Morning Comes, Life Goes On

It was early morning.

Yeo Ri cracked her tired eyes open.

She had a fitful sleep for the remainder of the night. She was too scared to fall asleep, in case that man decided to come back and give them hell.

Yeo Ri closed her eyes tightly for a few seconds before opening them again, inhaling and exhaling deeply.

She pushed herself off the ground.

Hyuk and Gun were both still asleep, looking as restless as she was.

Yeo Ri sat still for a long moment.

She could hear the ticking of the clock loud and clear. The white noise from the heater also provided some sound in the otherwise silent room.

She looked down.

If one were to pull the beddings out of the way, they would find the marks that she had made ages ago.

Slowly, she got up.

Yeo Ri stood in front of the storage closet in their room. Sending a glance towards the two brothers, she slowly pushed the closet open.

Her hands reached out to a familiar tin container.

It was her sewing supplies.

She rummaged the tin box for the thing she needed.

'...Found it,' she breathlessly thought, her eyes holding a slight sense of relief.

She pulled it out from the box and held it close. With one hand, she placed the box back to its spot and closed the closet.

She made her way back to her previous place with it in hand.

She marvelled at it for a second.

A large pair of scissors, mainly used for cutting cloth. It had been in the sewing kit for a very long time; even before she was born. Perhaps it had belonged to her mother, or Hyuk and Gun's birth mother.

She had forgotten about its existence for a long time; there hasn't been any need for it as of late. The last time she had used it was when she mended the curtains in the living room a little over half a year ago.

She opened the scissors as wide as possible, then slowly dragged one of its pointy blades against the surface of her fingers.

It created a small cut and tiny beads of blood appeared.

Yeo Ri felt a slight stinging pain, but it was tolerable. Compared to the pain of being torn apart from the inside by that man, this small thing barely scared her.

Now that she had confirmed its sharpness, she took another glance at the two sleeping boys.

Confirming that they were still asleep, she raised her beddings and got to work.

Slowly and as silently as she could, she made an additional three marks next to the original three. She had been meaning to add them previously, but there was just no opportunity for her to do so.

'One, two, three, four, five, six...' she counted in her head. Hopefully this would help her from losing count. If she had the chance to get revenge herself, then she'd know how many times she should make that man suffer.

Yeo Ri brushed away the wooden shavings and placed the scissors near the markings before covering them up with her beddings again.

It was almost seven o'clock, and that meant that she and Gun were going to be late for school.

"Oppa, time to wake up," she shook Gun's body lightly, her voice cracking.

Gun immediately woke up from her touch. It appeared that she was not the only one who couldn't sleep peacefully.

Gun rubbed his face tiredly. "It's morning already?"

"Mm," Yeo Ri quietly answered.

"Okay," Gun gathered his exhausted body and forced himself to get up. "I'll wake Hyung up. Go and get changed first," he told the girl.

Yeo Ri nodded obediently. She picked up her uniform and went to the corner to get changed as quickly as she could.

"Hyung, wake up," Gun tapped the man's arm twice. "Hyung."

Hyuk jolted awake, his body tensing, then relaxing after seeing who woke him up. He sat up from the ground, supporting his body with his arms. "F*ck," he silently cursed. He felt extremely fatigued and sore. He groaned, stretching his arms.

He accidentally glanced at Yeo Ri who was in the midst of changing her clothes. He had caught the sight of her bare back and it was sending his mind to the gutters. He visibly gulped and looked away quickly, acting nonchalant. 'Stop it, *sshole. Don't think weird thoughts,' he strongly reminded himself.

"Hyung, can you get up?" Gun stretched out a hand to help his brother.

Hyuk stared at the offered hand. Feeling too tired to pick a fight, he accepted the hand.

Gun pulled him up, hiding a hint of surprise in his eyes. Hyuk was never this agreeable. Perhaps after all that they have been through lately, he was beginning to accept him. Perhaps they were growing closer as brothers.