All That You Got (Skin to Skin, Oh My God)

Chapter 1

• The One Where Chaeyoung and Lisa Become Best Friends •

Halloween was stupid, Park Chaeyoung decided as, scowling, she settled down further in her seat, folding her arms over her chest and glaring out the window. It was the morning of October 31st, and she was stuck on some boring old airplane, and her family was the only family dressed up. Everyone else was wearing business suits or regular clothes. Chaeyoung at least had a window seat so she could half-hide and stare out at the sky instead. The clouds were huge, billowing and looked like something out of another world, but Chaeyoung was eight years old and feeling ridiculous in the witch costume her mother had forced her to wear because it was apparently adorable (it wasn't).

Chaeyoung bit her tongue so she wouldn't mutter a scathing remark under her breath. Somehow, no matter how quietly she said it, her mom would always hear her.

Currently, Chaeyoung was seated in the far left out of three seats. Her mother sat directly beside her, while her father sat on the aisle seat. Her two baby brothers, Seojun and Seongmin, were snuggled up on her mom's lap, with Chaeyoung's DVD player sitting before them, playing some stupid movie for babies. Chaeyoung glowered darkly at it. Her mom had taken away her Scooby Doo DVDs just so her dumb brothers could watch Bob the Builder instead. It wasn't fair.

Then again, maybe it was just grown-ups period that were stupid, because her stepdad hadn't taken her side, either. "You've had it for the whole flight," he had said. "It's time to give your brothers a turn."

"You have to share, Chaeyoung," her mom added, and Chaeyoung had to resist the urge to roll her eyes, if only for the fact that it would only get her a swift smack upside the head. Her mom could always see her roll her eyes, even when she wasn't looking.

"It's not fair," pouted Chaeyoung again, when Seongmin giggled as Bob did something dumb. "It's my DVD player."

"Santa brought it for all of you," Clare reminded her. "So you have to share it."

"But they don't even know how to turn it on!"

"Chaeyoung," warned Clare, with that threatening tone in her voice and flash in her eyes that told Chaeyoung to drop it. Fuming, she folded her arms more tightly and gritted her teeth, seething for the rest of the trip.

She didn't cheer up until their plane finally landed in Seoul and her stepfather bought her an ice cream at McDonalds. Chaeyoung licked it as they drove down long, winding roads in a roomy rental car.

"Mom," said Chaeyoung when a thought occurred to her. "Why don't we ever see Aunt Jiwoo at home?"

Clare turned back to look at Chaeyoung, absently handing Seojun the McDonald's toy he had just dropped out of his car seat. "Because, baby, Daegu is too far a trip for them. They have a life up here, they both have jobs, and they have to take care of Grandma Dooshim. There's never any time for them to fly to us."

"But we rode a plane to their house." Done with her ice cream, Chaeyoung handed the empty cone to her mom. She passed it to Daeho, who finished it off.

"Yes, but this is only the second time in the past seven years. Because Auntie Jiwoo is having another baby."

Chaeyoung shot a shrewd glance at her brothers, both drooling over their toys. Their frizzy brunette curls of hair were askew on their round, big heads, and their brown eyes were large and bright, especially Seongmin's pale left eye, but that one always seemed bright and Daeho said it was because it was magic, but Chaeyoung knew it was just what blind eyes looked like. "Why is she having another baby when she already has one? People don't need more than one kid, I think."