Later that evening.
The fire in the makeshift stove had burned down to embers when I finally told Mother about the Owl King. Not all of it — I wasn’t about to bring up being the centre of everything and start a whole new storm of questions.
Ye-Rin, who was sitting beside us heard everything and spoke,
"Natsuki Subaru", she paused and then continued, "It is a very unique na for a person to have. I suppose he is from Japan. Do you know Natsuki Subaru as a whole ans, "Moon of the greens, Pleiades star" — a mix of nature and astronomy imagery."
"Thank you for your detailed description of the na that doesn’t even exist." I mocked her, by pulling my nostrils up with my little finger.
Mother’s eyes narrowed over her steaming tin cup and asked "And you believe him?"
My tone shifted as I answered her seriously, "I don’t think he cares enough to lie. You know those types. They don’t bother making up stories — they just drop the truth like a brick and let you choke on it."
"He said..." I stirred the ashes with a stick, watching orange dust swirl like dying fireflies. "...that sothing worse is coming. Bigger than what we’ve seen."
"Bigger than Volt?" Ye-Rin asked as she pointed fingers at the three headed dragon, who sat on the top of the building nearby.
Mother’s gaze shifted past , toward the boarded window. "Then we don’t have ti to relax."
I smirked, "We never do."
She didn’t push for details. Maybe she saw I was holding sothing back.
Maybe she respected it. Or maybe she was just too tired to fight over it tonight. Either way, the warning sat between us like another silent guest at the table.
[After so ti]
[Third person perspective]
By the ti we were done,the sky outside had gone dark.
Mother ladled out portions of whatever she’d made — so kind of stew that slled vaguely like canned beef and herbs.
Ye-Rin sat cross-legged near the wall, balancing her bowl with both hands.
In-Ji and Seo-Yeon were shoulder to shoulder, quietly talking in the corner, their bowls untouched for the mont.
"Worried about your Mother?" In-ji, who was shoulder to shoulder with Seo-yeon asked.
"Hmmm.." Seo-yeon nodded slightly. "I hope she is doing Okay or atleast she is alive."
"Don’t worry. She is a strong woman who raised you well after you father passed away. I know she is doing well." In-ji comforted Seo-yeon.
"Let’s go find her as soon as we get a chance."
"But what about your father? Don’t you want to look out for him?"
"You know my answer don’t you. Then why asked that." In-ji replied nonchalantly as if the life of his father doesn’t matter to him.
"But I didn’t knew you liked Children so much." In-ji tried to change the topic. "I never thought you would get so emotional with Eun-ha."
"Yeah. Maybe it is my motherhood in that was fast tracked by her appearance."
"Miss Actress Seo-yeon, you are only twenty-one. Are you that eager to beco a mother." In-ji said laughingly as he bring a spoon full of soup to his mouth.
"If this wasn’t our reality, I would have beco a mother in a year or two." Seo-yeon reply was so serious that In-ji spat out his soup from his mouth as blush crept up from his neck to his forehead.
Seo-yeon realized this slightly raised herself to reach In-ji ears and whispered in a seducing voice, "You would have a little one who would have called you papa."
"Let’s focus on eating first." In-ji hurdily filled his mouth with food as Seo-yeon chuckled beside him.
Hana lee was out of sight, probably breastfeeding her child, Min-Jae. Eun-ha and the twins, Soo-min and Jin-ha have beco friends and are always seen together. They had a larger bowl than us and three of them were eating together from the sa bowl.
If there wasn’t an apocalyptic event occurring right now, this scene would have been common to see. For a few precious minutes, the room was filled only with the soft scrape of spoons and the occasional slurp. No roars.
No gunfire. Just breathing and eating.
Mother, who never really ate slowly, surprised by savoring hers. She caught looking and raised an eyebrow. "Don’t get used to this," she said.
"I’m not," I replied, because I couldn’t. Peace like this wasn’t built to last.
Later, inside the mall, when Hana lee ca back to eat her portion of the soup, It was Hyun-tae who passed her.
Hana just silently took the bowl from his hand and sat down to savor her al.
Suddenly, she choked on her food on which Hyun-tae passed her a glass of water.
"You should drink sothing," he said, his tone practical but not unkind.
She took it, staring at the water for a mont before taking a sip. "...Thanks."
After taking a few sips, she stopped eating.
"You’re not eating," he added.
"I don’t need word of concerns from soone who killed my husband." Hana’s words were sharp but Hyun-tae was unfazed with it and replied,
"Then you should have not married a killer." Boom-Boom, who was quite this whole ti chid in, "oye oye.... Are you competing with soone is half of your age?"
Then a tear slid down from Hana’s cheeks. She quickly wiped her tears away and said, "He wasn’t like that before. He was a kind man who even loved for who I was. He didn’t even minded that I had a terrible past and had tattoos all over my body, so."
But Hyun-tae cut her off, "You should remove those Tattoos. They don’t look at you."
Hana huffed softly. "You sound like my father."
Hyun-tae shrugged. "He had so good eyes on him."
She gave him a sideways glance, not sure whether to be annoyed or oddly comforted.
In the end, she just took another sip, letting the silence sit between them.
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