Talking to the moon

Chapter 31

"What are you doing here?"

Sakura probably should've expected that Eunchae wasn't going to run at her with open arms, but still the absolute grumpy aura the girl admitted as soon as she saw her took her a bit off guard. She came out of school smiling, chasing after Lucas as the boy laughed and ran to his dad, but her entire body language changed when she saw Sakura standing there with no Chaewon or Yunjin by her side. A few emotions passed over her face, fear, confusion, and then anger. She had marched over, scowling then asked the question.

"Yunjin called me and asked me to pick you up while she and Chaewon went to a check-up."

"Is Yunjin okay?"

"Oh yeah, the doctors just wanna make sure she is healing alright." That was a half-truth. From what Yunjin had grumbled about over the phone, she woke up running a slight fever and chills, and Chaewon had freaked out. Yunjin had made it clear that she just thought she caught something from Eunchae, as she went to school where illness passed through children constantly, but from what she was saying Chaewon wanted to make sure her wounds were infected or she was having a bad reaction to the medicine. Personally, Sakura was on Chaewon's side, Yunjin was always one to minimize her state, even when Eunha was alive that was the thing they fought the most about. Eunha would always say how was Yunjin supposed to care about her if she couldn't care about herself. Sakura thinks now she was a bit of a hypocrite for saying that.

"But I'm going back home, right?"

"Of course, they just needed someone to pick you up because they are running a bit late," Sakura assured, holding out a hand that Eunchae took after a few moments. She leaned down and whispered into Eunchae's ear, "I was thinking you and I can get some ice cream on the way home."

She was absolutely craving ice cream with fries right now, just the thought of dipping the salty fries into the cool vanilla milkshake felt like heaven. Pregnancy cravings were just as intense as she thought they'd be, Kazuha was still trying to get used to being woken up in the middle of the night to go down to the corner store and get random combinations of food. Along with taming the beast of her hunger, it would give her and Eunchae a chance to talk. The only time she saw Eunchae since giving her back to Yunjin was at the hospital, and they didn't really talk at all. Both of them were upset and nervous, Sakura didn't have the words to comfort Eunchae, Eunchae didn't want to talk. Kazuha had shown up later on, but just brought food and a change of clothes for Sakura.

Eunchae nodded and let Sakura lead her down a few blocks until they reached 'The Ice Box' a small family-owned ice cream restaurant that handmade all their flavors. And sold burgers and fries on the side. A solid yes. The two of them made their way inside and made their orders. Eunchae just wanted a simple vanilla cone, Sakura copied her and got an order of fries for them to share.

"So how's school?" Sakura tried to make conversation when they settled in.

Eunchae shrugged, "it's okay."

"Yunjin told me you got into a fight."

"Yeah."

"Good job," Eunchae seemed surprised by that, "I bet Yunjin gave you a high five for that."

"She did."

"I actually wanted to tell you something," Sakura smiles, reaching into her purse and took out the ultrasound she was planning on giving Yunjin later on. She had gotten it done a few times and immediately asked for a few extra copies to give to her and Kazuha's parents along with a copy for Yunjin and Chaewon.

Yunjin wouldn't admit it to her, but she was still nervous and Sakura knew that. Her last pregnancy had been traumatic, but it was also her own fault. She knew she shouldn't have been doing field work yet wanted to for the selfish reason she thought she'd be bored. And Yunjin was just in a bad place when it all happened, and the baby was probably the only thing keeping her holding on. Sakura would never forget it, when Yunjin had her complete mental breakdown after Eunha's passing. It started at work that day, something was just off about her. Then she went home early, complaining she didn't feel good, which set off red flags in Sakura's head because Yunjin had stayed for shifts before while throwing up. It all came to a head about an hour later when Yunjin had called her bawling and blabbering about how sad and upset she was, how she couldn't take it anymore. The pure panic that ran through her while she was on the phone trying to talk Yunjin down while simultaneously texting Kazuha to get to her apartment as soon as possible to make sure she didn't do anything stupid was something she had never felt before and only felt one other time, when Yunjin got shot. Kazuha got there in time, and the two of them spent the better part of the night convincing Yunjin to go to the hospital. When she announced she was pregnant months later, Yunjin had something to look forward to, a new little niece. It was the first time she had seen her look happy in a long time. To lose that probably took a lot out of her, maybe even more than Sakura herself. That's why Sakura wanted to give her the ultrasound, to assure her she's okay if she wants to feel happy about this.