Talking to the moon

Chapter 19

Chaewon wasn't sure how many times she had to reassure Yunjin she was okay with picking Eunchae and Kyujin up from school while she was at her therapy appointment. She knew the woman still felt uneasy asking that of her, but quite frankly she was totally okay with it. Eunchae ran up to her, holding Kyujin's hand and tugging her along, Chaewon had expected for her to be excited to see her, instead anxiety was written all over her features, "Where's Yunjin."

"She's seeing her therapist, so I'm bringing you home."

"Like Ms.Sunmi?"

"Mhmm." Eunchae seemed to relax at that, turning to Kyujin and smiling.

"You know Kyujin right? She's my friend."

"We met before, remember? At parent's day."

She watched Kyujin smile back at her, gripping onto Eunchae's hand tighter. She was probably shy, Eunchae was as well so they probably balanced each other out well. Eunchae was a cute kid as well, walking alongside Eunchae blabbering to her about something in class that Chaewon imagined was hot gossip for kindergartners. It's only been a few days since Eunchae came back with them, and Chaewon could already see the change in the child simply from getting enough sleep now. Chaewon had started using the couch, letting Eunchae take her place next to Yunjin simply to make the girl comfortable. Sure she could return to her own apartment, but she just didn't want to. She wanted to make Eunchae lunch before she went to school and kiss Yunjin a goodbye before they left. Eunchae had woken up with night terrors the night prior and Chaewon was kind of glad she decided to sleep on the couch, it took a few minutes for Yunjin to get her to calm down as she screamed and thrashed around not registering it was Yunjin if Chaewon was there too, she wasn't sure if the girl would have come to so quickly.

Yunjin calmed her down, and eventually Chaewon and grumpy made their way into the room as well. Eunchae didn't exactly say what it was about, and maybe it was just a normal night terror kids her age had about monsters and alligators (the second part may have just been Chaewon's reoccurring night terror as a child though). Chaewon had her doubts about that though, Eunchae sounded too scared and too much of a reaction for it just to be a monster. And honestly, as the trial started, Chaewon was expecting them to start to occur more.

Eunchae's mother's attorney had blocked her and Joohyun's request to do Eunchae's testimony digitally, citing some bullshit reasoning that Chaewon didn't even remember. Sure she can still have a guardian with her, probably Yunjin, for comfort, and her psychiatrist that she has been seeing will be there to monitor and cut in if she needs to but Chaewon still felt uneasy about it. Two options were starting to become abundantly clear in Chaewon's mind, the defense was either batting on the assumption that Eunchae would lie and defend her mother, or Eunchae's mother genuinely felt like she did nothing wrong. Both made her angry.

"Do you hear that?" Eunchae asked suddenly, braking Chaewon away from her train of thought, tugging Kyujin into a small ally as Chaewon scrambled to follow caught off guard. She didn't even get to question what they were doing when Chaewon say what they were looking at. A small golden dachshund crying out as Eunchae reached down to pet him. She looked around, and there was no trace of a mother in sight. Shit.

"Why is he alone?" Kyujin questioned, "He looks tiny."

"I don't know, what do we do Jin?"

"Maybe we wait for his mommy to come? She has to come back, Mommies come back."

"I think his mommy left him kiddo." Chaewon cut in.

"His mommy left him?" Eunchae questioned, looking up at Chaewon watching her nod. She turned back, reaching out to run her fingers through his fur. Kyujin looked just as concerned, squatting down next to Chaewon taking her backpack off to dig through it, coming out with a few pieces of ham that she held out and offered to the puppy, in which it was quickly devoured. Chaewon watched as a smile spread across Kyujin's face as he ate, Eunchae just seemed to get more and more upset, "Why didn't his mommy take care of him?"