to somewhere ( the haunted house )

Wishful Thinking

Before dinner, Eunha wanted to talk to her mother about the fact about the new information that she has gotten that day. She wasn't very worried about being scolded, because her mother was usually very nice, but she didn't want her to dodge the situation either. However, she decided to talk to her mother while she was free from work, and it was coincidentally that night. The sooner, the better.

The young girl was sitting next to her mother, while fidgeting with a pen to distract her from being nervous. "Hi, Mommy," she said weakly.

"Hi, dear," her mother replied, with her usual smile that she had when presenting herself to her children. "What was it that you wanted to talk about?" The smile she had was in no way threatening, but the young girl was not used to being open to other people about her emotions. Even if it was her mother, she was still scared about so many possibilities, even the far-fetched ones like being ridiculed or yelled at, just like her classmates.

Eunha sighed, reminding herself that it was now or never, and that it was rare that her mother was home so early. Besides, her mother was older than those immature children at school. It was going to be fine. Flipping the pen at a faster pace, she replied as clearly as she could. "Am I really a vampire? Am I going to hurt anyone because of it?"

The woman beside her decided that it was time to tell her the truth. She didn't know how to say it because she never had to tell this to Seungjin. Being honest was the best option, especially with her own daughter, for she deserved to know everything about her own life. It would simply be cruel not to tell her about something this important. "Yes. You are a vampire. During the night. I guess that's why I always put you to sleep so early all the time and never let you go out past sundown unless you're coming home. And I don't know if you'll hurt people because of this..."

Then, Eunha went on. She saw that her mother was not angry, so she could ask more questions for now. "Why isn't Seungjin like me? Why couldn't I be like him, just a normal human being?" Goodness, at this point she was just rambling again, asking the same things she was crying about on the way home. But, this was her mother, she could cry in her arms anytime. Knowing that, she was more comfortable asking these questions to her than to her older brother.

Gaeun was taken aback a little by her statement, knowing the pain of being the mother of both of them. They were very beautiful and the best gift in her life, but they also brought the equal amount of hurt in her life. So, she gestured Seungjin to come over to the couch in front of the television, that was replaying an episode from a popular monster collecting animation, with the audio muted to have a conversation. As the brother took a seat, the mother started speaking. "When Seungjin was born, I was always worried about everything. At that time, I was always worried about how he would grow up without his father by his side. When I heard about his complications in the merging system, in that week, there wasn't a minute when I didn't think about his health. So, when he came out to be able to live as a human in good health, I was so exhausted by that time."

The woman was emotional about the situation. "And then, those worries came back when Eunha was born, that I couldn't possibly raise a vampire as a human. But, I still... I still loved you. I tried everything to raise you well. You guys are the best in the entire world, and I love you so much." While getting tears in her eyes, she apologized. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry for not explaining everything earlier."

A wave of guilt overcame Eunha, who couldn't believe that she was complaining about her situation when her mother was suffering the entire time. So she could only cry along with her mother and hug her. As her big brother, Seungjin hugged Eunha. "It's okay," was what came out of his mouth when he tried comforting Eunha. He wished he could have expressed his feelings better, but there was already a lot going on in his mind.

The next day at school, Eunha decided to avoid her classmates in order to process what was confirmed. It was even confirmed by her own mother, something that some random guy in the night said turned out to be true. She remembered, after that conversation, she went back to her room and slapped herself to see if it was a dream. But then she felt pain, so the conversation was real. And then she was so worried about hurting others.

Suhan entered the classroom in a good mood, for getting the new limited edition of a figurine from a popular football (soccer) anime. "So, Eunha! I got this new action figure of Chanmi! Our favorite character from Season 4!"

Hearing how happy Suhan was from getting a rare figure, she gave up on trying to ignore others. She looked at him, slowly forgetting her previous worries. "Chanmi? Oh, well, then send a picture to me once you get home. Seola might steal it." After all, there was no way that she could be unkind to him. Even if he would leave once he knew the truth, Eunha had an odd attachment to him. It was such a mysterious feeling that she never had before. If he left, then it would be really sad because he was the only one that approached her in a long time.

Meanwhile, with Suhan, he noticed that Eunha was feeling more down than usual. It was actually normal to have a sad day, especially with everyone around her putting her down, but that moment felt different. Like something about her made him know that Eunha wasn't in the mood that day. "Wanna go to the mall with me after school?"

Eunha looked back at him after staring outside and looked at him. Figuring that a distraction was alright in this situation, she agreed. "Sure. I'll walk with you there."

When lunchtime came, Suhan was the only one talking to Eunha about the new anime adaptation for a robot fighting game. There has been a rise in vampire sightings the past week, so everyone was super cautious, especially around Eunha.

A classmate, Dori specifically was very open about speaking Eunha in a bad manner. "I don't even know why you guys are so nice to her still. Aren't you worried about your blood being sucked out by her?!" Eunha was about to punch her, but she controlled herself.

Meanwhile, Suhan laughed. "You guys really believe everything you hear! Have you actually seen her do bad stuff to you? Suck your blood?" Hearing Suhan defending her from something that was true hurt Eunha, but she couldn't exactly say that. She needed to wait for the right time, although she didn't know when that would be.

Something else that the young girl was sad about was how easy it was for her friends to distance from her, but it was destined to happen someday. Disappointing, really. They have been her friends for years, and they leave her for a scary story about her was spread. It was reasonable so she tried her best to ignore it all. "It's okay," she told Suhan. "I'm fine, you don't have to do anything."

He looked into her eyes, and then sat back down. "Sorry..." And then everyone else in the class went back to talking about the rumors.