I stared into the white ceiling above my head as I scanned the bumps coating it. ‘It looks like a gnome.’

 ‘A gnome? I don’t see it, maybe a dinosaur, yeah, it really does look like Chen!’ I snorted and shook my head, wrinkling my nose at the uncomfortable sensation of my hair rubbing against my pillow.

 ‘I don’t know where you’re looking but it’s most definitely a gnome,’ I picked up the tablet and flipped it to face the ceiling and zoomed in to try and show Chanyeol the section with the blob that I knew looked like a gnome. ‘Oh dear,’ I looked at the screen then at the ceiling, ‘I seem to have lost the gnome, maybe it’s over here,’ I bit my lip as I tried to look for it through the screen of the tablet.

 ‘I don’t see it anywhere.’ Chanyeol mused listening as I sighed heavily, dropping the tablet back on the pillow beside me and fixed the screen so he was looking at the ceiling again.

 ‘Weird, I lost it now too.’

 ‘Maybe it dug a hole in the ceiling and went back home.’

 ‘Then I would have a hole in my ceiling, I don’t want a hole in my ceiling.’

 ‘I want a hole in my ceiling if it means I have gnomes.’ I scoffed then smiled as I scanned the ceiling.

 ‘Yeah, I don’t know if I want gnomes at all, I remember reading a creepy story about them as a kid.’

 ‘I like Gnomeo and Juliet,’ I blinked slowly and looked at the tablet.

 ‘I only vaguely remember watching that, was it good?’

 ‘I wouldn’t like it if it wasn’t,’ I snorted and nodded he did have a point.

 ‘Yeah, alright, that makes sense.’

 ‘What’s wrong,’ I frowned and huffed, glancing at the tablet lying beside me like clockwork he could tell when I was upset. I didn’t doubt he had known the whole time and just had stayed silent until he thought I had calmed down.

 ‘What do you mean what’s wrong?’ I my lips before closing my eyes and sighing. ‘Does something seem wrong?’

 ‘Yes,’ I tsked and flipped onto my side eyeing the tablet with discontent, somehow even from 8,000 km away he could tell when I was upset. I need to start ruining his clockwork. ‘So, what’s wrong?’

 ‘My dad ticks me off, whenever we meet we argue and he always blames me.’ I shuffled, rubbing my foot against my ankle. ‘I just wish we could get along and that things were like they were when I was a kid. I used to be a daddys girl, I used to always cuddle him and tell him everything on my mind. Now I don’t and if I try to tell him things he either gets angry at me and argues or tries to fix everything I think, constantly implying that he is smarter than me. Plus he lies, you know how females are always self conscious about how they look? He told me that after he posted pictures of me on his facebook that his friends commented on them saying how beautiful I was and how lucky he was to help me. He’s lied to me a lot so I checked, there were no such comments. I know he was doing it so I would feel better about myself but I don’t care about that, especially if he’s lying. I would prefer him just noticing things, you know he drove me to a friends wedding once, and he didn’t comment once on how I looked. That’s when I could have used some support, a comment on how I looked.’

 ‘Maybe he didn’t mean commenting on facebook, maybe he meant that they saw the photos and commented to him in real life saying those things.’ I blinked my eyes, scowling at the tears I could feel appearing.

 ‘That’s what I thought too, but then he said it again and he explicitly said that they commented on facebook.’

 ‘Jaehwa, I think you need to stop thinking about the fact that he was lying and instead look at his motives,’ I was surprised to hear Chanyeol speaking so firmly, not giving me any room to complain. ‘He didn’t do it to make you feel worse, he did it because he wanted you to know that you are beautiful. Besides, would you have listened to him if he said he thought you were beautiful? Or would you listen more if you think someone else said it?’ I frowned and buried my face in my pillow.

 ‘I don’t understand you,’ I muttered my voice muffled from the pillow.

 ‘What do you mean?’ I snorted hearing how confused he was, I just don’t understand how he knows me so well, I mean we barely know each other!

 ‘I just don’t, you’re strange, Chanyeol-shii,’ I sighed and adjusted myself so I was staring up at the ceiling again.

 ‘You know I’m right,’ he argued and I huffed, pouting as I grabbed my long pillow and hugged it to my chest.

 ‘Yeah, I do, it’s just hard.’

 ‘I understand that, you would rather ernest compliments compared to fabricated ones.’

 ‘The importance of being Earnest,’ I smiled and shifted onto my side again, wrapping my legs around the pillow. ‘I swear I will only ever love someone named Earnest.’

 ‘That’s funny, my middle name is Earnest!’ I snorted and played with the tip of the pillow case.

 ‘I’m sure it is, because your name is totally Park Earnest Chanyeol, that makes total sense.’

 ‘It does! I can’t believe you didn’t know,’ he tsked before bursting out in laughter, ‘but that doesn’t make sense. Just because someones name is Earnest doesn’t mean that they act earnest. Be careful, Jaehwa, you’re sounding awfully shallow and I must tell you, my good opinion once lost is lost forever,’ I bit my lip to hold in giggling as I felt my stomach flip. That’s exactly why Mr. Darcy says, not that Chanyeol knows that, he doesn’t even know what Pride and Prejudice is.

