Talking to the moon

Chapter 5

Beep beep beep

With a loud groan, Yunjin reached over to her bedside table, smacking aimlessly a few times until her hand finally hit the alarm clock muting that godawful ringing noise. The sun was just starting to sneak in through her half-shut blinds, but her blankets were warm and there was a body snuggled next to hers. Wait-

Her eyes bolted open to see Eunchae still asleep soundlessly on the other side of the bed, body spread out and hair in a wild halo covering half of her face. She had Peng cradled in her arms and a leg laid out on Yunjin's. It came back to the detective quickly, how Eunchae had poked her awake last night, sobbing and shaking, as she almost begged Yunjin to let her sleep in her bed. Why she sounded so desperate and scared of rejection struck Yunjin as odd because Eunchae hadn't spent a night in the spare bedroom yet, always climbing into bed with her halfway through the night. The kindergartener must've had a nightmare, and it must've been a particularly nasty one based on how she cried until she fell asleep next to Yunjin. The soft sound of rain that Yunjin had played on her phone to try and calm her down was still going off, and Eunchae looked so deep in sleep that Yunjin felt kind of bad having to wake her up. But she still had to go to school, and unfortunately, Yunjin had to go with her.

"Eunchae," Sleep still heavy in Eunchae's voice as she gently shoved the girl awake, "You need to wake up."

Eunchae just mumbled and nuzzled her face into the plushie.

"You need to go to school, don't you want to go see Kyujin?"

"Mmm," Eunchae's eyes slowly but surely fluttered open, puffy and swollen from last night. It broke Yunjin's heart a bit, seeing Eunchae so sad hurt a place deep in Yunjin's soul that rarely felt anything. Eunchae looked over at Yunjin before releasing a loud yawn, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Up, can you change into your uniform while I make something to eat for you?" Yunjin asked, stretching her arms over her head while she watched Eunchae nod and start to get up as well.

Kicking the covers off of herself, she grabbed the jeans and t-shirt she had left on a bean bag chair in the corner of the room before heading out of the room. She went into the bathroom and changed in record time, tucking in the boxy grey t-shirt into high waisted black jeans. Brushed her hair down to look presentable, before heading out into the kitchen, she could hear the light pitter of Eunchae walking across the hall to her own bedroom to change. She grabbed the box of lucky charms and filled two bowls, along with pouring milk into it.

Was giving a six-year-old pure sugar in the morning a good idea, definitely not. Was the hyperactive Eunchae going to be her problem in an hour, no. A few minutes later Eunchae came out, still rubbing sleepy eyes as she climbed onto the chair next to Yunjin, grabbing the blue cookie monster spoon that Yunjin had gotten out of a cereal box a few weeks ago. Yunjin started to eat as well, occasionally glancing over at the child, "Are you feeling better this morning?"

Eunchae nodded, shoveling another spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

"What made you upset last night?" Yunjin gently probed, letting her own spoon hang in her hand as she rested her elbow on the table. She was trained to interrogate, and she was damn good at getting the answers she wanted, but Eunchae was different.

The girl just let her head hang, going quiet as if she was thinking before shaking her head, "I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"It's a secret."

"I'm pretty good at keeping secrets, you know."

"Mommy made me pinky promise to keep it." That felt like a punch to the gut. Eunchae just resumed eating as Yunjin tried to compose herself enough to put a mental checklist of everything they needed. It was easy for Yunjin's mind to slip into a dark place of what exactly Eunchae meant by that, she had seen countless disturbing things out in the field. Eunchae seemed unfazed, hopping off the chair and put her now empty bowl in the sink before running off to the spare bedroom to grab her backpack. She came out as Yunjin was grabbing her keys, neither of them said anything the entire way to school.