Hearts on the line

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Danielle

"Danielle, there's something I have to tell you about my family," Haerin said beside me. I turned to look at her when I heard the nervousness in her voice. Before she could continue, the door opened and a teenage girl stood in the doorway.

She looked up from her phone, "Hey," she said to Haerin.

Haerin frowned as she took the phone from her, "' hey'" she mimicked in an annoying voice, "that's all you're going to say to your sister that drove, I don't know how many hours to spend my birthday with you and mom?"

The girl smiled as she went to hug Haerin, "you didn't let me finish. I meant to say 'hey you're here happy birthday'" I looked from Haerin to her sister and couldn't help but notice how different they look. While Haerin had straight blonde hair and blue eyes, her sister had dark wavy hair and brown eyes.

Haerin took my hand, "Hyein, this is my girlfriend Danielle." Hyein pulled away from Haerin and looked at me in awe.

"It's such an honor to meet you," she shook my hand with enthusiasm, "I honestly can't believe my sister managed to trick you into dating her.

Haerin held the back of Hyein's neck, "this punk," she scolded as I laughed. I clung onto Haerin's arm, "it's nice to meet you Hyein and all the tricking was done on my part," I looked into Haerin's eyes, "I'm just waiting for her to tell me when she's sick of me."

Haerin smiled at me while Hyein looked on, "alright, this is too lovey-dovey for me." She grabbed her phone out of Haerin's hand and ran inside, leaving the door open for us.

Haerin rolled her eyes, "sorry about that, I forgot she's going through her teen phase."

I put my hands up in defense, "I remember being in that phase and I don't miss it."

Haerin laughed, "so tell me exactly how teenage Danielle was." She led me inside the house closed the door behind us. Haerin walked past me in a hurry, "actually hold that thought, I've been holding in my pee for an hour, I'll be right back."

I shook my head with a smile and only realized that the walls were decorated with baby pictures of Haerin and Hyein. I stopped to study every photo and smiled as every picture illustrated Haerin growing up with her sister.

"Hi there, you must be Danielle."

I turned in the direction of the voice and was met with a small Korean woman smiling at me, "it's so nice to finally meet you," she walked closer to me with her hand out, "I'm Chaeyoung, Haerin's mom."

I shook her hand and hoped that I hid the shock, "it's so nice to meet you, Haerin speaks very highly of you. Oh right," I handed her the box of cake, "Haerin and I stopped to grab a cake.''

"Perfect!" she replied with a slight accent, "we can have it for dessert tonight," she grinned.

You didn't have to see Chaeyoung up close to know that she was Hyein's mother. They both had the same kind brown eyes, same skin, and although Chaeyoung's hair was starting to gray, I imagined her hair was exactly like Hyein's. Why was it that Haerin was the only blonde in the family?

Haerin

I flushed the toilet and went to the sink to wash my hands. I looked in the mirror and stared at my reflection, the girl staring back at me looked the same but different from when I looked into this mirror in high school. I lost all my baby fat in my face and I grew into my ears, thank God.

I continued staring at the mirror and wondered if I could lie to mom and Hyein, "you can do this, Haerin." I nodded and turned to leave.

Walking down the hall back to the front door where hopefully Danielle was still waiting. I turned the corner and saw Danielle shaking mom's hand and tensed, I totally forgot to tell her about my family.