Start of the sumr break — Cortez Household.
Nina sat down on the bed and stared at the little cash she got from her last allowance. Since she stopped taking private transportation services, she hadn’t been low on cash. She also stopped buying food outside since Jessa prepared them so lunch boxes.
The problem was, Nina didn’t know if this was enough.
Knock knock
Nina raised her head at the door, catching Yuri peeking her head in.
"Nina?" Yuri called. "Are you ready now?"
"Yuri..." Nina bit her lips, watching Yuri co in because of the look on her face. "I don’t know if we can even do this."
Yuri sat down on the edge of the bed. "Why?"
"I don’t think this is enough." Nina jerked her chin to her cash. "I searched online on how much it might cost us, but compared to the price I saw, this is... it’s not enough, isn’t it?"
Yuri gazed down at the wad of cash on the bed and her mouth fell open. "This is your money?"
"It’s my monthly allowance. I barely touched it, but even so, it’s still not enough," said Nina. "My grandma wants to send money, but I’m a bit reluctant to accept it."
After all, Nina’s grandmother — Allison’s mother — was worried about her. However, Nina chose not to visit, even though she was allowed to visit her grandparents. She was able to coax her grandmother into thinking that Nina simply had a lot of things to do for her final exams.
But in truth, Nina simply wanted to completely change her mindset and get used to life in the Cortez Household. For her, as long as she had sothing to hold on to, she wouldn’t have the sa peace she had now.
"What do you think we can buy with his?" she asked worriedly. "Can we buy a paint with this at least? I want to start with the walls."
"..." Yuri studied Nina’s expression and she could tell Nina was genuinely worried. "Nina, are you serious?"
"Hmm?"
"This money... is your allowance?"
"Why? Is it too little?"
Yuri gasped in disbelief. "Little?! That’s like my year’s worth of allowance!"
"What?"
"With this, we can do more!" Yuri grinned excitedly. "Nina, don’t you have any idea of money’s value? How co you don’t know this?"
Nina pursed her lips. "It’s actually a small amount if I live with my previous lifestyle." Charles cut down her allowance after the flowerpot incident.
"Right..." Yuri sighed. "The cost of living of the rich and ours is like heaven and earth, huh?"
"I didn’t an it in a bad way!" Nina panicked, making Yuri laugh.
"Nina, are you always like that? You always act like you have to justify yourself or explain yourself about sothing you said," Yuri casually pointed out as her chuckle subsided. "You don’t have to always think you have to defend yourself. I know you didn’t an it in the wrong way."
Nina pressed her lips into a thin line. "I’m not trying to explain myself."
"Then what?" Yuri pouted, only to receive a conflicted look from her.
"Do you really think I always explain myself unnecessarily?"
"Yes." Yuri nodded. "You should loosen up for a bit."
"But... I don’t want to make another bad impression." A deep exhale escaped Nina. "I know how I was before and I’m ashad of it. I’ve been terrible to everyone, so I don’t want to say the wrong thing and offend you more."
Yuri smiled helplessly. She had been watching Nina try her best to help the family with everything she could. Nina had also been doing so chores and Jessa was now splitting the chores into three. Even so, Yuri could feel that Nina was scared to be misunderstood or to make them all angry.
"Nina, did you know that Penny and I once had a big fight?" Yuri shared, making Nina raise her brows. "It was a long ti ago when I got jealous of Penny because of the attention she always gets. Of course, I know my parents love the sa, but I thought Penny was being an to . So we fought."
"Oh..." Nina was a bit taken aback; it was her first ti hearing this.
Yuri smiled and nodded. "We had a confrontation, and I said a lot of harsh things to her. She also said a lot of an things to and we didn’t speak for a few days."
"What happened?"
"I reached out," Yuri said. "I was in the wrong, but when I did, Penny was already outside of my room. I cried so hard and apologized. She also apologized even though she didn’t do anything wrong. From then on, I started treading on eggshells because I didn’t want to make her angry or make her think that I still feel jealous and insecure."
Yuri smacked her lips as her eyes twinkled beautifully. "My intention is nice, but at the sa ti, it makes those around worried. So, Penny purposely got an to and we had another fight."
"Why would she do that?" Nina frowned.
"To make a point."
"Hmm?"
"Penny said when your family, fighting and bickering and all those things are normal. We might fight from ti to ti, but at the end of the day, we’re still a family," Yuri explained as her lips stretched from ear to ear. "I don’t have to watch myself, and all I need to do is to be myself. Of course, it’s different if I’m a terrible person because I need to change my attitude if that’s the case."
"All I’m saying is, you see and Yugi fight all the ti. But that doesn’t an I don’t love him. He’s my brother and my family," Yuri continued, nodding at Nina reassuringly. "Just like you! You were an to us at first, but we can see that you’re trying. As long as you keep this up, you don’t have to tread on eggshells around us."
"We’re family, after all!" Yuri grinned. "We might fight one of these days too, but that wouldn’t change the fact that we’re family. And family is the only people we can be honest with without the fear we would be judged."
Nina’s brows rose a little as her heart ward up. Her eyes softened as she nodded.
"Mhm. You’re also my... family."
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