The Afterlife

2) The Air, the Stars, and Us

"Even after seven years," Sihyeon had heard those very words before, and they were ringing many bells. Various scenarios in which she had befriended the letters kept playing in her heard, yet she listened on, eyes focus on the subject of said letters, a smile flowering there before her lips; she leaned her head against Naeun's shoulder, and when she breathed next, words followed as easily as she can remember them, "he still is taking baby steps."

"Oh, sure he is," Naeun laughed, already knowing too well who Sihyeon was speaking of. When her eyes raised themselves to find Yeonjun first, he was sitting on one of the kitchen stools, silent and watching while the rest of his company filled the spaces in the house with no chatter, "he is not one to blend in easily."

"No," Sihyeon laughed, more admiring than taunting, more loving than criticising; she loves him before she could deny it, and so she loved all that was about him; Yeonjun was only quiet when he was not around her, and even though she knew how full of words he was, she never saw him speak one when taken two steps away from her side, "it is his first life, though. Be understanding."

"Worry not," Mia poked Sihyeon from her other side, and while Naeun laughed again, Sihyeon took her time to lift an eyebrow at her sister, "we are not to eat him away from you."

"Oh, dare try," Sihyeon's lips widened, and they knew all too well it was provocative and sarcastic; she was not then smiling, but plain threatening, even when it was a joke lifted and thrown in the air, "as silent as me and as dangerous as me, he is."

"That much we know," Yun nodded, eyes immediately clouding to look back at the memories in her head; she sat back, and there lied pictures of the version of Sihyeon's husband they all saw for months while she was gone. While he was quiet, Yeonjun was so alert, and not a single passenger to their boat went unnoticed; he kept guarding Sihyeon's bed like it was life and all life was about, and so fear even crept inside those it was not meant for, "it sure is a miracle he is capable of love."

"Hey-"

Before Sihyeon could protest, her head fell, and Naeun was up at once, taking her leave with a smile coating her intended snort, "I am getting water."

Sihyeon knew the older girl was only off to spare herself the stock of defence Sihyeon had for her lover, and she picked it almost immediately. She was easily driven into speaking volumes about him, and it was less of what Sihyeon was, yet more of what Sihyeon was about Yeonjun.

"I have always wanted to ask," Naeun's steps came to a hault when the familiar voice of her kid penetrated the balcony's door, and when she looked to her side, she could clearly see through the glass door where Eunha stood and from where she spoke, "do you not despise me?"

There was plently of water and air and blood in the world, but none made any vows to compliment Naeun's heart that moment. She saw the desperation in Eunha's eyes as clearly as she saw the surprise in Yeona's eyes, and the latter stood a stone before Naeun's youngest.

"Why would I?" Yeona's bafflement surpassed her voice, and so her inquiry became almost a whisper, making way for disbelief and denial all at once.

"There is a lot to why you should," Eunha, on the other hand, spoke with much ease, as if those very words had made home of her heart and tongue long ago, as though she had them learnt and recited and spoke to herself for too long that they had become her home and sole belief, "but I see none of it in your eyes."

Yeona sighed, the words making little sense meaning to her on the contrary, "what is the lot?"

Eunha's eyes met her sister's again, and when they did, they beheld all the fret her voice gave the impression she was rid of, but the child looked like life was hanging by a thread in her eyes, and the wrong words could have surely buried a grave, "I have always been preparing myself to hear you telling me," yet she met them with a smile - the words. A weak one, that was for certain, but one and one for all, "you took my mother," Naeun could have sworn she was brought death and life all at once right there, "your father killed my older sister," but she was standing on her feet, and it was a mircale brought by a miracle; she was listening on, and it was a wrongness to her body that shuddered at the words spoken by her child.