Talking to the moon

Chapter 32

By The road to recovery was never a straight path, and Chaewon knew this and understood this.

She stayed up at night gently tracing over the bandages wrapped around Yunjin, trying to hold back tears at the thought that she almost lost her. Eunchae would sometimes grumble something in her sleep, and scare the daylights out of Chaewon thinking she was awake causing the lawyer to quickly pretend like she was asleep. Nine out of ten times it was her just dreaming, and Chaewon would open her eyes back up and stare right back at Yunjin. The whole situation shook her up much more than she would like to admit. That nagging thought kept tugging at her, she almost lost her too.

Night was always a strange time for them. It was Chaewon's favorite and least favorite time of the day. She loved having a family to sit down with at the end of a long day, help Eunchae with her homework whenever Yunjin didn't know how to help, and read a story to Eunchae. It made her happier than anything else in the world. Night was also the scariest time for her. It's when demons of the past would crawl around in the dark, striking terror into their victims. Yunjin had only had one other episode since her first night back, but she just woke up and fell back asleep. She was doing well, going to her therapy, making sure to pace herself, Chaewon was proud of her. Her own demons would come out sometimes, when she just couldn't fall asleep thinking about everything, work, Yunjin, Eunchae, even the pets. But Eunchae, Eunchae was the problem.

The kindergartener was getting much, much better as time progressed. Where she used to have nightmares almost daily, she had them maybe once a week now and they were much more manageable then they used to be. Overall Chaewon had seen major improvements in her since she started staying with them almost six months ago now. She didn't freak out as much anymore, she communicated better, she trust not just them but the adults around her. She didn't look as sad as she used to, she used to have this heavy load she dragged around with her everywhere draining her energy and the life from her eyes. Now she was open to what Chaewon could offer her of a childhood, and Chaewon tried her damn best.

There were always a few setbacks, that was how life went. Like last night when Eunchae wanted to stay up late and watch another Disney movie and Yunjin had to tell her no because she had school. Eunchae was usually behaved, but she was also six and inclined to occasional throw fits. After a brief struggle where Yunjin just kinda said no again and Eunchae let it go (Chaewon thought they were so funny, they never really argued.To think about sheras never even heard Eunchae be scolded.), she was sent to bed in her own room with both the cat and the dog. She still climbed into bed with them often, but occasionally just slept through the night in her own room now. Chaewon didn't remember falling asleep, but she did hear the screams coming from Eunchae's room down the hall. In all 27 years of her life, Chaewon has never moved that fast, rushing down the hall into the room, waking Eunchae up and held her as she calmed down. It didn't take to long for her to fall back asleep and Chaewon just decided to sleep in her bed with her just in case it happened again, Rey curled up happily at their feet and Grumpy plopping down on Chaewon's chest. Nightmares usually had a friend, an attitude in the morning. Chaewon figures it was just Eunchae trying to deal with whatever she dreamt about but it was still a bit annoying.

Usually that attitude was gone by the time Eunchae returned home. But the scowl on her face when she marched out of school and grabbed onto Yunjin's hand proved very quickly that was not the case. She didn't say a word on the way home, stomping into the house and made a beeline for Yunjin's room. Unfortunately for her Yunjin was asleep, her cold was only getting worse and Chaewon had practically suplexed her into bed before she left for her to take a nap. Eunchae wasn't one to wake Yunjin up just because she wanted attention, so she left and stopped into the kitchen. 

"Where are the crackers?" Eunchae asked, head buried in the snack cabinet. "You know the little animal one, or the nilla wafers?"

"Um- I may have finished the nillas last night and you had the last packet of crackers last night too, remember?" Chaewon recalled, watching Eunchae's reaction. Her shoulders sagged, like the thought of eating those snacks was the only thing keeping her together.