Eternity [ryeji]

Chapter 70

The girl comes home, sets her bag on the couch and goes to the kitchen to get a drink. She has just returned from soccer practice and is quite exhausted.

There are footsteps approaching and she turns around to see her brother joining her in the kitchen.

"Why is it so quiet? Where's Mom?"

"Out."

"Out? At this hour? Alone? Where did she go?"

"I don't know," he says as he opens the fridge in search of a snack. "Shopping maybe?"

"How 'bout Umma? Still working?" She cranes her neck to look at the small office with its door closed.

"She's out too." He takes out a can of soda and opens it.

"What? They've both gone shopping?"

"They went out separately and from what I heard, they were arguing."

She jumps to sit on the counter and opens the cookie jar. "Arguing? That's kinda rare for them. What about?" she asks as she takes a cookie.

He shrugs and also helps himself to a cookie. "Not sure. I heard something about lack of appreciation and too much sweet gestures."

They grow quiet for a moment before the girl asks. "We should be glad that they only fight over small silly things, shouldn't we? I mean, compared to our friends' parents..."

"I honestly don't know. Sometimes I'm afraid that their over-sweetness is just pretend, you know. Like they want us to see that everything's alright, hiding the real stuff from us."

She nods. "I thought that too."

Being twins, they usually share the same thoughts and feelings on matters concerning the family although their personalities and interests are not similar at all.

He's into computer and video games, comic books and anime while she loves playing sports and arts and crafts.

Ryujin always says how weird it is to see him grow up to be the one who stays home more than his sister considering how active he was when he was in Yeji's belly and as a baby.

He thinks school is just a boring place where you learn to be patient until you're old enough to leave it while she actually likes some of the subjects they teach her.

He prefers savory food while she has a sweet tooth so they rarely fight over snacks although choosing what to eat is always difficult because of their different likes and dislikes.

He's a deep thinker and always has a high level of curiosity for things he's interested in. He must know why something happened while his sister tends to be very emotional and takes things at face value.

Being the oldest, despite his seemingly nonchalant appearance, he has a strong sense of responsibility and is very protective of his sister and mothers.

"But I guess they just love each other too much," he concludes, biting a chunk off his cookie before giving it to his sister to finish. "I'd rather see their sweetness than have them be all cold, ignorant or arguing all the time."

"You mean like Mack's parents?" she asks, mentioning their classmate and his best friend.

"Exactly like that. I feel bad for him. He told me that his father moved out yesterday. The divorce is near. I'm thinking of going over to his place after school tomorrow just to hang out or play games or whatever. He could use a friend right now."

"Poor guy."

"Yeah."

"So Umma feels unappreciated while Mommy says her sweet gestures are too much?"