All This Time | Enhypen

| 25 |

July 1992

Yeji carefully poked her head into her room, immediately letting her eyes land on the girl she had been rooming with for the past few days. A guest which were new to this house. It wasn't just Jake like it was last summer, this year some other girl was there as well. 

"My brother's looking for you," Yeji excused and walked in, placing her book down on her desk. Mathilda.

"Which one?" Millie snickered and looked up from one of the magazines Yeji had let her borrow to get time passing whenever the boys were a bit too much for her.

"Jay," Yeji shrugged and slumped down on her own bed, "he didn't say why. But they did get post a few minutes ago."

"Owl?" Millie raised her head and looked over at Yeji with slightly squinted eyes.

"Sort of reddish," Yeji nodded once again. 

Immediately Millie folded the magazine together and placed it on the bed beside her. Kicking a leg to get up in a sitting position and looking over at Yeji for another nod. A nod to confirm that it was true enough that it was a reddish owl that had delivered the letter.

"Go on," Yeji urged and gestured towards the door.

"It would be Soomin then," Millie realized and rushed to get up from the bed.

Even though Millie was in a rush she was careful to not close the door too loudly. She took her time to close the door carefully before rushing down through the house towards the kitchen. Immediately glancing around before finding all three boys huddled around a letter on the dining table.

"Oh for goodness sake. Let me see the letter," Millie complained and rushed over to stick her arm in between Jake and Jay's heads, grabbing the letter from the table to read it closer.

"But it's to us as well," Jay quickly defended.

"Yeah, well it's an answer to my letter. My owl," Millie excused and pointed to the Eastern Screech Owl sitting in the window sill by the open kitchen window.

"With that size it's barely even an owl," Jay retorted.

"Respect for Carmine, please," Millie complained and wacked him on the back of the head. 

With the small wack to Jay's head it finally got quiet enough for Millie to read over the messy letter. Something Soomin really wasn't good at was writing with a quill, but it could've been worse - this was by far the neatest she's written with a quill. Yet, it still looked like a six-year-old had been given a ball point pen and somehow managed to spill ink a few places on the parchment.

"She's not coming?" Millie questioned in disbelief and looked up at the three boys, that all impatiently were waiting to get the letter back.

"No," Sunghoon shook his head quietly and looked over towards Carmine, who seemed too busy enjoying the sunlight to even be bothered by the tense atmosphere in the kitchen.

"It's that aunt of hers," Jay shook his head in disbelief, "why would she even live her."

"You think she has a choice?" Millie snorted and handed the letter back to Jay

"Not her choice?" Sunghoon frowned and Millie sighed before wandering over to sit across from the boys.

"Be honest guys. Think about it a bit. If you had an aunt like how Soomin describes hers, would you choose to live there?" Millie questioned.

"She's barely said anything about her aunt," Jake defended.

"The fact that she's not allowed to leave during the summer should be enough," Millie sighed and looked over at him with a small frown.

"Well... no," Jake shrugged, "but I don't... I don't get it. Her aunt's a muggle. Isn't she? But Soomin is half blood?"

"Yeah," Millie nodded, "her dad was a muggle born wizard, her mom was pure blood. I'll let you figure that one out."

"Then why live with her aunt?" Jay complained.

"I'm not going to tell you. You can ask Soomin herself. I'm not the one to retell tragic life stories," Millie shook her head in disbelief, "but I think she mentioned Sunoo's been going to Aberdeen and visiting her in the weekends."

"At least she's not forced into isolation," Jake shrugged and Millie nodded before looking over at Carmine.

"We should send her something. Shouldn't we?" Millie questioned as she continued to frown at Carmine, "how much do you suppose she can carry?"

"If we choose too much we can ask mom to cast a charm on it, so it doesn't weigh her down too much," Jay assured with a flick of the wrist, "what would you want to send her?"

"We could bake something," Millie shrugged, "my stepmom has this recipe for these amazing shortbread cookies. If I write her now to ask for it, we'll have the recipe by tonight."

"I have a few chocolate frogs we can send as well," Sunghoon piped in, "she likes to collect the cards, doesn't she?"

"She sure has a collection," Millie nodded with widened eyes, "it's getting sickening. She started selling her duplicate cards to first year's in February. She's got a whole box even."

"Well, it's the thought that counts," Jay nodded towards Sunghoon, "we should send her those."

"Perhaps a bottle of Pumpkin Juice as well? I think I have one in spare," Jake added on.

"So we'll definitely need a charm for our package," Jay let out a small chuckle.

"Great, then that's settled," Millie grinned widely, "Jay will take care of getting our enchanted box. Sunghoon'll find his Chocolate Frogs, Jake his Pumpkin Juice. I'll write my stepmom for the recipe, and tonight we'll be baking the cookies and send it off to Soomin. It'll be there by tomorrow evening then."

And so became the plan of the evening. They would gather a small package to send to Soomin. To the boys it was mostly as a consolation for her not being able to join them for summer. Millie, however, saw it as a way to give Soomin and anchor to the magic world - consdering how much her aunt was in denial of the skills Soomin possessed. By the late night they eventually had gotten the package packed and sent Carmine flying into the night with the enchanted package for Soomin.