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Every day after that was a new adventure, how was Ara's body going to react when he smiled at her this time? Was it going to go into overdrive again and prevent her fingers from working? Or was she going to lose her breath and have a heart attack?
She had somehow figured out that Eunji's mother was absent in both their lives, just by asking vague questions but she didn't know if she was just temporarily not there or permanently. The family picture that Eunji had to draw that consisted of just Jimin and her was another indication.
"Ara? Ara!" a small voice brought her back to reality and she looked down to see Eunji tugging at her long skirt.
"Yes?" she crouched down to be at eye level with her.
"Do you like my drawing?" she held up a piece of paper on which she had drawn a girl with long hair who was wearing a black shirt and a long orange skirt.
"It's gorgeous Eunji! Is it you?"
"No," she scrunched her nose, shaking her head, "it's you!"
"Really?" Ara grinned, touched that she put so much detail into it, because she realised that, yes, that was what she was wearing, and on her ears were earrings that mimicked her own. "Wow I look so much prettier here," she teased and Eunji laughed.
"No! You look prettier in real life!"
"Do I?"
She nodded excitedly, "I'm going to go and draw daddy now." And then she ran off. Leaving Ara to stare down at the paper in her hand, one which had a girl on the right, clouds that looked like they could double as sheep if you just stuck four legs under them, and of course the sun drawn into the top left corner.
She knew she was going to cherish it.
--
The weekend finally rolled around and Ara was asked to visit the library and find some books for the preschool because they were lacking in them. The librarian was helpful, naming a few books to her, which she took note off, and then she started leading her to the children's section. It was her first time in that library, which was quite large and she was glad the librarian had offered to show her around without her having to ask.
"Daddy! Can we get this one! Please! Brooke was telling me Princess Amelia comes back in this one!" a familiar voice spoke and Ara looked onward to see a little girl running along the bookshelf to an older man who was holding a few picture books. She couldn't help the smile that appeared on her lips, the librarian's voice now turned inaudible as she watched him look through picture book after picture book, picking some out for his daughter.
"Was that helpful?" Ara heard the librarian say, breaking her trance, "I hope you got to think of something you would like to take back to your school."
"Huh? Oh, yeah, thank you," her words came out in a rush and when she turned around she saw Jimin looking over his shoulder. When their eyes met he sent her a small smile.
