━━THE MONTH PASSED in a blur. daiyu didn't know how she had lost track of the time she'd spent away from home, but the people in korea made the visit bearable.
it felt almost strange to her that she'd left china to pursue a woman she hardly cared about—only to find out that she was no longer living. then she met seyeon, who turned out to be her half-brother, and his friends suho and seojun, one of which she'd started off on the wrong foot with.
school was a breeze now, what with her quick adaptation and studying korean when she could. now speaking and writing in korean was just as easy as if it were cantonese, her city's official language.
daiyu's father had finally started responding to her messages, reassuring her that he was fine. but he always refused when daiyu offered to return home, saying that they never knew when danger could strike again.
danger was a thing their family always had to look out for. the danger of falling in with the wrong crowd (which daiyu was sure she already had, in the perspectives of others), the danger of getting hurt (only a kid-friendly way to say getting killed in her town), and other dangers that daiyu would rather not recount.
still, the zhao's were tough. if anyone could survive in a cutthroat town like theirs, it would be daiyu and her father. so she shouldn't worry, was her constant reminder, because worries only led to fear and paranoia. and daiyu would do everyone a favor and leave those at the very back of her mind, forgotten and unneeded.
━━DAIYU AWOKE TO freezing weather, and a missing blanket over her body. she shivered uncontrollably as she stepped over the heaps of clothes in seyeon's and her shared room, snatching one of the shorter boy's hoodies for warmth.
in the span of a month, seyeon and daiyu became unbelievably close. things like shirts, hoodies, skincare products, etc, were commonly shared between the two, purely because neither particularly cared whose clothes they were wearing.
daiyu was taller, so her pants were baggy for the most part, meaning they fit seyeon easily. seyeon was skinny but was building muscle, and daiyu was lanky, so sharing shirts and sweaters was also something that happened on the daily.
with a yawn, daiyu tied up her loose hair with a hair tie. the chinese-korean girl's hair had grown over the course of the month, and courtesy of seojun, was now a darkish red color.
seojun and daiyu always had a thing for making extreme dares and bets, and neither wanted to back out. only around a week ago, seojun and daiyu made a bet on who could get the better science exam score in their exams before winter break, and that the loser would have to dye their hair.
daiyu being daiyu, agreed in a heartbeat despite the fact that science was her worst class. in the end, she lost and seojun was decent enough as to give her a dark, hardly noticeable hair color.
when winter break rolled around, daiyu found herself still unable to go home, but was assured things were okay. her friends had sent her texts, and they video-called once a week, but daiyu still got homesick once in a while.
seyeon gave a start on the bed as daiyu was walking out of the room, eyes squinting tiredly at her dark outline.
"daiyu?" he croaked, voice thick with sleep. "that you?"
"yeah, it's me. i'm heading over to suho's if you wanna come. seojun said he's there, too." daiyu whispered, not wanting to wake anyone up. their grandparents slept in a lot these days.
