Talking to the moon

Chapter 21

It was safe to say Kyujin's position as Eunchae's best friend had some good competition now. Chaewon trailed just behind her, always being there to play with her and read her books before she went to bed. Chaewon was pretty and smart and always made sure Eunchae had a lot of food to eat, and Eunchae loved her for that. Sometimes Eunchae would make her little origami animals with barely legible words written on them and slip them into her work papers. More than once this week has Chaewon gotten to court, taken out her papers, and saw a little folded shark with, 'I luv u ChaewOnnie! Gud luCk!' inscribed on it. Yunjin was her best friend two, but Yunjin was different than the other too, Eunchae couldn't describe it.

But both Chaewon and Kyujin now had a new challenger in the form of one small furry dog; Rey. It was no secret Eunchae adored animals, but having one of her own was different. He would sleep in bed with her, letting her wrap her arms around him when she got scared or just wanted cuddles. With him, she was able to sleep in her own bed for the first time alone. She had gotten up the night prior, checking on Chaewon who was snoring on the couch, one hand hanging off and the blanket barely covering her while Grumpy laid on her chest head resting on her own in a way that would make Chaewon's face scrunch up when his whiskers tickled her face. It confused Eunchae sometimes as to why she just didn't sleep with Yunjin, she and Kyujin always shared a bed when she slept over so why couldn't Yunjin and Chaewon? Then she pattered over to Yunjin, seeing the woman laid out in bed, now only taking the right half of the bed, unlike when Eunchae first started living there where she'd be sprawled out and make it difficult for Eunchae to slip in, now the left side was always open for her. But for some reason, she made her way back into her own room, curled up with Rey, and fell back asleep. He just made her feel safe.

They were a lot alike, Eunchae had come to realize that. Rey's mommy didn't want to take care of him either so he had nice people who would do it for her. Sometimes she wondered what she did to make her mommy so mad at her, was she just not good enough? She tried hard, so why didn't she want her? Sometimes it made her sad, sometimes she just shifted her attention to other things and tried to ignore it. Like now as she giggled and ran around the living room couch, Rey chasing slightly behind. Chaewon was going to be home late today, Yunjin said she was questioning a bad guy and it was taking a while. That was bad for one reason, Yunjin had to make dinner.

Eunchae adored everything Yunjin did. Everything except cooking.

She'd eat it with no complaints, just having a dinner to eat was a luxury and Eunchae wasn't sure how much longer she'd have it. But Chaewon's dinners were always better, they just tasted better. Chaewon said she put love in it, Yunjin disagreed.

Finally stopping her run, she decided to check up on the detective, pittering into the kitchen where Yunjin was frowning over a cooking video on her phone. There were a few boxes on the counter which Eunchae had to jump to see, before locking eyes on a plate of...something. Stepping onto her tippy toes, she grabbed the counter trying to get a better look, "Yunjin?"

"Hm?" The detective hummed, tearing her attention away from her video over to the child.

"What are these?" She pointed to the small grey creatures piled up on a plate, they had little arms and whiskers.

"Those are shrimps," Yunjin responded, smiling over at her, "They live in the ocean."

Woah. Yunjin turned back to her video as Eunchae reached up and poked the shrimp. Wait a second, she paused. If the shrimp lived in the ocean, why was it out of the water on the counter? Eunchae frowned, this didn't seem right. Reaching up to grab one of the bowls on the counter, she took it down and grabbed a shrimp tossing it into the bowl. Looking back to see if Yunjin had noticed, she was still occupied with her video, so Eunchae made her escape making a beeline for the bathroom, Rey trailing right behind.