bathroom stall.

six

-          beep. beep. beep.

yerin rolled over, groaning quietly, and lifted a heavy hand to silence her alarm. it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to her darkened bedroom, a faint glow coming from behind the lavender curtains. the stars on her ceiling had lost their glow and returned to lifeless plastic. her room felt small and cluttered now, as autumn set in and the air remembered its unforgiving chill.

yerin sat up, stretched, pushed the bunched covers to the end of her bed. she could change quickly, because she had set aside her outfit the night before: jeans and a hand-me-down oversized sweatshirt. sweeping her hair into a ponytail, she made her way downstairs to meet her mom and her sister chaeyong at the table. both were in pjs, and the 5-year-old murmured a sleepy hello as she spooned cereal into her mouth.

"yerin," her mom looked up from her cornflakes.

"mm?"

"do you know a boy named jeon jeongguk?"

yerin froze. the milk carton in her hand kept pouring.

"yerin! the milk!"

yerin hastily righted the carton and took a deep breath.

"sorry...i'm still waking up," she managed a laugh, trying to calm her racing heart.

"okay..." her mother studied her with a quizzical look before pressing on. "i'm wondering because i thought i saw his mother at the grocery store yesterday. you used to play with him when you were little."

chaeyong interrupted, mouth full of cereal. "how little?"

"as little as you," yerin's mother smiled.

"that's not that little!" chaeyong protested, clumsily pushing hair out of her face with a pout.

yerin finished pouring her cereal and joined her family at the table.

"so? have you seen him around lately? i'm thinking they might have moved back to town."

yerin stared down at her cornflakes. "i don't know a jeon jeongguk," she lied. "but i'll ask around."