a fairy's guide to romance | kim sunoo

EIGHT ; run to you.

"YOU'RE BACK."

yunsol's clouded eyes brightened as soon as she looked up to the direction of her living room. a light smile crinkled to her lips. "mom," she immediately went over to greet her stepmom's arms that were open wide for her, not even bothering to remove her school shoes she was dreading to take off as soon as she arrived.

a rush of ease hits yunsol in her mother's arms. there was nothing better than being around the woman she feels most herself with. gyeoul was second.

she didn't like when dramas watered down stepmothers as the most evil creatures known to mankind. blame cinderella, maybe. perhaps there are cruel stepmothers around the world and she just happened to be lucky. the same way that there are some biological mothers that couldn't dedicate a quarter of their heart to a child they had birthed. 

in a span of a single lifetime, she had called two women as her mom during separate timelines, yet only one woman made her feel like she truly deserved to be a daughter. 

and that 'mother' was here embracing and accepting her warmly in her arms after a long day.

yunsol felt a light kiss on her head as she raised her head to face her mom's smiling face. how she missed this. it was a while since she has been around family. "so, how are you?" her mother warmly regards, still hugging yunsol dearly. 

"bad. had a math test a few days ago. i think i might have officially flunked this semester." dramatic, yunsol acknowledges. but math was her weakest point ever since she had been introduced to long division and fractions. her interests solely align with science concepts. they were far less boring to learn than finding pointless values. 

"nayun. your definition of flunk is having a forty seven out of a fifty item test. you'll survive. you know, back in my day—"

"you mean back in the 50's?" 

she was met with a glare and she grinned in reply. her mother shook her head in disbelief before carrying on, "don't be sad if you receive a mark lower than your expectations, na yunsol. the test is done, you tried your best, and you can't do anything to change that. rather, what you can do is," a small kiss was planted on top of her head. her mom then looked back at her with a sweet smile. her eyes warm with endearment. a blanket of security was around yunsol's shoulder and the girl melted and immersed herself in the blanket. "cheer up and try again."

there was a short silence on yunsol's side. "you're already giving me a speech as soon as you're here," she quietly jokes. 

"you asked for it," her mom laughed. 

a door cranked open behind them and the mother-daughter peered their heads, still in one another's embraces. 

two children — one girl and one boy — appeared behind the door. the boy was holding the door as his whole face brightened with an uncontainable smile as he quickly ran to yunsol's direction. 

"nayun! nayun!" he excitedly yelled as yunsol prepared her arms open wide for her to welcome him with a hug. but, the boy had jumped straight to her arms instead and hung his lanky arms on her neck. yunsol couldn't care less as she hugged the eight year old boy tightly, even spinning him around causing him to giggle loudly that filled every blank corner of her home with lively corners.

"na jaemin! you're going to hurt your sister!" their mother nagged in the sidelines but a smile had more or less formed in her lips. 

the spinning action had decreased and she softly landed the two of them in the couch thankfully behind them. yunsol had forgotten she was eighteen with back problems. in spite of being out of breath and a complaining, aching back – she smiled at her baby half brother whom she had not seen since at least a couple of months ago. "i missed you so much!" jaemin grinned, now standing on the couch while beside her.