Broken

41

"How old is your baby?" The plumber asks, trying to make small talk.

"Oh, that's Nayeon, she's sixteen. Just ignore it, please." Jihyo tells the man, feeling very ashamed of her big sister.

Nayeon had been screaming in baby voice the entire day, Chris had taken Momo out to their school dance studio, trying to let the sister have some bonding time, which ended with Nayeon clogging the kitchen sink and Jihyo having to request an emergency plumber. Francis had been nice enough to try and fix it for them, but failed, and there we have it, a dorm head trying his best to be sympathetic to the girl in distress, Jihyo trying very hard to not kill her sister and still thinking of ways to hide the body, and Nayeon being very bored and grumpy by the fact that they had to wait until the plumber was done before being able to do anything fun.

The baby noises started about five minutes before the plumber arrived, Jihyo had already been too worked up to bother with making it stop, but now she is regretting not having done anything about it. She loved her big sister, she really did, but this was just pushing it. That's when an idea came to Jihyo that would get the older girl into some slight trouble and this madness to stop, so, as any good daughter, Jihyo called her parents, mama im to be exact, but she knew both would answer, it was still early for them to be asleep.

"Jihyo! Hun, turn the TV off, Jiji is calling." Her mother says in one breath and papa Im quickly joins.

"Hey mom, dad. I miss you guys."

"We miss you too, sweetie, how are you and the girls coming along?" Mrs Im continues.

"We are having fun. Momo went out with Chris to our school's dance studio, it's just me and Nayeonnie right now."

"Why it there so much noise? And, is that a baby?"

"No dad, it's unnie. And the noise is the plumber, the kitchen sink got clogged."

"Wait, you are telling us there is a worker there, trying to do his job and your sister is sulking?" Mr Im tries to confirm.

"Well, we were supposed to be going out, but francis told me one resident had to be present and Amy is traveling with her family this week."

"So you are trying to get your dorm fixed, Francis and the plumber are there and your sister is screaming like that?" Mr Im is having a hard time wrapping his head around it.

"That would be correct, dad."

"Get the phone to your sister." Mrs Im commands.

"It's okay, mom. Mr Yates is almost done."

"Mr Yates?"

"He is the 'does it all' for the two dorms, dad."

"Im Jihyo, get your sister on the phone." Mrs Im gets impatient.

"Yes, ma'am."

And so she goes to the room where Nayeon is wailing like a baby for the past hour or so. It gets louder and louder as they approach the room, and it goes haywire when Jihyo opens the door. The only real way for Nayeon to notice her was going up and covering her mouth, the moment she did, the eldest moved to protest which came to a halt as soon as she saw the phone screen that was being shown to her.

"That would be all, Jihyo. Nayeon will bring you the phone back when we finish, just go and check on how the plumber is doing." Mrs Im dismisses her youngest.

"Yes, ma'am." And she leaves, closing the door very relieved that the noise is gone.

Jihyo was just glad her sister stopped, so she went back to the kitchen to see mr Yates was wrapping up. The girl just thanked the man, gave him some muffins she made that morning, to Francis too, and dragged herself to the couch trying to get some rest after her very stressful morning. The people who worked for the school, in general, couldn't take payments from the students, no matter what they were called to do, and Jihyo knew the old man that fixed everything in the dorms had been lonely after his wife went to visit their grandkids, so she would come by with a treat and spend some time listening to him tell his stories.

No idea how long it had been, youngest Im was already dosing off on the couch when Nayeon came out of the room, looking like a kicked puppy, shyly approaching the almost sleeping figure. She smiled fondly at the tired image of her little sister, looking her real age for a change, and decided they could afford a little nap before they go out to lunch, it was not even eleven yet. Late lunch didn't sound so bad.