[f o u r t e e n]

♤Chapter 13♤

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"Guys, hurry up! Come on out here and get your bums in the car!" Man Weol hollered to the others excitedly from the front door.

"We have a car?" Seongjun spoke, pausing in the middle of tying his shoelaces.

"Yeah we do! Dad's car, remember?" Joonsung replied.

"But didn't dad have just one car?" Seongjun asked and resumed tying his shoelaces.

"He had two" Leeseong replied for Joonsung, earning a hum from Seongjun.

"Wait... none of us have a driving license. Won't we get caught?" Ji-Rae spoke up from her seat at the bottom of the stairs.

"I have one. Just yesterday. When I went out" Baekjun popped up in the living room, having just came back from the kitchen.

"So that's why you were missing yesterday" Ji-Rae hummed.

"Hey! I thought I already picked out what you would wear?" Joonsung exclaimed, his lips pulled down in a pout.

Before they were about to get ready and change into more appropriate clothes, Joonsung had looked at Ji-Rae's closet and picked out clothes for her like the big brother he is. He had picked out a flowy blouse and a skirt for Ji-Rae, along with matching socks and shoes that had affair height of heels.

Instead of what he picked out, he saw Ji-Rae wearing a white shirt with a jean jacket , short denim jeans , and ankle-high rubber shoes. Her hair was also tied up in a slightly messy bun, some of her baby hair out of the bun making it look like she had bangs.

"Why aren't you wearing the ones I picked out?" Joonsung smiled dejectedly not thinking he would see the day where his little sister wouldn't wear what he had picked out for her.

"Sorry brother, I wanted to wear something that was easy to move in.. Plus, I'm not a kid anymore so you don't really have to pick out my clothes for me..."

"Hmmp" Joonsung pouted while Ji-Rae just laughed.

"Is everyone all set now?" Baekjun asked, beckoning everyone outside. They nodded and went outside, Joonsung locking the front door.

Everyone went inside the car and made their selves comfortable. Leeseong and Man Weol sat by the window, Seongjun beside Leeseong and Ji-Rae beside Man Weol. Joonsung sat at the front. Baekjun got in the driver's seat and started the car.

"Where are we going again?" Seongjun asked, plugging his earphones in, about to play his music.

"The back first, then the mall and the post office" Baekjun answered, starting the engine of the car before driving off.

Everyone in the car was silent, until a few minutes later Joonsung spoke up.

"It's been awhile since we last went out like this" he hummed.

"It's not like we had places to go to anyway..." Leeseong who was staring out of the window in silence, turned his head to Joonsung.

"But isn't it nice that we got to go out and go somewhere that isn't school?" Joonsung reasoned.

"You could say that" Leeseong said and focused his attention back to the window.

"So why are we going to the mall anyways?" Man Weol asked, looking up from the game she was playing on his phone.

"We'll look for new luggage bags we need. The ones we have at home are old. Baekjun replied, his eyes focused on the road.

"And they could break the second we lift them" Seongjun added, occupied with his phone, probably scrolling through social media.

The four brothers were talking to each other while the car continued to drive towards their destination. Just the four brothers, because Baekjun was silent and focused on driving, and Ji-Rae was deep in thought.

'Dad... When mom left dad was with her. It's been years now and they haven't come back yet... We're moving to another country now and they still aren't here.

Where in the world are they anyway? Maybe in another country? Or maybe they're just somewhere here in Finland. If they are, why haven't we ran into them? Are they trying to avoid us? Why would they avoid us?'

Ji-Rae frowned.

'Maybe I'm looking too deep into things... They could be arriving any minute.

.......But then again, they've been gone almost my wnole life.

They haven't come for a visit even once, no messages, no calls, nothing.

Just why did they even leave anyway?'

||Flashback||

"Ji-Rae? Rakas, open the door please...." A worried voice called out, knocking on the door that barricaded it from the girl that was holding on to a pillow as if her life depended on it.

It has been a few hours after their mom and dad left, yet Ji-Ra ecouldn't accept the fact that they were gone. They left her without even telling why. Thus, she was left to answer her own questions that were running around her head by herself.

She was still clutching onto her pillow, crying into it as the pillow dried her tears even though it got soaked itself.

Her muffled sobs could still be heard even from outside her room. Reason being the house was dead silent. The atmosphere inside the household was just.... sad. It was like the house felt so lonely when their parents had left.

Meanwhile, the five brothers were confused as to what they would do. They knew the reason why their parents had left. Yet they couldn't decide if they should tell Ji-Rae the reason why or just do as their mother had asked and had trusted them to do.

Seeing their youngest sister cry due to confusion and desperation that their parents didn't really leave and that they were just going out to the nearest grocery store. Hoping they would be back any second now.

But they weren't.

They tried to comfort her, but all their efforts were pointless. Ji-Rae would yell at them to leave her alone and not open the door, or just plainly ignore them. They could only hope that Ji-Rae would be able to stop her crying by herself and not lock herself up in her room for days.

"I don't know guys... Maybe we should tell her. Isn't it a bit selfish that we just keep it to ourselves? She has the right to know since she's our sister and our parents' child"

"I'm not sure what to do either Man Weol... I wouldn't want to pain her further, considering the reason why they left"

Knowing the reason why their parents had left, their mom rather, they felt absolutely horrible.

They felt hopeless.

||Flashback End||