Life, Once Again!

* * *“See you tomorrow. Be careful.”“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow.”Maru said his farewells to Junmin and Ganghwan before stepping into the convenience store where Dowook was.“Thanks for before.”He already heard what happened from Bada. Maru told her it’d be best to head home, so the girls already left Myungdong at this point.“I was just annoyed, and they happened to be a good target. I wasn’t trying to help.”“Well, you helped regardless. Did you eat, by the way?”“No.”“You should eat, then. There’s a kimbap place right there.”“I’d rather have cup noodles. Are you paying?”“I could, sure.”“It’s fine. I don’t want to get anything out of you. It feels weird.”“Weird my ass.”Maru stepped out and came back with cup noodles and a few rolls of kimbap. “So, what are you doing at Myungdong, anyway?”“......”Dowook didn’t respond and just silently ate the food in front of him. There must be something going on. For now, Maru opened a can of soda and started drinking from it. After finishing the cup noodles, he stared at the empty cup for a second before opening his mouth.“Before I say anything else… Thanks for the thing with my dad. I can finally breathe easily at home now.”“Good to hear. He’s a cool guy, so I hope you get along better with him.”Dowook smiled.“Hah… Don’t you ever get worried about anything? I don’t get how you’re always so calm.”“Something happened, huh?”Dowook wasn’t the type to talk like this. He was a proud kid, so the fact that he was opening up this easily meant something really bad happened. Dowook fell silent again. After a minute of silence, he started off with an “if” on his mouth.“If… If your sister, who was silent for a whole decade, the one person you didn’t expect to see for the rest of your life… If she appeared out of nowhere, what the hell am I supposed to say to her?”“Sister?”Maru started paying closer attention to Dowook’s words.