Minji's mouth was opened in the ridiculous rectangular shape it always formed as she laughed so hard her cheeks turned pink. Beside her, her little sister smirked proudly over the successful joke she had made. Flowers lay scattered between the two girls as they idly twisted the stems to form a ring, their hands expertly flying through the movements. For the first time, a great amount of rain and warm weather had allowed a number of flowers to sprout up along the mountainside.

       The laughter died down between the two girls, and settled into a comfortable silence. Hwayoung, however, looked nervously at her sister. The younger girl's fingers twitched around her flower crown. 

       "Minji," Hwayoung began. "Mother said they were going to marry you off soon."

       "Mmm," Minji nodded, not looking up from her work. "I'm of the age, so it's only a matter of time."

       Hwayoung looked back down at her flower crown quietly, her expression guarded. She was quiet for a minute as she tried to assemble the words in her mind to express herself.

       "Will-will that change us?" Hwayoung ventured tentatively.

       Minji looked up in surprise, her eyebrows arching upwards. "What do you mean?"

       "I-I mean," the younger scrambled, "I mean, will you still be like this?"

       "Like this?" Minji gestured between them with her hand, gripping the stem of a flower.

       Hwayoung nodded eagerly. "I don't want this to ever change."

       Minji put down her flower crown and leaned back, supported by her arms. Turning her face upwards to the sun, she sighed, and neither girl moved for a moment as they soaked in their surroundings.

       "Yes," Minji stated suddenly.

       "What?" Hwayoung balked.

       "I think things will be different. I'll be married and have to run a household. I won't have time to build many flower crowns with you, Hwayoung."

       Hwayoung looked down at her lap again in silence, trying to come up with a way to keep her older sister, but grew increasingly irritated as she drew a blank. 

       "Don't get married, then."

       The elder sibling sighed. "If it makes our parents happy and helps you, then I must."

       "I don't see how it helps me," Hwayoung pouted with crossed arms, her childish side coming through. "What I need is my sister with me."

       Minji smiled and put her hand over Hwayoung's. "I'll always be here for you."

       The sun beat down upon the back of Hwayoung's neck as she beat the mattress against the ground. Sweat trickled down her temple and pooled above her lip and on her jaw. Cheeks flushed from exertion, Hwayoung ignored her screaming limbs and aching back- it was the day of cleaning for the village women as they prepared for the long winter that drew ever nearer.

       So did Hwayoung's wedding day, for in two moons would be the winter solstice, and Hwayoung would be forever bound to a boy she had not seen since the day he confronted her in the street.

       Hwayoung knew she had to talk to him and apologize, but she just couldn't find it within herself to do so. Furthermore, she had avoided him like the plague, and it was getting extremely tiresome.

       So instead of aimlessly roaming around the village and risk running into him by chance, Hwayoung remained at home, where she would also be safe from Taemin, who had been giving her meaningful looks every time she passed. More than anything, she knew that cutting all ties with him was the only way to let him go.

       Forgetting Lee Taemin was hard, but with each sunrise and with each sunset, she felt the hole in her heart grow a little smaller with each time she laid her head down to sleep. In her head, she had begun to talk of their love in the past tense, and she knew that living without him was something she was very much able to do.

       It had occured to Hwayoung that maybe she hadn't loved Taemin. Maybe what she had felt was merely the passion and restlessness of a time that she no longer lived in, and hadn't since the death of her sister.

       The memory of Minji was as though someone had carved out a section of her life and left it to unravel at the edges like a worn out sock. Her sibling was her best friend, her partner in everything, and her other half. Without Minji, Hwayoung felt more lost than ever, and it hurt to have to face her wedding without her sister by her side.

       Was it bad to blame everything on her sister's death? Why did she feel so angry? The questions kept her awake at night.

       Anything was better than the nightmares that waited her when she did manage to fall asleep. The yellow eyes from that night stared at her from the shadows of her consciousness, and she