Broken

11

The rest of the year went by with Jeongyeon and Sana trying to befriend the group, Jihyo had told them that it was alright, but the girls refused to, trully, allow the two in completely. Understandable, but they still hung out together and talked, Jihyo continued with her routine, but her friends made sure she was eating and resting, as much as they could. Whilst the new duo was glad to make new friends, not really noticing the clear wall that separated them.

Summer vacation came by, and the girls demanded Jihyo would take some days off and come visit for a few days, each. The first one was Nayeon, not much change on how far they were from the Parks' residence, but, for Jihyo, it was a completely different world. The Ims were a very warm family, though both parents worked, they made sure Nayeon was well cared for and knew they were sorry they had to work late from time to time. Mr and mrs Im greeted Jihyo with warm smiles and even warmer hugs in the sunday morning she arrived.

It was the first weekend after classes were dismissed, Nayeon declared Jihyo was coming over, even going to the lengths to go to Jihyo's work and tell the girl's manager she was taking Jihyo for a few days. Mrs Choi (the manager) was more than delighted to allow the days off, saying she was overjoyed that the girl was, finally, resting and that she was starting to worry, even. Jihyo already had enough extra hours to have the whole month off.

Next saturday night would have been Tzuyu's turn, but things took a turn on friday, and everyone's turn came, then. Tzuyu had an older sister, the girl was in another school, and seemed to have left for a exchange program overseas a few months prior, nevertheless, they still seemed very close. Mina was the one to call them all, Tzuyu had showed up at her house crying and incoherent, Chaeyoung was there within minutes, and the others arrived when they could.

Once Jihyo arrived (the last one to), Tzuyu had already calmed down, but was still not talking. Jihyo hugged everyone (she had been doing that lately) and saw Tzuyu, the youngest was looking at nothing and not reacting to anything, so Jihyo just sat in front of her and waited. That seemed to do the trick, as Tzuyu looked at her and threw herself in Jihyo's arms. The others were a bit surprised and relieved by it, at least it was a reaction.

They just stayed like that for a good while, nobody really minded nor worried about checking how long, they were just happy to, finally, have a reaction that wasn't crying. Chaeyoung was careful approaching, and tried to talk to Tzuyu on the calmest and sweetest voice any of them ever heard.

"Yu, honey, do you think you could talk to us?"

"Yes." Tzuyu answered in a very small voice, from her place in Jihyo's arms.

"Yu, we all love you so much. You don't have to do anything you don't want to." Mina adds, also in a very loving tone.

"No, it's alright. I also wanted to talk to Jihyo." Tzuyu answers with a small shake of her head.

"Well, I'm all ears." Jihyo responds and tightens her hold on the girl a bit more.

"You know I have an older sister, right?" They all just nod. "So, she had a very close friend, it was her soulmate, but they decided to not date yet, since my sister was going abroad."

"That's very mature of them." Mina tries, taking one of Tzuyu's hands in hers, Chaeyoung does the same.

"Yeah, my sister has been away for a year now, and her soulmate still visits us very often. This morning my sister called us crying, she was going to come home next week, but was begging my mother to take us all to her, instead. When she, finally, calmed down a little, she said her flower had withered during the night.

Mom and dad talked and decided we would go on monday, and then told me what was happening. They are also in a bad shape, and I didn't want to burden them anymore, so I came here. I think I just needed to let things out, sorry if I worried you guys."