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"i think... i think that i could be happy with him. that i could come to love him in the way i should. it'd be cruel not to, wouldn't it?"
☆☆☆
As it turns out, Eunbyeol doesn't see Draco during the summer either. "You're going to be visiting Halmeoni in Korea," her father tells her once they're back at home. "She's been all alone since Haraboji died last winter." He looks older than she remembers, and smaller. Her mother, on the other hand, looks healthier than ever. Eunbyeol remembers the sight of her parents on Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters—her mother standing tall, proud, and smug next to her gaunt father—and shudders.
Eunbyeol feels a bit apprehensive at the thought of spending an entire summer with her grandmother. The last time she had seen either of her grandparents was when she was about ten, before she had even started attending Hogwarts. She barely remembered their faces by the time she was fifteen, when her grandfather passed away. She supposes Halmeoni would be lonely without her husband, but it's rather odd that her parents are abruptly sending her off to South Korea.
(It's more like her father is sending her off to South Korea, really. Hyoeun doesn't seem to care much for Eunbyeol anymore, one way or another.)
That's another change in Eunbyeol's life that thoroughly catches her off guard. Her parents, while they've never been a happy couple, have seemed to become strangers. The heated arguments she recalled from winter break have fizzled out into cold silence. Her mother has managed to grow even less maternal than she was before, a feat Eunbyeol would have found impressive if it didn't hurt so much. She's colder and always distracted, as if there are more pressing matters at hand than what's in front of her. Her father, on the other hand, has become the opposite, often poking his head inside Eunbyeol's room to attempt to engage his daughter in a stilted conversation. It's awkward for the both of them, and every interaction usually ends with her father mumbling a goodbye and rushing out the door, but Eunbyeol finds a quiet sense of joy at the change in their relationship. He's developed a newfound distaste for Britain as well, choosing to speak in Korean more and more. He tells Eunbyeol that she's become "too English" one night, with a wrinkled nose.
She supposes she has grown out of touch with her culture. It'd be nice to visit Korea again, she thinks, but she still doesn't want to leave her life in England behind. Eunbyeol packs her things with a frown, mulling over the ways she can keep in touch with her friends over the summer. She has her mirror and she's bringing her owl, so she can talk go her friends, but Draco... she hopes he understands. She presumes he'll find out eventually, at one of the countless dinner parties her parents are bound to host, but there's still a sense of uneasiness stirring in her chest. They had left each other on such bad terms. She considers sending him a letter, one apologizing and explaining her mental turmoil about love and relationships and them, but she can't seem to press her quill to her parchment and write her thoughts down.
