Woohyun whined as he tugged his mother’s apron. “Woohyun’s really hungry! Woohyun wants dinner now!”

Mrs. Nam chuckled again. “Go wash your hands first! Umma will be done with dinner really soon, okay?”

“Okay!” Woohyun beamed as he darted towards the bathroom across the hall. As he ran across the guest room, he noticed that there was someone under the sheets.

“Umma? Can I ask you a question please?” He went to find his mother as soon as he finished washing his hands.

“Ne, Woohyun ah?”

“Who’s the person in our guest room right now? Is it umma’s friend?” Woohyun looked at his mother with curious eyes. Although they had a guest room, no one ever came over to stay before. In fact, this was the first time he could remember that someone lay down on the bed in the guest room.

“Omo! How could I have forgotten to tell you?” Mrs. Nam gasped, facepalming herself for forgetting to tell her son such an important piece of information.

“Woohyun ah…umma has a new child today! Her name is Mihye, and she’ll be your new sister from now on!” Mrs. Nam announced proudly, turning off the stove as she transferred the freshly-cooked Kimchi ramen into Woohyun’s favourite bowl. “Isn’t that great, Woohyun ah?”

“A new sister?” Woohyun echoed, his eyes becoming as wide as saucers. “I have…I have a new sister?”

“Ne!” Mrs. Nam smiled happily, handing Woohyun his dinner and some chopsticks to go along with it. Although most kids would probably hate the idea of having a new sibling out of the blue, but Mrs. Nam knew that her son was different. Ever since he entered elementary school, he had constantly been bugging her for his own sister, who he could play with. After all, it was pretty lonely to be an only child.

There was a short pause of silence as Woohyun processed this. And when he did, his face immediately lit up.

“DAEBAK!” He cheered, slurping his Kimchi ramen hungrily. “I HAVE A SISTER! WOOHYUN HAS HIS OWN SISTER NOW, WHOSE NAME IS MIHYE! UMMA’S THE BEST! I want to play with my new sister RIGHT NOW!”

“No you can’t!” Mrs. Nam immediately stopped Woohyun from running towards the guest room. “Mihye’s…tired today, and she’s resting now. I enrolled her in your school just now, and she’s in the same grade as you, fourth grade! You’ll definitely get to see her tomorrow, don’t worry, so patience, arraso?”

“Okay…” Woohyun sighed, pouting but agreeing nonetheless.

“I can’t wait to meet my new sister…” he whispered, bursting with excitement. “I can’t wait!”

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Updated(: How do you think their first meeting will be like? 

Oh yes and I would really appreciate it if you could comment, subscribe and upvote! It would mean a lot to me (: Kamsamida