Days in Nights. /Yuta, Wonwoo/

Chapter 2

"You crazy shit! Why did you take this?" Jiwoo furiously clutched the gold lighter from her brother's hand.

"Why?? Do you think you're the only one who misses dad? Can't I even think about him, too?"

She scoffed. "You only knew him for a short while, why should you miss him? You had mum, half of your life at that!"

Wonwoo grunted. "And didn't you even miss mum one bit?? She always talked about you when she was at the hospital and-"

"I don't care! She left me and dad, that's all I know."

"Noona!" He raised his voice. His sister was shorter than him so he could easily tower her. "Don't even speak of her that way anymore."

"Right? Then don't even touch this lighter anymore." She went into her room and slammed her door.

"That stubborn woman..." He started to pick up the trash he made when they got home. "Ah, I should stop drinking too much..."

He found his sister's receipts. An egg, ointment, bandaid, triangle kimbap, and vitamin drink.

"Triangle kimbap?? She doesn't even like that thing... and who's got beaten anyway?" He noticed the shopping list.

It was 1:24 am. Wonwoo still felt nothing was wrong with him borrowing the gold lighter, but somehow he understood her sister's feelings.

He knocked at her room, sighing. "You're asleep? Sorry if I was out of line."

Jiwoo stared at her door with a ripped picture of her mother and her. She was holding a hospital notice from pulmonary unit, requesting for further check ups.

With her name on it.

She sighed and wondered if Wonwoo was still at her door.

"Goodnight." He then went into his room.

______

(The next day)

Jiwoo couldn't concentrate at her desk. She worked as a hakwon teacher and had to check the quizzes from last week. She taught math.

"What kind of writing is this exactly??" She mumbled.

Her head was filled with last night's fight with Wonwoo. It made her got into thinking about her mother, whom she hadn't seen for 20 years.

She recalled the day Wonwoo came into her flat with a suitcase and a piece of paper, telling her that their mother had passed away. Their father had passed away when she was 15, lung cancer from excessive smoking. After she heard that her mother died from cirrhosis, she found that each parent left such great legacies. She had been smoking since high school, and Wonwoo told her he had been taking sips from their mother's flask. They both laughed at this, but wondered if they would die the same way sometimes.

The fact that they were separated when she was 6, her memories of mother figure started to fade away. At first she hesitated to let Wonwoo live with her. If he wasn't a great cook, she probably would send him back to the orphanage, he was still a minor after all.

Damned brother: 'Don't tell me you forget that you have to pick my report card today at school.'

A text startled her.

"Shit! Totally forgot about that." She checked the calendar and there was a note under today's date. 'Report card'. She immediately grabbed her bag and blazer.

"Jiwoo-ssem, where are you going?" A fellow coworker asked.

"I have to go to my brother's school. I'll be back before 5 pm."