 ‘Be careful, Chanyeol, you’re sounding awfully prideful and I must say, such pride is a major fault in anyone,’ I mused, giggling mutely into the pillow.

 ‘Well it’s a good thing that everyone has faults then isn’t it? It makes it a little easier to forgive the people around us.’

 ‘Well I can’t imagine you forgive everyone, not if your opinion is to be held so dear.’ He chuckled before I heard the shuffling of fabric erupt from the speakers as well.

 ‘Baby Yeol!’ I blinked, freezing as I heard a female voice from the other side.

 ‘Leave me alone, Noona! I’m on the phone!’

 ‘Respect your sister you brat!’ I relaxed and looked at the tablet amused as Chanyeol groaned, ‘it’s time to go! Get moving!’

 ‘Fine! Just go away!’ He snapped before sighing, ‘alright, I have to go, sorry.’

 ‘It’s alright, it was good talking to you, I suppose.’

 ‘Bye,’ I looked at the screen with a frown as the call ended.

 ‘Now what am I supposed to do?’ I rolled onto my back and bit my lip, mum wasn’t going to be done talking on the phone for awhile and my brothers still hadn’t messaged me. Looking at my watch I wrinkled my nose then closed my eyes, breathing in the fresh scent of lavender febreze my mum had been spraying around the house. Biting my lip I looked at the wallpaper on my tablet. The picture was taken the night before I left, Kris, Xiumin, Chen, Luhan, Lay, Tao, Sooyun, and I were huddled behind Sooyun’s dinner table. It was an absolute catastrophe, we could barely sit still long enough to take it and even then it was clear that Sooyun was about to fall over and Tao was about to blow up from how loud everyone was being. I missed my friends, but I knew that once I got back to Korea, I would miss my family more. Though I had to admit, it’s barely been 24 hours here and I already feel drained.

 ‘Jaida!’ I blinked and huffed knowing if my mum was calling me I had to get up.

 ‘Ah?’ I yawned, puffing my cheeks out before I could breathe out.

 ‘Can you come here please?’

 ‘Yeah,’ groaning I pushed myself up and slowly walked to the living room. ‘What’s up?’ She looked up from her phone and smiled.

 ‘I found a deal on groupon for that resort we went to before, the five of us can go!’ I blinked and rubbed the back of my head lethargically processing the fact that she had said five and not two or four. Meaning that dad would be coming.

 ‘And everyone agreed?’ I pressed my lips together refusing to let another yawn erupt before I rubbed my eyes with my fists. I really should not have let Chanyeol keep me up earlier this morning.

 ‘Yes, we planned this awhile ago! It comes with some spa treatment as well! The boys don’t want those so we can have them, we both get the whole manicure pedicure set and the hydropath.’ She beamed as she clapped her hands together, her reward sensitivity erupting with excitement at the prospect of such a deal.

 ‘When are we going?’ I dropped down onto the love seat beside the couch, hugging my legs to my chest.

 ‘We need to be there by seven,’ I nodded and looked at the clock, it was three. ‘It’s the one we went to in Courtenay, remember? The Kingfisher?’

 ‘Yeah, I remember that,’ nodding I shrugged my shoulders back. ‘That means we have to leave now, doesn’t it? We need to catch the ferry and drive there.’

 ‘I’m already packed, you just need to pack your stuff up then get in the car. Mark will be driving with us and Peter will be with your dad. I’m debating whether or not to let Angela come with us and have the boys sleep in one room and girls in the other.’ She looked back down at her phone before sighing.

 ‘I don’t mind her coming, she is going to be my sister soon,’ I stood up and rocked on my feet. ‘I need to go back, tell me what’s going on with her when you can,’ I made my way to the bathroom collecting all the things I knew I would forget immediately so I would have them in my bag. I could faintly hear my mother muttering out what she was texting from the living room, I shook my head and smiled. I really love my mum, she’s amazing, I don’t know why I had such a hard time connecting to her as a kid, I mean I never let her do the things a mother should do with a daughter. I hated what she bought for me (though once I put it on I thought they were really nice) and I never let her touch my hair whether it was brushing, braiding, or putting into a pony tail, it didn’t matter. I would only let my cousin and my dad touch my hair, and well both of them ended up betraying me and my family at some point of time so clearly I don’t have a good track record of trusting people.

 ‘I don’t think she’s coming,’ she said as she walked by me into her room, only to come out again lugging her big blue suitcase behind her. Grunting in acknowledgement I turned to my bed staring at it blankly as I considered my options, take my large suitcase I came here with or use the small one under the bed?

 ‘Am I taking everything with me or will I get time here before I head back?’

 ‘You’ll have time, only take what you need, we will be there for three nights.’ Nodding I pulled out a small orange suitcase from under my bed, ping it and quickly putting the bare necessities inside. Unlike my mum I didn’t need much, just clothes, cleaning supplies, and flip flops. I always wore shoes when I was travelling and stuffed my flip flops into the suitcase to use because they used up less space than shoes. ‘Are you ready?’ She called from down the hall and I scanned my bag.

 ‘Let’s see, pants, socks, shorts, shirts, cardigans, a sweater, toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush,’ I frantically searched the bag before sighing. ‘I need my hairbrush,’ running to the washroom I pulled open the drawer and grabbed it before tossing it in my suitcase. ‘Tablet