Common Sense (taegi)

2+2

"Jennie could you please get the door!" I shout to my eldest sister when a loud booming knock echoes through our small cottage.

Small is an understatement. The place is a one room shack. The kitchen ,living room and bedroom confined to the same area. The bathroom a tiny outhouse in the backyard

Mom has been sick for a while now. She gets up and down days. Her up days are when she's conscious enough to remember our names and hold conversation with us five. Her bad days are when we have to spoon feed her in her coma like state so she won't pass to the other side in her sleep. We have to bath her, change her clothes , brush her teeth and hair.

Well, I have too.

"Get it yourself! Can't you see I'm busy?" She replies with an irritated tone.

No, I can't see. She, Lisa the baby of us, Rose and Jisoo the twin middle children, are all lounged out on the one bed in the house we share. They are dressed bare in their undergarments fanning themselves with made up faces.

Our house is always hot because of its lack of windows and stone walls.

The dresser beside our bed catches my attention. Five drawers. One each, except I share my own with mum. I don't have much clothes anyway.

It's rickety made of old splintering wood. The white paint is chipped almost completely away except for the fronts of each drawer itself.

I found this book once. It was an art book. At least I assumed it was, I couldn't read the title, but the pictures inside were very colourful and inviting.

I borrowed some paints from Jimin and painted my favorite pictures on them

On Jennie's I painted a Phoenix. Feathers bright and red as a flame, poised and dangerous if approached in the wrong way.

On Lisa's I painted a dancer. Dressed up in the softest colors I've ever seen the girl twirled with a happy smile on her doll like face.

On Rose's I painted roses. Jimin would say it was ironic, but I don't know what that word means yet, I never got to look it up. The roses are red as blood, sharp thorns for protection from attackers.

On jisoos I painted a starry night sky. Pitch black and cold with touches of blues and greens and purples. It was a mess of colors. A mess of emotion.

And finally on mothers and my own drawer I painted daisy's. I don't know why I was so drawn to the idea. I just felt the need to draw these beautiful flowers as representation of me. I felt like someday, I would be rewarded for all my hard work for my family and the daisy would be my three leaf clover.

The knock on the door echoes again. Louder this time.

"One of you please get the door. If not then come feed mom while I get it." I try to reason with them.

All I receive is a groan in return. Lisa leaned herself up and I thought maybe she would get the door for a moment but then she shakes he head and lays back down. Lazy bum she is.

Luckily today is a good day for mom.

"Taehyung " she says softly catching my attention.

She looks so frail lying on the couch in just her night gown and a ratty blanket to keep her warm. With her medicine and the need for food we haven't been able to buy firewood for the fireplace and I didn't have time to go get any. The others weren't even a second thought.

Her hair is a white blonde just like mine. Straight as a pin and spilling out around her head. Her loving brown eyes trained on my face. "It's fine my love, I can feed myself, get the door before they break it down." She says.

I'm surprised she has enough strength to get through such a long sentence without coughing up a lung, but I give up the bowl without a fuss. If she wants to do something for herself who is to stop her?

I kiss her forehead before hurrying to the door shooting my sisters an evil glare.

"Who is it?" I ask flinging the wooden monster open.

Behind it stood someone I haven't seen in a long time.

"Jin!"