𝗴𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, txt

never alone

─── december 21, 2016
⤷ in which jieun receives
a reminder that she's never
alone...

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   JIEUN STANDS OUTSIDE THE restaurant her older sister had told her to meet her at, shivering in the winter cold despite already being wrapped up in 3 layers, including her big puffer jacket.

She wouldn't go inside, though, no matter how cold she was. The restaurant staff would probably take one look at her disheveled figure and tell her to turn back around.

She had just finished vocal lessons before arriving to the restaurant but didn't have any time to get ready as her sister had ushered her to get there on time for the sake of their reservation or else they wouldn't let them dine, and seeing as this would be the first time Jieun had seen both her sister and dad in months, she wasted no time to run out the door as soon as her vocal coach told her she was dismissed for the day.

Maybe Jieun should have taken some time to get ready, because now she was the early one as her family hadn't arrived yet (but to be fair, they were driving into Seoul all the way from the outskirts of the city). She had simply gotten changed into a nicer pair of clothes she had packed in her duffel bag, but she had dark circles under her eyes from the times she had woken up early and stayed up late with dance practice and lessons.

She wasn't worried about the people passing by that could see her standing outside the restaurant and think that this 16 year old girl was probably waiting for a chance to ask for some food from anybody coming out of the building, but more so how her family would react to seeing how tired she looked.

Her sister and dad had become more a bit more... intense on Jieun's health ever since her mother and younger sister had passed away. Not in a bad way, though, just that if they were to see her looking like she could probably fall asleep right then and there, they'd probably freak and take her back home to Suwon (she had also lost a lot of weight from all the dancing and diets, so she was sure they were going to stuff her with as much food as possible tonight).

Her train of thought is interrupted when she hears a familiar voice shout her name throughout the evening crowd, making almost every pedestrian turn around to look at where the shout came from.

Jieun fondly cringes when her eyes land on her older sister, waving a hand at her as she crosses the street next to her father who tries to get her to quiet down. She stays where she's at, though, to give herself as much time possible to compose herself so she wouldn't cry right away.

When her sister, Yerim, finally reaches her, with her father trailing behind as she had started running, she slaps her shoulder harshly instead of hugging her like Jieun had originally expected her to, making the younger girl let out a sound of pain.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"Are you not excited to see your older sister?!" Yerim asks dramatically, per usual, "It's been 8 months since I last saw you and you're trying to act cool by waiting here instead of running to greet me?!"

Their dad comes up behind Yerim, setting a hand on the older girl's shoulder to calm her down, "Honey, you know Jieun is the definition of tough love," He opens his arms, pulling in his youngest daughter for the biggest, and only, hug Jieun had gotten since the last time she saw him (which was probably some 8 months ago).